480
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. JUNE 13, 191*.
WE have received from the offices of The
Kentish Express, Ashford, Kent, the eleventh
and concluding volume of Mr. Charles Iggelsden's
Through Kent with Pen and Pencil. The places
include Nettlestead, Whitstable, Swalecliffe,
Graveney, Monks Horton, and Harrietsham. The
last is rich in Tudor houses of great beauty. It
is good to learn that Mr. Igglesden has received
" unqualified help from residents." The illus-
trations are beautifully executed. The price is
2s. 10d., post free. The complete work of eleven
volumes, can be had for II. 2s., post free.
Obituarjr.
WALTER THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.
THE death of our friend Theodore Watts-Dunton on Saturday evening last calls for another sad note in " dear old ' N. & Q.' " Yet, while the suddenness of our loss is a great shock, the silent messenger came just as he himself would have had it ; for when his friend Morris died he rejoiced that " that beloved man died without pain." Watts- Dunton was born at St. Ives on the 12th of October, 1832, his family name being Watts. In 1897 he added his mother's surname Dunton. Brought up to the law, he with his brother practised in London. After his brother's death he took chambers in St. James's Street, close to Swinburne, with whom he had already become intimate, and from that time dates one of the choicest friendships in the history of literature. From the first Watts-Dunton's predilections were for letters, and in 1874 he became a con- tributor to The Examiner ; his articles in that paper, signed " T. W.," attracted the attention of Norman MacColl, then editor of The Athenceum, and he invited him to become a member of the staff, and on the 8th of July, 1876, his first article appeared, the subject being Skelton's comedy of the ' Noctes Ambrosianae.' From that date, for more than twenty years, he was a constant contributor, and MacColl became his '*' dear friend."
Among his many articles was one he wrote at my special request to commemorate the seventieth birthday of The Athenceum on the 1st of January, 1898. This I had reprinted, but it is now quite out of print. A year ago I tried to procure a copy for him, but was unable to do so.
Readers of ' N. & Q.' will remember the fre- quent references in our columns to ' Aylwin,' and in the illustrated edition published by Hurst & Blackett at the close of last year Watts-Dunton in his Preface reprints the " very picturesque letter " which appeared in our columns on May 3rd, 1902, signed C. C. B., in answer to a query by E. W. This he ' ' gives himself the pleasure of quoting, because it describes the writer's ascent of Snowdon (accompanied by a son of my old friend Harry Owen, late of Pen-y-Gwryd) along a path which was almost the same as that taken by Aylwin and Sinfi Lovell, when he saw the Same magnificent spectacle that was seen by them."
In the second Appendix is the ' Key to Aylwin,' by Mr. Thomas St. E. Hake, " an intimate friend of Rossetti, and of other leading characters in the story," given in ' N. & Q.' on the 7th of June, 1902.
Of Watts-Dunton's contributions to literature
Sir Robertson Nicoll has truly said : " Good
manners characterized everything he wrote,
though with all his benignity there was an occa-
sional gleam of sleeping lightning that he would
not use." His memory will be long cherished
by his many friends, for he had the gift of friend-
ship " Life's great second crown of life."
JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.
BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JUNE.
MESSRS. J. DAVIS & G. M. ORIOLI in Catalogue No. 5 of their new series describe some 500 items which cover a wide range of good things : early printed books, bindings, works on Heraldry, Numismatics, and Gardening, illustrated books of eighteenth- century France, and collections of portraits, old drawings, and woodcuts. A copy of Nicolas Jenson's ' Plutarch ' (1478), offered for 42Z., is one of the best items ; other Venetian items worth noting are the * Lucian ' of 1494 (101.) and the Terence ' of 1504 (91.) . We may also mention Tressan's ' Roland Furieux ' (c. 1777) a good copy, uncut and unopened, in four vols. , in the contemporary French covers, with 46 plates after Ponce 10Z.
Messrs. Davis and Orioli have also a good set of Incunabula, described in their Catalogue No. 7. We have space but to mention the ' Lactantius ' of Vendelin de Spira (600f.), Lauer's ' S. Thomas Aquinas ' (620f.), and Erhard Ratdolt's ' Euclid ' (625f.). The Catalogue is rather lavishly illus- trated, and the pictures more than commonly well chosen, so that those for whom the prices asked are too high may get a clearer idea than usual of the works concerned. Perhaps the most notable item is the Vercelli ' Petrarch,' printed in 1503 by Albertino da Lissone, for which 900f. is asked.
MESSRS. MAGGS'S Catalogue No. 326 describes nearly 600 Autograph Letters and MSS., many of which are of the first interest particularly, per- haps, the historical items. There are autographs of Arabella Stuart, Anne of Denmark, Arthur, Duke of Brittany (the Constable a document relating to the Siege of Cherbourg), Louis XIII. , Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and numerous others ; and an interesting specimen of the seal of Mary, Queen of Scots, attached to Letters Patent legitimizing the natural sons of Sir Robert Menzies. The literary examples are no less tempting than usual, while the much higher prices asked for letters or verses in autograph of poets than for the handwriting of kings, queens, and other mighty persons is edifying to reflect upon.
to
G. N. (" Child born on the High Seas registered
in Stepney "). This popular idea is without legal
foundation. See the reply at 8 S. xi. 433 and the
references there supplied.
MR. W. B. GERISH. For information on the introduction of the general use of coffins see 10 S. viii. 90, 137, 215, 358, especially the second of these references.
ERRATUM. Ante, p. 429, end of col. 1, fcr " Duel- ling " read Snelling.
