256
NOTES AND QUERIES. [i-js. n. SEPT. 23,
author should " set some limits to his annual
output " was indignantly declined, but
George Smith stuck to his guns, and the
agreement came to an end. As MR. FROST'S
list shows that during the remaining eleven
years of James's life he published only
fourteen novels, it may be reasonably
inferred that in breaking with George
Smith he went further and fared worse.
The story as related in the ' Memoir ' is strange and wonderful, but the particulars given by your contributor are evidence that it does no sort of justice to James's literary industry. MR. FROST'S list tells us that the novels put forth during the four years were fifteen in number. Presumably the extra six were not issued by the firm in Cornhill.
No doubt MR. FROST is accurate in his assertion that the actual number of James's novels was " only fifty-six," but, considering all things, I do not think that the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' can be censured for stating that he was "said" to have written. upwards of a hundred. The probability is that the biographer was well below the mark, for we may be sure that popular repute had woven strange legends about an author who had issued fifteen novels in four years. CHRISTIAN TEARLE.
THE CULTUS OF KING HENRY VI. (12 S. i. 161, 235, 372). Following my reply on this subject at the last reference, I should say that Mr. N. H. J. Westlake mentions two portraits of Henry VI. in stained glass ; neither of them has anything to indicate canonization. One is in the St. Cuthbert window in the Choir of York Cathedral ; the other very remarkable as a piece of glass, but rather dubious as an effigy is in the Hacomblyn Chantry in King's College, Cambridge.
In a foot-note Mr. Westlake (iii. p. 81) gives a long quotation from Canon Fowler's monograph on the St. Cuthbert window (Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, iv. 366). It is full of information about the cultus of Henry VI., but the note by MR. MONTAGUE SUMMERS is really exhaustive.
The following extracts may be of interest as to the decline of the said cultus, the subject of ST. SWITHIN'S reply :
" There were few large towns in England, it is said, in which an image of Henry VI. was not set up in the principal church. In Archbishop Booth's Register is a monition against any persons venerating some image of him in York Minster, dated 27 th October, 1479, when, perhaps, his name was erased in the window (see p. 261 ), and his image removed from the choir screen. The order seems to have been issued mainly in deference to the Pope,
who had not canonized Henry, and to Edward IV.
who had superseded him as King. ' York Fabric
Rolls,' Surtees Soc. vol. xxxv. pp. 208-82."
And this :
" It appears that all the three Lancastrian Henries had more or less reputation for sanctity, and that they should be represented as they are in the windoM 7 would doubtless be felt very appro- priate by Bishop Longley. the donor, and by the Lancastrian party generally, which in Yorkshire was particularly strong (ibid p. 268)."
PIERRE TURPIN. Folkestone.
F AIRFIELD AND RATHBONE, ARTISTS (12 S. ii. 27, 77). If MR. LANE will refer to the notice of John Rathbone in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' which I conclude he- has not consulted, I think he will find some of the information he desires. Since I wrote that article I have occasionally come across specimens of the work of John Rathbone, all of which have confirmed the opinion I there express of his work. Of Fairfield I unfor- tunately can give no information, as my notes, the result of many years' interest in art and artists, refer mostly to those who have practised in Lancashire and Cheshire.- The figures in Rathbone' s landscapes being put in by such of his contemporaries as Morland and Ibbetson are quite what one- would expect, as both of these artists spent much time in our counties, where they had some good patrons, particularly in Man- chester and Liverpool. This friendly help in dotting-in figures is often given even when acknowledgment is not desired. Many in- stances of it must have been noticed by those who are acquainted with landscape art from that time down to our own days.
ALBERT NICHOLSON.
Portinscale, Hale, Altrincham.
EMMA ROBINSON, AUTHOR OF ' WHITE- FRIARS ' (12 S. ii. 149, 199). -The father of this famous novelist was a noted " character " in London literary circles during the fifties of last century. Dr. Strauss, in his ' Re- miniscences of an Old Bohemian,' gives an amusing sketch of the sham author :
" In the olden times we had admitted to our set that used to meet at the White Hart Tavern a tall old gentleman in a tall old dress suit, with a tall old chimney-pot, who went by the name of Robinson, and by the reputation of the author of ' Whitefriars.' We admired him accordingly. Halliday and self, more especially, positively reverenced him ; and when he talked mysteriously of the wondrous historic tales then still in gestation in his brain, which would 'lick "Whitefriars" into fits,' we could barely refrain from falling on our knees to worship him. Literally there was no end to the 'libations' poured out to him, which he would graciously accept and freely imbibe with
