this everyday word. The writer traces back the earliest stages of the art to Pliny, 100 B.C., and defines it as an art "dependent on the two sciences of chemistry and optics." J. H. Schulze, a German physician, is cited as having obtained in 1727 copies of written words by the action of light upon nitrate of silver. Thomas Wedgwood, fourth son of the great potter, wrote a paper upon making pictures by means of a camera and sensitive salt. Edited by Humphry Davy, the chemist, this paper appeared in 1802 in the Journal of the Royal Society. By means of the concentrated light of the solar microscope Davy obtained about this period pictures upon paper coated with nitrate or chloride of silver, but was unable to fix them. Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, 1765-1833, developed what he termed 'pictures produced by light" in connexion with lithography, afterwards known as heliography. His first camera was made out of a cigar box, and credit is given to him as being the real inventor of photography. He was the first to obtain permanent pictures, and to discover the principle of development. In 1827, during a visit to his brother Claude at Kew, he brought over to England specimens of his "light pictures," which he was anxious to exhibit to the Royal Society, but was prevented by the rule which requires a full explanation of the processes. In this year he took views of Kew Church and other places which are now deposited in the British Museum. His first success with the camera was in 1814. The collection of his apparatus is in the museum of his birthplace, Châlonsur-Saône, where a statue is erected to his DOVER PIER (10th S. iv. 387, 451).-With reference to DR. MURRAY'S query respecting the pier at Dover, I have compared the events and dates there mentioned with the records of Dover, and find that the Emperor Charles V. landed at Dover 26 May, 1522. There was existing at that time at the western extremity of Dover Bay a head, of blocks of chalk and piles, called a pier, constructed in 1495 by John Clark, master of the Dover Maison Dieu. by means of a subsidy granted by Henry VII. Soon after 1522 that head was much damaged by storms, and an appeal was made to Henry VIII. to assist in strengthening and extending that pier. The king granted 500l. for that purpose, and the works commenced in 1533; but about two years later the king himself took the work in hand, spending about 60,000%. in an endeavour to build out seaward a stone pier, the foundations of which he laid. They still remain between the Admiralty Pier and the Prince of Wales's Pier, nearly uncovered at low-water spring tides; they are called the Mole Rock, and were formerly called "the King Foundation." The great expenditure of Henry VIII. was of little value, the harbour work of real utility being done in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth. JOHN BAVINGTON JONES. DR. MURRAY objects to "French pierre, a stone"; I would suggest a consideration of the Latin pareo, as in "appear. The idea is of a harbour extension made visible, whereas the mole or breakwater is more at sea level. Recently the Channel steamer could not cling to the new pier, but had to recross for shelter, the extension being so far from the land. A. HALL. It appears not impossible that pier may come from Latin pede-foot Compare apeadeira, apeadeiro, apeadoiro in Portuguese; and apeadero in Castilian. The last is translated in the dictionary by M. Seoane as follows: "A block or step, with the aid of which a person mounts a horse or mule." In the same book Apear el rio" is rendered "To wade or ford a river." If this does not afford a light upon the etymon, perhaps we must look at some medieval French word meaning a place for paying toll on embarking or disembarking or at one of the nautical senses of the verb to "pay." E. S. DODGSON. ISAAC JOHNSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS (10th S. iv. 227, 314).-This shadowy personage (to whom has been paid the closest attention of the Massachusetts annalist, and who was the first white man, or rather Englishman, to be interred in Boston ground, it is claimed) left no issue, according to the careful Drake in his authoritative Boston,' when dissecting Johnson's will and commenting on the exact spot where "the Lady Arbella" is supposed to have been buried, she predeceasing her husband by a few months at Salem. See, too, Hawthorne's delightful chapter on Lady Arbella in his 'Grandfather's Chair.' C. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10th S. iv. 249, 316).-The author of Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith's door is Mr. L. B. Coke, of New York City. The poem has sometimes been attributed to the Rev. John Clifford. JAMES R. Joy. Plainfield, N.J. WILLIAM SHELLEY (10th S. iii. 441, 492; iv. 55, 114).-The Court influence exerted for Mrs. Shelley, to which MR. WAINEWRIGHT alludes at the first reference, is set forth in a letter to her from one James Parry, a prisoner in the Fleet, intercepted by the spy Beard, and forwarded to Cecil (Cecil MSS.). He says: "You know when all your greatest kinsmen in Herefordshire refused to certify the abuses offered you by your husband's varlets, I did procure certain Justices contrary to your religion to put to their hands in hopes of your conformity; on which Mrs. Blanch Parry procured your maintenance of 2007. a year. Beware of your husband's cousin Mr. Beard. Use none of his chambers, nor confer in private, for God's sake, good cousin; remember your house that mourneth for you. I dare not write what I will tell you." Beard in several letters to his patron complains that the warden of the Fleet and Parry warn his intended victim against him. James Parry was a Hereford gentleman of good estate, whose extravagance and turbulence had landed him in the Fleet. He was only distantly related to Mrs. Blanche, the Queen's chief lady, and his cousinship to Jane Shelley is unexplained. T. H. PARRY. KING JOHN POISONED BY A TOAD (10th S. iv. 168, 256).-There appear to have been in early times three accounts of the manner of John's death. Those which were more or less contemporary imply that he died of dysentery; whereas later records refer to the suspicion that he was poisoned. I subjoin the three stories, with brief passages from the authorities I have consulted. 1. That the cause of death was dysentery, brought on by distress of mind and a gluttonous meal.-Ralph of Coggeshall (ob. 1228) writes: "Ut dicitur, ex nimia voracitate qua semper insatiabilis erat venter ejus, ingurgitatus usque ad crapulam. ex ventris indigerie solutus est in dysenteriam. Postea vero cum paululum cessasset fluxus, phlebotomatus est." Roger of Wendover (ob. 1236) says: "Acutis correptus febribus cœpit graviter infirmari; auxit autem ægritudinis molestiam perniciosa ejus ingluvies, qui nocte illa de fructu perfebrilem in se calorem acuit fortiter et accendit." sicorum et novi ciceris potatione nimis repletus Also in Flores Historiarum,' by the same writer, we find: secundum consuetudinem suam persicis cum musto et pomatio ingurgitatus," &c. Matthew Paris (ob. 1259) gives almost the same account: Novi pomacii quod vulgariter cicera appellatur nimis repletus." The peaches are also mentioned. John tried to ride to Sleaford, but from pain was forced to dismount ("anhelus et gemebundus"), and was carried some part of the way on a litter, the jolting of which aggravated his malady. Walter of Coventry (A. 1293): morbo, ut fertur, dissinteriæ graviter fatigaretur." 2. That he was killed by poisoned fruit.Annales Monast. de Bermundeseia' says: "Ut quidam ferunt, venenatus cum cerusis per quendam monachum nigrum Wigorniæ." Henry Knighton (A. 1363) gives a long and graphic account. John on arrival at Swineshead wishes to violate a nun, the sister of the abbot. A monk, on condition of receiving absolution, undertakes to prevent the crime and kill the king. He poisons some pears (pira); places them on a dish with others, which are not infected, and offers them to John, who at first is suspicious, but, on finding that the monk suffers no harm after eating three of them at his request, takes one that is poisoned, and dies. ulterius potuit continere rex, apprehenso uno ex venenatis comedit, et eadem nocte ex Nec se tinctus est." This event must have occurred 12 or 13 October, but John did not die till the morning of the 19th at Newark. 3. That he was poisoned by a cup of wine. -Ranulph Higden (ob. 1364) repeats the story of John's death from dysentery (" morbo dysenterico"), and adds: "Tradit tamen vulgata fama quod apud monasterium de Swynesheved alborum monachorum intoxicatus obierit." He then tells the story of the loaf, illius venenum confecit, regi porrexit. Sed et ipso quod audiens unus de conversis fratribus loci prius sumpto Catholico viatico, sinul cum rege hausto veneno interiit." Thomas Wykes ('Chronicon') says :— "Intoxicatus, ut dicebatur, continuo cœpit ex violentia veneni contabescere, indeque progrediens usque Newerk ibidem post dies paucos exspiravit." Lastly, we come to the story of the toad, which is very fully related in 'Eulogium stated that in 1894 John Stacey, then aged Historiarum' (vol. iii. pp. 109-11, ed. F. S. ninety-six, petitioned the War Office for an Haydon). This story either originates from increased pension. He had served as a bugler the French 'Brut,' or is taken from the same or a druminer in the King's German Legion source as the account in that chronicle. It at Waterloo. R. L. MORETON. contains, however, many additions rendering the tale more dramatic. The whole account is well worth reading, but too long to transcribe. John is at Swineshead. The story of the loaf recurs, which induces the monk to determine on the king's death. Then follow these words : "Monachus gardinum adiens unum invenit bufonem teterrimum, qui eum capiens et in pelvim ponens atque cum cultello suo stimulans donec suum venenum evomebat, qui illud diligenter colligens et in ciphum regis apposuit." It The monk then confides his plan to the abbot, quoting the words of Caiaphas, were better that one should die than that the whole people should perish." Then "monachus...... ab abbate suo absolutus intrepidus calicem cum veneno regi præsentavit, ipsumque more Saxonico salutavit, et ait: Wassayl, et subjunxit, quod tota Anglia gauderet de illo Wassayl. Rex dedit responsum Drinkhayl, et monachus læto vultu ciphum hausit; quo hausto regi obtulit, qui libenter potavit et statim toxi. catus est. Monachus infirmariæ adiens continuo crepuit [cf. Shak., ‘K. John,' V. vi.] medio, et diffusa sunt omnia viscera ejus; qui tempore perpetuo tres habet monachos pro eo celebrantes ex consensu capituli generalis." Soon the king feels the effects. He is told the monk is dead, and. feeling death approaching, admits that the monk's prophecy was true. "Jussit ergo rex movere (mensam) et hernesia sua trussare, et venit ad Castellum de Newerk," &c. The version given by ST. SWITHIN (p. 256) appears in parts to be a translation of this; cf. infirmariæ, trussare, rendered "farmerye' 66 and to CHR. WATSON. trusse. AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUBS (10th S. iv. 388, 431).- Behind the Footlights; or, the Stage as I Knew It,' by W. C. Day, published by Frederick Warne & Co., 1885, provides some information about "The Scenic Club" that had а brief existence at the Western Literary Institute. There are references to other amateur dramatic clubs, but the work is not of importance. ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. Since my reply to J. H. B. I have come across a brief article in The Era for 19 August (P. 15) entitled Amateurs and Professionals,' which gives a long quotation from a copy of The Theatrical Times of 1846, without giving Unfortuthe precise date of the month. nately I do not seem to possess the particular number from which The Era_gathers_its information. S. J. A. F. GEORGE III.'S DAUGHTERS (10th S. iv. 167, 236, 291, 336).—Of Princess Sophia it is said that she married Col. Garth, had two sons, who made her very unhappy, and died miserably. A letter from Princess de Lieven, March, 1829, runs as follows :— "Un certain capitaine Garth passe ou se fait passer pour le fils de la princesse Sophie, sœur du roi George IV. Des sommes promises par un cavalier de la cour pour payer ses dettes, et surtout pour avoir possession de certaines lettres, montrent clairement que la famille royale est intéressée dans cette question. Le premier fait est conjectural; mais voici le comble: le capitaine Garth prétend que ces lettres prouvent que le Duc de Cumberland est son père, en même temps que la princesse Sophieest sa mère, et, quelle que soit l'opinion que l'on porte à cette infâme calomnie, les journaux n'entretiennent le public que de ce fait, soit pour l'affirmer, soit pour le démentir."-Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 Mars, 1903. Can any reader make me acquainted with all the circumstances of the Garth romance? Repecting Princess Amelia and a secret marriage with General FitzRoy, I note the following: 1. "The interesting subjects upon which he George III.] had to open his mind had, doubtless, more relation to domestic affairs than to public events. His favourite daughter was dying, and, upon her death-bed, she is said to have revealed to her father the circumstances of an attachment which, as was believed, had involved a violation of the Royal Marriage Act."-Lord Colchester's 'Diary,' vol. ii. p. 287. 2. Wellington wrote to the Marquis of Buckingham : "Where I found, when last in town, nought but exultation and triumph, I now, on the contrary, witness depression and despair in the strongest degree. In consequence of a most unadvised indulgence, arising from overweening confidence, the King has experienced a thorough relapse from the flattering state in which he recently appeared. He attended for three hours on the inst. in arranging the will of the Princess Amelia, according to what he conceived her wishes, and immediately fell back into the incoherency which forms the prominent feature of his malady."- Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George III.,' vol. iv. p. 457. What attachment is alluded to in the first quotation? What words have been intentionally omitted from the second? Both quotations seem to refer to a more secret event than a marriage with General FitzRoy. Did this marriage really take place? According to Court gossip of that time, the princess had another engagement with an officer in the royal navy, and wicked tongues attributed to this romance a more serious result. should be most grateful to any one who could help me in clearing up all this mystery. COMMANDANT REBOUL. 3bis, Rue des Bégonias, Nancy, France. I THE LIVING LIBRARIE,' BY P. CAMERARIUS (10th S. iv. 425).-To the interesting description of this work I may perhaps be permitted to add a few particulars respecting its translator, John Molle, of whose personal history your correspondent was unable to give any details beyond those quoted by him. The only known information we possess of him is the short memoir in Fuller's Church History' (1655), book x. pp. 48-9, from which the following extracts are taken : "About this time [1607] Mr. John Molle, Governour to the Lord Ross in his travails, began his unhappy journey beyond the Seas. This Mr. Molle was born in, or neer South-Molton in though great and many, endeavour his enlargement by exchange, for one or moe Jesuits, or Priests, who were prisoners here......In all the time of his durance, he never heard from any friend, nor any from him, by word or letter: no English man being ever permitted to see him, save onely one, viz. : Mr. Walter Strickland of Bointon house in York shire. With very much desire and industry, he procured leave to visit him, an Irish Frier being appointed to stand by, and be a witnesse of their discourse. Here he remained thirty years in restraint, and in the eighty first year of his age died a Prisoner." To this last section Fuller adds, in a marginal note, "So am I informed by a Letter from Mr. Hen. Molle his Son." Fuller makes no allusion to J. Molle as the translator of the work of Camerarius, but there can be little doubt he was the one who underwent such a terrible imprisonment. Your correspondent seems to have overlooked Prefatory Remarks," in which "Mr. John Molle" is thus mena marginal note to the " tioned: : "Of him also beeing to earely depriued, it hath no lesse lamented his constrained absence (and perhaps for the same cause) than Rachaell did her massacred Innocents. For alas! this euer welldeseruing Patriot hath now for many yeares beene missing and awanting vnto His." His son (Fuller's correspondent) seems to have edited and enlarged the second edition of his father's work, published_in 1625, the first having appeared in 1621. original volumes by Camerarius were in Latin, and were published at Frankfort, 1602-9. The The name of John Molle is unmentioned in 'D.N.B.,' or in any of the ordinary biographical dictionaries. There is, however, a memoir of him in Prince's 'Worthies,' mainly transcribed from Fuller's work, the only important addition consisting of this paragraph: "The time of his death is said to He spent much of his early life on the the probability being that he was much older. have been about the year of our Lord 1638," Continent, and was taken prisoner at the Hazlitt is evidently in error in stating, "The battle of Cambray. After being ransomed, translator appears to have died some time "he was appointed by Thomas, Earl of Exeter.....before the publication of his work" in 1621 to be Governour in Travail to his Grand-childe, the Lord Ross, undertaking the charge with much Devon.' ,, reluctancie. (Third Supplement to 'Bibliographical Col- "It may be, perhaps, hitherto unknown that there is no genuine picture of Shakspere existing, nor ever was, that called his having been taken long after his death, from a person supposed extremely like him, at the direction of Sir Thomas Clarges (born 1635, died 1695). and this I take upon me to affirm as an absolute fact." This gentleman was criticizing the work of another with whom he seems to have been at variance; of course he never produced his authority for the statement, though repeatedly called on to do so (see Boaden's Portraits of Shakspere'), he himself being the originator of it. There is no record or tradition of Sir Thomas Clarges having been the possessor of the Chandos portrait, which is the painting referred to. V. R. P. PURCHAS. 6 'what the his departure. They contain GEORGE F. T. SHERWOOD. 50, Beecroft Road, Brockley, S.E. His works are still in manuscript, and, fortunately, are in the British Museum, Addit. MSS. 5799-5861. The first three volumes are imperfect indexes to the rest. His extracts from wills are in 5861. Every will in volumes I and K of the Registers of the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Ely is The period here abstracted and indexed. LORD BATHURST AND THE HIGHWAY. MAN (10th S. iv. 349, 415).-It is evident that the writer in T. P.'s Weekly has confused the names of Bathurst and Berkeley. Probably Mr. G. W. E. Russell first read the story, in Lord Stanhope's History of England.' The date is indicated by Horace covered is 1515 Walpole, who, writing to Sir Horace Mann the earliest volumes which could be found volume A, beginfrom Strawberry Hill on 14 November, 1774, in Cole's time, but says: "Two evenings ago Lord Berkeley ning 1448, is now at Peterborough. At the shot a highwayman." The Gent. Mag. (1774), end of his manuscript, Addit. MS. 5861, p. 538, gives a different version of the occur- p. 222, is this:HORACE BLEACKLEY. rence. Fox Oak. This was an oft-told tale in recounting the Worksop. R. L. MORETON. At vol. i. p. 216 of Grantley Berkeley's 'Life and Recollections' appears a tale of his father's meeting with a highwayman, but the tale there told is certainly not that mentioned by your correspondents at the above pages. HAROLD MALET, Col. W. COLE, CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARY (10th S. iv. 429).-R. M. should have inquired in the MS. Department at the British Museum, where the MSS. of the Rev. William Cole (1714-82) are amongst the most often consulted of those of any genealogical antiquary. Horace Walpole, just going to the opera, received one of these volumes from its transcriber, and stayed at home to read threefourths of it. Cole says of his books that he treated them as his friends, entrusted them with his most secret thoughts, and engaged them not to speak until twenty years after "1781, Friday March 16th. Thank God, this is the last will of this volume, which has been more than ordinary tedious, as the gout in one foot has tormented me much towards the conclusion of it." He died soon afterwards. It should be remembered that volumes I and K do not contain all the wills for the period mentioned. Volumes F, H, L, M, N, O cover parts of the same period, and the registers of the Archdeacon's Court begin about 1520. W. M. P. “PICKERIDGE” : "PUCKERIDGE" (10th S. iv. 367).—If "pickeridge" is of Romance origin, it may be worth while to quote from the "Diccionario Catalan-Castellano, por F. M. F. P. Barcelona: M. M. [who were they?]. Imprenta y Librería de Pablo Riera. 1839.” There one reads, "Picor, f. pruitja: picazon, comezon, rascazon, prurito," i.e. the itch. On p. 509 there is, "Pruitja, f. picazon, comezon, mordicacion, hormiga, hormigueo, hormi queamiento, quemazon.' Compare pigure in French. E. S. DODGSON. POPULATION OF A COUNTRY PARISH (10th S. iv. 428).-Would it not be possible to compute the population of a country parish at any given period from the parish church registers? Of course any calculation based upon the registers would be affected by the Nonconformist element in the parish. In many cases this would not exist at all, and in others it might be estimated with some approach to accuracy by any one with a very slight knowledge of local history. I would |