Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/215

 10"- s. iv. AUG. 26, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 177 nearly a dozen years earlier than that of that somewhat anachronistic play. I am further enabled, through the courtesy of Mr. Heal, to give the general title of the set, which was issued in wrappers :— " Graphic Illustrations I of I The Colosseum I Regent's Park. | in Five Plates I from Drawings | by I Gandv, Mackenzie and other Eminent Artists. | London I Published First of June | By K. Acker- mann ctCo., Strand, and at the Colosseum, | Regent's Park. | MDCCCXXIX." Then follows a description of the plates, occupying two pages. W. F. PRIDEAUX. ADOLPHE BELOT (10th S. iv. 46).—The fol- lowing is a list of English translations of novels by Adolphe Belot. I have taken no note of any works written in collaboration with other authors. ' Alphonsine.' Translation (by H. L. Williams), ' La Femme de Feu.' Translation, ' The Woman <jf Fire' (1885). • La Fievre de 1'Inconnn.' Translation (by Miss S. Lee, sequel to 'La Sultane Parisienne'), 'The Thirst for the Unknown' (1887). ' i -•• Drame de la Rue de la Paix.' Translation <by H. M. Uunstan). 'A Tragedy Indeed' (1878, 2 vols.) Another, 'The Drama of the Rue de la Paix '(1880). ' La Sultane Parisienne.' Translation (by H. M. Dunatan), ' A Parisian Sultana ' (1879, 3 vols.). EDWARD LATHAM. "BOMBAY GRAB" (10th S. iv. 107).— Grab, in Marathi gurdb, Arabic ghurab, is the name given locally to a kind of two-masted coast- ing vessel, formerly employed by the Bombay •Government against pirates. See the 'N.E.D.,1 s.v.' Grab.' JAS. PLATT, Jun. In an article on 'Curious Public-House Signs' which appeared in The City Press of ^3 August, 1899, the following passage re- ferring to this house occurs:— "The "Bombay Grab' is a very curious sign attracting notice in the Bow Road, but the expla- nation is simple. 'Grab' was formerly a slang term for a foot soldier: hence the founder of this house has probably been in the service of the Bombay division of the 'Old John' Company's troops. ALAN STEWART. I find the following in John Caraden Hotten s ' History of Signboards' (1866) :— "The 'Bombay Grab' in High Street, Bow, •belongs to military signs, as 'grab' or 'crab' is a slang expression for a foot soldier; perhaps the landlord at one time may have been in the Bombay army." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. The grab was a type of coasting vessel formerly met with on the Bombay coast. They were a stronger and heavier type of the patamar, which still survives. They carried two masts and lateen sails. See Smyth's ' Sailor's Word-Book,' p. 345; and for a better account, 'A History of the Indian Navy,' by Lieut. C. R. Low, I.N., a book difficult to lay hold of nowadays. Some year or two back a leading London daily, in an article on London inn signs, wrongly stated that a Bombay grab was a native soldier of some sort, arriving at that conclusion from the old naval nickname for a linesman, viz., "grabbie." ROBERT BLYTH, Jun. 7, Cavendish Square, Hull. ACADEMY OF THE MUSES (10th S. iii. 449 ; iv. 54).—It may probably be of some interest to MR. T. P. UTTON to know that in a book entitled "Metropolitan Improvements in Lon- don in the Nineteenth Century, by Mr. Thos. H. Shepherd, with Historical, Topographi- cal, and Critical Illustrations by James Elmes, M.R.I.A., Architect," published in 1827 by Jones & Co., there is an engraving of the premises of James Lackington, most probably but little changed from the time when they were in his occupation. The lettering on the plate is: — " Temple of the Muaes, Finsbury Square. | To Henry Brougham, Esq., M.P., from whose sugges- tion the Series | of 'Jones' Universal Edition of British Classic Authors' was commenced, this plate is respectfully | dedicated by the publishers." The letterpress in the volume tells us that it was a "building so named by its eccentric founder, the late James Lackington, who realized a competency, by the sale of second-hand books, on the sure principle of small profits and quick returns; and was succeeded in business by his nephew, of the firm of Lackington, Allen and Co. On their re- moval westward, this large concern was for a long time empty, till it was taken by Messrs. Jones and Co., the proprietors of the present work, and opened by them for the publication and sale of their works only." What follows in the notice is of little moment now, but the publishers are careful to say that their publications " combine a vast saving in expense, portability, and facility of reference, with correctness, typographical beauty, and good taste." Messrs. Jones & Co. removed from 3, Acton Place, Kingsland Road, to these premises. The work in question contains a somewhat florid dedication to the king, in which it is asserted that the name of George IV. will be rendered " as illustrious in the British annals as that of Augustus in those of Rome." I would state that as a boy I knew the widow of James Lackington, who lived and
 * Veronique,' although the date, 1829, is
 * Aljihonsine; or, the Criminal Charm ' (1888).