190
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* S. V. MARCH 10, 1900.
Garth itself, just by the entrance gate. The
service had proceeded some distance when
Mr. Gladstone entered, and, standing at the
door, in his great coat and with head un-
covered, did me the honour to share my
service paper with me. I then considered
he was about 5 ft. 10 in. high (a little less
than myself). I remember being struck at
the memorial service in Westminster Abbey
with the shortness of the coffin. I was
stationed in the second row at the western
door, between the Lord Mayor of Birming-
ham and the Sheriff of Lichfield. I once saw
Mr. Gladstone at a prize distribution, and
again at the laying of the foundation-stone of
the present Chester King's School, but had not
then such favourable opportunities of judging
his height as I had in the Chester Cloister
Garth and the nave of Westminster. The
body stood some minutes close to where I was
placed. T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.
Lancaster.
SILHOUETTES OF CHILDREN (9 th S. ii. 307, 353, 396, 436). The various correspondents who have contributed notes upon this art fail, 1 find, to touch upon or describe the way the higher class of silhouettes appear to have been created during the early portion of last century. I possess a prized portrait in black profile of my venerable mother when a child. It suggests a young girl with a neck of swan-like grace, painted a slate black, the short - cut hair pencilled in liquid gold, a coral necklace (coloured red) around the throat, whilst upon the top of the low-cut frock is a frilled edging painted with Chinese white. The ear, and a suggestion or two of drapery upon the little one's gown, are put in by a few touches of Japanese black. At Southsea the other day (7 Feb.) our family were celebrating my good mother's eightieth birthday anniversary, when the portrait in question, in its original modest little ebonized and reeded frame, was produced. This is what my still very active and most versatile parent said about it :
" Ah ! my dears, how well I remember that like- ness being taken, seventy-five years ago this very day ! for that, too, was on my birthday celebration. My sister Lydia and dear mother had theirs done at the same time. We were all three taken in High Street, Sheffield, at a shop situated upon the right- hand side going down that thoroughfare, a few doors above George Street. The operator used an instru- ment of brass and wood, elbowed much like the pointing machines in vogue in sculptors' studios The end of this passed lightly over the sitter touching, in turn, back, shoulder, neck, head, face, and bust. By some mechanical contrivance one that I really do not now remember a point or pencil was made to work in unison at the other extreme, and it traced accurately in miniature
ipon a card laid on the table upon which the
nachine stood, the outline of the subject. That
ormed the basis of this likeness, which a young
nan afterwards filled in. I well recollect I was
wearing a purple frock at the time, but, of course,
jhe actual colour does not show in this black affair."
Happening to be at Dundee at the time of
- he Tay Bridge disaster (it occurred upon the
ast Sunday evening in 1879, when sixty- ^even people were drowned), I recollect a Mr. Saunders, a saddler at Broughty Ferry, in the immediate neighbourhood, possessed, and showed as a curio, one of these identical portrait-taking machines.
Aquarter of a century after my mother's first experience silhouettes were taken as already described by prior correspondents. One of my own is before me as I write. I stood for it upon my eighth birthday anniversary (i.e., just fifty years ago), in High Street, Islington, N. It shows, in black profile, a boy wearing a " top " hat, with hair, ear, and a suggestion of shoulders touched in by liquid gold. There is a marked difference, however, between the two pictures of mother and son. Indeed, my good parent remarked, with some amount of dignity,
"After the machine had accurately produced the required outline, the rest of mine was painted in. There was nothing so common as cut paper. Next to a water or oil colour, these productions were considered the best of the day."
HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
' NEW CRITICAL REVIEW ' (9 th S. iv. 537 ; v. 114). There is no proof that this work was written by Ralph, the political writer. Chalmers (' Biog. Diet.') says :
" There is an excellent pamphlet attributed to him, which was published about 1731 a ' Review of the Public Buildings of London,' but from the style and subject we should suppose his name borrowed. In the edition of 1783 the book is de- scribed as ' originally written by Ralph, Archi- tect, and now reprinted with very large Additions.'"
The * Diet. Nat. Biog.' asserts that Ralph is not entitled to be credited with the author- ship of the pamphlet. It is to be noted that the author, in the preface to the second edition, disclaims being an architect, which is probably the truth, although his acquaintance with architecture is, to say the least, remark- able. There is no trace of an architect of the name of Ralph at the time the pamphlet was written, arid the name does not appear in the ' Dictionary of Architecture,' published by the Architectural Publication Society.
JOHN HEBB.
Canonbury Mansions, N.
ARMY RANK (9 th S. v. 47). I am not sure if I understand rightly the question asked
