406 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°dS. N047., Nov. 22. '5C. 



siderable extent, the procession stops before the dais, and 

 the newly married princess invites the king to dance, 

 with which he complies, and accomplishes a turn with 

 considerable grace and gallantry, being all the time pre- 

 ceded, as before, by the ministers of state with their wax 

 tapers. This Polonaise the princess repeats with every 

 one of the princes present, ending with a Prince of Hol- 

 stein-Augustenburg, and when these evolutions are at an 

 end the prince bridegroom commences his performances 

 by requesting the hand of the queen, and dancing with 

 every princess in turn, so that he ended with the Princess 

 Lieg'nitz, the widow of the late king. Thus did these 

 unfortunate ministers perform the round of the White 

 Saloon full seventeen times, carrying their white tapers — 

 an exertion about equal to a good morning's shooting, 

 only not so wholesome. Two of the ministers on this 

 occasion excused themselves on the score of ill health, 

 and their places were filled up by the two eldest privy 

 councillors. When the terpsicliorean efforts of the min- 

 isters of state and the royal farail}' and guests are at 

 an end, the former precede the latter in procession to the 

 doors of the saloon, when they make over their tnpers to 

 the pages in waiting, who continue to carr}' them in ad- 

 vance of the royal procession up to the apartments of the 

 queen, where they extinguish them at the door as the 

 procession passes in. At this point it is regarded in the 

 theory of the Court etiquette as though the newly mar- 

 ried couple have retired into private with their famil}'. 

 The crown is removed from the bride's head ; she changes 

 her dress, so that the body, with the jewels, can be re- 

 turned to the state jewel-oiBce under escort ; and after 

 the lapse of a short time the bride's first lady-in-waiting 

 appears at the door of their private apartments, and dis- 

 tributes the bride's garter to the waiting cavaliers, who 

 scramble and scuffle for the honour of possessing a portion. 

 This remnant of the custom of a coarser age is managed 

 in a verj' inoflPensive manner ; a blue riband fringed with 

 silver lace, and having the initials and coronet of the 

 bride embroidered in silver, is prepared in advance, and 

 carried by the lady-in-waiting in her pocket, together 

 ■with a pair of scissors. At the critical moment she draws 

 this riband from her pocket, holds it for an instant or 

 two against the bride's robe to identify it with her, and 

 then cuts it off in lengths, which are scrambled for. This 

 forms the close of the public ceremonial connected with 

 the marriage of a Prussian princess. 



"The origin of this torch dance, which appears so 

 grotesque and barbarous, is certainly pre-Christian. It 

 is believed to be a tradition of the dances performed by 

 the Greeks in honour of Hymen, whose emblem was a 

 torch ; from Greece the practice was transplanted to Rome 

 with the Greek mythology, and thence carried by Con- 

 stantine the Great to Bj-zantium. From a period even 

 prior to the Crusades the custom has been in force, if not 

 at all the courts of Germany, certainly at those of the 

 kings, electors, markgraves, and burggraves of this por- 

 tion of it; and, while the nature and offices of the torch- 

 bearing individuals have changed with successive ages, 

 the one leading idea has remained unaltered, of the burn- 

 ing torch or taper carried in dancing measure before the 

 bridal couple in public, and extinguished at the moment 

 that they retire into privacy." 



F. S. A. 



HOGARTHIANA. 



About two years ago I paid a visit to the 

 house at Chiswick in which Hogarth resided, oc- 

 casionally at least, during the last twenty years 



of his life ; his town house, now the Sabloniere 

 Hotel, being in Leicester Square. 



In the house itself, so far as I could find, there 

 were no memorials of the great artist. On the 

 lawn, in front of it, there was (and is still, I 

 think,) a very ancient mulberry tree, which, in 

 Hogarth's time, was struck by lightning, it is said ; 

 and the iron braces or girders, by wliich it is lield 

 together, were made by his direction. In one 

 corner of the garden, there were two neat little 

 tombs (in true Oatlands' style), with slabs in- 

 serted in the wall, in memory of two favourite 

 dogs. On one of these was inscribed : " Alas ! 

 poor Dick," with the date 1764, and the initials of 

 Hogarth himself, I thinli : he himself died in the 

 same year. On the other slab was inscribed : 

 " Life to the last enjoy'd, here Pompey lies, 1790," 

 — an evident adaptation of Churcliill's epitaph 

 at Dover. Mrs. Hogarth died in 1789 ; but the 

 remembrance of the feud between Hogarth and 

 Churchill seems by this not to have died away 

 with the survivors of the household ! Where 

 Fop's tomb is I know not. 



Over the stable, a very limited abode for some 

 two or three horses, a room was pointed out, 

 which I was informed had, for many years, been 

 the artist's studio. From the comparatively large 

 dimensions of the window (which, as seen from 

 the outside, appears to have replaced a smaller 

 one), I have little doubt that such is the fact. As 

 the stairs are narrow, his paintings, I presume, 

 would be let down through this window, for 

 transmission, in his carriage, to town. 



His tomb, in Chiswick churchyard, has been 

 very substantially repaired, I am glad to say, and 

 that at the sole expence of Mr. Hogarth, of Aber- 

 deen ; a gratifying instance of genuine enthusiasm. 

 One of the workmen told me, that upon opening 

 the grave, the plates were found on the other 

 coffins, but that there was none on Hogarth's 

 coffin, which was smaller than the others. It is 

 not improbable that the plate was removed when 

 the grave was opened some twenty years ago. It 

 is a curious coincidence that, while these repairs 

 were going on, a great part of the garden wall at 

 Hogarth's house fell to the ground ; being blown 

 down by the violence of the wind, I think. 



It is not very many years since that a car- 

 penter died in Chiswick, who used to say that, 

 when a boy, he had worked for Hogarth. 



HENBy T. Riley. 



FORGERIES OF ROMAN COINS. 



There are, doubtless, among the readers of 

 "N. & Q.," many who have given some amount 

 of attention to the study of these valuable memo- 

 rials of the past : not perhaps to the extent^ of 

 forming a large collection, a proceeding which in- 



