Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/72

56 The context shows that the "Angel" at the Holly Tree was a sitting-room. In 1898 I slept in a bedroom, the name of which appeared on my bill next morning as "Paradise," at an hotel near the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire. W. B. H.

A gentleman who was born in 1793, and has been long dead, told me that when he was a young man it was often the custom in the better class of inns to give names instead of numbers to the bedrooms. I think, but am not sure, that he said this was the case at Liverpool. K. P. D. E.

(10 S. ix. 484).—It is perhaps worth noticing that in the puzzling questions suggested by Sir Thomas Browne, we have a reference to Suetonius, 'Tiberius,' chap. lxx. That author there tells us that Tiberius used to put questions to grammarians such as these: "Who was Hecuba's mother? What name did Achilles assume among the virgins? What was it that the Sirens used to sing?"

(10 S. ix. 468).—It is understood that this tablet will be replaced in the building about to be erected in the West-End of London by means of the proceeds of the sale of the old building in Prince's Square, supplemented by a grant of 12,000l. made by the Swedish Government. If that arrangement fails, the hospitality of the Swedenborg Society's house, No. 1, Bloomsbury Street, or of any of the "Swedenborgian" places of worship in London, would, doubtless, be extended to the derelict monument. The erection of this tablet

I copy these words from a "Letter to the Editor" describing the tablet, and narrating the inception and completion of the scheme for its erection, which appeared—illustrated by a picture of the tablet—in The Monthly Observer for January, 1858. The description includes the statement that "on the corbel moulding at the bottom is carved in relief Swedenborg's Shield of Nobility." The article is signed by "Jas. S. Hodson," whose firm, Hodson & Son, were the publishers of, inter alia, the magazine in question. The writer leaves it to be inferred that he was responsible for the erection, but in parenthesis notes that the cost was defrayed "out of the fund at my disposal."

The fullest available account of the theft and replacement of Swedenborg's skull is contained in Dr. R. L. Tafel's 'Documents concerning Swedenborg,' 2 vols. in 3, London, 1875-7, vol. ii. pp. 1202-8. A letter dated 1 April, 1823, and signed "Philalethes," which appeared in The Morning Herald, giving an authoritative contemporary statement of the facts, was reprinted in T. P.'s Weekly for 11 Oct., 1907.

(10 S. ix. 408, 475).—In further illustration of what has been said on this subject may be quoted the following from Congreve's 'Double Dealer,' Act V. sc. xxi.:—

Lee in the Epistle Dedicatory to his 'Cæsar Borgia' says: "Ev'ry daring Poet that comes forth, must expect to be like the Almanack Hero, all over wounds." He also has a reference to the figure in 'The Princess of Cleve,' ed. 1734, p. 86.

(10 S. ix. 326).—Perhaps this, is the German word Pfaffe, a contemptuous nickname for a priest. The German piff-paff, like the English "slap-bang," is used to denote a sudden noise, such as the report of fire-arms. Longfellow's "wonderful piff and paff " may imply that the chant of the monks was as noisy as a feu de joie, and as unmeaning as one fired without reason. M. N. G.

(10 S. ix. 371, 438).—The gibbet-post is about a mile from the village of Congerstone in Leicestershire, on a road called after it Gibbet-Post Lane. I have heard that the son of the murderer lived in a cottage opposite to it for some years. I was also told on good authority that some of the young bloods of a neighbouring county family had shot at the skeleton in the evening while it was still hanging there.