Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/263

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12 s. ii. SKIT. aj, i9iB.j NOTES AND QUERIES.


257


"the calm dignity of one conscious of his worth. It so fell out that Halliday went one day to the Exhibition of the Academy, where he chanced to see a portrait of the 'Author of " Whitefriars," ' who turned out to be a lady. Well, we were fierce in our wrath. It was such a base deception ; but the old gentleman was equal to the occasion ; he contended that, the part being included in the whole, and he being the father of the author of

  • Whitefriars,' he had not been guilty of any false

pretence. Halliday took hi* revenge, however, by telling the story to the reading world in an amusing skit entitled 'The Author of Blueblazes ' (Whitefriars=VVhitefires, Blueblazes)."

Miss Robinson's last novel was, I believe, < The Hidden Million : or, the Nabob's Revenge,' which appeared, with illustrations by Fred Gilbert, in The Penny Illustrated Paper in 1867. It was, comparatively speaking, poor stuff ; though whether the falling off in the talent displayed was due to the loss of parental advice is a moot question.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39 Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane, S.E.

Du BELLAMY : BRADSTREET : BRADSHAW (12 S. ii. 209). Charles Du Bellamy, whose real name was Evans, made his first appear- ance in London Xov. 12, 1766, at Covent Garden Theatre, as Young Meadows, in Bickerstaffs opera of ' Love in a Village.'

His first wife appeared at the same theatre Nov. 5, 1766, as Lavinia, in ' The Fair Penitent.' She died August, 1773.

Du Bellamy continued a member of the Covent Garden company until 1776, acting, during the summer recess, at the Haymarket in 1769, 1770, and 1777. His name then disap- pears from the bills until May, 1780, when he was again at the Haymarket. In September of that year he was engaged at Drury Lane, where he remained until 1782, when his London career seems to have come to an end.

He played, among other parts : Octavio, " She Would and She Would Not ' ; Thomas,

  • Thomas and Sally ' ; Capt. Macheath ;

Stanmore, ' Oroonoko ' ; Amiens, ' As You Like It ' ; Autolycus, ' Winter's Tale ' ; Mercury, ' Golden Pippin ' ; Hilliard, ' Jovial Crew ' ; Leander, ' Padlock ' ; Hastings, 1 She Stoops to Conquer ' (of which he was the original representative) ; Capucius, ' Henry VIII.' ; Artabanes, ' Artaxerxes ' ; Apollo, ' Midas ' ; Bacchanal, ' Comus ' ; Truemore, ' Lord of the Manor.'

It appears from his Benefit bills that in 1776 he lived at 29 Great Russell Street, Blooinsbury, and in 1781-2 at 6 Queen's Buildings, Brompton.

I have, among a quantity of material which formed part of the Winston Collection, a few playbills newspaper cuttings, and


.MS. notes relating to Du Bellamy. His marriage with the daughter of General Bradsliaw not Bradstreet is thus re- corded :

" Dubellamy Mr. of Great Russel St. at St. G. Bloomsbury married to Mrs. Button an American lady relict of a merchant and daughter to late General Bradshaw 11 May 76. M.P."

Winston's writing is somewhat difficult to read, and I am not sure that the lady's name is not meant to be Bretton, but the name Bradshaw is quite plainly written. M.I'. I understand as Morning Post.

There is a newspaper cutting, on which the date April 7, 1777, has been written, which runs thus :

" Mr. Da Bellamy, who lately quitted Covent Garden Theatre, in consequence of his marriage with a widow lady of good fortune, is now at Bath, giving concerts at half a guinea per head, which we hear are well resorted, though it is the dearest musical subscription ever known in that city."

According to another cutting, he was living in America in 1787, had resumed his real name, and was then H Member of Congress.

He died in New York, August, 1793, and his death is said to be recorded " E. M. [European Magazine], 24. 487."

There is an engraved portrait of him with Mrs. Cargill, as Young Meadows and Rosetta, published by Lowndes as a frontispiece to the opera. WM. DOUGLAS.

125 Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

A STEWART RING : THE HON. A. J. STEWART (12 S. ii. 171, 215). I submit that the difficulty in this case could not have arisen if Burke' s ' Peerage ' had not adopted a plan of omitting younger sons who died issueless.

I have come across several instances of this lately, and I think it is an innovation.

G. W. E. R.

FISHERIES AT COMACCHIO (12 S. ii. 210). In reply to L. L. K., the following modern Italian work, A. Beltramelli, ' Da Comacchio ad Argenta : le lagune e le bocche del Po,' Bergamo (Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche), 1905, price 4 lire, contains (pp. 38-55) curious details of these fisheries. They include a plan of a " lavoriero da pesca," for trapping eels, with explanations of the terms used, and illustrations, from photographs, of the fishing grounds, some of which show the contrivances employed. The book itself belongs to the topographico-artistic series, "Italia artis- tica," and mentions the historical authorities upon the subject, including Tasso, Mgr. Pandolfi, a seventh-century bishop of Comacchio, Alessandro Zappata, and Arturo