Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/524

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. JUNE 3, isos.

Gregge family, and not, as asserted before his paper appeared, those of the Fowler family of Islington, lords of the manor of Barnsbury. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

5, Grove Villas, Wanstead.

The arms on the tablet are those of Gregge, or Grigge, quartering Starkey.

In the chancel of Buriton Church, Hants, on a mural tablet erected to the memory of " Thomas Hanbury, Esquier, one of his Ma'ties Auditors of the Exchequer," by "his last wife Elizabeth Grigge,'' there is a shield of arms of the Grigge family : Quarterly, 1 and 4, three trefoils slipped between two chevronels ; 2, a tiger (?) passant ; 3, a stork. This lady was the daughter of Thomas Gregge, or Grigge, of Bradley, co. Chester, and granddaughter of Ralph Gregge by his wife Ann, daughter and coheir of Richard Starkey, of co. Chester. There is a pedigree of the Gregge family in Tarn. Min. Gen,' Harl. Soc., vol. xxxix. p. 1143.

ALF. T. EVERITT.

High Street, Portsmouth.

[MR. HOLDKN MAcMiCHAEL, MR. J. T. PAGE, and COL. W. F.PRiDEAUXalso thanked for replies.]

POLICE UNIFORMS : OMNIBUSES (10 th S. iii. 29, 75, 136). I can remember the omnibus with the closed door and the unpleasant lamp being in existence in the seventies of last century. I travelled in this kind of vehicle very often along the Wands worth Road from and to Vauxhall Station. I recollect, too, the story of the fiery untamed steed at Astley's Theatre refusing, in 'Mazeppa,' to budge from the wings. The owner of the subsidized animal was sent for. "Give me a shutter," he said. Shutter provided. He banged it down on the stage by the prompt box and called out, " Right away : full inside," and Mazeppa was carried across and up the mountains in most admirable form.

S. J. A. F.

I have just found a most curious and interesting pamphlet upon the earliest omni- bus, entitled ' Les Caresses a Cinq Sols ; ou, les Omnibus du 17 e Siecle,' Paris, 1828.

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

A most interesting article on omnibuses appears in the chapter on ' Public Vehicles ' (chap. viii. pp. 243, 278) in vol. i. of 'Lights and Shadows of London Life' (Routledge, 1846). On p. 247 we read :

" The omnibuses are of recent origin ; they date no farther back than twelve or fourteen years. They are clumsy vehicles, but extremely convenient. They are licensed to carry twelve persons inside ; a few of them are licensed to carry fourteen. They have no outside passengers, except in very rare

cases ; and these are always when the vehicle plies to some place in the suburbs. The omnibuses usually measure about twelve feet in length, by four in breadth and three and a half in height. There is a cushioned seat on each side, with a range of small panes of glass, through which the passengers can- see everything in the streets as the vehicle wends its way. The conductor, or guard, stands on a sorb of step at the entrance, about a foot lower than the bottom of the vehicle. The fare is exceedingly cheap for those who have to go any distance. From Paddington to the neighbourhood of the Mansion House and the Royal Exchange (which must be a distance little short of five miles) the fare is only sixpence. You are charged, however, the same sum though you only go a distance of a hundred yards."

According to Punch for 1863 the police of that period were still uniformed in the tall hat and the swallow-tailed coat. As for the omnibuses, their conductors may be seen " holding on" by the leather strap and standing on the "monkey-board," as described by MR. R. MURRAY at the last reference. 1 may add that though the work I have quoted from bears date 1846, the preface is dated 1841, so it would seem that omnibuses were first introduced in London about 1827.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

The distribution of helmets to the police was spread over a considerable period. On 7 March, 1864, the whole of the inspectors, sergeants, mounted constables, and the con- stables of A, B, and C divisions, and those constables of A reserve attached to A, B, C, D, G, and M divisions, had the new helmets served out to them. On 2 September, 1864, the remaining divisions were supplied with nineteen helmets each, and so on various dates till the whole force was fitted. The pattern has been altered on several occasions.

AYEAHR.

"lLAND": "!LE" (10 th S. ii. 348,493; iii. 98, 154, 374). He, a beard of barley, is better spelt ail (A.-S. eyl), under which form it is given in the ' Eng. Dial. Diet.,' as known in sixteen counties. Ilile, a shock of ten sheaves (or eleven, or twelve), is given in the same, with more than a dozen examples. It cannot be derived from "A.-S. hilan," because no- such word ever existed. We should hardly quote mitus as the Latin for " fear."

WALTER W. SKEAT.

CHARLEMAGNE'S ROMAN ANCESTORS (10 th S. iii. 369). ASTARTE will find a pedigree bear- ing on the Roman descent of Charlemagne in Besly's 'Histoire des Comtes de Poictou et Dues de Guyenne.' This pedigree is in the article called 'La Vraye Origine de Hugues, Roi d'ltalie.' It connects the first line of kings with the Carlovingian through