Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/39

 10 s. XIL JULY 10, 1909. NOTES AND QUERIES.

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keepers, gingerbread bakers, and lantern- leaf and horn-plate manufacturers disap- peared from the trades classification.

Where are the eel-pie shops to-day ? They are worthy of better treatment than silent extinction. Surely some survive in the neighbourhood of Newington Butts, Mile End Gate, Deptford Broadway, or similar districts ; but at present we have to record with regret that the famous Eel-Pie Shop in High Street, Islington, almost opposite It boasted an existence of over a century, and its appearance would substantiate at least two-thirds of that claim. The tin cupboards which kept the pies at a suitable temperature, and the marble-lined window in which two bowls of mince retained a perennial freshness, were indications of maturity and unchanging success. These premises and some of their neighbours are very much older than the plain brick exterior wall suggests. The low-ceilinged shops into which you step down are un- doubtedly earlier than the commencement of the nineteenth century.
 * ' The Angel," has ceased to do business.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

" CHOPS OF THE CHANNEL." ' N.E.D.' does not note this familiar phrase, but it is obviously an accepted one of very long standing, for it is to be found in a letter of 16 June, 1680, from the Duke of Ormond to his son, the Earl of Ossory. The Duke observes :

" I suppose his Majesty may save in England full as much as we shall lay out here [Dublin.] since the stations of the Land's End, Cape Clear, and the Chops of the Channel may be supplied by them [ships]." Historical MSS. Commissionj ' Ormonde MSS.,' New Series, vol. v., p. 336.

Another instance is furnished in a " peti- tion of several merchants of London to the House of Commons " in 1707, wherein the presumption was expressed that, in given cir- cumstances, they might safely order their homeward-bound ships to steer directly for " the chopps of the Channel " (ibid., ' Port- land MSS.,' vol. viii. p. 301).

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

THE STOCKS IN USE FIFTY YEARS AGO. The following occurs in the Exeter Flying Post for 7 April, 1859 :

" Exeter Guildhall. William Phillips, a ' navvy,' in the employ of Mr. James Taylor, was charged with being drunk and committing a breach of the peace in South Street the previous evening. The Bench inflicted a fine of 5s. and the expenses ; or the alternative of six hours in the stocks. A fortnight was allowed him to pay the money."

HARRY HEMS.

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

" PURPOSE," ALLEGED NAME OF A DANCE. Whyte Melville, in 'The Queen's Marys,' xvi. (1862), says :

"The Purpose was so called because the figure exacted that at stated intervals the couples should dance together through the doorway into an adjoin- ing room, and, having made the circuit of that apartment, should return, unbosomed of any secrets they might have had to interchange, to the rest of the laughing company. It was a figure obviously adopted for the triumph of coquetry arid the dis- comfiture of mankind."

No authority is cited for this by Whyte Melville. Where is this dance mentioned elsewhere ? Had it a French name ? Infor- mation about it is desired.

J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

THACKERAY QUERIES. 1. Where is to be found Thackeray's quotation "slant o'er the snowy swart " ?

2. Does any one of your readers know the fable or fairy tale to which the same author refers in speaking of " the Prince of the Sidereal Realms " ?

(Prof.) RICHARD ACKERMANN, Ph.D.

Nuremberg, Kressenstrasse 2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THESES : DUNCAN LIDDEL. In Albrecht von Haller's ' Biblio- theca Medicine Practicse ' (1777), vol. ii. p. 316, there is given a list of theses main- tained at the University of Helmstadt under Prof. Duncan Liddel as prseses. Haller cites his authorities, but in contracted forms which he does not explain. Thus :

De melancholia. Helmst. : 1596. Burckh.

Deapoplexia. Helmst.: 1605. Riv.

Demorbis. Helmst: 1598. He.

De symptomatibus. Helmst. : 1598. He.

Who are Burckh., Riv., He. ?

The last suggests J. C. Heffter's ' Museum Disputatorium ' (1764); but although in vol. ii. p. 243 of that work Nos. 4176 to 4189 are fourteen theses maintained under Liddel as prseses, the two noted by Haller are not included. P. J. ANDERSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

" COMPOSTELA." This is the name of the chief city of the old kingdom of Galicia, famous for possessing the shrine of St. James, the Apostle and patron of bpam. It was also called Santiago de Compostela