Notes and Queries | Page 2

obscenity, and impudent imposture, bearing on their title-pages
various names, but written by "John Gadbury, Student in Physic and

Astrology," were dated from "my house, Brick Court, Dean's Yard,
Westminster;" or this slightly varied, occasionally being, "Brick Court,
near the Dean's Yard," &c. I have not seen a complete series of
Gadbury's _Almanacks_, but those I refer to range from 1688 to 1694
(incomplete). His burial in St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1704, is
noticed by Mr. Cunningham, at p. 313. As brick was then only used in
the more costly class of domestic buildings, this would seem to indicate
that prophecy was then a lucrative trade; and that the successor and
pupil of the "arch-rogue, William Lilly" was quite as fortunate in his
speculations as his master had been. It is a truth as old as society itself,
that "knaves grow rich while honest men starve." Whilst Gadbury was
"wallowing in plenty," the author of Hudibras was perishing for want
of a crust!
P. 153. _Denzil Street._--Here, about the middle of the street, on the
south side, lived Theophilus Holdred, a jobbing watchmaker, whose
name will always hold a place in one department of mathematical
history. He discovered a method of approximating to the roots of
numerical equations, of considerable ingenuity. He, however, lost in his
day and generation the reputation that was really due to him for it, by
his laying claim to more than he had effected, and seeking to deprive
other and more gifted men of the reputation due to a more perfect
solution of the same problem. He was, indeed, brought before the
public as the tool of a faction; and, as the tools of faction generally are,
he was sacrificed by his own supporters when he was no longer of any
use to them.
I once called upon him, in company with Professor Leyburn, of the
Royal Military College, but I forget whether in 1829 or 1830. We
found him at his bench--a plain, elderly, and heavy-looking personage.
He seemed to have become "shy" of our class, and some time and some
address were requisite to get him to speak with any freedom: but
ultimately we placed him at his ease, and he spoke freely. We left him
with the conviction that he was the _bonâ fide_ discoverer of his own
method; and that he had no distinct conception, even then, of the
principle of the methods which he had been led by his friends to claim,
of having also discovered _Horner's_ process before Horner himself
had published it. He did not (ten years after the publication of Horner's
method) even then understand it. He understood his own perfectly, and

I have not the slightest doubt of the correctness of his own statement, of
its having been discovered by him fifty years before.
P. 166. _Dulwich Gallery._--This is amongst the unfortunate
consequences of taking lists upon trust. Poor Tom Hurst[1] has not
been in the churchyard these last eight years--except the three last in his
grave. The last five years of his life were spent in a comfortable asylum,
as "a poor brother of the Charterhouse." He was one of the victims of
the "panic of 1825;" and though the spirit of speculation never left him,
he always failed to recover his position. He is referred to here, however,
to call Mr. Cunningham's attention to the necessity, in a _Hand-book_
especially, of referring his readers correctly to the places at which
tickets are to be obtained for any purpose whatever. It discourages the
visitor to London when he is thus "sent upon a fool's errand;" and the
Cockney himself is not in quite so good a humour with the author for
being sent a few steps out of his way.
P. 190. _Rogers_--a Cockney by inference. I {291} should like to see
this more decidedly established. I am aware that it is distinctly so stated
by Chambers and by Wilkinson; but a remark once made to me by Mrs.
Glendinning (the wife of Glendinning, the printer, of Hatton Garden)
still leads me to press the inquiry.
P. 191.--The Free Trade Club was dissolved before the publication of
this edition of the Handbook.
P. 192.--And to Sir John Herschel, on his return from the Cape of Good
Hope.
P. 210. _Royal Society._--From a letter of Dr. Charles Hutton, in the
Newcastle Magazine (vol. i. 2nd series), it appears that at the time of Dr.
Dodd's execution the Fellows were in the habit of adjourning, after the
meetings, to Slaughter's Coffee House, "to eat oysters," &c. The
celebrated John Hunter, who had attempted to resuscitate the ill-fated
Doctor, was one of them. "The Royal Society Club" was instituted by
Sir Joseph Banks.
P. 221. _Hanover Square._--Blank date.
P. 337. _Millbank Prison._--It was designed, not by "Jeremy Bentham,"
but by