50 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nds. No29., JuLYlD. '56, 



traordinary beauty, then the celebrated toast and pride of 

 that party." — Apology, ed. 1750, pp. 257, 258. 



Who was the lady referred to ? 



Charles Wylie. 



[The " Little Whig " was Anne, Countess of Sunder- 

 land, second daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough. 

 This lady, who was raX'hQT petite in person, did not disdain 

 the cognomen conferred upon her, at a time when every- 

 thing bore the ensigns of party of one kind or other. Her 

 death on April 15, 1716, is thus noticed in The Political 

 State of that date : " On April 15, about two of the clock, 

 Anne, Countess of Sunderland, daughter of John, Duke of 

 IMarlborough, died of a pleuritick fever ; a ladj-, who by 

 her personal accomplishments outshined all the British 

 court, being the general toast by the name of The Little 

 Whig; who, for her excellent endowments of mind, good- 

 nature, and affability, was justly lamented by all that 

 knew her; and whose irreparable loss, in a particular 

 manner, affected both her illustrious father and consort." 

 A'uong the verses of the Earl of Halifax, given in 

 Tonson's 3Iiscellany, edited by Dryden, are the following 

 lines on the Countess of Sunderland, ins(;ribed on the 

 toasting-glasses of the Kit-Cat Club : 



" All Nature's charms in Sunderland appear. 

 Bright as her eyes, and as her reason clear ; 

 Yet still their force, to men not safely known, 

 Seems undiscovered to herself alone." 



Dr. Arbuthnot in the following epigram seems to de- 

 rive the name of this celebrated club from the custom of 

 toasting ladies after dinner, rather than from the name 

 of the renowned pastry-cook, Christopher Cat : 



" Whence deathless Kit Cat took its name 



Few critics can unriddle. 

 Some say from Pastry-cook it came, 



And some from Cat and Fiddle. 

 From no ti-im beaux its name it boasts, 



Grey statesmen or green wits; 

 But from its pell-mell pack of toasts 



Of old Cats and young Kits'."'\ 



Marston Moreton, co. BucJis [JBerf*.?]. — Sarah, 

 Duchess of Marlborough, widow of the great 

 duke, devised the manor and estate of Marston 

 Moreton to the Hon. John Spencer, her grandson. 

 Query, did he not subsequently change his name? 

 On what account ? Whom did he marry ? And 

 of his descendants ? James Knowles. 



[ Marston -Moretaine is in Bedfordshire, and according 

 to L3-sons {Beds, vol. i. p. 114.) the Duchess of Marlbo- 

 rough bequeathed this manor, with the rest of her Bed- 

 fordshire estates, to her grandson, the Hon. John Spencer, 

 who also became possessor of the manor of Dunton in 

 Bucks by the will of the Duchess. The Hon. John 

 Spencer, of Altborp, was the fourth and youngest son of 

 Charles, third Earl of Sunderland, by Lady Anne 

 Churchill, the "little Whig," noticed in the preceding 

 article, and was born Mav 13, 1708 ; M.P. for Wood- 

 stock, 1731-2; Bedford, 1734, 1741, and 1744; Hanger 

 and Keeper of Windsor Green Park. Obit, at Wimbledon, 

 June 20, 1746. He married Georgiana Caroline Carteret, 

 third daughter of the first Earl Granville. Their son 

 John was created, in 1761, Viscount and Baron Spencer 

 of Altborp, and in 1766, Earl Spencer and Viscount Al- 

 thorp. See any Peerage, as well as Lipscomb's Bucks, iii. 

 342., for the pedigree of the Spencer familj'.] 



Port Jackson. — Fordyce, in his Histoj'y of 

 Durham, sub verb. "Greatham," writing of Mr. 



Ralph Ward Jackson, the founder of West Hartle- 

 pool, says : 



" In honour of Mr. Jackson, the last ship launched by 

 Mr. John Pile at Sunderland was christened the ' Port 

 Jackson.' It may be here stated that Captain Cook, the 

 great circumnavigator, in order to perpetuate his grati- 

 tude and friendship for Sir George Jackson, Bart, one of 

 his earliest benefactors," gave the name of ' Port Jackson ' 

 to the noble harbour he discovered near Botany Bay, in 

 New South Wales, on the 6th May, 1770." 



In the Gazetteer of the Woi-ld, edited by a 

 Member of the Royal Geographical Society, sub 

 verb. " Jackson " (Port), it is said : 



"This harbour, perhaps the finest in the world, pre- 

 senting fifteen miles of deep water, completely protected, 

 was overlooked by Cook, who laid it down in his chart as a 

 mere boat-liaven. Captain Philip first explored it in Ja- 

 nuary, 1788, and bestowed on it the name of the man who 

 was on the look-out when it was discovered." 



As both accounts carmot be correct, will the 

 Editor of " N. & Q," or a contributor, say which 

 is f R. W. Dixon. 



Seaton Carew, co. Durham. 



[After reading these different accounts we are re- 

 minded of Merrick's chameleon, for "both are right, and 

 both are wrong," in some particulars. The facts, we be- 

 lieve, are as follow : Captain Arthur Philip, on being ap- 

 pointed Governor of Botany Bay, proceeded with three 

 boats and some of his oflScers to examine what Captain 

 Cook had termed Broken Bay, where the Hawkesbury 

 disembogues ; but while proceeding thither, he resolved 

 to examine an inlet, which, in Cook's chart, was marked 

 as a boat harbour, but apparently so small as not to be 

 worth investigating. Cook had therefore passed to the 

 northward, and given the inlet the name of Port Jackson, 

 which was that of the seaman at the mast-head, who first 

 descried it while on the look-out. Capt. Philip entered 

 between the lofty headlands to examine this "boat har- 

 bour," and his astonishment may be more easily con- 

 ceived than described, when he found, not a boat creek, 

 but one of the safest havens in the world, where the 

 whole of the British navy might securely ride at anchor. 

 — Consult R. Montgomery Martin's Colonial Library, 

 vol. ii. p. 24.] 



Navigation by Steam. — 



" Earl Stanhope's experiments for navigating vessels by 

 the steam-engine, without masts or sails, have succeeded 

 so much to his satisfaction on a small scale, that a vessel 

 of 200 tons burden, on this principle, is now building 

 under his direction. The expence of this vessel is to be 

 paid by the Navy Board in the first instance, on condition 

 that, if she do not answer after a fair trial, she shall be 

 returned to Earl Stanhope, and all the expence made 

 good bv him." — Historical Chronicle of the '■'■Bee" for 

 1792, p" 23. 



Is there any farther account of the result of the 

 experiments and of the plans of this patriotic no- 

 bleman ? G. N. 



[A similar account of the earl's steam-vessel appeared 

 in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1792 (p. 956.), 

 where it is stated that it was then being built under his 

 direction by Mr. Stalkart; but we hear nothing more of 

 it. About this time, Robert Fulton, an American, then 

 living at Torbay in Devonshire, held some correspondence 

 with Earl Stanhope on the subject of moving ships by a 



