Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/151

- _ vr_Yv'_"fv- v-v- ii* *-iv*-*-'Q-f" ' _T _ 9°-s.v1.Av<». l8»1900»] NOTES AND QUERIES. 121 LONDON, SA TURDA Y, AUGUST 18, 1900. NOTES =-H. S. Ashbee, 121-The House as a Measure of Communal Rights, 122 -Chichester, 124 -Edward Irving’s London Residences, 125-Dorsetshire Speech-°‘ Shut to" -Hornbooks-‘° Gum Blemi,” 126-Whltglft Hospital, 127. QUBBIE8 :-“ Gutter - snlpe " - "Mahsant " - “A macho and a horseshoe," &c.- ‘Three Kings of Colchester'- Gretna Green Marriages - Jewish Calendar, 127-Mac- aulay Portraits-° Flora’s Vyaries ’-List ol Book Sales- Phllemon Pownoll-Rev. r. Aaron-“Tashllch,” 128- Bight-day Clock - John Sheen - Huet-“ Alamalns "- Sherbrooke- Quotation - ° The Last Whistle ’ - Trullle- hunting Plgs, 129. RBPLIES :-Showers of Snakes, 129 -R%ghteenth-Century Sporting Record, 130-Looking-glass olk-lore-Pictures composed of Handwriting - “ Faclto " - ‘ The Welsh People '-“ Translator,” 13l-Goat ln Folk-lore- Soldier Ancestors - Duchess of Gordon, 182 - General Cope - “ Larksllver” -Charleton: Carely- Will proved in the Arehdeaconry of London, 133- ubblng the Eyes with Gold-Moated Mounds-“Ploughinf i e sands”-Wife of Dean Robinson, 134-Woodwork o English Cathedrals -“Land of Green Ginger”-Sign of t e “Marygold,” 135-Brigham-Virtues and Vlces-Shakespeare and the Bea. 136 - “ Linnard-feel ”-“ Irony ”-Ron_&at-Matthew Webb-“Bak-lits," 137-“ Phutatorius”-“ n Gordano ” -Authors Wanted, 138. NOTES ON BOOKS :-Wrlg‘ht’s ‘ English Dlaleot Dic- tionary'-Roberts’s ‘Calen ar of Home Ofllce Papers '- ‘Quarterl Review’-Death of Mr. A. W. Cornelius Hallen-Chonfert Cathedral. Notices to Correspondents. gsm. THE LATE H. S. ASHBEE. IT is with great regret that I learn by an ap- preciative notice in t e Athenceum of 4 August of the death of an old friend. To any one who had not seen him for some time his demise will appear sudden, but he had been ailing for several months. Little indeed, did the friends who gathered round him at the Royal Society of British Artists to hear his lecture on ‘Don uixote,’ on 28 April, imagine it would be or the last time. He was fearfully changed. and told me he had received his “first serious warn- ing,” to which, by-the-b , he would not pay attention, but continuedy to go out and about when totally unfit. When twenty-five years ago I made his acquaintance, he kept open house in Upper Bedford Place. T ere, surrounded by a charming and accomplished wife and family, all speaking En lish and German with equal ease, he seemed the happiest of men. A devoted and indulgent father, he took the keenest interest in the progress of his children’s studies. Enthusiastic, (painstaking, and careful, he was the beau i eal of a bibliographer, and was fortunate in being able to buy everythin he wanted to describe. Beyond this he would drive up to a bookseller’s, and without a thought of the cost purchase a chap-book published, say, at a penny. This, the proper position for a biblioglrapher, is, it is need- ess to say, out of t e reach of all but a privileged few. At this time he looked about thirty, but he always seemed younger than he was. He was the image in every way of the warrior in the picture No. 1325 in the National Gallery called “ Respect, an allegorical group by Caliari (known as Paolo Veronese).” Ashbee could s eak several lan uages, and published several) pam hlets in Trench. It was about 1877 that his first began contri- buting to ‘ N. & Q.,’ but when he took up the subject of ‘ Don Quixote’ he found that nobody knew so much as he did, and his contri utions declined. He was of a most admirable and even temper, and a good public speaker. He had travelled in most countries, and eventually took a tour round the world. The following is a copy of a letter I received from him written on 22 June, 1881 :- On board the Garlic. DEAR THOMAS,-Just a few lines to let you know that I am still alive and on my wa home a ain. Since my departure from Loudon in (ictober, I have not been idle, but have visited Egypt, India, Ceylon, Penang, Sin pore, Java, Siam, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Peki?, Japan, and am now crossing the Pacific to San rancxsco. The voyage is of more than a fortni ht’s duration, out of sig tof land the whole way and only an occa- sional bird or whale visible, so you can understand that one is driven to think of friends at home and to find a relief and pleasure in writing to them. I long to get back to my home again, and trust that in about a month after the arrival of this letter I shall be in London once more. When Ashbee removed to Bedford Square the upholsterer was rampant, but Ashbee, in a. very extraordinary manner for a man of his age, acquired the most refined taste in art. Pictures and drawings of the highest quality eventually adorned his walls. This know- ledge was of great use in enabling him to judge of the ‘ Don Quixote ’ illustrations, and I have little doubt that but for the ac- quirement of this taste he would never have written about ‘ Don Quixote and British Art.’ When he determined to live in the country, he found a propert he had seen many years before was to let. Ile had always thought it was the (place he would like to live in as his own, an tried to buy it; but it was not for sale, and he had to be content with a lease. At Fowler’s Park, Hawkhurst, Kent, accord- ingly, he died peacefully in the arms of his old friend, partner, and executor on 29 July. Larousse is accurate (‘ Grand Dictionnairef _A