SEVEN QUERIES.
1. On the 24th February, 1831, was published, at Speenhamland, the first number of the History and Antiquities of Newbury and its Environs. Was this work ever completed? If not, how many numbers were issued.
["The History and Antiquities of Newbury and its Environs, including twenty-eight Parishes situate in the County of Berks, also a Catalogue of Plants found in the Neighbourhood," was completed in 1839, and makes a volume of 340 pages.]
2. Can any information be given as to Hannah Woolley beyond what she gives in the curious autobiographical sketch prefixed to her Gentlewoman's Companion, or a Guide to the Female Sex; 3rd edition. London, 1682, 12mo. Her maiden name she omits to mention; and all she discloses as to her family and fortunes is, that her parents died when she was very young, and that she had suffered "all manner of affliction," "by loss of husband, children, friend, estate."
3. Amongst Mr. C. K. Sharpe's MSS. was sold The Force of Love, or the Ephesian Matron; a Dramatick Poem, in Three Parts. From a playbill, which was pasted on the fly-leaf, it seems that this drama was produced for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, at the theatre in Sadler Street, Durham, April 7, 1777. The performance was "gratis;" but 2s. 6d., 2s., and 1s., for boxes, pit, and gallery, were charged for the "Concert of Music." The title was changed into the Matron of Ephesus, and the authorship was ascribed to Mr. Wallace. No notice either of play or author occurs in the Biographia Dramatica.
4. Does any MS. of the Conquest of China, a tragedy, by Sir Robert Howard, exist? I have in my library a scene written by the Earl of Rochester for the author, and which, so far as I can trace, from the very defective state of the libraries of the north, was never printed. It is a beautiful MS., and some of the lines possess considerable vigour. It is written in rhyme.
5. Who was the author of the History of Faction, alias Hypocrisy, alias Moderation, from its first Rise, down to its present Toleration in these Kingdoms? &c. London, 1705, 8vo.
6. Where can the fourth and concluding(?) number of Wright's History of Ludlow be obtained?
[Only three Parts have been published. The last was issued in 1847.]
7. Can you inform me who was the translator of—