Dec. 29. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



511 



the scintilla is, I can use a comparison. Virginius 

 says: 



" I hear a sound so fine, there's nothing lives 

 Twixt it and silence." 



The scintilla juris in law corresponds to that sound 

 in acoustics. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



THE VEIiLUM-BOUND " JUNIUS : ITS HISTOET ^ND 

 FINAL DISAPPEARANCE AT THE STOWE SALE, 



JAN. 29, 1849. 



A correspondent in " N". & Q." has twice called 

 upon me to mention some of the many libraries in 

 which vellum-bound copies oi Junius' s Letters are 

 found. If his question in the first instance had 

 not been put quite so much in the style of one 

 invested with the authority ofgotvn and wig, and in 

 the tone of a person accustomed to cross examina- 

 tion, I might have answered him at once, and 

 referred him to the rumours that the vellum- 

 bound books were locked up in Lansdowne House 

 — that they were in America* — that they were 

 in a certain library, " not accessible to all book- 

 collectors" — and, lastly, I might have referred him 

 ■with truth to the custodians of the Junius secret 

 at Stowe. These references, I conceive, would 

 have been a sufficient answer, and fully justified 

 me for so harmless a conjecture, as that Woodfall 

 might have prepared and sold more than one copy 

 of the vellum-bound books. There was, however, 

 something in the manner of V. B.'s putting the 

 question, which induced me to look a little closer 

 into the subject ; and I now give V. B., and the 

 readers of " N. & Q.," the result of my inquiries. 



It appears then, that there never was but one 

 ■copy of the Letters printed on and bound in vellum, 

 ■with gilt edges, lettered, &c., according to the 

 directions of Junius. This copy was sent to the 

 last address with a letter from Woodfall, dated 

 March 7, 1773. JSTotice that the parcel was lying 

 at the coffee-house was published by a Latin 

 signal on March 8 ; and these signals were re- 

 peated at intervals until April 7, after which 

 nothing more was heard from Junius. It has been 

 shown, that at the time these books were sent, 

 Lord Chesterfield was seized with his last illness ; 

 and that in less than three weeks after the first 

 signal had appeared, the earl expired at Chester- 

 field House, his confidential friend Dayrolle being 

 in attendance. Such being the situation of Lord 

 Chesterfield in March, 1773, sufliciently accounts 

 for the books remaining so long unclaimed at the 

 last address ; but the mystery still remains to be 

 cleared up. What became of the vellum-bound 

 copy after the death of Lord Chesterfield, that is 

 to say, after the last signal had been thrown out 

 by Woodfall on April 7, 1773? How came the 



No. 322.] 



Dr. Wilmot's copy. 



books in the hands of the Grenvilles, and the 

 letter which accompanied them in the hands of 

 the present Mr. Woodfall ? If we take Junius's 

 assertion to be strictly true, that he was the sole 

 depository of his own secret, no one but himself 

 and Woodfall understood the signals, or could have 

 applied for the books; but it has been proved 

 that Junius had an amanuensis, and that Mrs. 

 Dayrolle at least was acquainted with the secret. 

 It would be absurd to suppose that Dayrolle him- 

 self was not a confederate also, and executed the 

 conveyancing part of the correspondence. Here 

 then were three persons who might have claimed 

 the books after the death of Lord Chesterfield. 

 Now, as neither Mr. H. S. Woodfall, nor his son, 

 nor the present Mr. Woodfall, ever pretended to 

 know anything of the fate of the parcel after 

 April 7, the "presumption" is, that the books 

 came into the possession of Dayrolle. This is in 

 some degree corroborated by a correspondence 

 which took place in the Gentleman s Magazine for 

 1813, in which a writer asks : "Whether the vel- 

 lum-bound copy was not intended for, and placed 

 in a library, not accessible to all book- collectors ; 

 and whether it has not been known to be there as 

 lately as the year 1786" (the year in which Day- 

 rolle died) ? " Perhaps, Sir," he adds, addressing 

 Mr. Urban, " you may have a correspondent who, 

 notwithstanding his asthma and numerous family, 

 which have excluded him from society so many 

 years, may be able to throw some light upon this 

 question." The correspondent here alluded to, 

 was highly indignant at the reference to the 

 asthma and numerous family, which so clearly 

 pointed him out as the contributor to the Gent. 

 Mag. under the signature of " T. E. B." " How- 

 ever," said the offended gentleman, "I will only 

 say, that your correspondent [Philo Junius] must 

 know I am aware who he is by the circumstance 

 to which he adverts ; and if he will come forward 

 and say how he obtained his information, I will 

 give all the information in my power." * 



Philo Junius did not " come forward," at least 

 not publicly, to say how he obtained his informa- 

 tion ; but wrote a very polite apology to T. E. D. 

 for the imprudence he had committed. A few 

 months after, we find Philo Junius enlisted among 

 those who were bound to keep the secret ; denying 

 the assertion that the author's name was known 

 among the members of the Whig Club, which he 



* This correspondence proves that the vellum-bound 

 copy of the Letters was in existence in 178(). Whether 

 the books sold in 1849 were the same, is a matter of very 

 little importance ; since such kind of evidence is no longer 

 required to prove the identity of Junius. The presump- 

 tion, however, is, that they were the genuine article, or 

 there would not have been so much pains taken then and 

 since to convert them into a myth. See Mr. Metcalfe's 

 and Mr. Rodney's recent discoveries of vellum-bound 

 copies of Junius found in India and in America. 



