Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/235

 10* 8. III. MARCH 11, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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&c.), stupendous picture of London, plays and operas (Brahara appeared as Tom Tug in ' The Waterman,' with Madame Sala as Mrs. Bundle, &c.). The price of admission was 3s. G'l, then 2s. 6cZ., and finally Is.

In 1823 Mr. Thomas Hornor published a prospectus of 'The View of London and Surrounding Country,' from an observatory over the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral. Mr. Hornor gives a section of the dome and the scaffolding round the ball and cross, with the observatory above, from which the views were taken.

Among the artists employed was George Chambers, a native of Whitby. When ten years of age he went to sea in a coasting vessel ; he was early devoted to drawing, and after many vicissitudes was adopted by a Mr. Crawford, a publican at Wapping Wall, also a native of Whitby. Having heard of Mr. Hornor, Crawford took the boy to that gentleman, who was amused at the boy's being able to paint, and asked to see a specimen of his work. Hornor was so astonished at a picture he produced that he at once engaged young Chambers, who, from the nature of his calling, surprised all by the way he hauled himself up by pulleys and got to work. At the close of the day Mr. Hornor said, " I want a word with you, sailor. 1 have only to tell you this, that you have done, in a most masterly manner, more work in a day than a fine German artist spoiled in a week," and according to the 'D.N.B.' he was employed for several years. The ' D.N.B.' spells the name Horner, but in the London Directories, 1823, &c., is "Thomas Hornor, Land Surveyor, 2, Robert Street, Adelphi," the address from which his prospectus was published.

CHAS. G. SMITHERS.

47, Darnley Road, N.E.

"Panoramas and such-like exhibitions" have, I think, delighted us as well as our fathers. At any rate, I well remember seeing in London, in comparatively recent years, realistic panoramas of the Battle of Waterloo, the Siege of Paris, and Niagara Falls.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

We are travelling now on side issues, and mention haying been made of exhibitions long extinct, which have left abiding impressions upon us, let me record one in the days of my childhood, the Diorama in Regent's Park perhaps it might more correctly be called a cyclorama. One scene was very effective. A Swiss village was depicted with lights in the windows ; an avalanche then descended,

covering all the houses, excepting the church, the spire of which peered above the snow. Another scene represented the Basilica of St. Paul. The room was darkened, but the light was thrown effectively on the scenes, as in the opening scene in ' Hamlet.'

One of Spooner's transparent views repre- sented the Swiss village before and after the avalanche. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

" POMPELMOUS " (10 th S. iii. 168). There are several kinds of large edible citrons, of which the porapelo and the shaddock are the best known, and are always on sale at Coven t Garden. The pompelo is the more esteemed of these two, as the more juicy. Both grow freely and ripen fruit at Hyeres and at Mentone. D.

This has long been a crux. I have already begun to investigate it, by request of Dr. Murray, but my only discovery so far is a very old reference to it in Dutch, viz., in Walter Schouten's 4 Oost-Indische Voyagie, Amsterdam, 1676, vol. ii. p. 165, where it 1 , printed pompelmoes. Although included in at least one Malay dictionary, it has not the appearance of being a Malay word. Its first element may be corrupted from Dutch pompoeii) our pumpirinj which I find some old Dutch authors actually use as a synonym for pompelmoes. Yet the editors of the great Dutch dictionary now in progress do not seem willing to own the word as Dutch. The termination -moes has been identified, by some adventurous spirits, with Dutch moes, pot-herbs, greens. My objection to this theory would be that Dutch moes is neuter, whereas pompelmoes is feminine. See, for instance, Filet's 'Plantkundig Woordenboek voor Nederlandsch-Indie,' 1876, p. 87, where we read of " eene kleinere soort der pompelmoes." JAMES PLATT, Jun.

I join with your correspondent X., at the above reference, in the hope that the history of this word may be worked out in the 'H.E.D.' Meanwhile, if he be interested in the question, he will find most of what is worth knowing on the subject in Yule-Burnell, 'Anglo -Indian Glossary,' second edition, p. 721, $.v. 'Pornrnelo.' EMERITUS.

COSAS DE ESPANA (10 th S. i. 247, 332, 458 ; ii. 474, 510). Je remercie sincereraent ST. SWITHIN du tres interessant article au sujet de 1'opinion du R.P. Sarmiento sur le Christ de Burgos.

M'acquittant de la promesse que je lui avais faite de rechercher entre mes notes pour voir