12 S. VII. DEC. 25, 1920.] NOTES
QUERIES.
515
Q OT , or _Li: VERNON (12 S. vii. 409, 454).
.o^ice I discussed the story of the Dorothy
Vernon legend in * N". & Q.' in 1906, there
lias been published a little book by Mr. J. E.
Preston Muddock entitled 'Did Dorothy
Vernon Elope ? A Rejoinder ' (London,
Henry J. Drane, 1907). Mr. Muddock
believes she did, but gives no evidence to
prove his belief. He thinks the onus of
proof is on the other side. His book is a
reply to Mr. Le Blanc Smith.
The story I inquired about at 10 S. vi. 383, appeared in The People's Magazine for August and September, 1872. It is -entitled *'* Haddon Hall. A picture in two panels. ' By the author of ' The Harvest of a Quiet Eye.' ' In this tale Dorothy is the eldest daughter and there is no step- mother. Sir George Vernon is a widower .and the reader's sympathy is enlisted on his behalf. Dorothy is a wayward child .and the elopement is made to take place on the night of her eighteenth birthday.
When I wrote in 1906 I hacl found no earlier mention of the legend, or story, than 1822. I can now take it back to 1817. In the recently published ' Journal ' of Absolom Watkin (Fisher Unwin, 1920) is an account of a visit to Haddon Hall in May of that year, in the course of which Mr. Watkin wrote :
" Among the pictures we saw that of the lady 'by whose marriage with Sir John Manners -this house and the estates came from the family of Vernon into that of Rutland. We learnt that 'the gallant Sir John stole her away, and that the door through which she passed was fastened up and has never been opened since."
That is all. No mention even of Dorothy by name. F. H. CHEETHAM.
'MEMOIRS ' OF JEAN LANDRIEUX (12 S. vii. 468). My quotation (see under ' Lady Hamilton as " Messalina of the Sea"
ante, p. 427) is taken from Landrieux's own ' Avant-propos ' (vol. i). Like the
'Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, I have only a copy of the first volume, and did not find it of sufficient interest to trouble about procuring the second. In the fly-leaf of the first it is announced :
" Sous Presse. Me"moires de 1'Adjutant- Oe"n feral Jean Landrieux II. Salo, Ve>one, Venice.
Hi. Genes, Fragments divers, Etude sur la
Correspondance de Napoleon Bonaparte."
This is also repeated in the publisher's 1893 catalogue. It is difficult to under- stand a firm of repute like Albert Savine's breaking their word to the purchaser of
i-he first volume, y Probably they did not
find the publication of the first sufficiently
remunerative to undertake a second. Much
valuable space is wasted by Leonce Grasilier
(evidently not a master of conciseness,
extraordinary in a French writer) in his
very lengthy ' Introduction Biographique
et Historique ' (340 pp.), and space could
have been possibly found for the entire work
in one volume. It may interest collectors
to know that the first volume, however, was
considered of sufficient historical importance
for the publisher to announce "II a ete
tire 30 Exemplaires sur Papier de Hollande."
ANDREW DE TERNANT 36 Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W.
THE TALBOT INN, ASHBOTJRNE (12 S. vii. 350, 438). Through the courtesy of a correspondent to The Ashbourne News t I have been favoured with the following :
" Sir John Hawkins in his notes to ' The Complete Angler ' states that the Talbot stood in the Market Place, and was the first hostelry in the town. About the year 1705, a wing of the building being divided for a private dwelling, the far-famed inn was reduced to an inferior pot- house, and it was totally demolished in 1786."
"The site is said by the late Rev. Francis Jourdain (Vicar of Ashbourne) to have been that on which the Town Hall at present stands, but the late Mr. John Bamford always maintained that the Talbot stood on the ground then occupied by the house of Dr. Goodwin and now by the premises of Messrs Wooddisse and Co."
" I think from the evidence contained in Jesse's edition of ' The Complete Angler ' that the latter is the correct statement of the facts."
I trust this information will fully meet G. F. R. B.'s query. CECIL CLARKE.
Junior Athenaeum Club.
TAVERN SIGN-BOARDS : KING JOHN (12 S. vii. 467). There was formerly a King John's Tavern opposite the Cathedral Close Gate called Little Stile in South Street in this city. It was one of the finest houses in Exeter, being of early Tudor date. An engraving of its doorway will be found in The Gentleman's Magazine of May, 1838, about which period its front was taken down. This inn also possessed an exceedingly handsome and massive oaken staircase under a vaulted, and richly moulded ceiling of which drawings are extant. Robert Dy- mond, a local antiquary, writing in 1880, says :
"It is not clear why the name of a monarch so unpopular as King John should have been chosen for the name of a tavern here, as well as in London and elsewhere."
H. TAPLEY-SOPER.
University College Library, Exeter.
