Notes and Queries, Number 53, November 2, 1850

"Let posterity know, and knowing, be astonished, that on the fifteenth day of September, 1784, Vincent Lunardi of Lucca, in Tuscany, the first aërial traveller in Britain, mounting from the Artillery Ground in London, traversing the regions of the air for two hours and fifteen minutes, in this spot revisited the earth. On this rude monument for ages be recorded, that wondrous enterprise, successfully achieved by the powers of chemistry and the fortitude of man, that improvement in science, which the great Author of all knowledge, patronising by His providence the inventions of mankind, hath graciously permitted to their benefit and His own eternal glory."

    COLL. ROYAL SOC.

Gwyn's London and Westminster (Vol. ii., p. 297.).—A reference to Mr. Croker's Boswell (last edit. 1847, p. 181.) may best satisfy § N. "Gwyn," says Mr. Croker, "proposed the principle, and in many instances the details, of the most important improvements which have been made in the metropolis in our day." Was this copied into the Literary Gazette?

Mr. Sydney Smirke speaks favourably of Gwyn's favourite project, "the formation of a permanent Board or Commission for superintending and controlling the architectural embellishments of London." (Suggestions, &c., 8vo. 1834, p. 23.)

    J.H.M.

Bath.

Gwyn's London and Westminster (Vol. ii., p. 297.).—Under this head § N. inquires, "Will you permit me, through your useful publication, to solicit information of the number and date of the Literary Gazette which recalled public attention to this very remarkable fact:" namely, that stated by Mr. Thomas Hunt, in his Exemplars of Tudor Architecture (Longmans, 1830), to the effect that the Literary Gazette had referred to the work entitled London and Westminster Improved, by John Gwynn. London, 1766, 4to., as having "pointed out almost all the designs for the improvement of London which have been devised by the civil and military architects of the present day."

In answer to the above, your correspondent will find two articles in the Literary Gazette on this interesting subject; the first in No. 473., Feb. 11. 1826, in which it is mentioned that Mr. Gwynn, founding himself in some degree upon the plan of Sir C. Wren, proposed

"To carry a street from Piccadilly through Coventry Street, Sydney's Alley, Leicester Fields, Cranbourn Alley, and so to Long Acre, Queen Street, and Lincolns Inn Fields, and thus afford an easy access to Holborn; he also recommends the widening the Strand in its narrow parts," &c.

I need hardly notice that by the removal of Exeter Change, the alterations near Charing Cross, and the more recent openings from Coventry Street, along the line suggested by Mr. Gwynn, his designs have been so far carried out.

The second paper in the Literary Gazette was rather a long one, No. 532., March 31. 1827. In it Mr. Gwynn's publication is analysed, and all the leading particulars bearing on the "old novelties of our modern improvements" are brought to light.

The whole is worth your reprinting, and at your service, if you will send a copyist to the Literary Gazette office to inspect the volume for 1827.

    W.J., ED.

"Regis ad Exemplum totus componitur Orbis" (Vol. ii., p. 267.).—This hexameter verse, which occurs in collections of Latin apophthegms, is not to be found in this form, in any classical author. It has been converted into a single proverbial verse, from the following passage of Claudian:

"Componitur orbis
Regis ad exemplum: nec sic inflictere sensus
Humanos edicta valent, ut vita regentis."
De IV. Consul. Honor., 299.

    L.

St. Uncumber (Vol. ii., pp. 286. 342.).—Sir Thomas More details in his Dialoge, with his usual quaintness, the attributes and merits of many saints, male and female, highly esteemed in his day, and, amongst others, makes special mention of St. Uncumber, whose proper name, it appears, was Wylgeforte. Of these saints he says—

"Some serve for the eye onely, and some for a sore breast. St. Germayne onely for children, and yet will he not ones loke at them, but if the mother bring with them a white lofe and a pot of good ale: and yet is he wiser than St. Wylgeforte, for she, good soule, is, as they say, served and contented with otys. Whereof I cannot perceive the reason, but if it be bycause she sholde provyde an horse for an evil housebonde to ride to the Devyll upon; for that is the thing that she is so sought for, as they say. In so much that women hath therefore chaunged her name, and in stede of St. Wylgeforte call her St. Uncumber, bycause they reken that for a pecke of otys she will not fayle to uncumber theym of theyr housbondys."—(Quoted in Southey's Colloquies, vol. i. p. 414.)

St. Wylgeforte is the female saint whom the Jesuit Sautel has celebrated (in his Annus Sacer Poeticus) for her beard—a mark of Divine favour bestowed upon her in answer to her prayers. She was a beautiful girl, who wished to lead a single life, and that she might be suffered to do so free from importunity, she prayed earnestly to be rendered disagreeable to look upon, either by wrinkles, a hump on the back, or in any other efficacious way. Accordingly the beard was given her; and it is satisfactory to know that it had the desired effect to the fullest extent of her wishes. (Vid. Southey's Omniana, vol. ii. p. 54., where Sautel's lines are quoted.)

    J.M.B.

West (James), President of Royal Society (Vol. ii., p. 289.).—T.S.D. states there "has certainly never been a president or even a secretary of the Royal Society, of the name of James West." Your readers will remember that West is mentioned by Mr. Cunningham in his London, as having filled the former distinguished office: his statement, which T.S.D. thus contradicts, is perfectly correct.

Mr. West's election took place 30th of November, 1768, and he filled the chair until his death in July, 1772.

    J.H.M.

[Mr. Cooper, of Cambridge, J.G.N., and other correspondents, have called our attention to this oversight.]

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES OF BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

The idea of selecting from the Spectator those papers in which the refined taste of Addison, working on the more imaginative genius of Steele, has embodied that masterpiece of quiet thorough English humour which is exhibited in the portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley, is a most happy one,—so excellent indeed, and when done, it is so obviously well that it is done, that we can only wonder how it is, that, instead of having now to thank Messrs. Longman for the quaintly and beautifully got up volume entitled Sir Roger de Coverley. By the Spectator. The Notes and Illustrations by Mr. Henry Wills: the Engravings by Thompson, from Designs by Fred. Tayler,—as a literary novelty—such a selection has not been a stock book for the last century. Excellent, however, as is the idea of the present volume, it has been as judiciously carried out as happily conceived. Mr. Tayler's designs exhibit a refined humour perfectly congenial with his subject, and free from that tendency to caricature which is the prevailing fault of too many of the comic illustrators of the present day; while the pleasant gossiping notes of Mr. Wills furnish an abundance of chatty illustration of the scenes in which Sir Roger is placed, and the localities he visited, and so enable us to realise to ourselves, in every respect, Addison's admirable picture of the worthy knight, "in his habit as he lived." May we add that, on looking through these amusing notes, we were much gratified to find Mr. Wills, in his illustration of the passage, "his great-grandfather was inventor of that famous country-dance called after him," speaking of "the real sponsor to the joyous conclusion of every ball" as having "only been recently revealed, after the most vigilant research," since that revelation, with other information contained in the same note, was procured by that gentleman through the medium of "NOTES AND QUERIES."

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BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE

T. NAOGEONGUS—REGNUM PAPISTICUM. 8vo. 1553.

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