Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/87

 10 S. XL JAN. 23, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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does not. But the latter may have been pronounced formerly as " doe," " foe," " roe," " toe," are now. In Prof. Skeat's 'Etymological Dictionary,' where the cognate forms in Teutonic and Scandina- vian are given, the German for shoe is erroneously spelt "schuch," instead of schuh. W. T. LYNN.

JOHN OF CRONSTADT. In William Hep- worth Dixon's ' Free Russia,' published thirty-nine years ago, there is an interesting chapter entitled ' Father John,' concerning the man who afterwards became so famous. Dixon, while waiting at Archangel for the pilgrims' boat to Solovetsk, spoke to " a very small monk, not five feet high, with girl -like hair and rippling beard," and asked where he would find the boat in question. The monk informed him that it " has ceased to run, and is now at Solovetsk, laid up in dock," but that a provision boat might sail for the monastery in about a week ; and of that boat, the Vera, the monk turned out to be the captain. Dixon inquired of a sailor the captain's name, and was told that he was generally called " Vanoushka," i.e., Little Ivan, but that his proper title was Father John. Then an account is given of his early life how, born in a Lapland village, he longed to see the world, went to Archangel, and started on a voyage with some German sailors. In his travels, during which he visited London, he met with creeds of all nations, and " his mind was troubled with continual longing for a better life"; but " the only religion to whisper peace to his soul was that of his early and better days." On his return to Russia he wished to become a monk of Solovetsk. At Arch- angel he discharged the crew of a Scottish vessel and manned her with monks. He was, however, obliged to ask the Scottish engineer to return, since the pistons " had not grace enough to obey the voice of a holy man." The chapter ends thus : "Yet Father John was a real God's gift to the convent ; for the voyage is not often to be described as a summer trip ; and even so good a person as an Archimandrite likes to know, when he goes down into the Frozen Sea, that his saints are acting through a man who has sailed in the roughest waters of the world."

J. S. SHEDLOCK.

' JANE EYRE ' AND MINERVA LANE. In the course of a notice of ' Jane Evre ' in The Quarterly Review for December, 1848 (vol. Ixxxiv. 166), the writer says :

"Jane has passed through the fire of temptation from without and from within ; her character is stamped from that day ; we need therefore follow

her no further into wanderings and sufferings which, though not unmixed with plunder from Minerva- lane, occupy some of, on the whole, the most strik- ing chapters in the book."

The reviewer evidently thought that the sensational novels of the last century were issued from a printing-office situated in a street called Minerva Lane ; but the Minerva Press was in Leadenhall Street. According to the ' N.E.D.' Carlyle was the first to use the expression " Minerva Press " to denote a particular class of literature.

R. B. P.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

EDWARD KEMP, LANDSCAPE GARDENER. I am very anxious to find out something about Edward Kemp, a writer of books on landscape gardening, and at one time head gardener at Birkenhead Park in Cheshire. If any of your readers can forward informa- tion, biographical and bibliographical, I shall greatly appreciate the kind effort.

CHARLES R. GREEN, Librarian.

Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.

THE OLD TRINITY HOUSE, WORCESTER, AND QTJEEN ELIZABETH. There appeared lately in The Standard and some other papers an account of the recovery, after a long lapse of years, of an ancient portrait of Queen Elizabeth which used to hang in the outside gallery of the above house. It was, until it was blown down one night, and lost for many years, wreathed with garlands every Trinity Wake. Can any reason be suggested for this particular honour ? and is any similar case known to exist, or to have existed within living memory, in England ?

Two suggestions have been made : one that Elizabeth contributed to the restoration of the Trinity Guild school and almshouses, which had been despoiled at the dissolution of the monasteries ; the other that her por- trait replaced a rood or sacred image, removed at the same period. It is intended to replace the portrait in position this year, and to wreathe it again according to the ancient custom. G. L. H. POWER,

Custodian of the Old Trinity House.

GRINDLETON. Since I asked about the derivation of this place-name (see 10 S. v. 10, 73) further evidence has turned up. In a deed dated 12 June, 1289, the form