2"« S. VIl. Jan. 1. 69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



15 



STERNE PAPERS AND NOTES. 



(2"'» S. iv. 126.) 



Among the MSS. belonging to the family of 

 Turner of Kirkleatham, now possessed by Mrs. 

 Newcomen, are two having reference to the 

 Sternes. The first is an unpublished letter writ- 

 ten in 1734 by L. Sterne's uncle, Jaques Sterne, 

 LL.D., the prebendary of York, who was an ac- 

 tive Whig ; the other is a copy made by some 

 amanuensis of the first seventeen chapters of the 

 4th volume (in the original edition) of Tristram 

 Shandy, printed in 1761, with soiae additions by 

 L. Sterne. 



The letter is without date, but it relates to the 

 electors for the county of York resident in the 

 borough of Hedon in April, 1734, when Mr. Wm. 

 Pulteney, who had been member for that borough 

 from 1705, retired from its representation, and 

 sat for Middlesex. The letter is addressed to Mr. 

 Cholmley Turner of Kirkleatham, who had been 

 elected for the county of York on the Whig in- 

 terest on the death of Sir Arthur Kaye (new writ, 

 17th January, 1727), and who had been re-elected 

 on the dissolution of 5 th August of the same year. 

 For the elections which followed the next dissolu- 

 tion, in 1734, the greatest exertions were made 

 by the friends and opponents of Walpole, and a 

 heavy and close contest took place for the county ; 

 which, after a poll of six days, ended in the return 

 of Sir M. Stapylton, who polled 7896, and Mr. C. 

 Turner, who polled 7879, against Sir R. Winn, 

 who polled no less than 7699 (or within 180 of 

 Mr. Turner), and Mr. E. Wortley Montagu, who 

 polled 5898. Sir Francis Boynton, the 4th baro- 

 net, was recorder of Beverley ; and, at this elec- 

 tion of 1734, succeeded Mr. Pulteney as M.P. for 

 Hedon, but died during the parliament on 16th 

 September, 1739. 



" I have been with Mr. Poultney's Agent again this 

 morning, and he has promis'd to engage as many of his 

 friends as he can in your Interest ; and I shal call upon 

 S'' Francis Boynton to beg he wil streng(then) him. I 

 beseech y' we may carry on this smoothly; for if we 

 shew the least jealousy (for which, when matters are ex- 

 plained, I hope there is no occasion), it will have a bad 

 effect. You may believe me, S"^, with the strongest At- 

 tachment that is possible for aay man to be, 

 " y most faithful 



" Friday morning. " obed* Servant, 



" J. Stkkne. 



" To Cholmley Turner, Esq". 



As the letter is undated, and there is a great 

 similarity between the handwriting of the uncle 

 and the nephew, even in the signature, this letter 

 has been assumed to be an autograph of the author 

 of Tristram Shandy ; but he was at this time at 

 Cambridge, having been admitted of Jesus Col- 

 lege, 6th July, 1733 ; he matriculated 29th March, 

 1735, and in January, 1736, was admitted B.A. 



Here I am able to add, from the original docu- 



ments in Mr. James Crosby's possession, that on 

 6th March, 1736, Sterne was ordained a deacon 

 by Richard Reynolds, Bishop of Lincoln, to Buck- 

 den in Huntingdonshire, and was admitted to 

 priest's orders at Chester by Samuel Peploe, bishop 

 of that diocese, on the 20th August, 1738. These 

 facts have not been before published. 



The portion of Vol. IV. of Tristram Shandy ap- 

 pears to me to be in the same handwriting as the 

 rules and minutes of the proceedings of a convivial 

 club to which Sterne, Hall Stevenson, Panty 

 Lascelles, Paddy Andrew (i. e. Andrew Irvine, 

 the then sinecure master of Kirkleatham School), 

 and other kindred spirits belonged — these rules 

 and minutes being still preserved at Skelton Castle. 

 The amanuensis's copy of the first seventeen chap- 

 ters of this 4th volume of Tristram Shandy begins 

 " With all this learning upon noses," following the 

 end of Slawkenbergius's Tale. The MS. has, 

 however, two specimens of L. Sterne's own hand- 

 writing. The last paragraph of chapter vii. has 

 been cancelled; and at the back is written, in 

 Sterne's own hand, the apostrophe to Garrick : — 



" O Garrick I what a rich scene of this would thy ex- 

 quisite powers make ! And how gladly would I sit down 

 and write such another, to avail myself of thy immor- 

 tality, to secure my own behind it." 



The words marked in Italics are omitted in the 

 work as printed. 



The conclusion of chapter xv. is also in Sterne's 

 handwriting, but remember "La vraisemblance (as 

 Bayle says in the affair of Liceti) n'est pas toujours 

 du cote de la verite ; and so much for sleep." 



I may mention also that there is at Skelton 

 Castle one of NoUekens' best marble busts of 

 Sterne, copied no doubt in features from the cele- 

 brated terra cotta bust executed at Rome in 1766, 

 but differing from the bust crowned with leaves ; 

 engraved, with the likeness of Lydia Sterne, in 

 the general edition of Sterne's Works, published 

 in 1793. The Skelton bust bears the date, Rome, 

 1768, the year of Sterne's death. Another copy, 

 in marble, was at the Manchester exhibition from 

 Mr. Labouchere's collections. 



Wm. Durrant Cooper. 



81. Guilford Street, Russell Square. 



THE GENEALOGICAL SUGGESTION. 



(2"^ S. vi. 307. 378. 438. 481.) 



I quite allow that Mr. Garstin's plan may fail 

 in accomplishing all the results he contemplates, 

 but it would be a great convenience to be able to 

 apply for information, for the lack of which valu- 

 able investigations may be at a stand-still, to ex-i 

 actly the persons who from their positions are 

 able to give it. 



" N. & Q." itself has been of infinite service in 

 this very way ; but there are many matters indi- 



