Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/263

 I. MARCH 12.19N.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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plague, and his wife and one of his maids sick, and himself shut up." This was on 6 August, 1666. On the 9th the diarist records the death of Rawlinson's wife, the continued illness of the maid, and that Raw- linson himself was compelled to quit the house. Pepys does not, however, appear to be quite correct in his statements with regard to the mortality of the Rawlinsons. See on this point Burn's ' Beaufoy Tokens,' No. 444, note. If his relatives succumbed, Rawlinson's efforts with respect to the preservation of his own health seem to have Been crowned with success, for on 8 September, 1667, Pepys me him in Fenchurch Street, where he had been inspecting the ruins of his house and shop upon the site of which, as it has been re marked, the present premises were erected.

Daniel Rawlinson, senior, kept the " Mitre Tavern," which at the death of Charles I was changed by him to the "Mourning Mitre,' the site being now occupied by Mitre Cham bers, at No. 157, Fenchurch Street, and on the opposite side to the "Three Sugar Loaves and Crown." Here he "strove amain anc got a good estate." A man of philanthropic disposition, he rebuilt Hawkshead Schools in 1675, and a portrait of him was formerly to be seen there. A monument was erected to his memory in St. Dionis Backchurch, where he was buried. Sir Thomas Kawlinson wa Lord Mayor in 1706. In 1763 the "Three Sugar Loaves and Crown" was known by the style of Rawlinson, Davison & Newman, and it must have been the firm as it was then constituted that shipped the fatal con- signment of tea, destined when received at Boston to be seized and turned into the sea, in token of American disapproval of Lord North's nominal tax. From 1777 to the present^ time the "Three Sugar Loaves and Crown " has been known as Davison, Newman &Co.

The sugar-loaf as a sign was originally con- fined to grocers and confectioners, and was probably adopted for the simple reason that at the period in which the sign is first en- countered sugar was the article on which the least profit was made, a sugar-loaf being exhibited as an inducement to custom.

J. HOLDEN MAC-MICHAEL.

^ Doubtless this query has reference to No. 44, Fenchurch Street, a very old grocery firm, which, until four or five years ago, presented the same appearance as it did during the eighteenth century. John Cam- den Hotten, in his ' History of Signboards,' London, 1866, thus describes it :

''At No. 44, Fenchurch Street, a very old-estab- lished grocery firm still carries 011 business under

the sign of the ' Three Sugar Loaves.' The house ! presents much the same appearance it had in the last century, with the gilt sugar loaves above the doorway, and is one of the few places of business in London conducted in the ancient style. The small old-fashioned window panes, the complete absence of all show and decoration, the cleanliness of the interior, and the quiet order of the assistants in their long white aprons betoken the respectable old tea warehouse, and impress the passer-by with a complete conviction as to the genuineness of its articles."

Another old-fashioned custom I observed during the many years I dealt there was the serving of customers direct from the cases or tubs in which the tea and sugar were imported, and without the paper.

E^TERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

OUR OLDEST PUBLIC SCHOOL (10 th S. i. 166). G. T. mentions King's School, Canter- bury, as the oldest public school. I am aware that it is so stated in the 'Public School Register,' but on what documentary evidence is not apparent. I suspect that the "fact" is speculative, and merely based on the connexion of Church and education.

Warwick claims to be one of the oldest schools. Founded in remote times, it received five royal charters, viz., from Edward the Confessor, William I., William II., Henry L, and Henry VIII. In the royal charter of 1042 the school is spoken of as "ancient" then, but as to its real founder, whether ^Ethelfleda or Gutheline, in the ninth or first century, it is futile now to speculate. This gives Warwick (only counting from 1042) more than 300 years start of Winchester, which cannot lay claim with justice to be the oldest "public" school. No doubt can be thrown on the character of the school at Warwick ; it was the forerunner of the Elizabethan "grammar" schools, not a choir school or a mere appanage of the Collegiate Church. R. F.-J. S.

Although Winchester College is the oldest of the greater public schools, recent investi- gation, especially that of the distinguished Wykehamist Mr. A. F. Leach, has revealed ihe fact that many smaller schools are of far greater antiquity than was formerly sus- Dected. For instance, St. ^Peter's School in dentical with the Royal School which existed there in the eighth century. The irst head master whose name is known was Albert, who afterwards became Archbishop n 734, and was succeeded in the mastership oy Alcuin, his pupil. The school received urther endowment in the reign of Philip ,nd Mary, who were, until recently, regarded
 * he metropolitical city of York claims to be