SOME NOTABLE “FINDS.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3993, 23 September 1930, Page 68

SOME NOTABLE “FINDS.”

A NEW ZEALAND BOOK LOVER’S DISCOVERIES.

MR FILDES’S GOOD LUCK.

Beyond doubt, all friends in New Zealand of Mr Horace Fildes will be interested to know what he has lately been doing and to hear of a number of interesting “ finds ” which he has made during his travels in England, writes our London correspondent.

What he describes as the most interesting discovery to himself personally was his view of the practically unknown memorial erected by Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, Bart., to Captain Cook, at Vache Park, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. Strange to say, this striking memorial does not appear to have been known to any of Cook’s biographers, and yet it is referred to in one of the many editions of Cook’s voyages published in the last years of the eighteenth century, and then, with the exception of a print of it made about 60 years ago, sank into oblivion until resurrected in an article which Mr Fildes wrote on Cook in 1922. In an article which he wrote for the New Zealand News (July 22 issue) Mr Fildes gave the accompanying interesting description:—

Cook’s death must have- profoundly affected Sir Hugh, for the monument is erected in front of the manor, and an uninterrupted view is given >f it, distant about 400 yards. It is on a mound, surrounded by a small moat, access being obtained over a small bridge. It comprises an old four-sided brick tower with open arches on each side, each side measuring five paces, and its height is quite four times its width. From the bridge an ascending path leads to the 'rear of the monument, and here we are confronted with the inscriptive memorial, set in the centre of the tower, and on a floor of black and red tiles. This is a block of stone, five feet high, each face >f it being two feet in width. This is surmounted by a marble globe, and at its pedestal or neck is an armorial bearing, a shield and upraised and bent arm, the hand clasping a weapon or some other emblem. On the opposite side is a space for another, but whatever was there has disappeared. Three of the sides of the block of stone are wholly taken up with the eulogy of the circumnavigator and were written by

another naval friend of his; the fourth side is taken up to two-thirds of its extent. The rear face reading commences with these words, cut into the stone and blackened: “To the memory of Captain James Cook, the ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced,” etc., etc. The tower is picturesquely overgrown with ivy and climbing roses, the four arches being open and free of them, and is surmounted with a flag pole and halyards, and from the inside a flight of wooden steps gives access to the roof. Here, looking out from its four battlemented sides, a wonderful view of Vache Park is obtained, together with a view of the whole front of the old manor house. NOTABLE PURCHASES.

Mr Fildes has also seen in London an original water colour by James Webber, the draftsman on board the Resolution on Cook’s last voyage, of Queen Charlotte Sound, depicting the landing of Cook, and his reception by the Maoris. This water colour is not reproduced in Webber’s “Views in the South Seas,” 1808, and to his mind is more interesting than the published one. Mr Fildes has obtained two photostats of rare Cook items. One is of a generally unknown letter written by Cook from Ayton, on January 3, 1772, and addressed to Captain William Hammond, Hull. It is the more interesting in that it advises that the great captain was a horse rider, and that, at that time, he understood the second ship in his impending second voyage would be named the Adventurer, and not the Adventure. This valuable letter is owned by Mr R. Lionel Foster, a Yorkshireman now resident at Folkestone, who, 40 years ago, visited New Zealand, and, among other things, experienced a thrilling descent down the Wanganui River in a Maori-propelled war canoe.

Altogether, Mr Fildes has obtained over 100 New Zealand items, books, prints, etc., to add to his already large collection, and among them are a letter written by Mr W. E. Gladstone to the Rev. C. Coleridge, dated 1843, in which he makes reference to New Zealand; a coloured lithograph of H.M.S. Calliope, of Samoan hurricane and Westport coal incident; several tinted prints of Christchurch, Lyttelton, the Pilgrim Ships, and Canterbury Plains, 1850-8; a large album of New Zealand photographs. 1875, the Maori ones being particularly interesting; Gilfillan’s lithograph of Putiki Pa, which has been- sent to a gentleman at Wanganui; Heaphy’s coloured lithograph of Lambton Har-, bour, 1841, obtained for a few shillings; a gift of a photograph of a painting of Captain Sir J. Everard Horne, Bart., commander of H.M.S. North Star, who is so much referred to in Wakefield’s “ Adventure in New Zealand ”; a curious French publication on New" Zealand, printed in 1831; an invitation card to an exhibition of etchings of Charles Meryon, held in London, 1879, having etched thereon a head portrait of the j famous French artist, with his emblematic initials below it, quite the most pleasing portrait of Meryon Mr Fildes has seen. It is well known that Meryon was a naval cadet on the French corvette L’Rhin when she visited New Zealand in 1842, and subsequently made several etchings of places and things seen there. A choice little item is Thatcher’s “ Invercargill Minstrel,” the first of the New Zealand series, all of which were'ignored by Dr Hocken in his Bibliography of New Zealand Literature, notwithstanding he was introduced into “ The Otago Songster,” 1803. A little work on crime, published over 60 years ago, has an account of Norfolk Island convicts on the brig Wellington overpowering the guard and crew, seizing the vessel, and taking her to Cloudy Bay, where they in turn were subjugated by the captain of a whaling ship, assisted by local Maoris. This narrative, however, circumstantially given, is not in accordance with what was recorded at the time, 1827, but it has long been stated that Wellington Head, Tory Channel, derived its name from the incident, which history ascribes to the Bay of Islands. One more interesting item obtained—and there are others—is a New Zealand war medal of silver given to Seaman R. Allen, H.M.S. Harrier, 1863-4.

If one had the time, there is opportunity in London of transcribing much old New Zealand history, so far as Mr Fildes knows, not available in New Zealand. Most of his “ finds ” were got away from JLondon, and he still has 10 weeks to make further discoveries before leaving on his return to New Zealand.