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."