Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/71

. in. JAN. 21, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

55

Gardens, Seville, I beg to enclose a rough design (made by myself from the original), which may be of use to him. The design is said to have been similar to that of the maze in the garden itself ; but I cannot trace the same plan through the now neglected paths of the labyrinth. S. F. G.

Seville.

[Our contributor's plan has been forwarded to ST. SWITHIX.]

ROMAN THEATRE AT VERULAM (10 th S. ii. 527). In the following extract taken from an article on ' Verulamium,' signed C. H. A., which appeared in The Illustrated London News of 7 March, 1891, your correspondent will find an answer to his question :

" It is a remarkable coincidence that Verulara and Pompeii resemble each other in a marvellous degree as regards shape, dimensions, arrangement

of streets, and position of buildings The theatre

at Verulam not only occupies the same relative position, but is, singularly enough, nearly the same size as its model, being 193ft. Sin. in diameter, against 195 ft. approximately in Pompeii. The

the daytime, called upon the landlord, expressing his surprise at the circumstance, no person being in the house in the daytime. The landlord told his Worship, that if he would call in the evening, his curiosity should be amply gratified; but added, that if the quality of his beer was not bettered he might lose some of his principal customers. The Alderman attended, and, the better to make his observation, was prevailed on by the landlord to put on one of his old great-coats, a slouched hat, &c. He was then, with some apology by the former, introduced into a back room, nearly filled with the halt, the lame, and the blind, who had lost all their infirmi- ties in the plenitude of his porter. After the mutual relations of their day's adventures, songs, &c., it was proposed, as usual, to one of the oldest of them, who acted as President, to name the supper, when, whether he had not before noticed the new guest or not, fixing his eye on Mr. Calvert, he exclaimed, 'For supper to-night I think we must have an alderman hung in chains /' While this was acceded to by the whole company, the Alderman, thinking he was discovered, and that they meant to use him ill, made a precipitate retreat out of the room, and communicated, with much embarrassment, his sus- picion to the landlord ; his apprehension, however, soon subsided, aa before the host could give him an

._,._ [ explanation, he was called backwards to take orders

distance from the stage to the back is the same in, for supper, when, without taking any notice of the

both cases. The stage in the Italian theatre is, however, much wider than in ours ; so is the pro- scenium. Both the theatres appear to have been richly adorned with frescoes and marbles ; at Verulam slabs of the latter material thirteen- sixteenths of an inch thick are found. In Pompeii, a smaller theatre exists close to the larger one ; in Verulam, foundations have been struck which are strongly suspected to have belonged to another theatre. Unfortunately these interesting relics of dramatic art cannot be seen ; the theatre described above was excavated some forty years since, and after the dimensions had been taken the earth was carefully replaced."

Accompanying the article are several pic- tures and also plans of ancient and modern Verulam. From these plans it appears that the position of the theatre was a little to the north-west of St. Michael's Church, the site being in a field now known as " The Black Grounds." JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

' N. & Q.,' 3 rJ S. vi. 103, devoted a page to ' St. Albans-Verulam,' and traced the limits of the old British town.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

SIR WILLIAM CALVERT (10 th S. ii. 528 ; iii. 38). The following amusing story is told of this gentleman in the 'City Biography,' London, 1800 :

" Like the generality of brewers, Mr. Calvert had a number of public-houses belonging to him ; one of these, in a low neighbourhood, which he had let on a very trivial consideration, at length increased so high in its demands for his intire, that the Alderman, amazed at the consumption, as he seldom heard of any company being seen there in

worthy brewer, he stepped to a poulterer's in the neighbourhood, and soon returned with a fine turkey, and a link of pork sausages, which, presenting to his guest, he assured him, when spitted with the link of sausages to be roasted, was the alderman meant by the company to be hung in chains for the supper. The adventure so well pleased the brewer, that the melioration of the beer was immediately attended to."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

VERSE TRANSLATIONS OF MOLIERE (10 th S. ii. 448, 516). Moliere's 'Dramatic Works/ with plates, rendered into English by Henri Van Laun, 6 vols., 1875 ; ' Moliere,' 3 vols., in " Bohn's Library," translated. Are not these two in verse 1 L. J. H.

[Neither is in verse.]

TARLETON, THE SIGN OF "THE TABOR," AND ST. BENNET'S CHURCH (10 th S. iii. 7). The church of St. Bennet, or more properly St. Benet, stood on the east side of Grace- church Street, at the southern corner of Fenchurch Street. I do not know the exact date of its demolition, but it was standing in 1856. Its site is now partly or wholly occupied by the roadway of Fenchurch Street,

which was widened removed.

when the church was WILLIAM HUGHES.

62, Palace Road, Streatham Hill.

St. Benet, Gracechurch, was " called Grass- church, of the Herb Market there kept" (Stow). The church, built previous to 1190, was destroyed at the Great Fire (1666), and re-erected in 1685 from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It was pulled down