94 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 36. 



Slingshy, and slie played under this title for about 

 five years, when she seems to have quitted the 

 stage. She survived her husband, for " Dame 

 Mary Slingsby, widow, of St. James's parish, was 

 buried at Paucras, 1st of March, 1694." C. 



Meaning of " Bawn" (Vol. i., p. GO.). —The 

 poet Campbell uses the word haivn as follows : — 

 " And fast and far, before the star 



Of day-spriiif;, rush'd we through the glade, 

 And saw at dawn the lofty bawn 

 Of Castle- Connor fade." 



O' Con»or''s Child. 



Robert Snow. 



Chanb'eys Sleeping Children (Vol. ii., p. 70.) — 

 Y"our correspondent Plectrum is anxious to know 

 on wh.it grounds I attribute to Stothard any part 

 of the design of the mf)nument in Lichfield Cathe- 

 dral known as Chantrey's " Sleeping Children ?" I 

 will endeavour to satisfy him. 



The design, suggested, as it were, by tlie very 

 nature of the commission, was communicated by 

 Chantrey to Stothard with a request that he would 

 make for him two or three sketches of sleeping 

 children, at his usual price. What Stothard diil, 

 I have heard my father say, was very like the 

 monument as it now stands. Tlie sketch from 

 which Chantrey wrought was given to me by 

 my father a few months before his death, and is 

 now suspended on the wall of the room in which 

 I write. 



It is a pencil-sketch, shadeil with Indian ink, 

 and is very Stothard-like and beautiful. It wants, 

 however, a certain sculptural grace, which Chan- 

 trey gave with a master feeling ; and it wants the 

 snow-drops in the hand of the younger sister, — 

 a touch of poetic beauty suggested by my father. 



The carver of the group (the person who copied 

 it in marble) was the late Mr. F. A. Lege, to whom 

 the merit of the whole monument has been fool- 

 ishly ascribed. 



I should be sorry to impress the world with the 

 belief that I mean in any way to detract from the 

 merit of Chantrey in making this statement. I 

 have divulged no secret I have only endeavoured 

 to explain what till now has been too often mis- 

 understood. 



Peter Cunningham. 



The following statement may perhaps give to 

 Plectrum the information he requires. 



Dining one day alone with Chantrey, in Jan. 

 1833, our conversation accidentally turned iqoon 

 some of his monuments, and amongst other things 

 he told me the circumstances connected with the 

 monument at Lichfield to the two children of Mrs. 

 Robinson. As I was leaving Chantrey, I asked him 

 if I might write down what he had told me ; his 

 reply was, " Certainly ; indeed I rather wish you 

 would." Before I went to bed I wrote down 



what I now send you ; I afterwards showed it to 

 Chantrey, who acknowledged it to be correct. It 

 was liastily written, but 1 send it as I wrote it at 

 the time, without alteration. 



Nicholson, the drawing master, taught Mrs. 

 Robinson and her two children. Not long after the 

 death of Mr. Robinson, the eldest child was burnt 

 to death ; and a very short time afterwards the 

 other child sickened and died. Nicholson called 

 on Chantrey and desired him to take a cast of the 

 child's face, as the mother wished to have some 

 monument of it. Chantrey immediately repaired 

 to the house, made his cast, and had a most affect- 

 ing interview with the unhappy mother. She was 

 desirous of having a monument to be placed in 

 Lichfield Cathedral, and wisheil to know whether 

 the cast just taken would enable Chantrey to make 

 a tolerable resemblance of her lost treasure. After 

 reminding her how uncertain all works of art were 

 in that respect, he assured her he hoped to be able 

 to accomplish her wishes. She then conversed 

 with hlin upon the subject of the monument, of her 

 distressed feelings at the accunnilated losses of her 

 husband and her two only children, in so short a 

 space of time ; expatiated upon their characters, 

 and her great afl'ection ; and ilwelt much upon her 

 feelings when, before she retired to bed, she had 

 visually contemplated them when she hung over 

 them locked in each other's arms asleep. While she 

 dwelt upon these recollections, it occurred to 

 Chantrey that the representation of this scene 

 would be the most appropriate monument; and as 

 soon as he ari'ived at home he made a small model 

 of the two children, nearly as they were afterwards 

 executed, and as they were universally admired. 

 As Mrs. Robinson wished to see a drawing of the 

 design, Chantrey called upon Stothard, and em- 

 ployed him to make the requisite drawing from 

 the small model : this was done ; and from this cir- 

 cumstance originated the story, from those envious 

 of Chantrey's rising fame, that he was indebted to 

 Stothard for all the merit of the original design. 



Edw. Hawkins. 



iHtSccIIanic^. 



Separation of the Sexes in Time of Divine Service. 

 — I note with pleasure that traces of this ancient 

 usage still exist in parts of Sussex. In Poling 

 Church, and also in Arundel Church, the movable 

 seats are marked with the letters M. and W. re- 

 spectively, according as they are assigned to the 

 men or women. On the first Sunday in the year 

 I attended service in Arundel Chin-ch, and ob- 

 served, with respect to the benches which were 

 placed in the middle of the nave for the use of the 

 poorer classes, that the women as they entered 

 proceeded to those at the eastern end, which were 

 left vacant for them, whilst the men by themselves 



