96
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. A. 2, 1913.
Illegitimacy in the Middle Ages (11 S. viii. 9).—I do not know whether the children of celibate priests were ever legitimated in England. They certainly were in Scotland. On 24 February, 1527/8, William and George Gordon, the bastard sons of Mr. Adam Gordon, Dean of Caithness, were legitimated ('Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland,' No. 3902). The descendants of the latter, the Gordons of Wardhouse, now mostly located in Spain, are very staunch Roman Catholics. One of them, the Rev. Pedro Gordon (d. 1907), was principal of Stonyhurst.
Though Scotland is not specifically inquired about, your correspondent may like to be referred to Dr. David Hay Fleming's 'Reformation in Scotland' (London, 1910). Appendix B (pp. 540-69) gives a series of lists of legitimations of children of the celibate clergy between 1529 and 1559. These lists have to be considered with the limitations set forth by Dr. Hay Fleming.
In England there Was, so far as I remember, no procedure of legitimation known to the law short of an Act of Parliament. And I imagine that it is only in countries subject to the civil law that it will be any use seeking for such particulars as are desired. Q. V.
Theatre lit by Gas (11 S. vii. 469; viii. 10).—In a note to 'Rejected Addresses,' either Horace or James Smith tells us that Lord Byron once challenged him to sing alternately the praises of a certain charming actress (Mrs. Mardyn). In one of the stanzas occur the lines
Out, out, alas! ill-fated gas,
That shin'st round Covent Garden,
Thy ray how flat, compared with that
From eye of Mrs. Mardyn!
Lord Byron, I think, left England in or about 1816. C. L. S.
In suggesting that Byron may have seen Covent Garden Theatre lit by gas in May, 1821, Mr. Alan Stewart must be unaware of the fact, as I stated in my former reply, that the poet left this country for Italy in 1816, and never set foot in it again to the day of his death, so that even Mr. Weller's "double-barrelled binoculars" would have been of no avail.
With regard to the points raised in the latter part of Mr. Stewart's reply, it is unquestionable that the Winsor exhibitions to which I alluded were conducted at the Lyceum Theatre, which from 1772 to 1830 stood in the Strand till it was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt in 1834 in Wellington Street on the site where it now stands. Mr. Stewart will find full particulars in Austin Brereton's admirable history of the Lyceum. Willoughby Maycock.
At the commencement of the Covent Garden season on 1 Oct., 1823, the theatre was lit with gas manufactured within the building. The experiment, however, was not attended with any very conspicuous success, as appears by the following announcement contained in the playbills from 6 to 14 Nov. inclusive:—
"The public is respectfully informed that the Gas is entirely removed from the Dress Circle, which will in future be illuminated with Wax."
On the 14th the house suddenly closed, and a bill was issued stating that, the proprietors finding that the introduction of gas into the auditorium of the theatre produced an offensive odour, and the public having suffered inconvenience, it had been determined to remove the gas. There had, in fact, been an explosion, by which two workmen were killed.
The theatre remained closed until 29 Nov., the company acting, during the interval, at the Lyceum. On the reopening the playbills contained the following announcement:
"The Gasometers and Apparatus for making Gas are destroyed, and no more Gas will be manufactured within the walls of the Theatre.
"The Circles of Boxes will be illuminated with Wax.
"The Lights in the front of the Stage, and of every internal avenue to Box, Pit, and Galleries, will be the purest Oil."
Wm. Douglas.
125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.
Thatch Fires (11 S. viii. 6. 75).—Mr. Douglas Owen may like to know that the "heavy iron shackles" which he describes as being preserved with the thatch hooks in the porch of Bere Regis Church, and the use of which he failed to learn, are evidently the shackles which were attached to the centre of the long and heavy poles thirty or forty feet on which the hooks were mounted. These shackles enabled the poles to be slung, battering-ram wise, from a tripod of poles, the only way in which they could be worked. A pair of such poles, with hooks, &c., complete, is preserved under the tower of Raunds Church, Northants.
Thos. M. Blagg, F.S.A.
