Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/324

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 2,

thence to the corner of Carpenter Street, is entirely cleared. The house at the corner o; Millbank Street and Romney Street had from 1813 until last year been one of the land- marks of the locality, and was a very in- teresting old house. It had been in the occupation of the Fitzgerald family for ninety .years, a very extensive oil and colour business having been carried on there for that period. The business was started by Stephen Fitz- .gerald, who for many years before had been in business as a tallow-chandler in Tothil] Street. He came here in 1812, and in course of time was succeeded by his second son, Alexander, born in Tothill Street in 1803, who in his turn gave place to his son Alexander (the second), who still carries on business at 47, Marsham Street, having been displaced by the London County Council for the im- provements now started. The founder of this business, now over one hundred years old, was an Irishman who came to England, and after a while got into much disgrace with his family by becoming a member of the Society of Friends, to which body his descendants have since belonged. I have been favoured by the sight of a bill, dated 1823, for candles supplied to the church- wardens of St. John's, Westminster, for the purpose of lighting the church.

The houses sold on 13 June, 1901 (see ^reference already quoted), and unoccupied in January of last year, have all been de- molished, the ground now being clear. In Romney Street, from the corner of Church Passage (leading into Smith Square) to No. 38, the houses are being rapidly cleared away ; but Nos. 30, 20, 16, and 4, although empty, are still standing. In Millbank Street Nos, 56 and 50 are empty, and it is worthy of note that the High Bailiff of Westminster and a jury, on 21 January, awarded the sum of 2,5001. to Mr. G. W. Dunstall, who occupied the latter premises as a coffee and eating house, as compensation for the compulsory acquisi- tion of the house for this improvement scheme. It was stated in evidence that this person had a monopoly of the Thames-side refreshment business in this locality, and that his net profits averaged 6001. per annum. The ground from No. 13, Church Street to the corner of Millbank Street and onward to No. 34 has all been cleared, but some of this work was done before 1903. Nos. 30 and 28 are empty, while Nos. 26 and 24 are still in- habited, the former being in the occupation of Messrs. Mary Mallock &, Sons as a rope, tarpaulin, and sack manufactory, with pre- mises at the rear in Horse and Groom Yard a business established as far back as 1800.

One member of this family, Andrew Mallock, was an overseer of St. John's parish in 1841- 1842, but does not appear to have filled the position of churchwarden. David Mallock, another member of the family, took his degree as M.A., and wrote, among other things, much creditable verse, as may be seen by reference to a little book preserved in the Westminster City Library, Great Smith Street, published as a contribution to the building fund of the Westminster Library and Scientific and Mechanics' Institution, of which this gentleman was a firm supporter. The next two houses, Nos. 22 and 20, lately in the occu- pation of Messrs. Vacher, the Parliamentary printers, are now empty, their demolition not being far off. In 1847 No. 22 appears to have* been numbered 62, and for many years before and afterwards was the printing office of Messrs. Blanchard & Son, who in that year published at that address the Rev. E. C. Mackenzie Walcott's 'History of the Parish Church of St. Margaret, Westminster.' The difference in the numbering of the houses is accounted for by the fact that at that time they ran consecutively on both sides of the way, and not odd and even as they do now. There was no change on the river side of the street during last year, but most probably there will be many to note when this year's demolitions are chronicled.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S.W. ( To be continued. )

AINOO AND BASKISH. The Baskish lan- guage has no history before the sixteenth century except such as can be extracted from place-names and names of families, chiefly in Spain, and two mediaeval glossaries. That of the Ainoo tongue begins in the nineteenth. The Ainoos are supposed to have emigrated from Siberia into Japan. The Basks may have been Iberians, and have migrated from Siberia too, and have brought with them some words taken from the same source as some which survive in Ainoo. Iberia may be derived not from Heuskarian ibai, river, or t'6a?'= valley, but trom Heuskarian ipar, iper = north. Has it not been said that Siberia means, in some Siberian language, northland? Having no- ticed in 1893, in the ' Dictionary of the Ainoo Language,' by Mr. John Batcbelor, certain words resembling others in Baskish of the same meaning (and it was resemblance, the 3asis of all classification, which gave Sanskrit ts passport into the territory of Greek and Latin), I sent him, when he returned to England from his valuable missionary work