198
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MARCH 9, 1907.
1817, Ensign Stapleton, of the llth West
India Regiment, is shown as on half-pay
since 1802. W. S.
LANGTRY ESTATE IN IRELAND (10 S. yii.
128). A small estate (about two miles
from the centre of Belfast) on the co. Antrim side of Belfast Lough was pointed out to me some years ago as the property in questiion. G. W. MURDOCH.
Ben than), Yorkshire.
"MOALER" (10 S. vii. 127). Is not this a free spelling of "molar," the lamp in question having suggested to the inventor a resemblance, as it depends from the roof of the railway carriage, to the tooth known as the molar or double-tooth as it protrudes from the roof of the mouth ?
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL YARD, OXFORD ROAD (10 S. vi. 469 ; vii. 13, 135). The monumental inscriptions have been printed in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, from Second Series iii. 125 to v. 379.
NEWBOLDS OF DERBYSHIRE (10 S. vii. 107). Consult the index at the end of vol. iv. of Hunter's ' Familiae Minorum Gentium," Harleian Society's Publications.
HENRY JOHN BEARDSHAW.
27, Northumberland Road, Sheffield.
"PORTOBELLO" (10 S. vii. 88). DR.
MURRAY inquires as to the nature and name of the game of " portobello," referred to in 1780. At the risk of telling him what he already knows, I may mention that Admiral Vernon's capture of Portobello in 1739 was the occasion of such a frenzy of patriotic and party enthusiasm in England as has perhaps never been equalled. The country blazed with bonfires, and the names of Vernon and Portobello hummed through the land. Medals were struck (over 100 examples are in the British Museum : Vernon, ' D.N.B.'), and " The Vernon's Head " and " The Porto- bello Arms " became at once the most popular of public-house signs. Portobello in Scotland owes its name to the great victory. There was also long ago a farm at Notting Hill called Portobello (I happened on a picture of it some time since in The Gentleman's Magazine), to which, I imagine, the to-day well-known Portobello Road was an approach. Probably a name in 1739 in everybody's mouth was seized upon by the makers of bootjacks and gimcracks, includ- ing vendors of toys and games ; and it seems likely that the game of " portobello "
whatever it was affords only one of:
many instances of such nomenclature.
DOUGLAS OWEN.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
Literary Forgeries. By J. A. Farrer. With an In-
troduction by Andrew Lang. (Longmans & Co.) A DEEPLY interesting and very curious subject is that Mr. Farrer opens out in his newly published work ' Literary Forgeries.' Much has been written about the matter, and there are few branches of scholarship into which it does not intrude itself. It is perhaps most assertive in Renaissance times, the period when classic productions were drawn to light to enrich the collections of the great Italian prelates and princes being that in which spurious discoveries were naturally most abundant, and the period of high scholarship immediately succeeding. that in which the closest scrutiny was made into their authenticity.
With classical subjects Mr. Farrer begins. The Letters of Euripides and others, the famous 'Letters of Phalaris' and the proof of the scholarship of Bentley, the still more remarkable ' Supper of Trimalchio,' and the authorship of the fables, of Babrius are treated of in the opening chapter. These come first in chronological order, and the speculations with which they deal have still keenest interest for scholars. Charles Julius Bertram for obvious, but inadequate reasons referred to as the Pausanias of Britain occupies the second chapter. Quite remarkable are the ingenuity and erudition 1 of the forgeries for which he is responsible, and the- influence of 'De Situ Britannise,' fathered by him upon Richard of Cirencester, is still apparent in. some supposedly literary circles. But it is with English forgeries that Mr. Farrer is principally concerned. Were it otherwise, the work that he undertakes is already accomplished, for, though far from having brought its author the recognition to which he w r as entitled, the ' Supercheries litteraires devoilees, Galerie des auteurs apocryphes, supposes, deguises, plagiaires, et des editeurs infideles de la litterature franchise pendant les quatre derniers siecles,' is a monument of erudition on the subject, and is known to all bibliographers on whose shelves' the works generally of Querard rest. Mr. Farrer deals, however, at some length with the interesting forgeries of Constantine Simonides, the extent no> less than the nature of which yet remains uncertain. The most familiar forgeries treated of are those of Psalmanazar, the 'Eikon Basilike,' the False De- cretals, the Rowley poems, ' The Castle of Otranto, and what is called "the shame of Lander," con- sisting of the arraignment of Milton for plagiarism from Grotius, some echoes of which still make themselves heard in "N. & Q.' No mention is made- of Macpherson's 'Ossian,' nor is there, so far as we- can trace (for the work lacks an index), any refer- ence to the long-brought charges against Payne Collier. An introduction by Mr. Andrew Lang supplies some interesting information on a favourite subject of his spurious old ballads.
in Ecclesiastical Biography. By Sir James
Stephen, K.C.B. 2 vols. (Longmans & Co.)
HALF A CENTURY ago Sir James Stephen's essays
were influential and widely read ; written in a
