10 S. XL MAY 29, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.
The property was offered for sale on 23 Feb-
ruary of that year, and although one esti-
mate had placed its value at 200,000?., it
was bought by Serjeant Cox for 57,100Z.
The Times report says the property was
subject to a rent-charge to the Bishop of
Ely of ISO/, per annum. Is the origin of
this known ? ALECK ABRAHAMS.
CASANOVA IN ENGLAND (10 S. viii. 443, 491 ; ix. 116). It appears impossible that the Miss Kennedy mentioned by the memoirist in vol. v. p. 445 (Brussels edition, Rozez, 1871) can have been the famous Miss Kitty Kennedy of Newman Street, who saved her two brothers from the hangman, and whose story is told at full length in most of the biographies of Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Selwyn. Since this lady must have been in the height of her youth and beauty when a cause celebre made her name a household word in 1770, it is highly improbable that she was a w r ell- known courtesan when Casanova visited England in 1763. As the late Mr. C. W. Dilke remarked, " such beauties are but ephemeral." Moreover, if the sworn declar- ation made in the Vicar-General's office, when a special licence was obtained for her marriage with Robert Stratford Byram, is to be believed, she was only twenty-two years of age in 1773.
Nor can Casanova's acquaintance have been Miss Polly Kennedj' of Piercy Street, another notorious frail one, for she does not seem to have risen into prominence until circa 1772.
It is possible, however, that the lady to whom the adventurer was introduced was Miss Polly Kennedy of Great Russell Street, the companion of Nancy Dawson and the friend of Ned Shuter, the actor, who was celebrated for her avarice. We are told in ' Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies ' for 1773 that " she has taken a long time to rise to her present independency " ; it is hinted plainty that her youth and beauty have passed, and that *' she is going down hill." Evidently, she was a celebrity as early as 1761, for she is mentioned in ' The Meretriciad,' by Capt. Edward Thompson and on 9 July of the same year her house in Manchester Buildings, Westminster, was burnt down, together with that of Nanc> Dawson. Cf. Gent. Mag., xxxi. 330, and Toivn and Country Magazine, viii. 589.
The question is of little importance, bu' the task of identifying the personages mentioned in Casanova's memoirs is always most interesting. It is to be hoped tha
some enterprising publisher will produce
jefore long a well-edited and copiously
annotated edition of this wonderful work.
Already there is much material in ' N. & Q.'
supplied by MR. RICHARD EDGCUAIBE and
others, which could be used for documenta
tion, and an industrious editor would no
doubt be able to illuminate further the
more important portions of the memoirs.
With comparatively little expurgation the
volumes could be translated into English,
and a discreet foot-note would always
supply continuity. HORACE BLEACKLEY.
MAY-BLOSSOM : KNOTS OF MAY (10 S. xi. 344). At Tilsworth, about three miles north-west from Dunstable in Bedfordshire, the young men of the place still, I believe, go round with a load of may and leave knots (or bunches), one for each maiden in the house thus visited. The following are three of the verses sung on the occasion : A branch of may I have you brought,
And at your door it stands ; It is but a sprout, but it 's well budded out,
It's the work of our Lord's hands, Arise, arise, you pretty, fair maids,
And view your may so gay, Or else you '11 say on another day j We brought you not your may. I have a purse in my pocket, Tied with a silken string ; We '11 thank you for some silver To line it well within.
This gathering of bunches of may by parties of young men and maidens, to make the May-bush round which the May Day games were held, and dancing and courting, is mentioned by Wilde ('Irish Popular Superstitions,' p. 52), the game being Dance- in-the-Ring.
Mrs. Gomme (' The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland,' 1894) remembers one May Day in London when the " May girls " came with a garland, and short sticks decorated with green and bunches of flowers. They sang : Knots of may we 've brought you,
Before your door it stands ; It is but a sprout, but it 's well budded out, By the work of the lord's hands.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. 10, Royal Crescent, W.
CARLYLE AND FREEMASONRY (10 S. xi. 370). Carlyle in his ' Frederick ' gives an account of how Frederick, when Crown Prince, became a Freemason, from which Carlyle' s view of the matter can be inferred. See ' Frederick,' Book X. chap. v. (vol. ii. p. 635 of 1858 edition).
CAROLINE CLARKE.
