208 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2nd g. no 115.. mar. 13. '58. 



ia Dublin, told me, that when he was at school, there 

 was a boy boarded with the master who was commonly 

 reputed to be the Dean's son bj' Mrs. Johnson. He 

 added, that the boy strong]/ resembled the Dean in his 

 complexion ; that he dined constantly at the Deanery 

 every Sunday; and that when other boys were driven 

 out of the deanery yard, he was suffered to remain there 

 and divert himself. This boy survived Mrs. Johnson but 

 a year or two at the most. All I shall remark on this 

 story is, that it is very consistent with the dates of Mrs. 

 Johnson's marriage and death ; the former having taken 

 place in 1716, the latter in 1727-8. The story is, how- 

 ever, related merely as the report ofcthe day, and no stress 

 is intended to be laid upon it." — Ed. "N. & Q."] 



NELL GWYN. 



Oldys, in the MS. notes which I before quoted 

 (ante^ p. 106.), mentions that Hart the player se- 

 duced "Eleanor Gwyn at the early age of fourteen, 

 and states that she first charmed the King in sing- 

 ing the song from The Rivals, " My lodging upon 

 the cold ground is ; " but this latter portion is 

 contradicted by a subsequent note signed J. Reed, 

 who attributes the incident to Mrs. Davis, another 

 of the king's mistresses. There appears, how- 

 ever, some doubt in the tale, as a similar story is 

 told of Mrs. Jordan and her royal lover, with the 

 more modernised version of the same song.* 



The characters and pieces in which Eleanor 

 performed are as follows : — 



1667 t Ciduria, in The Indian Emperour. 



1666. Lady Wealthy, in English Monsieur. 



1667. Flora, in Florals Vagaries. 



1667. Mirida, in All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple. 



1667. Florimel, in The Maiden Queen. 



1667. Alizia, in The Black Prince. 



1667. Celia, in The Humorous Lieutenant. 



[* The following note on this incident is printed in the 

 fourth edition of Pepys's Diary, 1854, vol. iii. p. 80. : — 

 " Mary Davis, sometime a comedian in the Duke of 

 York's troop, and one of those actresses who boarded with 

 Sir W. Davenant, was, according to Pepys, a natural 

 daughter of Thomas Howard, first Earl of Berkshire. 

 She captivated the King by the charming manner in 

 which she sung a ballad beginning, ' My lodging it is on 

 the cold ground,' when acting Celania, a shepherdess 

 mad for love in the play of The Rivals. Charles took her 

 off the stage, and she had by him a daughter named 

 Mary Tudor, married to Francis, second Earl of Derwent- 

 water ; and their son James, the third Earl, was attainted 

 and beheaded for high treason. Miss Davis also was a 

 fine dancer: see Hawkins's History of Music, vol. iv. 

 p. 525., where the balled alluded to will be found ; which, 

 as Downes quaintly observes, ' raised the fair songstress 

 from her bed on the cold ground to the bed royal.' Ac- 

 cording to another account, she was the daughter of a 

 blacksmith at Charlton, in Wiltshire, where a family of 

 the name of Davis had exercised that calling for many 

 generations, and has but lately become extinct. There 

 is a beautiful whole-length portrait of Mary Davis, by 

 Kneller, at Audley End, in which she is represented as a 

 tall, handsome woman; and her general appearance ill 

 accords with the description given of her by our Journ- 

 alist." — Ed.] 



1668. Bellario, in Philaster. 



1668. Jacintha, in The Mock Astrologer. 



1669. Valeria, in Tyrannic Love. 



1670. Almahide *, in The Conquest of Granada. 

 1677. Angelica Bianca, in Roveri 



1677. Astrcea, in Constant Nymph. 



1677. Thalestris, in Siege of Babylon. 



1678. Lady Squeamish, in Friendship in Fashion. 

 1678. Lady Knowell, in Sir Patient Fancy. 

 1682. Sunamira, in Loyal Brother. 



1682. Queen Elizabeth, in 'The Unhappy Favourite, or 

 the Earl of Essex. 

 Panthea, in King and no King. 



Upon the union of the two companies, in 1682, 

 she appears to have retired from the stage. She 

 not unfrequently spoke in prologue and epilogue, 

 as when The Knight of the Burning Pestle was 

 revived at the " King's House," a new prologue 

 in verse, instead of the old one in prose, was de- 

 livered by Mrs. Ellen Gwyn. 



Also she spoke the epilogue to the tragedy of 

 The Duke of Lerma, and the epilogue to Tyrannic 

 Love. 



With regard to her only letter extant, addressed 

 to Madam Jennings, Cunningham says : " Who 

 Madam Jennings was, I am not aware ; " but if I 

 may hazard an opinion, I think it highly probable 

 that this Madam Jennings was her mantua-maker. 



" I am afraid M™ you have forgott my mantle which 

 you were to line with Musk Colour sattin, and all my other 

 things, for you send me noe patterns nor answer." 



Or perhaps her lady's maid, who had quitted her 

 service. 



" I have continued extreme ill ever since you left me." 

 " I am afraid you are so much taken up with your own 

 house, that you forget my business." 



A thin Svo. in sixty pages was published in 

 1752, entitled Memoirs of Eleanor Gwyn, which 

 seems to be but a few of the current anecdotes 

 respecting her strung together, and is altogether 

 a very inferior production. Cl. Hopper. 



Nell Qwyn and the Great Pearl Necklace. — 

 Has any correspondent supplied the following 

 note respecting Nell Gwyn ? In the extract 

 given in the appendix to Eliot Warburton's Prince 

 Rupert and the Cavaliers, appears this entry : 

 "Received of Mrs. Ellen Gwynne for the great 

 pearl necklace, 4520Z." This seems to have been 

 the most valuable of all the Prince's possessions, 

 and was probably inherited from his mother, who, 

 we learn, bequeathed him her jewels. It was not 

 likely that the old bachelor, whom we find re- 

 ferred to so often in Pepys s Diary, Travels of 

 Cosmo Duke of Tuscany, Sfc, would have pur- 

 chased such an article, even if he possessed the 

 wherewithal ? Can any reader supply any refer- 



" Granada lost has seen her pomps restored. 

 And Almahide once more by kings adored." 

 Lord Lansdowne's Progress of Beauty. 



