Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-05
STUDY MANUSCRIPTS
Commission Porting Over
Many Old Volumes.
SOME RARE DOCUMENTS
LIVELY sPEcULATIoNs OVER THE
AsCoLI COPE.
"Reminiscences Of Explorer Stanley's
Lecture to Royalty-Irving's Fare
well Tour Of England.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence OF Inc Evening star.
LONDON, September q, 1904.
The historical manuscripts commission Is
an indefatigable body. Every one else In
the official world has gone on holiday, but
here Is the commission pouring forth vol
ume after volume. a day or two ago 1t
was Lord Salisbury's manuscripts. Now 1t
is some of those in the Royal Institution.
America would give much for the insti-
tuition documents, as they are nothing less
than the Carleton papers. that is, the head
quarter papers Of the successive British
commanders n-chief in the American war
of independence. The papers belonged to
Morgan, the secretary to Sir Guy Carleton.
afterward Lord Dorchester, during the last
years of the war; BY Morgan they were
given to John Symons, and by Symons to
the Royal Institution in 1904. The complete
collection comprised fifty-eight bound vol
umes and four cases or rolls. While the
official correspondence of the commander
in-chief with the state departments Is In
the public record office, his instructions to
subordinate officers and their letters to him
are not generally found elsewhere than in
this collection.
Dipping into the Carleton papers one
comes across some quaint passages. A
personal touch is given by some few trades
mems accounts to Sir Guy Carleton for
groceries, tailoring, domestic servants,
wages ana S1OIIlnS IOT al orphan VI lWO-
Tea varies from los. to 24s. a pound, pow
dered sugar, Is. Sd. macaronf, IS. Cd. sage.
6S.; truff1eS, fl 16s pound; white pepper,
S.; ham and Gloucester cheese. both IS. a
pound a bottle of mushrooms, rs; OF
capers, los: of mustard, 6s.; lemons are SIS.
a dozen, a ball of Irvine usually IS, and
large bottle of rosewater lis. His BARRIERS
bill for two months appears at t2 SIS. Cd
powder being IS. a pound, pot of poma-
tum Is. and a toothbrush IS. Cd. A hair
ribbon appears elsewhere at 6s.. thread
stockings at 6s Sd. and yard of white
satin at fl. The letters from the treasury
give some idea of the great pressure in fur
nishinG the supplies required by the forces.
hampered their lordships were by lack
of conveyance. combination Of workmen.
carelessneSs of paymasters, CONFUSION or
accounts and by fraudulent contractors.
This reads like quite modern chapter.
Thames Boating Season Closed.
The upper Thames season may really be
said to close this week, a sure sign Of the
passing Of summer. Households are rapid
ly being dismantled and punts and skiffs
slowed away for the winter. The Shiplake
regatta on Monday was the last aquatic
event of any Importance for the year. or
course, the big regattas of clubs like the
London, Thames and the Iris have yet to
come but they are purely racing events
and do not attract the family parties or
the summer girl like the punting and
boating fixtures, which are, almost prim-
arily, great river picnics.
The visitors, too who had taken houses
ON the Thames banks for the season are
coming back to town, and such places as
Cookham. NARROW and Bourne End will
relapse into the normal quiet of river
side yillages. This years river season has
been perhaps, the most brilliant on record
thanks to the beautiful weather of the sum-
mer and autumn and the happy fortune of
brilliant week-ends. But a still greater fac
tor was a suddenly increased Reorganization
y -
beauties of their river. This season very
large number of people have spent their
summer holidays either in camps or
houseboats or the rapidly inereas-
PLY, boatmen and riparian innkeepers are
growing to learn that the outrageous prices
which used to prevail are an anachronism,
and that tt the Thames is to becomes the
great holiday ground of Londoners their
charges must be reasonable.
Cope Of Ascon.
Among the lively speculations as to the
past and the future Of the cope of Ascolf.
which threatens to be something of shirt
Of Nessus about the herculean but embar-
raised shoulders Of Mr.. P1erpont Morgan,
there Is an Italian view which refers Its
original possession not to Nicholas w, who
presented 1t in 1888 to the incumbent of the
see of Ascoll his native city, but to NichOl-
as III, one Of hts predecessors.
If this view be accepted. there Is pas
sage in Dante'S Inferno which attains
special Significance. Dante makes Nicholas
III O tenant of one Of the most exquisitely-
tortured corners of the eighth circle of
hell. The tormented pontin Is represented
as explaining to Dante that he was Of the
house of the Orsini. ''son of the she
bear" who had been pope, and had been
vested with "dei gran manto." what Cary
calls a mighty mantle" By this he Is as
sumed to refer to the cope, which In
papal generation or two found its way to
Ascoll, and now enjoys an uncertain resting
place at the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London, as loan from Mr.. Morgan.
The fate Of Nicholas III In In lurid con-
trast to that of his immediate predecessor,
John XXI (Peter of SPAIN. man Of great
genius and of extraordinary attachments
whom Dante locates In his Paradise In
the heaven OF the sun. among the Spirit
ssapientf, the doctors Of the church, together