Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/432

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL OCT. so, 1900.

LORD MAYOR'S SHOW : CHANGE IN DATE (10 S. xii. 306). Many pitfalls surround questions connected with the change of style in the calendar. That change would not of itself have altered the day on which Lord Mayor's Day was kept, because the old rule was founded on a saint's day (the day following the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude). Holy days and saints' days remained on the same dates in the new calendar as in the old. Had it been sought to keep the day at the exact season it had occupied, the curious consequence would have followed that Lord Mayor's Day would have undergone several changes : from 1752 (when the style was altered) to 1800 would have fallen on 9 November ; from 1800 to 1900 on 10 November, and from 1900 to 2100* on 11 November.

The alteration of the date of Lord Mayor's Day was effected by statute, as is explained by NEMO in 7 S. iv. 49, and more fully by MR. F. W. READ in 10 S. v. 30. May I refer also to a note of my own in 9 S. v. 344, in which I tried to explain the whole matter from the calendar point of view ?

W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

SPANISH WALK EXCHANGE (10 S. xii. 269). In 'A New View of London,' 1708 (by Hatton), vol. ii. p. 617, is a plan of the Royal Exchange.

"For the more facile expediting of the Affair of Negoce, Merchants dealing in the same Commo- dities have by custom fixed on these different parts of the Exchange to meet one another, called their Walk."

On the plan twenty- three " walks " are given. The main entrance to the Exchange faced Cornhill. Spanish Walk was in the arcade or portico on the right-hand side of that entrance. Next in the arcade was Jews' Walk, being at the south-east corner. In the open court in front of these two was French V/alk.

The following were the names of the Walks (I take those in the arcades first, beginning on the left-hand side of the Cornhill entrance) : Jamaica, Virginia, East India, Norway, East Country, Irish, Scotch, Dutch and Jewellers', Armenian, Portugal, Jews', Spanish. Then in the open court or quadrangle next the arcades or porticoes : Barbadoes, " Turky," Silkmen's, Clothiers', Salters', Italian, French. Then about the statue of Charles II. in the centre : The Canary, facing the Cornhill gateway ; Grocers

2000.

The Gregorian reckoning makes no change in

and Druggists', facing West ; Hambro, facing North : Brokers, &c., of Stock, facing East. A bird's-eye view of this, the second Royal Exchange, is given in ' London exhibited in 1851,' edited and published by John Weale, p. 368 ; and a view of its interior appears in The Penny Magazine of 1837 (vol. vi.), p. 185. The building was destroyed by fire 10-11 Jan., 1838.

" The Royal Exchange, in Cornhill, has no longer [1851] the prominence as a place of meeting of mer- chants it once had The Royal Exchange is still,

as when founded by Gresham, an open area with arcades around it, in which the merchants meet. Each has his standing where he is to be found, or where he makes his appointments, and the Roth- schilds take their place near a pillar as their father did. Many of the sea-captains and the brokers still go on 'Change, but the old arrangement of the walks has fallen into decay. The Scotch Walk is no longer wanted ; since Scotland has been brought so near by railway, the stockbrokers have migrated. The Salters, the Clothiers, and the Grocers go to the warehouses." Weale's 'London,' as above^ p. 377.

I think that Weale's book was republished by Bohn with the title of ' Pictorial Hand- book of London.' ROBERT PIEBPOINT.



Commanders of ships about to sail advertised as follows (Daily Advertiser, 3 April, 1742) :

For Boulogne The Duke of Kingston, Thomas Merriton, Commander, Sails on Tuesday next, and has excellent Accom- modations for Passengers, now lying at the Rotter- dam back Door. The Commander to be spoke with every Day on the French Walk ; at the Portugal

Coffee House and at the Rotterdam, at St.

Katherine's.

J. HOLD EN MACMICHAEL. Wroxton Grange, Folkestone.

The Spanish Walk was a part of the Royal Exchange set apart for Spanish merchants, the whole of the Exchange being divided into " Walks," as in the case of the present Stock Exchange, which has its Kaffir Market, Yankee Market, &c.

I have a picture and plan of the Old Royal Exchange showing the various Walks, and could let your correspondent have a copy of the plan, should he desire it.

A. RANSFOKD COLLETTV

9, Deerhurst Road, Streatham Common, S.W.

See Thornbury's ' Old and New London/ vol. i. p. 497, where there is given a plan of the Royal Exchange, 1837, with the various Walks. ANDBEW OLIVER.

[MR. A. RHODES and MR. ALAN STEWART also, hanked for replies.]