232
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. SEPT. 20, 1902.
Cassell's 'Gazetteer of Great Britain and
Ireland,' published in 1893, refers to "a
ruin," so that there are doubtless traces of
the castle still remaining. URLLAD.
'THE VICAR AND MOSES' (9 th S. x. 169). I can remember seeing upon the backs of some old copybooks, perhaps of the date of 1805, engravings of this, and also pictures of the scene upon circular snuff-boxes. Moses was represented with lantern in hand pilot- ing the vicar homewards, dressed in gown and cassock. Perhaps these might have been reproduced from some larger picture or caricature dating from the days of Sterne and Fielding. The former, in a well-known passage in ' Tristram Shandy,' mentions Cor- poral Trim finding in the village alehouse Mr. Yorick's curate smoking his pipe, and the latter makes us acquainted with Parson Adams and Parson Trulliber. A collection of engravings on the backs of old copybooks would prove interesting.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
SALE OF THE OLD PRINCE OF WALES'S THEATRE (9 th S. x. 64, 176). There is a cheer- ful, gossiping account of this theatre in the Daily Telegraph for 14 October, 1901, which betrays, I think, the touch of a well-known hand. Many distinguished actors have fretted their hour on the boards of the old " Dust Hole " in Tottenham Street. One who is still in the recollection of the older generation made her first appearance in London there, no less notable an actress than Madame Celeste, who, to quote from the paper,
" made her London ddbut at the Queen's in 1831, when the night's bill comprised four pieces a farcetta, ' Double or Quits,' with Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Garrick, Miss Stohwasser Barnett, and others ; an original serious drama, ' The Spanish Wife '; a farci- cal entertainment called ' The Merry Wives of Barbican ' ; and a ' new, grand melo - dramatic military spectacle,' named ' The French Spy.' In this Celeste undertook several characters, all in pantomime. The programme describes her as ' Mathilde de Grammpnt, the dumb lady, assuming the characters of Pierre Graziot, a cadet of the Lancers, and Omar Almorid, an Houah, or inspired Arab boy.' Celeste made a great hit by her grace and beauty of manner. She was only fifteen, but had already played an engagement in America (where she married an officer named Elliott, who died shortly afterwards) and had also appeared in Liverpool."
It is curious that exactly ten years before the Bancrofts took over the manage- ment of the theatre, or, in other words, so far back as 1855, Miss Marie Wilton performed on its stage the character of a sailor boy in a " blood-curdler " called ' The Life and Death
of Ned Cantor ; or, the Mysteries of Border-
cleugh Abbey and the Negro Slave's Revenge.'
From sensation of this description to the
polished conventions of ' Caste ' and ' School '
was little more than a step.
There have been some good articles on this theatre in the ' Notes and Queries ' column of the St. Pancras Guardian. In the issue of that paper for 7 February there is a very interesting abstract of the lease granted by Francis Pasquali and Michael Novosielski, the architect of the old Opera-house in the Haymarket, to a body of noblemen and gentle- men, who were presumably the directors of the Concerts of Ancient Music. The lease is dated 26 April, 1786. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
BAKER FAMILY (9 th S. x. 88).-If MR. C. BAKER will write to me direct I can let him have a pedigree of Father Augustine's family, and let him see a photograph of his portrait at St. Michael's, Belmont, which was sent me by the representative of the Bakers (through the heiress). His Christian name was John Baker. Father Augustine (his Christian name was David) was his name in the Benedictine Order, he having been converted to Roman Catholicism. He took his father over after. His father was steward to Lord Abergavenny, and had had a slice of chantry lands. The family was a branch of the Cecils of Alterinis, from which family the Earls of Exeter and the Marquesses of Salisbury came by a much later offshoot. The Baker shield on the monument of Father Augustine's nephew is Barry of six az. and arg., on six escutcheons, 3, 2, 1, sa., lion rampant arg. This nephew was a strong Parliament man, and was brought up before Charles I. at Abergavenny Priory, with Sir Trevor Williams, of Llangibby. When the king got back to Raglan Castle the old Marquess of Worcester asked him, "What did you do with Trevor Williams and Baker 1 ?" " Oh," said the king, " they promised future loyalty so well that I let them off." " Ah," said the marquess, " your majesty may win a kingdom in neaven by such treatment, but you won't secure your kingdom on earth." THOMAS WILLIAMS.
Aston Clinton Rectory, Tring.
P.S. Father Augustine's nephew Charles (generally called David Lewis), a Jesuit, was put to death at Usk in 1679. One of his ancestors was Owen Glyndwr. The Bakers lived at a house still known by old people as Bailey Baker, approached from the town by a very old arched gateway.
Father Augustine Baker, O.S.B., was of an ancient Cambro - British family, seated at
