Notes and Queries, Number 226, February 25, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 226, February 25, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Buonaparte's Abdication_ (Vol. ix., p. 54.).--In an article on this
subject, after referring to Wilkinson's shop on Ludgate Hill, your
correspondent states that "Wilkinson's shop does not now exist." In justice
to ourselves, we trust you will insert this letter, as such a remark may be
prejudicial to us. Having sold our premises on Ludgate Hill to the Milton
Club, we have removed our establishment to No. 8. Old Bond Street,
Piccadilly.
As regards the table spoken of, your informant must be labouring under some
strange error. We do not remember ever having, or pretending to have, the
original table on which the Emperor Napoleon signed his abdication. Many
years ago, a customer of ours lent us a table with some such plate as you
describe, which he had had made abroad from the original, for us to copy
from; and after this we made and sold several, but only as copies. We
cannot charge our memory with the correctness of the inscription you
publish; and, moreover, we believe the words "a fac-simile," or something
to that effect, were engraved as a heading to those made by us.
CHAS. WILKINSON & SONS.
8. Old Bond Street.
[We willingly give insertion to this disclaimer from so respectable a
firm as MESSRS. WILKINSON & SONS; from which it appears that our
correspondent A CANTAB has not made "when found, a _correct_ note" of
the fac-simile. Another correspondent has favoured us with the
following additional notices of the original table: "On Dec. 8, 1838, I
saw the table on which Napoleon signed his abdication at the Chateau of
Fontainebleau, on which there are two scratches or incisures said to
have been made by him with a penknife. These injuries upon the surface
of the table were so remarkable as to attract my attention, and I
inquired about them of the attendant. He said Napoleon, when excited or
irritated, was in the habit of handling and using anything which lay
beside him, perhaps to allay mental agitation; and that he was
considered to have so used a penknife, and disfigured the table."]
_Burton Family_ (Vol. ix., p. 19.).--I know not whether E. H. A. is
interested about the Burtons of Shropshire. If he is, he will find an
interesting account of them in _A Commentary on Antoninus his Itinerary,
&c. of the Roman Empire, so far as it concerneth Britain_, &c.: London,
1658, p. 136.
CLERICUS (D.).
_Drainage by Machinery_ (Vol. viii., p. 493.).--E. G. R. will perhaps find
what he wants on this subject in Walker's
"Essay on Draining Land by the Steam Engine; showing the number of
Acres that may be drained by each of Six different-sized Engines, with
Prime Cost and Annual Outgoings: London, 1813, 8vo., price 1s. 6d."
He will find a complete history of the drainage of the English fens in Sir
William Dugdale's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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