Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/479

 10* B. in. MAT 20, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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all round his residence, he filled it with the Irish earth, for the purpose of preventing the poisonous snakes of the country from entering his house across this barrier.

WM. H. PATTERSON.

I have a cutting taken from an American newspaper (Tribune, 1890) referring to this subject. After a reference to the absence of venomous animals in Ireland, and to the remarkable productiveness of its soil, the writer goes on to say :

" Irish soil has frequently been exported to other countries less fertile than itself. In the early part of the seventeenth century it was often sent into England, and there is a tradition that about the middle of this century (1853) a shipload was brought into the United States by an Irishman who had amassed a large fortune here, and who desired to spend the remainder of his days literally on his native soil."

Small quantities of Irish soil are still constantly being sent over to the United States from purely sentimental reasons, as the custom of putting a tiny bag of it in the coffin prevails largely amongst the Irish poor. A few years ago 1 saw a large box filled with the soil from some ancient Irish shrine, which was being sent over to the United States for a similar purpose.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

WOODEN FONTS (10 th S. iii. 169, 253, 316). H. P. P. is correct in assuming that an old font assumedly fourteenth-century work may be seen in Mark's Tey Church, Essex. It is of octagonal form, and upon each cant is a recessed panel, in which carvings once existed. The latter have, however, long iuce been hacked away by vandalistic hands. The design of one of these only may be traced in part. It appears to have repre- sented St. Mark. HARRY HEMS.

Heligoland.

MR. MOXHAY, LEICESTER SQUARE SHOW- MAN (10 th S. iii. 307, 357). In reference to MR. W. E. HARLAND - OXLEY'S comments under this head, I did not intend to convey the impression that Mr. Moxhay was a "show- man " ; my words were *' I think it was a venture of a Mr. Moxhay." He was, I take it, the owner of, or speculator in, the con- cern certainly not one of the "lecturers." The date given by MR. HARLAND-OXLEY coincides pretty well with mine, so it is pro- bable we both have the "Great Globe" or " Wyld's Panorama," as I seem to remember it in view in our surmises. But, according to 'Chambers,' there was a panorama upon, or near, the same site as far back as about the year 1800, presumably, from the context, erected by Mr. Barker. The source of my

information anent Mr. Moxhay's interest in the Leicester Square building is not imme- diately available, but I will endeavour shortly to tap it further. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athemeum Club.

Interesting illustrations of the" Great Globe House " will be found in The, Builder for 5 April, 1851, pp. 218-19, and in ' Two Cen- turies of Soho,' by the clergy of St. Anne's, 1898, pp. 288-9. See also The Guilder, ibid., pp. 180, 361, 365, and 30 Nov., 1850, p. 569.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

TOASTMASTER (10 th S. iii. 309). The Rev. R. Valpy French, in his 'History of Toast- ing '(1881), states that the Rev. Alexander Carlyle,inhis 'Autobiography,' records a visit he made to the Duke of Argyle, at Inverary, in 1758, when it was the custom for persons in affluent circumstances, or who kept up any sort of status, to employ a regular toast- master to regulate the after-dinner drinking, which was a serious and heavy operation, too fatiguing to be performed by the aristocratic host. For the appearance of toastmasters at public banquets in the City of London, see 5 th S. xii. 26, 75.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

GOVERNOR STEPHENSON (10 th S. ii. 348, 437, 492, 539). I find upon inquiry that I was wrong in stating that Edward Stephenson was never Governor of Bengal. His name does not appear in any of the older lists of Governors, and it was even omitted from the list so carefully prepared in 1888 by Mr. F. C. Danvers, late Registrar and Super- intendent of Records at the India Office ; but it now appears in the list of Governors of Bengal published annually in the official 'India List.' As a matter of fact he was Governor for one single day, or, to speak with absolute accuracy, for about thirty-five hours.

The story is told in the 'Consultation Books,' which were written up daily at the meetings of the Council :

1. " On Friday the 23rd August, 1728, the Hon. Henry Frankland, Esquire, late President, having,

i after a sickness of about twelve days, departed I this life at one o'clock this morning and the Wor- ! shipful Edward Stephenson, Esquire, being next I is unanimously agreed that we despatch a pair of j qdsids to advise him that ther ;by the Government of this place devolves on him."
 * in succession, who is now Chief at Cassimbazar, ifc

2. Under date of Tuesday, 17 September, 1728, it is recorded :

" This morning at nine o'clock the Hon. Edward Stephenson, Esquire, arrived here from Cassini bazar and took his place at this Board as President and