2"d S. No 38., Sept. 20. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



231 



the belles lettres at Cologne until the j-ear 1691. He 

 afterwards delivered a course of lectures on theology at 

 the University of Treves, and was appointed in 1703 

 , regent of the gymnastic school. He died in 1727 at 

 Dueren, in the Duchy of Juliers. According to Barbier 

 he published the Gradus ad Farnassum at Cologne about 

 1680.] 



" D?'. HookwelV — Can you inform me who 

 wrote the novel Doctor Hoohvell, three vohmies, 

 London, 1842 ? R. J. 



[The authorship of this work has been given to se- 

 veral clergvmen of literary repute, in addition to the 

 more distinguished names of Bisliop Wilberforce, the 

 Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Mr Monckton Milnes, and 

 Lord John Manners; but we are enabled positively to 

 state tliat it was written by the late Rev. Robert Armi- 

 tage, of Easthope, Salop. Mr. Armitage was the author 

 of two other works of fiction, nainely, Erne.tt Singleton, 

 and The Penscellwond Papers, and of two books of a 

 graver character, T/ie Religious Life of Dr. Johnson, and 

 The Primitive Church in its Episcopacy. Mr. Armitage 

 died on Feb. 2, 1852.] 



Pedigrees. — I am^desirous of tracing the de- 

 scent of a person now living from ancestors who 

 flourished in the time of Queen Mary. What 

 course shall I adopt ? O. Mallet. 



[Our correspondent would do well to consult the very 

 useful Manual for the Genealogist, Topographer, and An- 

 tiquary, by Mr. Sims of the British Museum, recently 

 noticed by us. It will direct him how to search the 

 various Repositories of Genealogical information. He 

 would also find Mr. Sims's Index to the Heralds' Visita- 

 tions of great assistance.] 



2RcpItc«{. 



chatterton's portrait. 



(2"'' S. ii. 171.) 



J. M. G. remarks that he happened to know 

 the history of the presumed portrait, and that 

 it was not painted for Chatterton, but some 

 •youth in Bristol, name unknown, and that it was 

 picked up at an old clothes' shop in the Pithay in 

 that city. The above statement is partially cor- 

 rect, but not wholly so, presuming the information 

 contained in the following letter to be correct, 

 which for my own part I can see no reason to 

 doubt. 



" Sugar House, Back Street, 

 "Nov. 23, 1837. 

 " My dear ]\Iiller, 

 " For a wonder I did not come to town yesterday, or I 

 would have replied to j-our note by the bearer. You 

 therein ask me to state what I know concerning the por- 

 trait of Chatterton, lately published by Mr. Dix. I will 

 tell you. About twenty-five years ago I became im- 

 pressed with the notion that I had a taste for pictures, 

 and fancied, like all so impressed, that I had only to 

 rummage brokers' shops to possess nij'sclf of gems and 

 hidden treasures without number ; which illusion a little 

 practical knowledge soon 'dismissed with costs.' It hap- 

 pened that a gentleman in whose house I then resided, 



being at that time a bachelor, became also touched with 

 the same mania, and in one of his peregrinations picked 

 up the picture you mention of at a broker's in Castle 

 Ditch, at a house now the Castle and Ball Tavern. The 

 broker's name was Beer. At the back of the portrait was 

 written with a brush, ' F. Morris, aged 13.' As well as I 

 can recollect, the gentleman who purchased it, in a plaj'- 

 ful mood, said, 'This portrait will do for Chatterton,' and 

 immediately placed the name of Chatterton over that of 

 F. Morris. What became of it afterwards, or how it 

 came into the hands of the present possessor, I am quite 

 ignorant of. While in the hands of the gentleman above- 

 mentioned, I showed it to Mr. Stewart, the portrait 

 painter, who recognised it at once as the portrait of young 

 Morris, the son of Morris the portrait painter. This is 

 all I know, and you are at liberty to make what use you 

 please of it. 



" I am, yours truly, 



" Geo. Burge. 



" Mr. Miller sent the above to the Rev. John Eagles, 

 who gave the letter to me (Richard Smith, Surgeon)." 



Tiie above appeared in the Gentleman'' s Maga- 

 zine for December, 1838, together with a long 

 article from the pen of the late Richard Smith, 

 Esq., the eminent surgeon of this city ; a gentle- 

 man who preserved with much care everything 

 connected with Bristol. J. D. L. 



Stapleton Road, Bristol. 



It is with something like a painful feeling that 

 I learn from J. M. G. that tiie portrait given by 

 Dix in his Life of Chatterton as that of tlie " mar- 

 vellous boy" is spurious. If such be the fact with 

 regard to the portrait in the work alluded to, im- 

 plying, as it seems to do, a want of caution some- 

 where, if nothing worse, may I be permitted to 

 ask J. M. G. whether the biographical narratlv^ 

 to which the portrait is prefixed is to be trusted 

 as generally correct ? I have no objection to 

 fiction in its place ; but in reading what is pub- 

 lished in the fonn of a serious memoir, one does 

 not like to be abused by the introduction of in- 

 cidents which had no existence, except in the 

 imaitination of the author. D. 



OLD HOUSE AT POPLAR. 



(2"i S. ii. 129.) 



The question of Mr. Sinister is an Interesting 

 one to local antiquaries, and I venture to write a 

 line in reference to it, although I am not Mr. 

 Hart. The extensive and ancient shipyard to 

 which Mr. Sinister alludes was once far more 

 extensive. It has been divided into three por- 

 tions: one being included in the East India Docks, 

 a second forming the establishment of Messrs. 

 Green, and the third constituting that of Messrs. 

 Wigram. On the premises of the latter is a 

 building which is old, but not so old as your cor- 

 respondent states. A stone let into the wall, 



