Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/241

 it. s,:,. T. 3, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

197

the most courteous and kindly curator, pointed out to me a window-pane in that room on which our Queen had scratched, with a diamond, in goodly sized characters, her name '* ALEXANDRA." I confess, as an Englishman, I felt quite proud to see it there ! HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

PHRASES AND REFERENCE (10 th S. ii. 128). "St. Giles's Cup. At the Leper Hospital of St. Giles-in-the-Field '*' the prisoners conveyed from the city of London towards Teyborne, there to be executed for treasons, felonies, or other trespasses, were pre- sented with a great bowl of ale, thereof to drink at their pleasure, as to be their last refreshing in this life." Stow's 'London,' ed. Thorns (reprint of 1603 -edition), p. 164 ; or ed. Strype, 1720, bk. iv. p. 74.

The latter has in the margin "St. Giles

Bowl." R. B. MCKERROW.

A wet Quaker is described in the 'Slang Dictionary ' to mean a man who pretends to
 * be religious and is a dram-drinker on the sly.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

[MR. HOLDEX MACM.ICHAEL sends a similar reply on both points.]

" CUTTWOORKES" (10 th S. ii. 149). Outwork was the name of a particular kind of lace or embroidery, for which see * N.E.D.'

W. C. B.

Probably woodcut work, i.e., the printing of work containing cuts or illustrations ('H.E.D.'). Outwork was also open work in linen stamped or cut by hand, a substitute for thread lace or embroidery. See quota- tions in Nares's ' Glossary.'

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. [DR. FORSHAW also thanked for reply.]

FRANCE AND CIVILIZATION (10 th S. i. 448 ; 13). That Frenchmen are highly civilized "there can be no doubt. Any one having the privilege of a Frenchman's friendship has a valuable possession. I have wandered east and wandered west, and, so far as the peoples of the world go, I have put a girdle round the globe ; and although much might be said, and well-nigh convincingly, in favour of any one of several races in the Indian Empire, I am of the opinion that the Chinese are the most highly civilized. Their diplo- raacy is second to none. As negotiators and business men they are unrivalled, and they have carried Socialism to such a state of perfection that they have practically a finer development of the feudal system. Their philanthropic and charitable institutions are as wonderful as they are admirable. As

regards the women, their hair is very tidy, and tastefully and reasonably put up. Their dress is sensible and modest, and the gold and silver of their ornaments are purer than the women of most other nations can show. On the subject of foot- binding, which is dying out, there is more than 999 men out of 1,000 are aware of to be said in favour of that process. Here is what Dr. Arthur Stanley, M.P.H. for the English and American Settlements at Shanghai, says in a paper on 1903. After having referred, inter alia, to the facts that Chinese hygiene is the product of an evolution extending more than 2,000 years before the Christian era, and that the Chinese inoculated for smallpox when our ancestors were painting themselves with woad, he concludes thus :
 * Chinese Hygiene ' issued with his report for

"Antiquity in national life is good because it allows evolution to have full development. In social etiquette, for example, ceremonials have been gradually perfected through long periods of time, so that their modes of social intercourse are the most punctilious and refined. In general life it is admitted, by those who have frequent inter- course, that the Chinese gentleman is the most polite in the world."

Much depends on what is meant by civiliza- tion ; but the points mentioned are sufficiently applicable to be worth recording.

Dun AH Coo. Hongkew.

LARGEST PRIVATE HOUSE IN ENGLAND (10 th S. ii. 29, 133). The Daily Chronicle for 29 March last was perfectly correct in its assumption that Wentworth Woodhouse is the largest private house in England. The noble owner (Lord Fitzwilliara) has kindly given me the following details relative to it : " It has 21 entrances, 365 windows, covers an area of six acres of land, and contains over 150 rooms. Its length is 700ft., and the breadth is about 300ft."

During the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893 I spent four or five months in the Manufactures Building within the grounds at Jackson's Park. It had been designed by Mr. George B. Post, of New York, and, in spite of its immensity, was an edifice of singularly fair proportions. The largest covered erection ever built, it measured 1,687ft. by 787ft., and had a height, in the clear, of 202 ft. 9 in. Its ground area was 3047 acres, and it possessed a capability
 * or seating 300,000 persons. These par-

ticulars I take from 'The World's Columbian Exposition Official Catalogue,' a most ex- mustive volume, issued complete upon the day the exhibition was opened (1 May)