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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1910.

CONTENTS.-No. 1.

NOTES:-Who was Richard Savage? 1-London Topo-
graphical Prints, 4-Bibliography of Publishing, 5-'The
Book-Trade, 1557-1625,' 6-N. & Q.' on the Stage-Mrs.
Sarah Battle Anticipated-"Revels"-Parish Festivals-
Noah as a Girl's Name-A Modest Author-American

Miser's Will, 7.
QUERIES:-China and Japan: Diplomatic Intercourse
'Dialogues of the Dead-Swift and 'The Postman
Swift at Havisham-Swift on Eagle and Wasp, 8-The
Frere Caromez-Banished Covenanters-Mrs. Quarme
Rotherhithe -'N. & Q.': Lost Reference-Montpellier as
Street-Name-Short Story-Pothinus and Blandina
Cannon Ball House, Edinburgh, 9-Mérimée's "In-
connue "-Funeral Plumes-Stave Porters-Calthrops in

Early Warfare-Princess Amelia, Daughter of George II.
-St. Gratian's Nut-Pronunciation of "oo"-Mrs. Eliz.
Draper, 10-Col. Gordon in 'Barnaby Rudge'-Joseph
D'Almeida, 11.
REPLIES:-"Parsons" not in Holy Orders, 11-The
American in Paris,' 12-"Betubium," 13-Lady Worsley,
14-St. Margaret's, Westminster-Westminster Abbey, 15
-Coppée's La Grève des Forgerons Bhang: Cuca
Flaubert's 'Tentation de St. Antoine,' 16- Madame
D'Arblay's Diary-Shakespeare Statuette-Shakespeare
Allusions-Francis Kindlemarsh-English Navy during

the Civil War, 17.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-The Gilds and Companies of

London'-Whitaker's Almanack and Peerage.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

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frequently tinged with a protestant ardour to assert the writer's personal disinclination to regard Savage as anything but an impostor. I had presented a portrait, but had given no reasons for my own disinclination to regard it as anything but the portrait of the man. The question, How much of this is pure biography? how much fiction? is bound to couple itself with a healthy interest in my book; and as none but myself can answer the question in such a way as to smooth the paths of conjecture, I address the following observations to all those whom the inquiry concerns.

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Since Carlyle wrote 'The Diamond Necklace,' the relations of what are loosely labelled History, Biography, and Fiction have become much more intimate. Under the pleasing influence of this change my narrative of Savage's life was written. The difference between fact and fiction is indeed less appreciable than is universally admitted; but those who court a hearing are wise in selecting an appeal, not from the unscrupulous array of facts arranged in an arbitrary order, but from the “ open lying which Carlyle rightly claimed as the legitimate privilege of romantic history. It was in accordance with his perception of this principle that he wrote of "The Diamond Necklace' (and I might with equal truth have written of my life of Savage) : "An earnest inspection, faithful endeavour has not been wanting, on our part; nor, singular as it may seem, the strictest regard to chronology, geography (or rather, in this case, topography), documentary evidence, and what else true historical research would yield."

True historical research yields little, however, in the case of Richard Savage; and whoever interests himself keenly in his history is constrained in the long run either to shroud himself in a silence impenetrable as the kernel of his inquiry, or, hazarding speech, upon the high seas of conjecture, to be borne now and again into a region where the historical landmarks are out of sight. He is not bound on this account either to misrepresent their whereabouts or wilfully to mutilate their dim outline.

WHO WAS RICHARD SAVAGE? MORE than fifty years ago an able series of articles by MR. W. MOY THOMAS on Richard Savage appeared in N. & Q.' for 6, 13, and 27 November, and 4 December, 1858 (2 S. vi. 361, 385, 425, 445). Boswell had pulled a brick or two from the edifice of good faith established for Savage by Johnson in his biography. MR. MOY THOMAS'S articles had the effect of shattering the building for the commentators on this difficult subject up to our own time. My own book Richard Savage a Mystery in Biography, is likely, without a brief elucidation of its aim, to embarrass the researches of those who in future may be tempted into what seems fated to remain a region of delicate and All the scenes in my life of Savage are dark inquiry. I included in it no preface, based on what may be called facts historically because I wanted all the attention of which ascertained; in their presentment the an earnest reader was capable for the book minutiæ of action and the motives of the itself. To rehabilitate the credit of Savage actors have been supplied by my view of the was less my immediate object than to offer characters. To SO much open lying his portrait in a new light. That it was a I confess with all the more contentment portrait, received more recognition from for the discovery of some closed lying my critics than I could have expected; nor into which, as I shall here show, MR. MOY was I surprised to find this recognition | THOMAS was innocently betrayed by a zeal

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worthy of a detective bent on constructing Albert Museum. They are copies of the a story of importance-a zeal masked in first edition; and until I discovered them the language of dispassionate investigation. I was content to believe, with other critics, The fact is that, so far as a verdict is that the second edition of 1728 was the first concerned (and the case is indeed one for the to include this Preface. The copies of 1726 lawyer), nothing has been produced to vary in the Victoria and Albert Museum contain Boswell's highly judicial conclusion: The not only the Preface, but also reprints of the result seems to be that the world must letter from "Amintas " in No. 28 of The vibrate in a state of uncertainty as to what Plain Dealer, and of the letter from Savage was the truth." MR. THOMAS, heading a in No. 73 of that journal. In one of the four regiment of writers in biographical diction- contemporary accounts of Savage, viz., the aries and encyclopædias, disliked uncer- anonymous Life published in 1727, it is tainties. His mind and the minds of his stated that Savage suppressed the Preface faithful followers were incapable of vibrating. in his first edition of the 'Miscellanies.* They must have a verdict guilty or Perhaps he did in some of the copies "not guilty," The intermediate not circulated. But at least these three copies proven (which covers so many difficult of the 1726 edition containing the Preface cases) represented for these critics a dan- survive. gerous specimen of Scottish casuistry. The principle of reaching a verdict on insufficient evidence, however remarkable that evidence is, seems to me to be much more dangerous.

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In the article of 13 November, 1858, MR. THOMAS admits that he is of opinion that Savage was one of those claimants who grow at length into a kind of faith in their story which helps them to sustain their part." This seems to mean that the critic holds Savage to have started with a claim he knew to be false, and then reached a stage at which he believed in his own imposture. On the evidence this is no more than a hypothesis. But in the concluding article of the series the critic, or rather the counsel for the prosecution, finds all subtlety or reserve superfluous. He has "no doubt that Richard Savage was an impostor.' Has the evidence for certainty increased with his argument? Let us see.

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Four accounts of Savage's story were published during his lifetime. Some of their contents are common to all; others are peculiar to each. In addition to these sources we have to reckon with the letter from “Amintas" in No. 28 of The Plain Dealer, and the authentic letter of Savage to Mrs. Carter dated 1739 which was afterwards made public. Of the four accounts published during his life, only two are Savage's own: the letter in No. 73 of The Plain Dealer (1724), and the Preface to the 'Miscellanies' (1726).

I take an opportunity here of mentioning what has hitherto escaped the attention of MR. MOY THOMAS and all those who have accepted his leadership. Three copies of the Miscellaneous Poems' containing the Preface and dated 1726 are in the Dyce collection of books in the Victoria and

.

The strength of MR. MOY THOMAS'S ingenious indictment is gathered from a contention that all the four accounts were Savage's; that, whether written by him or not, they were all his work; and that he is to be held responsible for the statements made in them. The life in Curll's Poetical Register (1719) is blithely assumed to be an autobiography. On what grounds? No other than that Curl did in this journal publish other autobiographies. With regard to the anonymous Life published in 1727, when Savage was in prison, all that is incontrovertible is that in his letter to Mrs. Carter in 1739 Savage denied the accuracy of some of its particulars. But MR. MOY THOMAS in his second article (13 November) writes imperturbably : "There can be no doubt that this pamphlet, so well adapted to serve his interests, was written by him, or at least from his instructions." But for any dispassionate inquirer there must be doubt, and very little, if anything, but doubt, that Savage had anything to do with it. He may have helped, or he may not. He may wilfully have misrepresented, or accidentally have misrepresented, facts in this anonymous Life; he may or he may not have issued instructions which may or may not have been carried out. But all these possibilities are no help to the estab lishment of a fact. In the absence of the smallest fragment of evidence to show that Savage had anything to do with this account, we are bound to assume that it was not his. The burden of its errors cannot be laid at his door.

Errors of his own making can be found in Savage's own handiwork. He knew it himself, and admitted his own inaccuracy in his letter to Mrs. Carter (1739). The admission may be taken as slightly, but of course

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not conclusively favourable to his bona As if to add still greater confusion to his
fides. But MR. THOMAS, in his illegitimate
use of two out of the four contemporary
accounts as documents on which to convict
Savage of dishonesty, exposes himself to a
charge of inaccuracy as great as, if not
greater than, any proved against Savage.

And the more we examine the inaccuracy of MR. THOMAS in detail, the more damning becomes the exposure, as in the particular of Savage's alleged godmother Mrs. Lloyd.

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reckless treatment of the four contemporary accounts as all proceeding directly from Savage, MR. MOY THOMAS refers frequently throughout his examination to the statements made in Samuel Johnson's Life of Savage, which was written and published after Savage's death. He has no difficulty, of course, in assuming that Johnson put down what Savage had told him in addition to what could be gleaned from the four conThe phrase "Mrs. Lloyd his godmother temporary accounts. Well, Johnson prooccurs both in Curll and in the anonymous bably tried to put down as much as he Life of 1727. In Savage's own accounts he remembered of what Savage told him ; makes no allusion to his godmother; and he clearly believed in his friend's veracity; in his letter to Mrs. Carter he speaks of Mrs. he certainly erred in accepting too much Lloyd, not as his godmother, but as "the of the contemporary accounts as authentic. person who took care of me." MR. MOY The subordinate service done by MR. MOY THOMAS discovered that the name of the THOMAS's articles is indeed indestructible: godmother to the Countess of Macclesfield's he showed that Johnson's narrative conbaby boy was Ousley. He hastened to point tained grave inaccuracies. But in seeking out the grave discrepancy between the to account for the way in which these innames of Ousley and Lloyd (the alleged name accuracies were begotten, he erred, and of Savage's godmother in the two accounts misled the superficial commentators who not Savage's). At this stage the importance followed him. Accurate biography is in the of fathering the Life of 1727 upon Savage most favourable circumstances a difficult became red hot for the constructive critic, and business; none knew better than Johnson he wrote (27 November): Who can doubt how difficult. But the blunders and the that the original version of this story [i.e., of inconsistencies in Savage's story, as it has the death of Savage's nurse and the discovery come down to us in a variety of accounts, among her papers of his origin] in the Life are after all intelligible on grounds other was from Savage? Again the answer is than those which necessitate the belief short and decisive. Every dispassionate (however fascinating) that Savage deliberinquirer will doubt it in the absence of all ately maintained a claim which he knew evidence to prove it. to be spurious. To regard Johnson's inaccuracy as additional proof of Savage's dishonesty is to heap confusion upon confusion.

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Savage never wrote that Mrs. Lloyd was his godmother, but he did write of Mrs. Lloyd. The other accounts of Savage did write of Mrs. Lloyd as his godmother. In order to establish the connexion necessary to his indictment MR. THOMAS Confuses the autobiographical with the biographical accounts, and thus obtains an opportunity for a brilliant disquisition on the impossibility of supposing Lloyd and Ousley to be the same person, so as to remove all possibility of supposing an identity between their respective godsons. This is to raise to a fine art the simple practice of putting in unauthentic documents to secure a conviction.

It is not my intention here to indicate all the steps by which MR. MOY THOMAS came to his conclusions. I care not even to deny that the main conclusion may be true; for one may come to a right assumption by a wrong course of reasoning. But it must be clearly understood that the result is nothing more than an assumption.

With one further consideration I shall conclude these notes.

Four years after MR. MOY THOMAS had written, an article signed W. G. S. appeared in Bentley's Miscellany for November, 1862. It sought to re-establish the perfect equilibrium set in Boswell's verdict of proven." But it was ignored. The ninth edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica ' found it an easy matter to settle in a phrase:

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The conclusion which Boswell hinted at, but was prevented by his reverence for Johnson". -what a charge to level at Bozzy!" from expressing, that Savage was an impostor, is irresistible ('Encyc. Brit., 9th ed., sub Savage, Richard '). The Dictionary of National Biography attempts a summary of the arguments for and against Savage's claim; but the radical blunder about Mrs. Lloyd imported into the case by MR. MOY THOMAS is perpetuated, and the balance is suffered to appear against Savage : The falsity of his tale seems demonstrated." His tale!

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To extract the needle of truth from the life his business as a successful stockbroker growing bundle of loose statements becomes provided ample means, he sought his increasingly difficult it is far easier to Londiniana in salerooms and through almost write down Savage as an impostor, and every dealer. Not that he had the field Johnson as his dupe. How can we ever to himself. His rivals (and they were determine the main question affecting doughty foemen) were James Holbert Wilson Savage's character-the question whether (died 1865), Frederick Crace (died 1859), he was the victim or the agent of a fraud? and the owner of the collection sold in July, The evidence for establishing the fraud 1853, whom I identify as the Rev. Dr. itself is insufficient. More than a century Wellesley. The keenness with which these has passed, and still we can only repeat with collectors contended for choice items was Boswell : The world must vibrate in a a delight; it was a battle of wits, and of state of uncertainty as to what was the foresight, not simply of banking accounts. truth." STANLEY V. MAKOWER. The print-dealers or at least those who retained their custom-wisely saw to it that each had some of the rare items they PRINTS had for sale. As to the final result of this contest sale catalogues and our national collections bear witness.

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LONDON TOPOGRAPHICAL

are

AND DRAWINGS. THE impending sale by auction of the Gardner Collection of London Prints and Of the Crace portfolios little need be Drawings occasioned last summer some said, as they are known to probably every interesting notices in the press, and very London topographer, and the catalogue by general have been the expressions of regret Mr. J. G. Crace is a very useful work of referthat this, the last_of_the_great harvestings ence. Of Holbert Wilson's harvesting we of illustrations of the London that has ought to have had a similar catalogue ; passed, should be scattered. There his MS. notes and cuttings brought together to-day many private portfolios whose con- for that purpose occurred as lot 27 when tents rival, and even excel, certain sections his collection was sold in 1898. If their of this and other huge collections formed in present possessor has no use for them, he the last century; but, so far as I am aware, might care to entrust them to me with a view not any one claims to possess a greater to their publication. The Wellesley Collecnumber of prints and drawings of London tion is almost unknown, yet it had merits generally. The origin and growth of this placing it far in advance of the others. remarkable collection have not hitherto For the purpose of making some combeen recorded at any length, but from infor-parison, I will go back to the commencement mation kindly supplied by Mr. Fawcett of the nineteenth century, when the taste and other sources, I have been able to compile this note.

The late Mr. J. E. Gardner, F.S.A., the collector, was born at 453, Strand, where his father, Thomas Gardner, was in business as an oilman. It has been suggested that the gift of a few prints started the hobby, but the first great purchase was made at Stevens's Auction-Room, where, when a mere lad, he secured an extra-illustrated Pennant for five guineas. Mr. Fawcett had been sent to the sale by his father, the bookseller of Great Wild Street, to buy the book at five pounds, and he was much surprised to hear his schoolfellow bid another five shillings and secure the lot. Of course Gardner's father had to be induced to provide the money, and rather unwillingly he did so; but it was a wise concession, and if he lived to see the development of his son's hobby, he did not regret it.

Notes on the back of some of his earliest acquisitions record the collector's keen interest in the pursuit; and when in after

for such scraps had its beginning. The vogue for extra-illustration was then at its height, but Granger and Clarendon were the favourite volumes, and hardly any attention had been paid to topographical books. In fact, as far as London topography was concerned, there was little opportunity until the issue in 1790 of Pennant's London,' and the subsequent publication in 1805 of large-paper editions up to that unwieldy tome the atlas folio. Then their interest was appreciated, and the demand for London prints and drawings grew by leaps and bounds. Things Bindley or Gough had secured for pence and preserved in bundles were now sorted, described, and rehabilitated generally. Compare the unconsidered lots of topographical drawings in Gulstone's sale with the classification, by size, parish, or locality, of the London prints sold by King on 23 April, 1804. To this sale I shall refer again later, but from the fact that Bindley, Crowle, Lloyd, Sutherland, and Coram were amongst the purchasers we

can realize its importance and the growth of this comparatively new hobby.

a Guide to the Art and System of Publishing on Commission. 8vo, London, 1844. Author's, The, Printing and Publishing Assistant. A Guide to the Printing, Correcting, and Publishing New Works. Crown 8vo, London, Authors' and Booksellers' Co-operative Publishing 1845. Alliance. A New Departure in Publishing. 8vo, London, 1901. Ballantyne Press, The, and its Founders, 17961908. By W. T. Dobson and W. L. Carrie. Post 4to, Edinburgh, 1909.

"I once said to him, ' I am sorry, Sir, that you His did not get more for your Dictionary.' answer was, 'I am sorry, too. But it was very Of these purchasers there is something to well. The booksellers are generous, liberalsay. Sutherland's marvellous extra-illus-minded men.' He, upon all occasions, did ample trated volumes, constantly added to by his justice to their character in this respect. He widow, are housed next to the Bodleian, a considered them the patrons of literature." thing apart, only to be seen twice a week. Boswell's Johnson' (Napier's edition), vol. i. But Crowle's Pennant at the British Museum Pp. 238-9. is more accessible, and therefore better Author's, The, Hand-Book : known. Now the examination of its pages leaves one well-defined impression, and that is that when its creator found the variety of engraved views was insufficient for his ambition, or their cost was prohibitive, he engaged illustrators, topographical artists, to make drawings of buildings or copies of prints. So, granted a continuance of his zeal and means, he could become possessed of a Pennant or a Lysons extended to a greater number of volumes than that of his rivals. Clearly, therefore, when this vogue for London illustrations had advanced, it became with many a mere competition of numbers, not of interest or historic merit. I am not contending that this passion was entirely without merit, or that it has not been of great benefit to succeeding ages. It undoubtedly led to the preservation of many scraps, of interest now, but then considered of little worth. But when Crowle, for example, identifies Hogarth's Southwark Fair' as Bartholomew Fair, and employs an artist to copy Swertner's not rare 'View of London from Islington Church,' we see the disadvantage of such a collector not being a topographer.

6

There are similar blemishes in the Crace Collection, and I anticipate that when the opportunity occurs of examining the Gardner Collection in its entirety, instances of a desire for mere numbers will be noticeable. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

(To be concluded.)

Blackwood, The House of.-The Early House of Blackwood. By I. C'. B. Printed for private circulation. Post 4to, Edinburgh, 1900.

This was intended to supply a deficiency in Mrs. Oliphant's history of the firm. Book-Auctions in England.-See 2 S. xi. 463; 5 S. xii. 95, 211, 411; 6 S. ii. 297, 417; 9 S. vi. 86, 156; 10 S. viii. 246, 266.

Longman's Magazine, April, 1893.-Art. by A. W. Pollard, The First English BookSale.' Bookseller, The, Jubilee Number, Jan. 24, 1908. - Fifty Years of "The Bookseller Bookselling.' London, 1908.

and

Bookseller, The Successful: a Complete Guide to Success to all engaged in a Retail Bookselling....Business. 4to, London, 1905. Booksellers, Provincial. See 10 S. v. 141, 183, 242, 297, 351, 415, 492; vii. 26, 75; viii. 201; x. 141.

Durham and Northumberland, 10 S. vi.

443.

Hampshire. See 10 S. v. 481; vi. 31.
St. Neots. See 10 S. xii. 164.
Booksellers' Associations.-See Bowes.
Booksellers
of St. Paul's.-Bookseller,

East
2 Sept., 1873.
Book-Trade Bibliography in the United States
in the Nineteenth Century. Svo, New
York, 1898.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PUBLISHING AND Bowes (Robert).-Booksellers' Associations, Past

BOOKSELLING.

(See 10 S. i. 81, 142, 184, 242, 304, 342; ii. 11; v. 361.)

A Ballade of Bygone Bookshops. CURLL, by the Fleet-Ditch nymphs caress'd; TONSON the Great, the Slow-to-pay; LINTOT, of Folios rubric-press'd;

OSBORNE, that stood in JOHNSON'S way;
DODSLEY, who sold the Odes' of Gray;
DAVIES, that lives in CHURCHILL's rhyme;
MILLAR and KNAPTON,-where are they?
Where are the bookshops of old time?

Austin Dobson, art. The Two Paynes,'
in Eighteenth Century Vignettes,'
Second Series.

and Present. Printed for Private Circulation for the Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland. 4to, Taunton, 1905. A SumBrydges, Sir Egerton, 1762-1837. mary Statement of the great Grievances imposed on Authors and Publishers, and the injury done to Literature, by the late Copyright Act (and other pamphlets by the same author), 1817-18.

Burns & Oates, The House of.-By Wilfrid Wilberforce. 16mo, London, 1908.

Catalogues. - Catalogus Librorum ex variis Europæ partibus advectorum, apud Robertum Scott, Bibliopolam Regium. 4to, Londini, 1687.

The first London booksellers' catalogue. Quoted from the catalogue of Mr. B. Dobell, 77, Charing Cross Road, W.

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