relinquish the idea of going to Madagascar. Those who went out afterwards to explore the country were cut off and butchered by the natives. It is somewhat singular that I should have spent many years in the most unwholesome parts of South America, and am now as strong and vigorous and active as I was at sixteen. This I attribute entirely to abstinence and early rising. man has recorded in pencil his own grief at the untoward result. But Dawson Turner was not a personage to be baffled in anything where perseverance in art, science, or literature was concerned. So he himself wrote a letter to Waterton, enclosing some of those clever private etchings by lady members of his family which still greatly interestings. Mawman, who printed them, wished me to make us at the present day. Amongst these was an etching by Mrs. Dawson Turner of Sir Thomas Gage, the seventh baronet, of Hengrave. This at once struck the right chord of sympathy in Waterton, and induced him to write a letter in his best style. As it relates some anecdotes only imperfectly set forth in his Autobiography, I have much pleasure in presenting to your readers the following copy, which I have made from the original in my possession : "Walton Hall, Dec. 20, 1836. "My dear Sir, I beg to return you my sincere thanks for your very kind letter and the presents which it contained. Poor Sir Thomas!-the sight of his portrait brought into my mind a thousand reminiscences. We were at the Jesuits' College together. I little thought when I was shaking him by the hand in Rome, on the eve of my departure, that it was for the last time. I was reading some very choice letters from him to me only about two weeks ago. I never knew Charles Butler, nor did I ever see his portrait till the one which you have sent me. Indeed, both it and that of poor Sir Thomas are masterpieces of execution. I cannot tell you how much they are admired here. "As for my own portrait, I smiled when I read your proposal. Some twelve years ago, whilst in Philadelphia, I had shewn the American Philosophers many discoveries which I had made for the benefit of Museums. Nothing would serve old Mr. Peale, the artist and renowned naturalist, but he must take my portrait. I allowed him to do so, most reluctantly; and I am at present hung up in the great hall, in the company of General Washington and Tom Paine. "I used to go to London formerly, about once in four years, stopping in it for about a fortnight. I then saw a great deal of Sir Joseph Banks; and I would sometimes pass a couple of hours or so at his bed side, when he was laid up with the gout. At his request, I met the naturalists at his own house who went out to explore the Congo. For three successive days I gave them instructions how to act in the forest, and how to prepare specimens in natural history for Museums. I had volunteered to go in the expedition, and Sir Joseph was much pleased with me for so doing. Whilst I was sitting with him one morning in his library he got a letter from the Admiralty, to say that the steamer which was to accompany the ex: pedition did not answer expectations. Then, my good friend,' said he to me, putting his hand gently upon my shoulder, 'you shall not go. If they are rash enough to send out an expedition so defective in such an essential point, the explorers will all perish.' A few months after this I sailed for Brazil, and the first English news which I read in that country informed me that nearly the whole of those who went out to the Congo had perished untimely. "I had another escape from going to Africa. Lord Bathurst had commissioned me to explore Madagascar, and it was all settled that I was to go out in a man of war, in the month of October, 1814. A severe tertian ague, which had shaken me to my centre for three years, and which was then exceedingly inveterate, forced me to "I feel very proud of your approbation of the Wanderthree or four volumes. But I bound him down not to alter one word of the Manuscript; and I told him that I never could be persuaded to alter the form of what I had written, or to add any thing to it. It was most truly, in every sense of the word, a book of the forest. Every down, with a pencil, what I had seen, and thought, and evening, before I turned into my hammock, I wrote felt during the day; and I can assure you that you have the truth, and nothing but the truth. On my return home I might have added a great deal from books, but this would not have served my purpose. I was determined that it should be a real original work-penned without any help from books--saving a few quotations; and many of these were purposely altered, in order to coincide exactly with what I was writing. Thus, in lieu of dira per incautum serpant contagia vulgus,' I wrote 'dira per infaustum serpant contagia corpus.' I always took care to put the inverted commas, in order that the reader might not give me credit for thoughts which did not originate in my noddle. kind offer to come and see you, as I am very busy here, "I fear that I shall not be able to avail myself of your where it would give me great pleasure to see you, or any of your good family. My sisters in law, equally with myself, regret exceedingly that your stay in Bruges was so short. Our acquaintance with many families there Pray make my kindest respects, and those of my sisters would have enabled us to have added to your amusement. along with them, to the young ladies and to Mrs. Turner, and believe me to remain, "My dear Sir, ever sincerely yours, "CHARLES WATERTON. "To Dawson Turner, Esqre, Yarmouth." FREDK. HENDRIKS. Linden Gardens, W. SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES: CHARLES MATHEWS THE ELDER. (Continued from p. 283.) Nos. 21 and 22, by Frederick Yates, the friend, pupil, and partner of Charles Mathews, are appropriately included in the collection. Yates and Mathews were associated in the proprietorship of the Adelphi Theatre, which was conducted by the former while the latter went round the country with his entertainments. 23. Life and Theatrical Times of Charles Kean, F.S. A. Including a summary of the English stage for the last fifty years, &c. By John William Cole. In two volumes. London, 1859, 8vo.-Notice of Charles Mathews, pp. 233-40. 24. Monsieur Tonson: a Farce in Two Acts. By W. T. Moncrieff, Esq. Printed from the acting copy, with remarks biographical and critical, by D-G. (the late George Daniel, of Canonbury House, Islington), &c. Embellished with a fine full-length portrait of Mr. Mathews, in the character of M. Morbleu. Engraved on steel by Mr. Woolnoth from a drawing by Mr. Wageman. London, John Cumberland (No. 106 of Cumber land's "British Theatre").-Includes a "Memoir of Mr. Mathews" by the editor. 25. Oxberry's Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes. London, G. Virtue, 1826. 6 vols. 12mo. Vol. v. contains "Memoir of Charles Mathews," with his portrait, "drawn and engraved by H. Meyer," in the character of Mr. Wiggins"; and "Memoir of Mr. Yates," with his portrait as "Cornet Count Carmine," in 26. Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres, including general observations on the practise and genius of the stage. By the author of the theatrical criticisms in the weekly paper called the News (Leigh Hunt). London, by and for John Hunt, 1807. 12mo. -"Mr. Mathews," pp. 133-41. Pride shall have a Fall. 27. The Biography of the British Stage, being correct narratives of the lives of the principal actors and actresses, &c. London, 1824. 8vo.-"Mr. Mathews," pp. 182-88. 28. The Thespian Dictionary, or Dramatic Biography of the Present Age, &c. Second ed. Illustrated by twenty-two elegant engravings. London, 1805. 8vo. 29. Mr. Mathews "At Home" in "Stories," a cleverly executed aquatint, "copied by permission from the lithographic sketch by the author of the entertainment." -Here the comedian is represented in the characters of "Sir Shiverum Screwnerve," "Monsieur Zephyr," "Nat," "Llewellyn ap Llwyd,' Pipley and Amelrosa," and "Mr. Mark Magnum." 30. Mr. Mathews. Portrait of himself, and as representing four extraordinary characters. "That this print may not be mistaken for a collection of subjects merely theatrical, it has been deemed expedient to accompany it by a short explanation of its object. The characters introduced are all taken from the life. The principal figure is an Idiot amusing himself with a fly. The next to him is a Drunken Ostler (introduced in Killing no Murder). The third an extraordinary fat man, whose manners and appearance suggested the idea of Mr. Wiggins in the farce of that name. And the last Fond Barney, a character well known on the York Racecourse. The intention of the artist is to present a portrait of Mr. Mathews as studying those characters for imitation, preserving at the same time his likeness as varied in the representation of each." Painted by G. H. Harlow, engraved by H. Meyer, &c., 1819. 31. Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian. By Mrs. Mathews. London, R Bentley, 1838, Vols. I. and II.; 1839, Vols. III. and IV. 4 vols. 8vo.-Containing portraits of C. Mathews, engraved by Greatbach after J. Lonsdale and Masquerier; a character portrait (as "Caleb Pipkin") after G. F. Lewis; a reduction by Greatbach of No. 30; and numerous folding and other plates representing Mr. Mathews in several of the 665 characters which (exclusive of his " At Homes") he impersonated in the course of his dramatic career. 32. The Life and Correspondence of Charles Mathews the Elder, Comedian. By Mrs. Mathews. A new edition, abridged and condensed, by Edmund Yates. London, Routledge, 1860. 8vo. pp. 480.--Much is, of course, omitted in this abridgment; but this has been done with nice discrimination, and many valuable biographical notes added by the accomplished editor. 33. "My Acquaintance with the late Charles Mathews," Fraser's Magazine, 1836. Personal reminis cences, written by George Wightwick, the architect. 34. Anecdotes of Actors. By Mrs. Mathews. London, 1844. 8vo. The general ideas and designs of these once celebrated "At Homes" originated in most cases with Mathews himself, but the arrangement and 66 filling up were the work of other hands. Among these may be mentioned James Smith, one of the authors of Rejected Addresses, to whom Mathews was indebted for the "Country Cousins," the dramatic act, "La Diligence," in the "Trip to Paris," " Air Ballooning," the "Trip to America," "Bartholomew Fair, "Mail Coach, or Rambles in Yorkshire," and others. For these important services Mrs. Mathews would have us understand that the witty author declined to receive any substantial remuneration (Memoirs of C. Mathews, i. 54); but we learn from the memoir of James Smith, prefixed by his brother Horace to the Comic Miscellanies of the former (vol. i. p. 97), that he received for his labour the munificent sum of 1,000l. "A thousand pounds for tomfoolery!" he adds; but, as Mathews said to him, "You are the only man in London who can write what I want, good nonsense." The "Polly Packet " was the production of R. B. Peake, who also wrote the "Comic Annual" for 1830 and the monopolylogue Eddystone Lighthouse." The "Spring Meeting" (1829) was written by W. T. Moncrieff; the song Nightingale Club" (with which Mr. Mathews "favoured the company" on the occasion of the memorable dinner given at the Freemasons' Tavern, June 27, 1817, to celebrate the retirement of John Philip Kemble from the stage) by George Colman the younger; the "Humours of a Country Fair" by the son of the comedian, the late C. J. Mathews; the "Trip to Paris" by John Poole, of Paul Pry celebrity; the "May Queen," in which occurs the character of Caleb Pipkin, by John Baldwin Buckstone, now, it is painful to learn, destitute and dying; "Monsieur Mallet" that "fine natural tragedy" which, a contemporary critic remarked, if Sterne had written, he would have selected Mathews to impersonate, and in which, according to the Examiner, he "who had made millions of hearts dance with mirth" perhaps for the only time "touched one with pain"-by H. W. Montagu; the "Comic Annuals" for 1831, 1832, and 1833, conjointly by Richard Brinsley Peake and Charles J. Mathews; the song "Bow Street" by R. B. Peake; while another of Mathews's most successful performances was due to the pen of Thomas Hood. It was, too, by C. J. Mathews that the interesting catalogue of his father's renowned gallery of dramatic pictures was drawn up, when this was exhibited to public view at the Queen's Bazaar, in Oxford Street, in May, 1833. "Every man should have a hobby," had wisely written to Mathews his friend Horace Smith (who was, by the way, later to write his epitaph); and the theatrical museum and picture gallery, the result of long years of persevering research and an outlay of some 5,000l., had become the very pride and glory of its owner's existence. The pictures, of varied excellence regarded as works of art, but unequalled in interest as illustrative of our dramatic history, were nearly 400 in number, and were arranged in a gallery built expressly for their accommodation, from a design by the elder Pugin, at the residence of their owner, Ivy Cottage, Kentish Town. Here they were visited by a constant throng of sightseers, who were, perhaps, attracted in a greater degree by the celebrity of their possessor than the artistic interest or merit of his collection. How ever this may be, they invaded his privacy with remorseless assiduity, and converted what was designed to be a peaceful retreat into a mere show place; but when the gallery could be seen by any one for a shilling the charm was gone, and the result of the exhibition was a loss of 150l. As to the ultimate fate of the pictures themselves the biographer is silent, so a few words may here be said. The unfortunate issue of certain speculations in which Mr. Mathews had invested his savings, and his failing health, compelled him to relinquish Ivy Cottage and seek a cheaper residence. Here he could provide no room for his pictures, and another home had to be found for them. It was at once felt that there could be no more fitting destination for the collection than the rooms of the Garrick Club, and a proposal of sale was made to that body. It was not, however, at that time in a position to make a commensurate offer; but when the owner died, in 1835, an arrangement was made by the widow with Mr. John Rowland Durrant, a wealthy stockbroker of London, who agreed to purchase it for the club, on the condition that he should receive five per cent. for the outlay till it should be in its power to reimburse him. On his death, however, he made a free bequest of it to the club, which now most appropriately possesses in perpetuity this celebrated gallery, which constitutes undoubtedly one of the most instructive, interesting, and valuable art-collections to be found in the metropolis. were not only written for him, but to him, and may not be inaptly likened to the fairy-formed slipper of Cinand lucid in its quality, proved unfitting and useless to derella, which, though symmetrical in itself, and brilliant all but the original wearer."-Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 449. The foregoing remarks are applicable also to another piece, with a description of which,_from its contemporaneous and general character, I may appropriately conclude this trivial contribution to "special bibliographies": gularities, Singularities, Pertinacity, Loquacity, and "Paul Pry, in which are all the Peculiarities, IrreAudacity of Paul Pry, as performed by Mr. Liston, at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with unbounded applause. With the song of Cherry Ripe. London, T. Hughes. Price sixpence." 1826. 8vo. pp. 24. Written by John Poole, author of Hamlet Travestie, Phineas Quiddy, the immortal Little Pedlington (one of the finest satires in the language), numberless magazine articles, and some half-century of dramatic pieces, all more or less successful. His reputation as a humourist was such that when Pickwick first appeared it was generally attributed to him. He died at the age of eighty-seven, in Kentish Town, London, February, 1872, in the receipt of an annuity of 100l. from the Civil List, which had been obtained for him mainly by the exertions of Charles Dickens. The "song of Cherry Ripe," promised on the title-page, will be sought for in vain; but there is a capital coloured folding frontispiece of "Mr. Liston as Paul Pry," engraved by P. Roberts from a design by "G. | Cruikshanks." WILLIAM BATES, B.A. Birmingham. "OF COURSE." If Philip Dormer Stanhope-the well-known and, as some would call him, celebrated Lord Chesterfield of the last century-were now alive, I think he would be penning another letter to his son To return for a brief moment to the "At on the use, and on the abuse, of the above Homes." It must be admitted that these ephe-stereotyped phrase, with which so much of modern meral pieces, like the sometime equally celebrated conversation is interlarded. We can hardly doubt "Lecture on Heads" of George Alexander Stevens, the view he would take of it. Judge of, and guide even as improved by Pilon and Charles Lee Lewes, to, good manners as he was, recoiling from everyare terribly hard reading nowadays, and we are thing that could give offence in the most remote deled to wonder at the enthusiasm of critics and the gree to others, he would surely condemn its so frefacile evocation of the "gaiety of nations." But quent application in the senses it generally bears. it must be remembered that we possess them only It may be admitted that, just as some habitually in pirated, incomplete, and unauthenticated edi- disfigure their conversation with an oath, more from tions, and, above all, that the plastic power is absent heedlessness than of malice prepense, so many use this of him who alone could give life, unity, and ampli-expression from thoughtlessness rather than from a fication to designedly rude and imperfect forms. As Mrs. Mathews writes : "It is quite impossible that Mr. Mathews's entire entertainments can ever appear in print. They never have been published, and I am not sure that it would be fair to the gifted authors who contributed to them to put them forth in their disjointed state, being imperfect as they were written down by the reciter of them. The extraordinary links which his genius supplied, holding the whole together, are wanting. These entertainments desire to wound. Still, it is not on that account the less ill-bred, nor does it the less require to be put down by the strong common sense and common assent of society; it is, in my opinion, a phrase of sinister and odious intendment. The English language alone employs it. Why should it? The polite French have invented words rather of agreement. "Exactement," "certainement," "sans doute," "justement," are calculated to propitiate and soothe, not to irri Ger the sting, because it implies a detrimental comparison with another. 3. There is the "of course" Incriminatory, as in the following :— "Of course you did not forget to post my tate. To be "au courant" of the news is the nearest 66 First, then, there is what we must call the "of course Peevish, the peevishness being always marked by the asperity of tone with which it is uttered, as if the remark to which it is the reply were thought a truism, or too trite, or too uninteresting, or too troublesome to be worth attending to; you simpleton" or "you bore" for asking such a thing, though not perhaps expressly, yet being impliedly added to this use of the expletive, as if the interrogated party were insulted by the bare idea that the answer could be different from what he thinks it to be, and thought it a reflection on his reputation or credit for sagacity to hint that it might be, or that he should have done, or not done, as the case may be, the act in question. Of this kind are the following Have you seen the Times to-day?"-"Of course I have." "Do you subscribe to a circulating library?" "Of course I do." 66 Are the harvest prospects bad in your part of the country?"--"Of course they are." "Do you go out much in London ?"-" Of course we do." "Have you generally good health ?"-"Of course I have." "Have you had a wet spring?"-" Of course we have." 2. There is the "of course" Supercilious, where the offensiveness of it lies rather in the question than in the answer; an emphasis being here also laid upon it, but no temper evinced in the stress, as in the former case. Thus : Of course you were at Lady S.'s 'at home' last night?" "Of course you did not go to Paris without seeing the church of St. Augustin?" 66 'Of course you saw the eclipse last night?" "Of course you understand the principle of the electric light?" Here, if the party interrogated has not done or does not know the thing which the other assumes he does, an insinuation is conveyed that the former is very much behind the rest of the world (and particularly behind the interrogator). The ungraciousness would be avoided and the information required equally obtained by the simple omission of the expletive. It is the prefix which contains "Of course you took the number of that cab?" thing required (which is very possible), blame Here, it is obvious, if the party has not done the attaches to him in the mind of the questioner, and it is not either pleasant or courteous for an acquaintance to blame one. There is a singular speech, which I have met with, of the late Sir Robert Peel, who, as every one knows, was a great master of language, and of correct and well-poised language-where he used three times, I think in three consecutive sentences, the phrase in question, without apparently much animus-certainly not the Supercilious or Peevish animus-but, at the same time, without its adding anything to the force or dignity of the sentence: "Of course I should say by all means let those who so desire go through all the examinations." "If the House does not think I am right in my proposal, it will of course not be acceded to." "If the thing were not good in itself, of course the mere fact that other countries have it would not prove the desirableness of what I desire to establish"-of which the second clause, expanded, may be thus paraphrased: "If the House does not think me right, &c., I gladly bow to their decision, and cannot think so highly of my own opinion as to doubt the propriety of their acting against it, as it is perfectly natural and proper that they should." Here the phrase occurs in the inoffensive, and even laudable, because self-depreciatory, sense presently to be mentioned. 4. There is the "of course" Meaningless, where it is purely an expletive, and might be omitted without altering the sense, being redundant, and containing no question or emphasis, and requiring therefore no answer; e.g., "Of course there are always faults on both sides"; "Of course you must do what you think proper." 5. In two senses, and two only, does the use of our phrase seem quite legitimate and unexceptionable. First, in what may be called the sense Confidential. Thus, "Of course, old fellow, the next time you are our way you will stay to dine and sleep," "Of course, my dear friend, you will not scruple to tell me if it is at all inconvenient to you to receive me," are commendably hearty ways of issuing an invitation, and showing confidence in intimacy. Secondly, the sense self-depreciating or humbling, as in the above speech of Sir Robert Peel. "Of course you are the best judge, and know better than I do." C. F. TROWER. KING'S HALL, CAMBRIDGE.-I have latterly been examining the accounts of King's Hall, Cambridge 2. In 1428 the college pays 12d. to the "histriones villæ Cantab." It would be well if all notices of early dramatic performances were registered. 3. In the same year the Cardinal Bishop of Winton visited the college on the Monday before Michaelmas at the third hour of the morning, and left next day hora nona, viz., on the vigil of St. Michael. He visited the college again in 1440. so learned and accurate a writer as Dr. Cardwell, occurs in the preface to this work, p. xxxv, which is possibly the parent of a far grosser mistake. He says: "There have always been, and probably will always continue, two opposite parties, who, though devotedly attached to the doctrines of the Church, have sought for a new revision of the Liturgy; the one, as was the case at the beginning of the last century, desiring that the prayers of consecration and oblation should be restored," &c. Here it is evident that Dr. Cardwell ought to have written "invocation" instead of " consecration." The mistake I allude to is one mentioned in "N. & Q.," 5th S. ii. 128, 157, 175, 211, where, in "Liddell v. Westerton," the original judgment declared that "the prayer for the consecration of the elements was omitted" in the Book of 1552, 4. In 1438, on June 3, the son and heirt of the and continued so till the revision of 1662. I then Earl of Huntingdon (afterwards Duke of Exeter), suggested (p. 212) that the error arose from the with four servants, came to the college. He re- judges looking cursorily into some book-Cardsided in the college, apparently under instruction, well's, for instance-where the offices are printed for about three years, the charges incurred by him side by side, and seeing the column by the side of amounting to a little more than 30l. a year. Two that of 1549 blank (for the prayer of consecration other persons came into residence with him, John was shifted in the second Book to a place further and William, and are called Bastardi de Hunting-on) hastily concluded that it was omitted altogether. This personage afterwards married Anne Plantagenet, eldest daughter of Richard, Duke of York, and was driven into banishment during the civil wars. He is the Duke of Exeter whom Philip de Commines says he saw begging his bread in the Low Countries. ton. 5. In the spring of the year 1444 died John Paston, steward of the college. These Pastons were everywhere. He purchases provisions for the college up to April 3. In the same year the college receives twenty-seven books from his executors, in part payment of debts owed by him to the college. These books are valued at 81. 178. 4d. One would like to know what these books were. 6. In 1504 the college entertained Margaret, the king's mother, who was probably engaged with the affairs of her two Cambridge colleges at this time. 7. In 1541-2 the annual pension due from the abbey of Sawtry is paid by the "Lord Cromwell" and "Mr. Williams"; and for some years about this time the college makes an annual gift of barley for the maintenance of the poor. I may add, as all information about the Pastons is of interest, that William Paston was one of the stewards of Hickling Priory early in the reign of Henry VIII., and that he appears to have been knighted in the year 1519, for before this year he is merely styled "armiger," afterwards Sir Wm. Paston," in the Hickling book. J. E. T. R. CARDWELL'S "Two BOOKS OF COMMON PRAYER COMPARED."-A mistake, not to be expected from 66 It is possible that the above passage in the preface may have caught their eye and they may have looked no further. E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. THE "MAYORESS'S SERJEAUNT" AT OXFORD.-I find indexed by Mr. Gomme from the returns of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations the above official. I cannot find among either the ancient or modern records of the city a note of any such officer having existed in Oxford. Certainly in the accounts no payment has been made to one, nor do elderly people that I have asked ever remember that the old corporation possessed such an ornament. The mayor's serjeaunts were two in number, and I can only suggest that the error has been made of putting the word " mayor" in the plural number instead of "serjeaunts" when the evidence was taken. W. H. TURner. Oxford. 'ABBEY."-Durham Cathedral is still called "the abbey" by old-fashioned residents, but at ever since the school was founded by Henry VIII. Bp. Hatfield's Hall, Durham, of all the inscriptions now to be found within the CHESHAM, BUCKS.-I have lately made copies walls of St. Mary's, Chesham, formerly known as |