Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/357

 io- s. ii. OCT. s, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

293

a representation suggested by a song for- merly sung in a pantomime by the then recently deceased clown, the renowned Joey Grimaldi. It was still highly popular in the harlequinades of my early boyhood. It will be observed that the ballad adds a still more extravagant cUnoilment. I remember the first verse only. It ran : A story I 've heard in my youth,

1 don't know whether serious or funny meant ; I don't mean to vouch for its truth,

Once a man ran away with The Monument. Up Fish Street swiftly he flew,

A policeman who saw him quick followed it, When what did this strange fellow do ?

Why, he made but one gidp and he swallowed it !

Perhaps some folk-lore lyric-loving reader may be able to supply the remaining stanzas.

GNOMON.

"HUMANUM EST ERRARE" (10 th S. i. 389,

512 ; ii. 57). The saying in this form can be carried back further than the date (1651) given at the last communication. In 9 th S. xii. 62 these words were quoted from Burton's Biichmann's article in his 'Gefliigelte Worte' was referred to. Whether the proverb occurs in the first edition of the 'Anatomy ' I cannot say for certain. It is in the oldest edition which I have, that of 1632. But Burton does not supply the earliest instance. Pun- tarvolo in Jonson's * Every Man out of his Humour' (1599) says (ii. 1), "Pardon me: humanum est errare." See the ' Stanford Dic- tionary of Anglicized Words and Phrases.'
 * Anatomy of Melancholy ' (II. iii. 7), and

With regard to E. W. B.'s suggestion that " it is possible that the Latin phrase comes from an early translation of Plutarch (that of Stephanus appeared in 1572)," it may be remarked that the version of the passage in 'Adv. Coloten,' ch. 31, given by Xylander (torn. ii. p. 1125 f. in the Plutarch of 1599 ; Wyttenbach's 'Plutarchi Moralia,' vol. v. p. 397 ; Xy lander's translation of the 'Moralia' first appeared in 1570) is "Aliquo errore decipi, ut sapientis non sit, saltern hominis non est," which bears no resemblance in form to " humanum est errare." I am unable to consult Arnold us Ferronus's Latin version (see Wyttenbach, op. cit. % vol. i. p. xcviii) of the ' Adversus Coloten ' given in H. Estienne's edition of Plutarch (1572), which I presume to be the translation referred to as " that of Stephanus." EDWARD BENSLY.

The University, Adelaide, S. Australia.

MESSRS. COUTTS'S REMOVAL (10 th S. ii. 125, 232). In connexion with the above it is interesting to note that the site lately vacated by Messrs. Coutts is part of the ancient site of Durham House, once the

residence of personages of great note in our listory. It is supposed to have been erected )y Thomas Hatfield, who was made Bishop of Durham in 1345. Prince Harry, after- wards Henry V., lodged here for a few days n 1411. Stow gives a long account of the 'eastings here in 1540 in connexion with a great tournament in St. James's Park, and >n May Day of the same year the challengers lere entertained Henry VIII. and Anne of Cloves. In 1553 Dudley, Earl of North- umberland, was living here, and in May of ihat year three marriages were solemnized lere with great magnificence, viz., Lord Guildford Dudley to Lady Jane Grey ; Lord Herbert to Catherine, Lady Jane's youngest sister ; and Lord Hastings to Lady Catherine Dudley. In 1572 Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, was the occupant ; and about 1583 the louse was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth, and here he lived for twenty years. On a part of the site of this famous house was built " The New Exchange," opened on 11 April, 1609, by James I. This- was pulled down in 1737 and eleven houses erected, the middle one being occupied by Middleton's Bank, afterwards Coutts's. When the brothers Adam planned the Adelphi, Mr. Thomas Coutts employed them to build a new house for the bank, and there it remained until 1 August last. Any one desirous of a fuller account should consult a paper read by Mr. H. B. Wheatley before the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society on 17 April, 1862, entitled 'The Adelphi and its Site,' to which I am in- debted for the above information.

A. H. ARKLE.

There is a paper in the Bystander for 9 March entitled 'Coutts, the Romance of a famous Private Bank,' which gives a detailed account of the rise and progress of this interesting institution, with photographs of the old and new premises ; a portrait of the chief cashier, Mr. Turner, who has been connected with the bank for fifty-four years ; and other curious particulars. There is an unwritten law as to the dress of the clerks, who are all required to be clean shaven, * law to which every one conforms.

JOHN HEBB.

SPORTING CLERGY BEFORE THE REFORMA- TION (10 th S. ii. 89). P. C. D. M. will find many instances of clerics with sporting proclivities in the records of Manorial Courts, such as the following from the Durham Halmote Rolls : 1378, Acley, it is presented that Robert Chauncellor, Sir John Carles, and William Powys, chaplains, are