Lord Fairfax (Vol. ix., p. 380.).—I apprehend that there is nothing in the reply of A Fairfax Kinsman at all calculated to shake the opinion which I expressed touching the barony of Fairfax of Cameron. The case of the earldom of Newburgh, which your correspondent does not even mention, is, I submit, of greater weight than all the "Peerages," and even than the Roll of Scottish Peers. As to the Irish case—that of the Earl of Athlone—I can but repeat my Query. Whether right or wrong, it is not binding on the British House of Lords. The cases of the King of Hanover, the Duke of Wellington, and Earl Nelson, are not in point. His Hanoverian Majesty is not an alien; and though some British subjects may be recognised as peers by foreign states, it does not follow that a foreigner can be a peer of Britain.
H. G.
The Young Pretender (Vol. ix., pp. 177. 231.)—The wife of the Young Pretender was Louisa Maximiliene, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Prince of Scholberg, who was born in 1752, and married in 1772. As a widow, she lived in Paris as the Countess of Albany, but in her drawing-room called herself Queen of Great Britain. She was alive at the time of the death of the Princess Charlotte (Nov. 1817). See Fisher's Companion and Key to History of England, p. 333.
O. S.
Dobney's Bowling-green; Wildman; Sampson, (Vol. ix., p. 375.).—Dobney's, or, more correctly, D'Aubigney's Bowling-green, ceased to be a place of public amusement about the year 1810. It is now occupied by a group of houses called Dobney's Place, near the bottom of Penton Street. The late Mr. Upcott had a drawing of Prospect House (as the building was called), taken about 1780. A hand-bill of the year 1772 (in a volume formerly belonging to Lysons) thus describes the nature of Wildman's performance:
"The Bees on Horseback.—Daniel Wildman rides, standing upright, one foot on the saddle, and the other on the horse's neck, with a curious mask of bees on his face. He also rides standing upright on the saddle, with the bridle in his mouth, and, by firing a pistol, makes one part of the bees march over a table, and the other part swarm in the air, and return to their proper places again."
Sampson, Price, Johnson, and Coningham were celebrated equestrian performers towards the close of the last century. Astley was the pupil of Sampson, and his successor in agility. Bromley, in his Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, mentions a folio engraving of Sampson, without date or engraver's name. It is hardly likely that any life of him was published.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Palæologus (Vol. ix., p. 312.).—Your readers will find, in Oldmixon's West Indies, a later notice of the strange descent and fortunes of this once illustrious family. From Cornwall they appear to have settled in Barbadoes, where it is very possible that with mutilated name the family may yet be found among the "poor whites" (many among them of ancient lineage) of that island.
B.