250
NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. v. SEPT., 1919.
Robertson, the Dublin miniaturist, was
named Walter, and is known as " Irish
Robertson," apparently to distinguish him
from the three brothers Robertson, who
belonged to Aberdeenshire. He went to
America in 1783, and subsequently to India,
where he died. Bryan gives a very skimpy
paragraph on him in his encyclopaedic work
on ' Engravers.' It would be interesting to
- know if anything more has recently come to
light. J. M. BULLOCH.
37 Bedford Square, W.C.
DICKENS'S TOPOGRAPHICAL SLIPS (12 S. v. 37, 136, 164, 187, 222). No doubt a great part of Dickens' s success is due to the fact that he is so human, therefore, like all man- kind , he is liable to error. But, after all, what do these little " slips " matter to us? There is apparently a trivial one in ' Scotland Yard,' one of the ' Sketches by Boz,' according to 4 Old and New London' (vol. ii.) the first stone of London Bridge was laid by the Right Hon. John Garratt, Lord Mayor, and not " by a Duke the King's brother."
J. ARDAGH.
METAL MORTARS (12 S. v. 209). If J. W. SWITHINBANK refers to the following articles on ' Domestic and other Mortars,' the in- formation required will be obtained : Anti- quary, August, September, November, and December, 1897; The Chemist and Druggist, January and July, 1903, January, 1904, and July, 1907; The Connoisseur, August, 1906; The Spatula, April, 1914.
W. J. M.
INSCRIPTIONS IN ST. JOHN THE EVANGE- LIST'S, WATERLOO ROAD : R. W. ELLISTON'S PLACE OF EDUCATION (12 S. v. 63, 135, 193, 216). Charles Lamb, in ' Essays of Elia,' Second Series; ' Ellistoniana' (published 1831) gives a clear indication when he apostrophises his late friend :
" Thou wert a scholar, and an early ripe one, under the roofs builded by the munificent and pious Colet. For thee the Pauline muses weep. In elegies that shall silence this crude prose, they shall celebrate thy praise."
W. B. H.
THE HOUGHTON MEETING (12 S. v. 154). SIR WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK seems to be correct in his surmise. Sir Robert Walpole held a " hunting congress " of the neigh- bouring gentry at Houghton, in the Novem- ber of every year. Horace Walpole has a description of such a " congress." The name and the season would be chosen in his honour for the Newmarket meeting.
GEORGE MARSHALL.
PORTRAITS ON GRAVESTONES (12 S. ii. 210,
277, 377, 459; Hi. 14). The Rev. T. D.
Whitaker, LL.D., in his ' History of Rich-
mondshire,' ii. (1823), 452-3, writes :
" In the churchyard [of Garstang, Lancashire! near the east end of the church, is a stone, in length BIX feet seven inches, breadth two feet one nch. On it is a nude cumbent figure in mezzo relievo, with the hands joined on the breast. At the head is inscribed :
LEONARD FOSTER, BURIED NOVEMBER, AN. 1631. The man, as it appears by the parish register, died of the plague, and his tomb deserves to be mentioned, as containing the last specimen, which I am aquainted with; of an attempt to sculpture the human form on a gravestone."
Is any later specimen known? J. W. F.
"PRO PELLE CUTEM" (12 S. v. 93, 132, 164, 217). I surmise that as cutis regularly means human skin and pellis non-human hide, the motto " pro pelle cut em " means : " (We risk) human life to get seal-skin," or: " We pay for the seal's hide with suffering (danger, &c.) to our own skin."
Juv. x. 192, and Hor., Epod. 17.22, are two passages in which pellis is used with deliberate significance of human skin deterior- ated and coarsened. H. K. ST. J. S.
" APOCHROMATIC " (12 S. v. 209). " Apochromatic " is clearly compounded of the prefix " apo " and the word " chromatic," which is derived from the Greek word chroma with the long o. F. DE H. L.
COL. COLQUHOUN GRANT (12 S. iv. 326; v. 54). There were three contemporary, officers of this name : ( 1 ) Colquhoun Grant, M.D., Surgeon to the 74th Foot in 1832, from Apr. 16, 1812; (2) Major-General Sir (John) Colquhoun Grant, M.P., a Cavalry officer, who fought at Waterloo; and (3) Lieut. - Col. Colquhoun Grant, who is the man wanted, of whom Sir John Philipparfc's Royal Military Calendar,' 3rd ed., 1820, says :
"Ensign, llth Foot, Sept. 9, 1795; Lieut., April 5, 1796; Capt., Nov. 19, 1801; Brev.-Maj., May 30, 1811; Brev. Lt.-Col., May 19, 1814, and Maj., llth Foot, Oct. 13 following; he is now on the half-pay of the llth foot. He served as an Assist.-Quar.- Mast.-Gen. in Spain and Portugal : he also served in Flanders and was present at the battle of Waterloo."
I can carry his career a little further (from the Army Lists) by adding that he was on half -pay of major llth Foot, 1816 to 1821, and junior lieutenant -colonel 54th Foot, Nov. 25, 1821, till he re ired Dec. 24 or 25, 1829. He was made a C.B. 1822, and was living twenty years later (Dod's ' Peerage,' 1842). W. R. WILLIAMS.
