126
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. FEB. u, 191*.
six years' betrothal, died in Cairo of small -pox
on 19 July in that year. A very promising
career was closed by his death.
4 Rumpelstitskin ' was a " fairy extrava- ganza," written very much in the style of
- The Island of Jewels,' in which I saw
Madame Vestris and the lovely Miss Julia St. George ever so many years ago, and the other productions of the same kind that Planche used to turn out with mechanical ase. Two manuscripts of ' Rumpelstit- skin ' are in existence. One of them, which is probably in the handwriting of Miss Georgina Meredith, afterwards Mrs. Higgins, was sold at Sotheby's in July, 1911, with the library of her grandson, Mr. W. Basker- ville Mynors, and is now in the possession of an American collector. The second copy belonged to Sarah Disraeli, and is now in the possession of Mr. Coningsby Disraeli. It is dated 1823, when Disraeli was 19 years of age, and was probably written when he was staying with Meredith at Oxford.
Mr. Hutcheon gives many quotations from the " dramatic spectacle " in his interesting paper. Anybody can buy now the number of The Morning Post in which it appears ; in a few years' time it will be almost impossible to do so.
W. F. PRIDEAUX.
W. E. A. AXON f Two REMINISCENCES. MB. A. SPARKE'S letter ante, p. 60, con- cerning the death of this correspondent, recalls to my mind two incidents in my Italian career which interested him and me.
During the eighties I wrote two or three letters in The Athenaeum upon the famous free-lance Sir John Hawkwood, describing in one of them a skirmish in which the names of combatants were mentioned. These included some who, Axon thought, were Lancastrians by origin. Thereupon he wrote for further particulars ; but I could throw no light on his inquiry, and referred him to Mr. Temple Leader's newly issued biography of the Florentine leader, a copy of which the author presented to me as a student of history of the celebrated Giovanni Acuto.
The other subject was the discovery on my part of an old playbill of the Pavone (Peacock) Theatre at Perugia nearly 100 years old then, now fully 120 years old. I made it valuable by using it as material in an article to be found in The Academy entitled ' An Old Play-bill,' specially recording appel- lations common in early " vaudevilles."
It interested Mr. Axon so much that I sent him the ancient playbill, which he
promised to give to a " literary institution "
in Manchester on my behalf for secure
preservation. I cannot identify the exact
locality, and leave the question open to
Manchester men, unless I trace our corre-
spondence among my papers.
I regret that a writer of his eminence was unknown personally to me in later life.
WILLIAM MERCER.
ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, " PLACE HOYALL." In an assignment of lease dated 13 March, 1677, the property is described as " all that peece or parcell of ground in Pall Mall Fields al[ials St. James's Ffields containing in ffront from East to West fforty ffeet of assize, and in depth from North to South three score feet of assize, abutting on Pall Mall Street South, on the place Royall according to the plott or designe of building in the fields, North, on the intended church yard west, and on another pacell of ground then in the possession of the said Earle East, with all wayes," &c.
The site of the property is possibly marked by the Army and Navy Club. Henry, Earl of St. Albans, and Sir John Coell and John Hervey are joint grantors of the original lease, dated 16 May, 1668, and the sub -lease now before me is between Penticost Ring, a widow, and Arthur Powell, as assignees of the lease granted to Francis Sharpe of St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields, blacksmith. Many of the parties named are referred to in Mr. Dasent's ' History of St. James's Square,' but neither he nor any other local historian and topographer mentions this new place- name for St. James's Square, or refers to the proposed burial-ground in Pall Mall. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
A NOVEL ASSIZE. I think it worth placing on record that, probably for the first time since the establishment of the Assize system, the Devon Winter Assize commenced on Monday, 2 Feb., 1914, with- out being presided over by any judges of the High Court. The judges appointed to take the business of the Western Circuit were Mr. Justice Bucknill and Mr. Justice A. T. Lawrence. Owing to the illness of Mr. Justice Bucknill, Mr. W. English Harrison, K.C., was appointed Commis- sioner of Assize. When Exeter was reached, Mr. Justice Lawrence, through suffering from indisposition, was unable to take his place, and the business of the Nisi Prius Court was presided over by Mr. J. A. Hawke, K.C., Recorder of Plymouth. I wonder if such an incident has ever been recorded in connexion with any other county assize. W. G. WILLIS WATSON, F.R.H.S.
Park Road, Polsloe Park, Exeter.
