226
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. xn. SEPT. 19, 1903.
of Mr. Patrick O'Brien as to whether, with a
view to the convenience of members, he
would consider the desirability of having
annunciators placed in the public dining-
room, the tea-room, and the reading-room
during the recess. The annunciator is a
telegraphic machine which, by means of a
slip, moved at intervals, informs our legis-
lators in the members' smoking-room and the
large smoking-room, to which visitors can be
introduced by members, of the name of each
succeeding speaker in the current debate,
with the time at which he rises.
POLITICIAN.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Holland's biography of Lincoln contains an account of a "duel" between the latter and James Shields. The incident is mentioned also in ' Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln,' F. B. Carpenter, p. 302 (New York, 1867). A circumstantial relation of this affair (which was settled amicably without bloodshed) is made by an eye-witness in an article published in the Kansas City Daily Journal, 11 May, 1896, and reprinted in ' the Illinois Alton Evening Telegraph of 25 February last. This martial (?) meeting took place on an island in the Mississippi river directly opposite Alton, now owned by Henry Guest MTike, the writer's father.
In respect of the alleged escape of Lincoln's assassin from death, something rather more conclusive than the clipping recently sub- mitted (ante, p. 25) is to be desired.
EUGENE F. McPiKE.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
[See also pp. 150, 197, 237.]
THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE 1820 SETTLERS IN CAPE COLONY. The death of Mrs. Alex- ander Scott, the last survivor of the 1820 settlers in Cape Colony, is perhaps worthy of record in the pages of ' N. & Q.' The Cane Times says :
"Miss Beatrice Pringle, as she then was, after landing in Algoa Bay, made the long and, in those days, dangerous journey by ox wagon through Albany and up the Baviaans river, where she settled down at Clifton with her uncle. Here she remained for some years until her marriage with Mr. Alexander Scott, by whom she had nine children, one of whom, Mr. W. H. Scott, of Glen Etive, is well known."
She was a sister of Thomas Pringle, the famous African poet.
FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
' THE DOONES OF EXMOOR.' (See ante, p. 139.) In a very interesting pamphlet recently published under the above title the author, Mr. E. J. Rawle, states, inter alia, that
about eight or nine years ago the newspapers
announced another work on Exmoor and
Lorna Doone by Mr. R. D. Blackmore," but
that " those hopes and expectations, however,
have not been realized, for 'Slain by the
Doones' did not appear at the date
mentioned, nor has it since been published."
Mr. Rawle is under a misapprehension. In 1896 was published " Tales from the Telling House, by R. D. Blackmore, Author of 'Lorna Doone,' &c." There are four tales, and the first is * Slain by the Doones.'
A. J. DAVY.
Torquay.
GREAT TOM OF OXFORD. It would be interesting to know when this great bell was last rung, or whether it was ever rung. As Milton says in ' II Penseroso' : Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off Curfew sound Over some wide-water'd shore, Swinging slow with sullen roar.
Thomas Hearne in his ' Diary ' under date 28 September, 1711, has the following notice in an interesting account of the installation of Dr. Atterbury as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, on the previous day :
" At eight o'clock (as is usual on these occasions) Little Tom (for so they call the biggest of the ten bells in the cathedral) rung out till nine. The great bell (commonly called Great Tom) over the great gate should have rung, if the motion of it were not very dangerous (as certain it is, as they have experienced in former times) to the fabrick in which it hangs."
On my recent annual visit to Oxford I saw the tomb of the old Nonjuror in the church- yard of St. Peter in the East, in a more dilapidated condition than ever, a crack going across the slab and the inscription upon it almost illegible. One wonders that none of the local antiquarian societies have endeavoured to keep in order the tomb of one who "studied and preserved antiquities." JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
HENRY BROOKE. On looking through the old registers of St. Michan's Church, Dublin, which have recently been transferred to the custody of the Public Record Office (Ireland), I came across an entry amongst the burials which I thought worth making a note of. It is written in the large and unscholarly hand of the parish clerk, and is as scanty in detail as those which go before and follow. It runs thus: "1783, October 22. H. Brooks." I am inclined to believe that this is the record of the burial of Henry Brooke, who was the author of ' Gustavus Vasa ' and ' The Eir$ Quality,' arid who, according to the D.N.B.,' died at Dublin, 10 October, 1783. bhould this conjecture be correct, then it
