The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson Page A

time when he was happy to forgo the sights and smells of old documents in favour of a powerful search engine.   He knew it would have otherwise taken far too long to physically find all the information the society had on the five Fellows they had come to learn about.   Jean sat at one of the keyboards and Tayte sat beside her with his laptop.   It only took a few minutes to get set up and logged in.
    “So, who are we looking for?” Dattani said, sitting at the keyboard opposite Jean, clearly intending to help.
    Tayte had no problem with that.   It would be easy to miss something given the time constraints and three heads were definitely better than two under the circumstances.   He brought Dattani up to date on their findings at Kew, telling him about the fate of the five men and the charges of high treason.
    “It doesn’t surprise me,” Dattani said.   He tapped at his keyboard.   “I just entered ‘Jacobite’ into the search field of our Library and Archive Catalogues.   There are twenty names listed - John Byrom, Robert Harley, Voltaire.   Even Sir Christopher Wren is reputed to have held secret Jacobite meetings after lectures.”
    Tayte read out the names and dates from his notebook and Dattani confirmed they were all on the list.
    “In what context?” Tayte asked.
    “Let’s see,” Dattani said.   A moment later he added, “The Screw Plot.   1708.”
    “I know a little about that,” Jean said.   “It was at St Paul’s Cathedral.”
    Dattani nodded.   “They were arrested for plotting to assassinate Queen Anne, accused of loosening the screws in the support beams above the Queen’s seating area.”
    Jean looked incredulous.   “But it was proved to be a hoax.   Something the Tories used to discredit the Whigs.   The loose screws were attributed to poor construction work.”
    “I really couldn’t say,” Dattani said.   “But I do know that Dr Bartholomew Hutton was Physician in Ordinary to several members of the Royal Stuart family at one time or another.   He attended Anne during the five years leading up to her Coronation.   I’m sure you’re right.   I can’t think why he would have been caught up in an attempt on Queen Anne’s life.”
    Tayte and Jean exchanged glances.   It sounded like an all too easy setup.   But why?  
    “He was into anagrams if I’m not mistaken.” Dattani continued.
    “Anagrams?” Tayte repeated.
    Dattani nodded.   “They were very popular in his day, what with the likes of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.   They formed a group called the Scriblerus Club.   But that was in 1712.   Four years too late for Dr Hutton.   Although I’d be surprised if he didn’t know them.”  
    They each began to feed the names into the archive search engine.
    “Given the dates,” Dattani said.   “We need only concern ourselves with the Philosophical Transactions.   That was the Royal Society’s publication at the time.   It first appeared in 1665 - the oldest English language journal in the world.”
    Tayte was already looking at a scanned image on his laptop.   It bore the lavish title, ‘ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS.   Giving Some ACCOUNT of the Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the INGENIOUS in many Considerable Parts of the WORLD.   VOL. XXIII.   For the Years 1701, 1702.’
    Tayte began his search with the Reverend Naismith, whose field of research was mathematical statistics.   Several results were returned and he noted that the majority were letters.   As he read the heading for the first matching entry, which was entitled ‘Some New Observations Drawn from the Constant Regularity Observ’d in the Mortality of Infant Births’, he knew this was going to take some time.
      
    Heading east along the busy Mile End Road near Stepney Green, a man in a smart grey suit was driving a silver Ford Mondeo, killing time in the traffic.
    Waiting.
    If you’re going to steal a car, he thought. You do it no more than an hour before you