Dec. 11. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



551 



In a note the editor adds, — 



" The sombre appearance was owing in part to the 

 old oak wainscotting : the pulpit also was of the same 

 material. At one end of the room the figures ' 1485,' 

 rudely carved, probably mark the date of its erection. 

 It was used as a place of worship before the Baptists 

 purchased it in 1725." 



The date of Foster's letter is 1792. Is this in- 

 teresting old house still in existence ; and is any- 

 thing known of its history ? G. J. Dk Wilde. 



[Mr. Mackenzie, in his Descriptive, and Historical 

 Account of NewcaUle-upon-Tyne, vol. i. p. 397., has 

 furnished the following notice of this ancient meeting- 

 house : " No record of the affairs of the Baptists has 

 been preserved previous to the year 1725, when they 

 purchased the property they now possess in the Tuthill 

 Stairs. This property extends sixty-eight yards on 

 the east side of the stairs, and is forty-three yards in 

 breadth. On it was a very large and highly-orna- 

 mented room, which, from some figures on the wain- 

 scotting, seems to have been built in the year 1585. 

 This room must have been used as a place of wor- 

 ship previous to the Revolution, when the corporation 

 occasionally attended meeting-houses ; for affixed to the 

 old pews were two hands for holding the mace and the 

 sword. Above this room was a dwelling-house, and a 

 vestry adjoining to it. Here the Baptists assembled 

 for public worship for seventy-three years. In 1797 

 [five years after Mr. Foster's letter was written] the 

 congregation resolved to erect a new chapel on the 

 vacant ground above the old one. The foundation- 

 stone was laid on the 17th July of that year, and was 

 opened for public worship on February 19, 1798." 



We have also received from J. E. Ryland, Esq., to 

 whom %ve submitted our correspondent's Query, some 

 further particulars of this old house to what is stated 

 in Foster's Life and Correspondence. " When prepar- 

 ing that work for the press," says Mr. Ryland, " 1 ap- 

 plied to my friend the Rev. R. Pengilly, then resident 

 at Newcastle, to obtain some account of this curious 

 remnant of 'the olden time.' He sent my inquiries to 

 a gentleman who took an interest in the antiquities of 

 the place, who replied as follows : ' I wish it had been 

 in my power to have given Mr. Ryland any intelligence 

 respecting the Tuthill Stairs Chapel, but I know 

 nothing certain about it. You are aware that the 

 Close was, in ancient times, inhabited by the principal 

 county families, and the wealthy merchants of the 

 town. In all likelihood the old chapel formed the 

 principal room of the house of some family of conse- 

 quence, and the entrance must have been from the 

 Close. The room used as the chapel was highly orna- 

 mented. I have a drawing of it. From the hands 

 affixed to the pews in the chapel, I infer that it must 

 have been used as a place of worship previously to the 

 Revolution, as the mayors in the olden time used to 

 go in procession on a Sunday to the places of worship 

 they respectively belonged to, the corporate officers 

 accompanying them. But whether a Baptist, an Inde- 

 pendent, or a Presbyterian mayor was a member of 

 Tuthill Stairs I do not know, though the presumption 

 is that the Baptist was the only denomination that oc- 

 cupied the chapel.' "] 



Bacon's History of Life and Death, — Lord 

 Bacon's History of Life and Death was published 

 in 1623. Was there an earlier edition? and is it 

 known when he wrote that work? H. 



[The first edition of Historia Vita et Mortis was 

 published in 1623; and, according to Basil Montagu, 

 was written in that year, shortly after Bacon had re- 

 tired to Gorhambury,] 



MATHEMATICAL SOCIETT OP WAPPING. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 410. 493.) 



I took the liberty of asking whether anything \s 

 known of a Mathematical Society of Wapping in 

 1750? ^^ ° 



In a reply by M. H. (not, I think, expressed in 

 over-courteous terms), he states his surprise at 

 my inquiry, and presumes that my notion of 

 Wapping must have been formed " from the deck 

 of a steamer on a trip to Dover." He enlarges on 

 the extent of " streets and squares " of Wapping, 

 tenanted by the " merchant seamen " of the pori 

 of London, and informs us that every tenth shop, 

 or thereabouts, is that of a " maker of mathema- 

 tical instruments principally used in navigation," 

 many of these shops bearing on the very face of 

 them the signs of a respectable antiquity. After 

 thus peopling the parish with suburban DoUands, 

 M. H. very naturally proceeds to suggest the pro- 

 bable existence, at this day, not of one only, but 

 of " several " similar societies, containing among 

 their matriculated members " every assistant and 

 apprentice in the trade." 



M. H. and I have certainly surveyed this parish 

 with very different eyes. It has been my fortune 

 to pass whole days in the heart of it ; and I know 

 every house in one estate of eight acres (forming 

 a large fraction of the entire parish), in which there 

 is certainly not a single mathematical instrument- 

 maker's shop. In confirmation of this I may add 

 an extract from a letter just received from my 

 friend Mr. Walton, the vestry clerk of Wapping r 

 " I believe," he says, " there is not one mathe- 

 matical instrument-maker in my parish ; but, to be 

 on the safe side, I would say there are not two." 



I beg, therefore, to repeat my inquiry, whether 

 anything, and what, is known of the " Mathematical 

 Society of Wapping " in 1750 ? Does any record 

 exist of its members, or of its transactions ? Of 

 course I do not require to be satisfied that there 

 was, in fact, such a society ; nor am I ignorant of 

 the circumstance noticed by A. W. (ante., p. 493.), 

 thiit the various hamlets, which once formed the 

 great manor of Stepney, gave birth or education 

 to many persons of high literary distinction. The 

 author (or one of the authors) of the Parentalia, 

 Joseph Ames, himself a Fellow of the Royal Anti- 



