290 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 49. 



amorous froof, I shall have something more to say 

 hereafter. This notice is to be considered inci- 

 dental, rather than as referring expressly to Mr. 

 Cunningham's valualjle bonk. 



P. 153. Deans Yard, Westminster. — Several of 

 the annual budgets of abuse, obscenity, and impu- 

 dent imposture, bearing on their title-pages various 

 names, but written by " John Gadbury, Student 

 in Physic and Astrology," were dated from " my 

 house, Brick Court, Dean's Yard, Westminster ; " 

 or this slightly varied, occasionally being, "Brick 

 Court, near the Dean's Yard," &c. I have not 

 seen a complete series of Gadbury's Almanacks, 

 but those I refer to range from 1688 to 1694' (in- 

 complete). His burial in St Margaret's, West- 

 minster, in 1704, is noticed by j\Ir. Cunningham, 

 at p. 313. As brick was then only used in the 

 more costly class of domestic buildings, this would 

 seem to indicate that prophecy was then a lucrative 

 trade; and that the successor and pui)il of the 

 " arch-rogue, "\\'illiam Lilly" was C[uite as fortu- 

 nate in his speculations as his master had been. 

 It is a truth as old as society itself, that "knaves 

 grow rich while honest men starve." Whilst 

 Gadbury was "wallowing in plenty," the author of 

 Hudihras was perishing for want of a crust! 



P. 153. Denzil Street.— lltni, about the middle 

 of the street, on the south side, lived Theophilus 

 Holdred, a jobbing watchmaker, whose name will 

 always hold a place in one department of mathe- 

 matical history. He discovered a method of ap- 

 proximating to the roots of numerical equations, 

 of considerable ingenuity. He, however, lost in 

 his day and generation the reputation that w^as 

 really due to him for it, by his laying claim to 

 more than he had effected, and seekingto deprive 

 other and more gifted men of the reputation due 

 to a moie perfect solution of the same problem. 

 He was, indeed, brought before the public as the 

 tool of a faction ; and, as the tools of faction gene- 

 rally are, he was sacrificed by his own supporters 

 •when he was no longer of any use to them. 



I once called upon him, in company with Pro- 

 fessor Leyburn, of the Royal Military College, but 

 I forget whether in 1829 or 1830. We found him 

 at his bench — a plain, elderly, and heavy-looking 

 personage. He seemed to ha-ye become" shy" of 

 our class, and some time and some address were 

 requisite to get him to speak with any freedom : 

 but ultimately we placed him at his ease, and he 

 spoke freely. We left him with the conviction that 

 he -was the bona fide discoverer of his own method; 

 and that he had no distinct conception, even then, 

 of the principle of the methods which he had been 

 led by his friends to claim, of having cdso disco- 

 vered Horner s jn-ocess before Horner himself had 

 publi.-hed it. He did not (ten years after the 

 publication of Horner's method) even then under- 

 stand it. He understood his oAvn perfectly, and I 

 have not the slightest doubt of the correctness of 



his own statement, of its having been discovered 

 by him fifty years before. 



P. 166. Dulu-ich Gallery. — This is amongst the 

 unfortunate conse<]uences of taking lists upon trust. 

 Poor Tom Plurst* has not been in the churchyard 

 these last eight years — except the three last in 

 his grave. Tlie last five years of his life were 

 spent in a comfortable asylum, as " a poor brother 

 of the Charterhouse." He was one of the victims of 

 the "panic of 1825;" and though the spirit of specu- 

 lation never left him, he always failed to recover 

 his position. He is referred to here, however, to 

 call Mr. Cunningham's attention to the necessity, 

 in a Hand-hook especially, of referring his readers 

 correctly to the places at which tickets are to be 

 obtained for an}' purpose whatever. It discourages 

 the visitor to London when he is thus " sent upon 

 a fool's errand;" and the Cockney himself is not 

 in fjuite so good a humour with the author for 

 being sent a lLe.-vi steps out of his way. 



P. 190. Itogers — a Cockney by inference. I 



* It may not be out of place here to mention one 

 fine feature in the character of " Tom Hurst ;" his deep 

 reverence for men of ability, whetlier in literature, 

 science, or art. Take one instance : 



Fourteen or fifteen years ago, I called one morning 

 at his place of bilsiness (then 65. St. Paul's Church 

 Yard, which has been subsequently absorbed into the 

 " Religious Tract Depository"); and, as was my cus- 

 tom, I walked throuch the shop to his private room. 

 He was " not in ;" but a gentleman, who first looked 

 at me and then at a portrait of me on the wall, ac- 

 costed me by my surname as familiarly as an intimate 

 acquaintance of twenty years would have done. He 

 and Hurst, it appeared, had been spe;iking of me, sug- 

 gested by the picture, before Hurst went out. The 

 Camiliar stranger did not keep me long in suspense — 

 he intimated that I had " probably heard our friend 

 speak of Ben Haydon." Of course I had; and we 

 soon got into an easy chat. Hurst was naturally a 

 common subject with us. Amongst the remarks he 

 made were the following, and in almost the words: — 



" AVhcn my troubles cam.e on, I owed Hur.'t a large 

 sum of money ; -and the circumstances under which I 

 became his debior rendered this peculiarly a debt of 

 honour. He lent it me when he could ill spare it ; 

 yet he is the only one of all my creditors who has not 

 in one way or other persecuted me to the present hour. 

 When he first knew of my wreck, he called upon me — 

 lint to reproach but to iiiconrage me — and he would not 

 leave me till he felt sure that he had changed the 

 moody current of my thoughts. If there be any change 

 in him since then, it is in his increased kindness of 

 manner and his assiduity to serve me. He is now 

 gone out to try to stU ' a bit of daub ' for me." 



Hurst came in, and this conversation dropped; but it 

 had been well had Hurst been by his side on the day 

 his last picture was opened to view at the Egyptian 

 Hall. The catastrophe of that night might have been 

 averted, notwithstanding Rlr. Barnum and his Tom 

 Thumb show in the adjoining room. 



