and Mr. R. A. Walker one of that of Henry WE WE are informed that Messrs. B. H. Black Stuart Brown. Modern well, Ltd., of Oxford, have recently THE correspondent of the Observer at Rome purchased the complete library of the late reports (on Oct. 9) that semi-official J. B. Bury, Regius Professor of announcement has been made of the Pope's History in the University of Cambridge, and intention to build a palace within the Vati- will issue in the course of October a sale catacan gardens, expressly and exclusively for logue of the books, which include a great holding the Conclave. The present arrangenumber dealing with Byzantine History. ments on the occasion of the election of a new Pope are so complicated, and, in the hurry which accompanies them, so difficult, that they likewise prove exceedingly expensive, and the building of a new palace is reckoned a measure of economy. Seventy apartments will be prepared, with a large chapel for prayers and ceremonies in common. There will be two dining-rooms, in which the more sociable cardinals may, if they choose, dine together an innovation. A picture-gallery draped with red damask and containing many master-pieces, is also being planned. The Papal army will be able to guard the Sacred College in this new compact building more easily than it could in the present scattered apartments. The cost of the new palace is estimated at fifty million lire. ANOTHER small Boswellian find is described in the Times of Oct. 10-a broadside containing Boswell's 'Verses in the Character of a Corsican at Shakespeare's Jubilee at Stratford-on-Avon, Sept. 6, 1769.' It was picked up recently in a Continental town, clean and untrimmed, having emerged, it is suggested, from some old folio, and escaped destruction by reason of bearing the name Shakespeare-indication of marketableness among the English-speaking either side of the Atlantic. For the promoters of that Jubilee of 1769, arranged with so much pains, we must this year feel the acutest sympathy was it not spoiled by torrents of rain and floods? We all know the picture of Boswell dressed as a Corsican chief. A SPECIAL correspondent informs the Morning Post (Oct. 12) that there is a plan toward to make a new thoroughfare to connect Park Lane and Park Street, Mayfair. It has been authorised by the L.C.C., but the Westminster City Council have yet to consider it, and they raise some objections on the ground that the proposed street does not align with Reeves Mews, a thoroughfare running from the opposite side of Park Street. The new street is to be 300ft. long and 50ft. wide. It will be a private thoroughfare, but the L.C.C. reserve right to throw it open as a public highway. Mr. Smith, lately employ'd by the Royal African Company of England to furvey the Coaft of Guiney, is returned, and has brought home the beft Draughts of the Coafts, as alfo Profpects and Plans of all the Bays, Rivers, Capes, Caftles, Forts and Factories on the faid Coaft yet extant. To-morrow the Ladies at Court go out of Bumbazeen Mourning, and the Men leave off wearing Weepers. Latter End of laft Week Mr. Juftice Fortefcue's Superfedeas paffed the Seals; and we hear there will be a private Call of Serjeants very soon, when Spencer Cowper, Efq., will be call'd to that Dignity in order to be made a Judge. . Literary and Historical But neither in the text nor in the title is the name Hobler allowed to appear. On the title-page, however, ascription to Beaufoy is fully made, and his portrait graces the frontispiece. Prominence is here given to the fact that the collection was "" Presented to THE BEAUFOY CABINET OF TOKENS the Corporation Library by Henry Benjamin -ITS COLLECTOR AND ITS CATALOGUE. Hanbury Beaufoy, Citizen & Distiller, Fellow of the Royal and Linnean Societies and Corresponding Member of Numerous Continental Literary and Scientific Associations." The compiler's name is given as Jacob Henry Burn. The brass plate on the cabinet is probably familiar to but few and it may therefore be interesting to record the inscription: THE the Indeed, it must have struck many as curious that Burn, in his long preface to the 2nd edition of 84 pages finds no opportunity to do so much as mention the origin of the collection or the donor's name at all until we come to the very last paragraph, and then only incidentally refers to the latter in phrase "the Beaufoy cabinet has no rival." In the 1st edition the preface has only 43 pages, apart from the additional note on Shop Signs, and here again we only get the passing reference to Beaufoy in the closing paragraph. As for telling us how and when the collection was made and who made it, he is strangely silent; but for this allusion, and the ascription on the title-page, the name of Beaufoy in connection with this munificent gift would have gone unrecorded. LONDON TRADERS : COFFEE HOUSE & TAVERN TOKENS 1644-72 which preceded the Copper Coinage OF KING CHARLES II Presented to the GUILDHALL LIBRARY the greatest COMMERCIAL city in the world BY HENRY BENJAMIN HANBURY BEAUFOY F.R.S. MR. BEAUFOY BY FRANCIS HOBLER. In this last line on a small brass plate, in the cellars of the Guildhall, is the only recognition to the real originator of this collection. How comes it that his name has been so persistently passed over? Once, in the pages of N. & Q.' back in 1891, this mystery was touched upon (7. S. xi. 258). The correspondent was JOHN J. STOCKEN, a well known antiquary, whose obituary notice appeared in N. & Q.' the following year. In this communication he makes this statement with regard to the Beaufoy Cabinet: : This collection was really made by Mr. Francis Hobler, if I mistake not, a member of the Common Council and a solicitor at 30 Walbrook. The following notice in Mr. Hobler's hand, prefixed to a presentation copy [of Burn's catalogue] explains how Mr. Beaufoy's name became connected with these tokens. The inscription which MR. STOCKEN proceeds to quote runs thus: This collection of tokens originally belonged to me, and was classed and enumerated by me, but my friend Mr. Beaufoy having made very considerable donations through me to the City of London School, I presented this collection to the Guildhall Library Committee in the name of Mr. Beaufoy, and as his gift to the City of London; but he never saw them or had any knowledge of them for he was not a collector of coins. The cabinet they are in once belonged to Col. Durrant, a well known coin collector. Signed Fras; Hobler. One would have though that MR. STOCKEN'S statement might have caused some comment, but nothing more was heard of the matter. Having chanced upon this claim of Hobler's, I was curious to find out whether it could be substantiated, and by the courtesy of the Librarian of the Guildhall, Mr. F. L. Douthwaite, I have been allowed to refer to the correspondence which took place with the Library Committee on the occasion of the presentation of the cabinet, and to the subsequent letters addressed to the Committee relating to the publication of the two editions of the catalogue. Judging from these documents it seems clear to me, not only that the collection was made by Hobler, but that the gift was made to the Guildhall Library at Hobler's instigation, and, moreover, that the 1st edition of the Catalogue was produced under his supervision, if it was not actually compiled by him, though no other name but that of Burn appears on the title-page or in the text. We. do certify that we have been favoured, through the medium of Francis Hobler, Esq., with a present from Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy, Esq. F.R.S. of a beautiful cabinet of London Traders and Tavern Tokens.. We beg further to certify that, being attended by Mr. Hobler, he intimated that if we desire to print a catalogue of the Tokens he would be happy to supply us with the requisite materials. This offer was apparently accepted, for no further correspondence is recorded until we come to this, on 29 July, 1851, from Francis Hobler to J. Blades, Esq. (Chairman of Library Committee) : The descriptive catalogue of the Tokens in the Beaufoy Cabinet is now ready to be put into the hands of Mr. Taylor for printing. I want a few pieces out of the cabinet for the purpose of being engraved....if you will be so good as to give the order I wish, I shall be much obliged to you and the work will be for if I greatly expedited; am detained through August it will throw all back at least six weeks. After a lapse of nine months comes a letter from Hobler to L. Houghton, Esq., dated 3 April, 1852, presenting the Committee with a drawing he has had made of "the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street, near Temple Bar, now Messrs. Childs Banking House," and he proceeds to suggest that an interesting memorial to the benevolence of Mr. Beaufoy by introducing in the catalogue, by way of frontispiece, a portrait of Mr. Beaufoy taken from the painting in the City School Com mittee The first edition of the catalogue was published in 1853, and on the eve of publication (6 June, 1853) Hobler writes to Mr. Houghton asking for twenty-five copies of the catalogue, adding "that I make no doubt of your seeing it noticed in a few days hence in one of our most leading journals, to the Editor whereof I am personally known." In justification of this request he says: You must be so kind as not to consider my request an overpowering one. The Corporation has been at no expense in forming the Cabinet which a thousand pounds would not have the Corporation been called upon for now purchase if this were destroyed. Neither the expense of constructing the descriptive for a certain number of Copies, for such concatalogue.. I made no bargain beforehand duct I should consider as treating gentlemen unworthily, but I trust the Committee will let me have them and I shall be very much obliged to them and yourself. These letters show that Francis Hobler was assisting the Committee in the production of the catalogue, whether he actually compiled it himself or not. It would, one would think, have been the most natural thing for him to have done so, as he was the person who made the collection and presumably had the best knowledge of its contents. It does, however, seem doubtful whether he undertook the work, for although J. H. Burn's name had not hitherto been mentioned in connection with the catalogue we find that in making his financial arrangement for editing the 2nd edition he says it was agreed that he was have the same sum as for the first edition." "to After the publication of the 1st edition in 1853 the correspondence between Hobler and the Library Committee ceases, nor is there further mention of his name. Whether he ད 1, 4 ་-} died or fell from grace, or merely retired from the job there is nothing to show. From this point onwards Burn takes control and the 2nd edition seems to have been given over entirely into his hands and thenceforward the correspondence is from Burn. "from an He begins on 4 March, 1854, with a long letter addressed to Mr. Houghton, "crabbing" the plates which had served for the 1st edition. The portrait of Mr. Beaufoy, after Pickersgill, which Hobler had been at pains to get engraved for the frontispiece, he says is a worn bedevilled plate," and expresses himself as "ashamed so scandalous a caricature should have been issued.". The plate of the Devil Tavern engraved by Cleghorn, the drawing for which Hobler had caused to be made authentic source," he declares is " very unsatisfactory," and it will be seen that it was supplanted by one drawn and engraved by Le Keux. Further, he advocates the addition of other illustrations, only one of which-the portrait of Sir Richard Whittington-materialised. The other new plate in the 2nd edition-that of Gerard's Hall crypt-he does not touch upon. At the time that this letter was written the new edition had not actually been entrusted to him, for it is not until three months later that we find an undertaking dated 12 June, 1854, from 29, Bow Street, Covent Garden, and addressed to the Town Clerk as follows: thousand impressions from steel will so little impair the plate that you could then creditably present it to the City School for impressions to be placed in the Prize copies of books presented in that seminary; all points making for the credit of the City Authorities. However, the City fathers appear to have withstood these blandishments, for the same frontispiece appears in the second edition that Hobler was instrumental in prefixing to the first. Burn's claim to have enlarged and improved the book in its 2nd edition can be maintained. He re-wrote and increased the introductory matter from 45 to 95 pages of text. An additional 161 records of tokens were made and annotated, which together with supplementary notes to previously recorded specimens, added another 52 pages to the book. All this he would appear to have accomplished without assistance from Hobler, though the omission of any acknowledgment of Hobler's share in the original edition prevents one from being any too sure of it. However this may be, it is certain that we owe the formation of the collection to Francis Hobler; it was through him that it came to be presented to the Corporation of London, and he was largely instrumental in getting the Corporation to print the very valuable catalogue, even if he had no further hand in the matter. From the correspondence which I have been allowed to quote, it certainly would appear that his share in the production was no small one, and it is with the object of putting these facts on record that I have troubled you with an account of the origins of the Beaufoy Cabinet and its connection, hitherto unadmitted, with Francis Hobler. AMBROSE HEAL. Beaconsfield. |