whose name I have discovered. He has a special claim to notoriety, owing to the fact that he died on the scaffold, and his biography will be found in The Newgate Calendar (Knapp & Baldwin, ed. 1824, i. 114-16; William Jackson, ed. 1818, i. 239242). On 24 April, 1718, he was indicted at the Old Bailey for the murder of Elizabeth, wife of William White, in Moorfields, and was hanged at Tyburn on 31 May following. His father is said to have perished, while the boy "was very young, at the demolishing of Tangiers in 1684.

William Marvell, according to 'The Newgate Calendar,' (Wm. Jackson, i. 241), succeeded Price. Readers of Harrison Ainsworth's lurid history of Jack Sheppard will recollect that this person officiated at the execution of the great prison-breaker on 16 Nov., 1724.

par

John Thrift, who occupied the post in 1747, was sentenced to transportation for fourteen years on 16 May, 1750, for the murder of David Farris in a quarrel (Gent. Mag., xx. 233). Nevertheless, he received a full don, and "resumed the exercise of his office' on 19 September of the same year (Gent. Mag., xx. 425). His death occurred on 5 May, 1752; and we are told that he was " formerly hangman for London, Middlesex, and Surrey (Gent. Mag., xxii. 240). MR. F. G. STEPHENS at 5 S. vi. 26 quoted a paragraph from The Covent Garden Journal of 16 May, 1752, that gives a description of Thrift's funeral. The mob appears to have been displeased that he should be buried in consecrated ground, and the interment was delayed by its threatening attitude.

Tallis. The above-mentioned extract from The Covent Garden Journal states that "Tallis, the present hangman, was afraid that the body [i.e., Thrift's] would be torn out of the coffin, which was therefore first carried into the church," thus supplying, as MR. STEPHENS remarks, the name of Mr. Thrift's successor in office. The Public Advertiser, 12 April, 1771, contains the following notice: "Turlis, the executioner, it is said, died a few days since on the road on his return from Kingston." If, as seems probable, the names Tallis and Turlis indicate the same individual, he must have been hangman for nearly twenty years, and have officiated at the execution of such notorious criminals as Lord Ferrers (1760), Theodore Gardelle (1761), and Elizabeth Brownrigg (1767).

Edward Dennis was concerned in the Gordon Riots of June, 1780 (Dickens's 'Barnaby Rudge').

"Among the rioters......was Jack Ketch himself.

This miscreant, whose real name was Edward Dennis, was convicted of pulling down the house of hillfields Bridewell would not suffer Jack Ketch to Mr. Boggis of New Turnstile. The Keeper of Totgo among the other prisoners lest they should tear him to pieces. In order that he might hang up his brother rioters he was granted a pardon !"-Knapp & Baldwin's 'Newgate Calendar, iii. 105.

The Gentleman's Magazine, 1. 343, states that Dennis

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and has a bailable warrant, which will be sued out was found guilty, but recommended to mercy, when the executions are ended. The humanity of Mr. Smith, the Keeper of Tothillfields Bridewell ......deserves all praise. He declined confining him among the other prisoners, lest his obnoxious character should expose him to their rage." The Town and Country Magazine, xii. 343, confirms the statement that Dennis was pardoned. A writer at 2 S. xi. 315 informs

us that the Sheriffs of London were so

pleased with Dennis's excellent mode of performing business that they presented him with a very elegant official robe in 1785.

William Brunskill was executioner at Newgate on 30 Jan., 1794, as on that date he presented a petition to the Court of Aldermen, praying for an increase of salary. See a paragraph from The Times, quoted by Charles Gordon in The Old Bailey and Newgate, p. 239.

James Botting probably was the successor of Brunskill-not of Dennis, as implied by • Chronicles of Major Arthur Griffiths in Newgate,' ii. 411. In an essay on Public Executioners' in a book entitled 'ManyColoured Life,' 1842, pp. 15-16, Botting is described as a coarse, unfeeling man,' and a description is given of his last moments :

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"Horrid visions disturbed the wretched man,

and he was wont to dream that one hundred and term them, meaning thereby persons who had seventy-five 'parties,' as he was accustomed to. suffered the last penalty of the law, presented themselves to his startled eye, a terrifying spectacle, wearing the fatal cap with their heads inclined to one side. He, when describing what appalled him, declared with a reprobate expression, that if they would only hold up their heads and take off their caps he would not care a straw for any of them!""

Botting died in October, 1837, and his obituary notice will be found in Bell's Life and The Morning Chronicle, 7 October of that year. In the latter newspaper it is stated that,

"unlike Jack Cheshire, who assisted him occasionally, and who always gave courage with a whisper while making a neck ready for the start, he left all the comforting part of the ceremony to the Ordinary and Mr. Baker. Botting retired from him that the Newgate regulation commenced of public life 17 years ago [i.e., 1820]......It was with paying the executioner a guinea a week.”

John Foxton died 14 Feb., 1829, aged sixty. The Gentleman's Magazine, xcix, pt. i. 282, states that he had been chief executioner at Newgate for sixteen years, but adds that he officiated at the hanging of Bellingham in 1812, which, if true, points to a longer period of office. This does not agree with the statement in The Morning Chronicle that Botting did not retire till about 1820. Foxton executed Thistlewood, Fauntleroy, Hunton the Quaker, and Corder. On the last occasion he had an altercation with the authorities of Bury St. Edmunds Gaol, who ventured to criticize his methods, and whose interference he resented. See An Authentic and Faithful History of the Murder of Maria Martin,' J. Curtis, 297302.

John Cheshire. This individual, yclept "Old Cheese," who is referred to in The Morning Chronicle, 7 Oct., 1837, as the assistant of Botting, is said to have been the assistant also of Foxton, whom he succeeded (Gent. Mag., xcix. pt. i. 282). His term of office must have been brief, for Calcraft was appointed hangman soon after Foxton's death. In the article in ' ManyColoured Life' Cheshire is described as "a wretched ruffian " much addicted to drink; and Major Griffiths has given him a similar character. "Horrible stories are yet told of the fiendish delight, even when a feeble old man, which he seemed to take in his wretched office," wrote MR. W. PINKERTON at 2 S. xi. 315.

William Calcraft. The career of this celebrity, who was public executioner for a period of forty-five years (1829-74), is set forth in the 'D.N.B."

William Marwood, who succeeded Calcraft, has also received a notice in the D.N.B.' He died in September, 1883.

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

HODGSON'S, 1807-1907.-No more interesting celebration has been held in the commercial book world than that which took place last night at the house of the Hodgsons, the well-known book auctioneers in Chancery Lane, when friends met to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the business. The Hodgson firm has been entirely a family one since 1828, a fact almost unique in the history of the book trade.

In the little budget of history presented to each guest at the celebration dinner a short history of the firm and its founders is

given.

With the exception of Robert Saunders, who began the business, the members of the firm have been Hodgsons; and among the valuable records possessed by them is a complete file of catalogues (with the exception of a single year) of all the sales they have held, priced throughout. How interesting it would be to make a selection from the entries, say, of the first fifty years, and place against the amounts then obtained the prices realized in the present day! As readers of 'N. & Q.' know well, there has been a large advance almost all round. Especially has this been the case with the First Folio Shakespeare. In the booklet is quoted Dibdin's remark as to the sum obtained (1217. 16s.) in 1812: "The highest price ever given, or likely to be given, for the book "; yet, as will be remembered, 3,600l. has recently been paid for a copy, and Messrs. Hodgson rightly remark that "he would be a bold man who would say, even now, that the highest limit has been reached.”

How different were the prices obtained when Lilly, of King Street, Covent Garden, was wont to pride himself on having the largest collection of early Shakespeares of any bookseller!

Saunders's first rooms were at 14, Old Compton Street; but in May, 1808, he moved to 39, Fleet Street, formerly the site of "The Mitre Tavern," and exactly opposite the old church of St. Dunstan, where crowds constantly collected, as my father has often told me, to see the two life-size savage figures strike the hour. As mentioned in our obituary notice of Lord Aldenham last week, these were bought by Lord Hertford when the church was pulled down in 1830.

The first sale of importance at the Fleet Street house was that of the library of John Mac Diarmid, author of The Lives of British Statesmen.' This was followed by the dispersal of many other private collections; but the most important of all was the David Garrick Sale, the books being removed for the purpose from his villa at Hampton and his house in Adelphi Terrace. The sale began on Shakespeare's birthday, 1823, and lasted ten days. Among the lots was a copy of Hogarth's works which fetched 100%. It is curious to relate that a few of the books then sold were again sold by the Hodgson firm as recently as February, 1902.

On Lady Day, 1829, Messrs. Hoare the bankers, requiring to extend their premises, bought 39, Fleet Street, and the Hodgson

tected by railings are wholly overgrown with elder trees, and are almost hidden.

On one tomb, of which the pieces are lying heaped together, are names of a somewhat unusual character; and it is in the hope of this catching the eye of some descendant, or other person interested, that I write this note. The names are Alavoine, Delahaize, and Buckworth, and the period of their deaths is c. 1750-80. A coat of arms sculptured in marble lies at one end of the heap, bearing apparently (tinctures undecipherable) (?) a saltire, and in chief (?) three cockle shells (?).

I do not find the two (presumably) Huguenot names in the London Directory or in Rietstap's 'Armorial.' W. C. J.

"EBN OSN."-The British Museum Catalogue suggests that this pseudonym is an anagram of Benson, but the following review from The Monthly Mirror suggests a different explanation :

Attempts at Poetry, or Trifles in Verse. By Ebn Osn. 38. 6d. Greenland. 1807.

Ebn Osn is, we are told, the name of this gentleman, that is, the anagram of it.-Ben jamin Stephen son! and he lives at Pentonville. If he should ever take a walk towards the city, he will find that after passing the brow of the hill, the first turning on the right hand, opposite to Old Street Road, leads directly to St. Luke's! a dwelling far more healthy for him than any at Pentonville.

Halkett and Laing are silent as to this book.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

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"NOM DE GUERRE AND "NOM DE PLUME."-In The Athenæum of 10 August, on p. 146, it is written: "Rossæus, for example, was not the nom de guerre of Reynolds, but the nom de plume." This, I fancy, will be news to Mr. Figgis, the author of the book criticized, as it is to myself; for since I read an article by the late M. Francisque Sarcey some years ago, I have always regarded the latter expression as not being French, though formed of French words. It has probably been used in the vulgar fashion like nom de chien or nom de

pipe, but that would not warrant the reviewer in drawing his fine distinction between the two phrases. JOHN T. CURRY.

SOMERSETSHIRE DIALECT.-The following phrases were found among some old family papers belonging formerly to a Somersetshire lady. Some of them are, I think, curious enough to note; but one cannot say whether they are all strictly in the Somersetshire dialect:

"Nibbles and scrups "cinders. "Scraption" (the least).

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"Giving it to her hot and holy" (a good scolding). one an answer. "She is a most illiterate body: she never gives

"As straight as a candle" (e.g., the dog jumps up on the sofa as straight, &c.).

"There, she's such an illiterate woman, you never can depend on her coming when she's sent for." "She's as wild as a hermit."

until I thought I must a' bursted." "They did go on with their grim-grams [antics]

Scrabble to knit a bit."

"Good'na."

"Ammer a concertina."

"As cross as he can hang together."

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Only half-saved "an idiot.

"They was as thick as butter, as the sayin' is, but now they don't speak."

She been a' tore it to lipputs."

"Don't she look a great piece?" (Of a stout person.) J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

NANA SAHIB AND THE INDIAN MUTINY.— In 1902 a query by myself as to the fate of the notorious Nana Sahib appeared at 9 S. x. 170, but elicited no replies. I may now refer to an article in The Cornhill Magazine for August last, Amongst the Mutiny Cities of India,' which contains a letter from Major-General Harris, who took an active part in the great struggle, and had personally known the Nana. He there gives his strong reasons for believing that the latter died and was burnt in the neighbourhood of Chilari Ghat, a ford on the Upper Grogra river, in November, 1858. So far as I am aware, this comes nearer to a precise statement on the subject than anything that had previously appeared in print. W. B. H.

WET SUMMER: CURIOUS RELIC.-It is worth recording for the benefit of future archeologists that an upright stone pillar in a field immediately above the Brows Farm in Grindleton (W. R. Yorkshire)_was erected some twenty-five years ago, so I am informed, by a man named Harrison, as a memorial of a wet summer, when it rained every day for thirteen weeks.

FRED. G. ACKERLEY. Grindleton Vicarage, Clitheroe.