NEW SERIES OF HISTORICAL MEMOIRS.

THE LIFE OF GEORGE BRUMMELL, ESQ.,

COMMONLY CALLED BEAU BRUMMELL.

By Capt. JESSE, Unattached.

Revised and Annotated Edition from the Author's own Interleaved Copy.
With Forty Portraits in Colour of Brummell and his Contemporaries.

In 2 vols. fine paper, medium Svo. and handsome cloth binding, 42s. nett.

NOTE.-"The Life of George Brummell, commonly called Beau Brummell," by the late Capt. Jesse, has been a scarce book for a long time. It is now reprinted, and a large quantity of new matter has been introduced, which had been collected by the author, but which it was not deemed prudent or delicate to insert in former editions. Many notes have also been added, as well as forty illustrations, after Dighton and others, of contemporaries of Brummell-a man who, without birth, rank, fortune, or great intelligence, established himself as the arbiter elegantiarum among a proud and exclusive aristocracy, and whose latter career was too pitiable even for comment. The Editor of this new edition has to thank the son of late Capt. Jesse for the use of his father's interleaved copy of the first edition, and also for his suggestions and supervision of the proof-sheets.

This work is copyright, and the edition is limited to 500 copies, 300 for England and 200 for America. Of 150 copies printed on fine imperial 8vo. paper and bound in cloth, with paper label for collectors, 100 are for sale in England and 60 for America. Each copy is numbered. As the type is distributed, no more copies of either edition will be printed.

MEMOIRS OF COUNT GRAMMONT.

By ANTHONY HAMILTON.

A New Edition, Edited, with Notes, by SIR WALTER SCOTT.

With Sixty-four Portraits, engraved by Edward Scriven. In 2 vols. 8vo. Roxburghe binding, gilt top, 30s. nett. "The 'Memoirs of Grammont,' by Anthony Hamilton, scarcely challenge a place as historical; but we are now looking more at the style than the intrinsic importance of books. Every one is aware of the peculiar felicity and fascinating gaiety which they display."-Hallam.

"The artist to whom we owe the most highly finished and vividly coloured picture of the English Court in the days when the English Court was gayest."-T. B. Macaulay.

YOUR

HOUSE OR APARTMENTS

MOEDER'S

THROUGHOUT ON

HIRE

SYSTEM.

The Original, Best, and Most Liberal.

ASH PRICES. NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR TIME GIVEN.
Illustrated Priced Catalogues, full particulars of terms, post free.

F. MOEDER, 248, 249, 250, Tottenham Court Road,
and 19, 20, and 21, Morwell Street.

B

BANK,

Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repay. able on demand. TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS, calculated on the minimum monthly balances, when not drawn below 50l. The Bank undertakes for its Customers, free of charge, the custody of Deeds, Writings, and other securities and Valuables; the collection of Bills of Exchange, Dividends, and Coupons; and the Purchase and Sale of Stocks, Shares, and Annuities. Letters of Credit and Circular Notes issued. The BIRK BECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post free on application. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.

HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT and PILLS.

Rheumatism and rheumatic gout are the most dreaded of all diseases, because their victims know that they are safe at no season, and at no age secure. Holloway's Ointment, after fomentation of the painful parte, gives greater relief than any other application; but it must be diligently used to obtain this desirable result. It has been highly commended by rheumatic subjects of all ages and of both sexes for rendering their attacks less frequent and less vigorous, and for repressing the sour perspirations and sootning the nerves. In many cases Holloway's Ointment and Pills have proved the greatest blessings in removing rheumatism and rheumatic gout which has assailed per sons previously and at the prime of life.

diate reply, It was understood at the time to mean Dryden, and of this there is clear evidence, because in the edition of 1728, issued by Faulkner at Dublin, the names are printed in full:

"And furious Dryden foam in Wharton's rage."

but even that he took a pleasure in doing so. In the case under consideration the fair-judging critic will probably conclude that he meant to indicate Dunton, but it must also be admitted that he was willing to mislead, that he liked to have several readers should think that Dryden was meant. strings to his bow, and was not displeased that

EDWARD SOLLY.

HOLY TRINITY, MINORIES.

(See 6th S. xii. 241.)

It is clear, therefore, that Dryden was by many then understood as indicated by the letters "D--n." Pope, in the first quarto of 1729, has a note added which draws especial attention to the line: "This verse in the surreptitious THE DECAPITATED HEAD IN THE CHURCH OF editions stood thus, 'And furious D-foam,' &c., which in that printed in Ireland was unaccountably filled up with the great name of Dryden"; and Pope continued this note in the subsequent editions till 1733, when it was struck out, and, I think, not again inserted. There was no need to have put in this note at all, for in Pope's first quarto of 1729 the line, with its suggestive and questionable "D--n," was wholly left out, and in its place we read

"And all the mighty mad in Dennis rage."

Would you allow me to make a few observations on the interesting question raised in your issue of September 26 by MR. C. A. WARD, vz, the identity of the decapitated head preserved in the church of Holy Trinity, Minories.

In the first place, I should be glad of the opportunity of modifying a statement made in a letter of mine to the Times on October 13, 1879, to which MR. WARD refers. I was then under the

It will probably never be possible accurately to impression that the head had been found under ascertain what share Pope had in this suggested the pavement of the chancel, but now I think that innuendo against Dryden. It may be that in the first instance he thought of Dunton, the writer of there is little room for doubting that it was taken from the "south" or "parish chancel vault." Neck or Nothing, but when he saw how it looked Unfortunately there is no contemporary record of in letters, only D--D, he may have smiled to the finding of the head. But after all, it in no himself, and thought, "Let it pass. Fools will think I mean Dryden; so be it." Nothing pleased found in the vault or over it, for, granting that it way affects the question of identity whether it was Pope better than to throw out a shadowy imputa- belongs to a period earlier than 1706, it must tion, and then, when it had produced an effect, have been first of all buried in the ground, for deny the whole thing as a surreptitious invention. until 1670 all interments within the church were There is a fair illustration of this in the intro-made in the earth beneath the floor; in that year duction of Heidegger's name into the Dunciad,

bk. i. 1. 234:

"Something betwixt a Hungerford and Owl." This enabled Pope, in the second edition of 1729, to add a note on the absurdity of printing the names of an eminent lawyer and a friend of the author; and a further note in 1733 explaining that it meant "a bird, and not an eminent person, a man of parts, in fact an Arbiter Elegantiarum." But far more notorious illustrations of this favourite mode of writing are to be found in the celebrated" character of Atossa," clearly meant for the Duchess of Marlborough, which Pope tried to explain away by saying that he intended it for the Duchess of Buckingham; and the satire on Timon, which he pretended, after the mischief was done, was not meant to ridicule the Duke of Chandos. In these and many other cases Pope has clearly shown not only that he could stab in the dark,

Col. Wm. Legge was buried in a vault under the chancel, which, in all probability, he constructed for himself and his descendants. When the church was rebuilt, in 1706, the other vaults were made, the bodies found beneath the church being removed; but the head, being probably regarded as a curiosity, was placed in a corner of the newly-made chancel vault.

But next comes the question, Whose head is it? I have read the burial registers through from beginning to end, commencing in the year 1566, and I have been unable to find the name of any person known to have been beheaded, and this is certainly a presumption in favour of its having belonged to some one who was beheaded before 1566. Therefore it is not unlikely it might be that of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk; but it must not be forgotten that there is not one grain of evidence that either the duke's head or his body was buried in the Minories, or that it was not, according to usual custom, exposed in some public place. The only reason for the supposed identification is an imagined resemblance to his portraits and the belief that the Minories belonged to him at the time of his death. But, strictly speaking, it did not do so. He had been in

occupation of the property during the greater part
of Edward VI.'s reign, but no sooner was it
granted to him in 1552 than he disposed of it to
his two brothers, Lord John and Lord Thomas
Grey, and a certain Mr. Medley. This fact cer-
tainly in some way detracts from the probability
that the duke had at that time an establishment
of his own at the Minories. He was, in fact,
living at Sheen when he joined the rebellion
which led immediately to his execution.
other hand, there is evidence that the duchess
On the
kept up her interest in the church until some time
afterwards. The burial registers contain the names
of a brother of her second husband's and a servant
of her own, and in the churchwardens' accounts
is the entry of a subscription from her of 10s.
towards the church.

There is, however, one other point to be taken into consideration. The head decidedly presents the appearance of not having been struck off at a single blow, whereas history asserts that "the executioner toke the axe, and at the first chop stroke off his head."

nuns.

But is there no one else to whom the head may have belonged? I think there is; viz., Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who was beheaded by Henry VIII. in 1513. There is direct evidence that Edmund de la Pole and his wife and daughter were all buried in the Minories while it was still an abbey, the daughter being one of the I remember some few years ago seeing, in a history of London which I have not since been able to meet with, a story of the nuns of the Minories going in procession to the Tower to petition for the head of the Duke of Suffolk. I took little notice of it at the time, thinking the story must have been a pure invention, as the abbey had long ceased to exist when the duke was executed. But may not this tale have been originally told of the Earl of Suffolk? What more likely than that the pious daughter should have induced the sisters to accompany her in rescuing her father's head from the ignominy of a public exposure? Can any of your readers kindly tell me if they have ever read of such a story; or if they know of any contemporary record by which its truth could be tested, or by which any further light might be thrown on this question?

There are other points of historical interest touched upon in MR. WARD's notes on which I should have been glad to offer some remarks, but I fear I have already trespassed too long upon your patience and that of your readers.

E. M. TOMLINSON,
Vicar of Holy Trinity, Minories.

passed from our midst-William John Thomsmust be considered a remarkable man, for in "N. & Q." he has left behind him a monument duplicated and admired far beyond the circle in which he, as its originator and conductor for so many years, formed so many friends, so many helpmates to assist him in perpetuating a love for historical and genealogical facts.

To Mr. Thoms we literary men who survive him posed, for he was ever ready to assist us in owe a great deal more than may be generally supunravelling a mystery. in fact-I am indebted for many past favours To him-to "N. & Q.," which literary men and genealogists should always highly value, and as I know he was the first to desire at all times that the truth of an assertion be raised a doubt of historical or genealogical immade should be proved, especially when there may portance, so in his own case it falls to my lot to prove a very interesting fact, which I know the readers of "N. & Q." will value.

It is stated in “N. & Q.," ante, p. 141, that Mr. 1803; but it is a fact not generally known that the Thoms was born in Westminster, November 16, register of his baptism in St. Margaret's Church, December 15, 1803, originally recorded his name as simply "John Thoms, son of Nathaniel by Ruth Ann, [born] November 16."

This curious error was corrected in 1857, by a and at the foot of the page of the register was then sworn affidavit before Mr. Arnold, the magistrate, written: "This should be William John Thoms, according to the declaration of Mary Ann Thoms annexed hereto. Mercer Davies, curate, June 5,

1857."

The declaration, made June 2, states:Nathaniel Thoms, of the City of Westminster, Gentleman, "I, Mary Ann Thoms, spinster, sister of the late do solemnly and sincerely declare that my late brother

the said Nathaniel Thoms and his wife Ruth Ann Thoms had issue of their marriage only one child, my nephew William John Thoms, now of No. 25, Holywell Street, of November, 1803, that I was present at his baptism at Millbank, Westminster, who was born on the 16th day St. Margaret's Church, on the 15th day of December following, that I stood godmother to my said nephew, who was baptized by the names of William John, and that he has ever since been called and known as William John Thoms, and I make this declaration for the purpose baptisms at St. Margaret's, Westminster, wherein his of correcting the erroneous entry in the register of baptism is entered as that of John Thoms, by which names of William John he was duly baptized."

Now I think this curious and interesting fact is worthy of a place in the columns of the paper which Mr. Thoms originated and conducted for so many years; and as a contributor to N. & Q." when he was at its helm, I ask the favour of its note, which, genealogically and personally, is of present courteous chief to permit me to record the more than the usual interest.

I must not forget to add that I am indebted to

the present rector of the parish, the Ven. Arch-fore, it is safe to conclude that there is only one deacon Farrar, D.D., for most courteously giving me permission to inspect the register, and at all times favouring my genealogical inquiries. T. C. NOBLE.