106 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s, No 110., Feb. 6. '58. 



professed subject may be gleaned from them. I 

 give you another instance, in another way, from 

 this same volume. It is the use of a word I do 

 not find in our Glossaries, and occurs in a letter 

 from a prisoner in Bury St. Edmund's gaol, who 

 complains of the turnkey James King, who " broke 

 the Goatch (that is, a Pitcher,) of Beer, that we 

 sent for into the Toun to relieve ourselves withal," 

 instead of purchasing it of him at an exorbitant 

 rate. The term appears to be a provincial one, as 

 Pitt brackets an explanation when he uses it a 

 second time. F. W. Faihiiolt. 



FRENCH NOTIONS OF ENGLISH MANNERS. 



In our intercourse with the French we have 

 gained more knowledge of them than they of us ; 

 probably because France is a pleasant country to 

 travel in and England is not. The swaggering 

 and cowardly Frenchman has disappeared from 

 our stage, and our caricaturists no longer draw 

 Lim spitting a frog and longing for roast beef. 

 On the French boards JMr. John Bull still wears 

 top-boots and an eye-glass of six inches in dia- 

 meter, and tl)e Charivari dresses M. Cobden in a 

 Scotch bonnet and impossible plaid trowsers, and 

 inserts a letter from an English nobleman signed 

 " Lord Warwick." Far above competition at the 

 head of European wit stands Figaro. From No. 

 294, December 10, 1856, I cut the following per- 

 sonal experience : — 



" Un depute, qui n'a pas etd reelii aux dernieres elec- 

 tions, M. L — 13—, a A6vor6 un matin, en quelques minu- 

 tes, vingtsept echaudes devant plusieurs collogues, stupe- 

 faits de la capacite de ce boa legislateur. A la bouvette 

 du parlement anglais, on en voit bien d'autres, et, comme 

 elle est presque publique pour les ctrangers munis de 

 passe-ports, je me rappelle avoir vu derniiirement le Xe- 

 viathan de la chambre des communes, 51. R — , esquire, de- 

 vorer une trentaine de sandwichs, par series de cinq. Je 

 ne saurais vous dire combien de grogs ont accompagne ces 

 trente sandwichs u leur derniere demeure." 



Not being in Parliament, I cannot say where the 

 " buvette " is at which members eat " sandwichs " 

 and drink " grogs ; " perhaps it is just by the 

 room in which the passports of strangers are exa- 

 mined before they are let into the house. 



Here is another from the same number: — 



" Ce n'est pas le premiei- bon mot dont Mario ait etd le 

 sujet : un soir, a Londres, furieux contve JI. Gie, il I'apos- 

 trophe de la facjon la plus vive et la plus personnelle. 



" ' Monsieur Mario,' lui r^pond froidement M. Gie, • je 

 snis trfes fort, excessivement fort, d'un coup du poing je 

 pourrais vous cesser les reins, mais vous etes encore mon 

 tdnor pour trois jours ; revenez me dire ca daus soixante- 

 douze heures et vous verrez.' " 



Whatever may be pugilistic English for " casser 

 les reins," it is not one of those feats which we do 

 with a " coup de poing." H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



NELL GWYNNE AND HER FAMILY. 



Oldys in some MS. notes made by him upon a 

 printed book connected with the Drama formerly 

 m his possession, has left the following Notes 

 and Queries relating to Nell Gwynne and her 

 mother : — 



" In one of these two plaj's (the Great Favourite, or the 

 Duke of Lerma, a Tragi Comedy, and the Indian Queen, 

 a Tragedy), Mrs. Ellen (Gwin) speaks in Prol. and Epi- 

 logue. Concerning her see my Extracts from the MS. 

 Coll. of Satires and Lampoons in four vols. fol. in the 

 possession of the D. of Portland, whence 1 had gathered 

 that she died soon after K. Charles (but see tother side') 

 [^sicl. I once, about 7 j'ears ago, upon Edm. Curll's 

 importunity, gave him a sketch of her life, to help out his 

 History of the Stage*, which he has been so long endea- 

 vouring at, and is now at last published, tho' the author 

 as I hear is now become quite blind. But Dick Leveridge's 

 Hist, of the Stage and Actors in his time for these 40 or 

 50 years past, as he told me he had composed it, is likely 

 to prove, whenever it shall appear, a most perfect work. 

 Q. if Dr. Tennison's sermon at Xell Gwin's funeral, 

 wherein he speaks so much in her commendation, was 

 ever printed? She was buried in St. Martin's Church. 

 Cibber speaks of her in his Hist, of his own Life and 

 Times. Q. if y« Pamph. entitled an Acco' of the Tragedy 

 of Old Madam Gw3mne drowned near the Neat houses, 

 printed in Quarto, 1679, is not concerning Nell Gwin's 

 mother? I have set Nell down in my obituary as dying 

 at her house in Pall Mall in the j'ear 1691 in Sept. or 

 Ocf. See Arbp. Tennison's Life, 8". p. 20., and her life 

 in Capt. Smith's Court of Venus, 120, 1716, Vol. L, and 

 the Lampoons upon her in the Duke of Portland's Four 

 Manuscript Volumes of Satires, Libells, &c. in Folio, 

 whereof I have a Catalogue. Many of such pieces are 

 printed in the Collection of State Poems. The other 

 pla3's she acted in may be seen in Downes's Rosciiis 

 Anglicanus." 



From these too meagre notes we glean a few 

 interesting facts : That W. Oldys wrote a sketch 

 of her life for Curll; that Dick Leveridge had 

 written a History of the Stage and Actors, and 

 which I presume was never printed ; — the ex- 

 istence of a 4to. Pamphlet, the Tragedy of Old 

 Madam Gwynne, which I should like to get sight 

 of, as well as Capt. Smith's work, — a book that I 

 have also searched for in vain. Doubtless Capt. 

 Smith is a nom de plume. A more recent work, 

 published 1730, under his name, entitled Court 

 Intrigues, I have seen ; but although some of 

 King Charles II.'s beauties are included in it, 

 very scant is the allusion to Nell. 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." state where a 

 copy of either of these works may be found ? 

 Also in whose possession now are the four MS. 

 vols, of Satires, &c. ? And having made these 

 inquiries,'! will now endeavour to answer Oldys's 

 Queries, I believe Dr. Tenison's sermon upon 

 the death of the lady was never printed. 



The Tirigedy of Old Madam Gwynne certainly 

 alludes to Nell's mother ; for the Doniestic Intel- 



[* Although compiled by Curll, this work is more 

 generally-* known as Betterton's History of the Stage, 8vo. 

 1741. — Ed.] 



