and S. v. 128., June 12. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



475 



The latter sentence admits of application to 

 homoeopathy, mesmerism, and other modern 

 pseudo-scientific impostures. L. 



Anecdote respecting the great Artist, the late 

 W. M. Turner, R.A. — Mr. Tomkison, the emin- 

 ent pianoforte maker, called on me one morning 

 in the year 1850. I had shown him a small pic- 

 ture by Constable. This led to remarks on the 

 merits of landscape-painters ; and Turner, of 

 course, was alluded to in the way his great excel- 

 lence deserved. Mr. Tomkison then observed : 

 •'My father Avas the first to discover the boy's 

 talents. My father was a jeweller, and lived in 

 Southampton Streei)»sCovent Garden. Turner's 

 father was a hair-dresser, and lived in Maiden 

 Lane, a corner house in a little court ; he operated 

 on my father. On one occasion Turner brought 

 his child with him ; and while the father was 

 dressing my father, the little boy was occupied in 

 copying something he saw on the table. They 

 left, and after a few minutes they returned. Tur- 

 ner apologised for troubling my father, and begged 

 to know what bis son had been copying. On 

 being shown the copy, mj father said, ' your son 

 never could have done it.' He had copied a coat 

 of arms from a handsome set of castors, which 

 happened at that time to be on the table. Some 

 time after a gentleman died, who had been long 

 under Turner's razor, and left him a legacy of 

 100/. The moment my father heard this, he 

 begged Turner to allow him to dispose of the lOOl. 

 for the benefit of the boy by articling him to 

 Malton, the distinguished architectural draftsman 

 of that day — this was done accordingly." 



Your correspondent, Mr. Editor, begged Mr. 

 Tomkison to repeat the anecdote, and to allow him 

 to write down the words as they proceeded from 

 his lips. Mr. Tomkison then read the statement, 

 and approved of it ; and were he now alive, would, 

 I am sure, give it his imprimatur. A. M. 



The Situation of the Garden of Eden. — I was 

 talking with a respectable old couple, when the 

 wife suddenly asked me (apropos, I suppose, to 

 something she had been reading) : " Where was 

 the garden of Eden, Sir ? " Taken by surprise, I 

 answered rather loosely : " It is supposed to have 

 been somewhere down Persia way." The husband 

 pricked up his ears. " Gawd bless me ! " he said ; 

 " down Pershore way won it ? Why I must ha' 

 bin by it a score o' times ! " Though living in 

 Staffordshire, yet he was Worcestershire born and 

 bred ; and he called to mind the large market- 

 gardens round and about Pershore. 



CUTHBEET BeDE. 



John Bell. — With reference to the article 

 "Great Chancery Lawyer" (2"* S. v. 417.), allow 

 me to say, that Lord Eldon was always glad of the 

 opportunity to speak favourably of " the great 

 Bell of Lincoln's Inn." When the late Vice* j 



Chancellor Sir Lancelot Shadwell was at the Bar, 

 in a conversation with Lord Eldon, he asked his 

 lordship, " In the event of a vacancy in the Great 

 Seal, who do you think most able to fill it?" 

 On which Lord Eldon replied, " The man who can 

 neither walk, nor write, nor speak, is the man of 

 all others best qualified for the office." Mr. Shad- 

 well concurred with his lordship, and said, " I 

 cordially assent that Mr. Bell is the man." I 

 knew Mr. Bell ; his language was broad Cumber- 

 land, his handwriting very difficult to read, and 

 he liked to fondle a lame leg on his knee. I fre- 

 quently consulted him. His opinions I received 

 as solemn judgments, and allow me to say that I 

 never was mistaken in my adviser. 



John Fenwick. 

 Newcastle-on-T^e. 



caucrtcS. 



NOMJUEOKS — ROGEE I.AUEENCE ; A NEGLECTED 

 BIOGEAPHY, ETC. 



There appears to be no biographical account of 

 the above nonjuring clergyman ; at least I have 

 never succeeded in discovering any in either Chal- 

 mers, Biogr. Brit., Bayle, or Knight's Biograph. 

 Cyclop. ; Rose's work is not accessible to me at 

 present, so I cannot say if his name occurs there * ; 

 but, while asking for additional information re- 

 garding him, I may give the few facts I possess 

 from my MS. Fasti of the Nonjuring English 

 Bishops. 



Roger Lawrence, or Laurence, (I am not certain 

 as to the correct orthography of his namef), was 

 a learned layman, baptized and bred among the 

 Dissenters during the latter part of the seven- 

 teenth century : being dissatisfied concerning the 

 validity of his own baptism, he was rebaptized by 

 a clergyman of the Church of England (who was 

 the celebrant ?), and wrote the following learned 

 and ingenious treatises, or tracts, in defence of 

 what he had done : one entitled Lay Baptism In- 

 valid, 1711 ; a Defence of it, also in 1711 ; and an- 

 other tract in 1712, entitled Dissenters' Baptism 

 null and void. There arose in 1711 an unhappy 

 controversy concerning the validity or invalidity 

 of lay baptism, in which some of the bishops and 

 learned divines of the day were divided in opinion. 

 Bishop Thomas Brett published, in 1711 : — 



" An Enquiry into the Judgement and Practice of tfie 

 Primitive Churcli in relation to Persons baptized by Lay- 

 men, where Mr. Bingham's Scholastical History of Lay 

 Baptism is considered ; with an Appendix, in answer to 

 the Lord Bishop of Oxford's [Talbot] Charge." 



This tract, with so lengthy a title, is not men- 

 tioned by liowndes, though it is by Chalmers 

 (Biogr. Diet., vol. vi. edit. 1812, p. 501., art. 



^* His name does not occur in Rose.] 

 't Laurence is the correct spelling,^ 



