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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL F. -ju, 1009

medite de Lafayette, 1793-1801,' ed. J. Thomas, Paris, 1903. It may possibly be worth while to incorporate this French loan- word, as a synonym of " infallible " or " unfailing," in the Supplement to the ' Historical English Dictionary.'

H. IvBEBS.

THE LONDON LIBRARY. It will interest members of the great institution in St. James's Square to know that there was an eighteenth-century prototype. The follow- ing extract is taken from The Monthly Maga- zine of 1 July, 1801, p. 526 :

" Among other consequences which are likely to result from the present increased price of books, the opening of a considerable number of new Reading-rooms in various parts of the kingdom is probably not the least important to general literature. Influenced by this consideration, the trustees of the London Library, which formerly occupied Reading-rooms on Ludgate-hill, have removed their Library to Mr. Charles Taylor's in Hatton-garden, near Holborn, where it will be re-opened for the advantage of the public, on the 1st day of July, on the same terms as before. This Society was established in 1785, and has to boast of many names celebrated in the annals of literature, as its founders and patrons."

W. ROBERTS.

ST. MICHAEL'S, SUTTON COURT, CHISWICK. In 1906, at 10 S. v. 181, 507, I gave some particulars of St. Michael's, Burleigh Street, Strand, its history, closing, monuments, and sale of the fabric. I think that a few lines concerning its successor in the pleasant suburb of Chiswick may be of interest, and possibly, as time goes on, of some use.

On Saturday, the 19th of December last, the foundation stone of the new edifice was laid by Lord Kinnaird. The cost, as has been already stated, together with that of the Vicarage, is being met by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, from part of the funds realized by the sale of the Burleigh Street church. The inscription upon the foundation stone is as follows :

" A. M. D. G. In Commemoration of the Church of St. Michael, Burleigh Street, Strand, the de- molition of which to meet the needs of the time has enabled a House of God to be erected in this district of Greater London, this stone was laid by Lord Kinnaird, December 19th, 1908. Leonard McNeill Shelt'ord, Vicar."

The seating accommodation of the church will be 625. A parish has been assigned to it, consisting of the western part of the extensive parish of St. Nicholas, Chiswick, together with a portion from Christ Church, Turnham Green. Altogether the new parish -will comprise 113 acres, with a present population of somewhere about 3,000 people. The architects are Messrs. Caroe & Passmore,

the architects to the Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners ; and the builders are Messrs. Whitehead & Co. of Clapham.

A small temporary church has been pro- vided through the efforts of the parishioners, and was opened early in the present year. Some of the fittings of the old church are to be brought into use in the new one, so that the link between the two will be very real much more so than is often the case when old and honoured buildings are demolished. It may be added that the design is one of considerable picturesqueness. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

ANCIENT CRANES. Vincent Alsop in his ' Anti-Soz/o ' (1675) mentions a crane about Billingsgate with the aid of which a lusty fellow and a mastiff in a wheel could take up an, incredible weight (see ante, p. 47). There are at least two such old cranes extant in Germany. The one at Treves, dating from 1413, is still in use. The con- struction of the other, at Andernach on the Rhine, was begun in 1554. Sketches of them can be seen in the Zeitschri/t of the Society of German Engineers (1898, p. 194, and 1908, p. 519). CraVies of a different construction are shown on an ancient plan of Hull in Charles Frost's ' Early History ' of that town and port (frontispiece). The author (p. 87) quotes from a grant of 1347 wherein the Archbishop of York reserves to himself the free use of a wooden crane ("crane ligneum") for landing and loading wines, wool, &c., from and into boats on the river Hull. L. L. K.

SEA-ROAMERS : JOHNNY WOLGAR. There is a pamphlet, now very scarce, with the following title-page :

" Sea- Romers. Old Johnny Wolgar. ' List, ye landsmen, all to me.' From The London Magazine. September. 1823. Carlisle, Printed at the office of B. Scott, 1826." 12mo, pp. 37. It is strange that this should be reprinted at Carlisle. There is no Cumberland refer- ence in it, as it deals entirely with Sussex, and is a very vivid sketch of a beachman known from Castle Point to Birley Gap as the " King of the Roamers.'' As the tract is anonymous, it may be well to note that the author was Richard Ayton, who was born in 1786, and died in 1823, soon after he had finished this sketch of Johnny Wolgar. A memorial volume of his 'Essays and" Sketches' appeared in 1825, and in- cludes this notice of an old sea-roamer.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.