Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/335

 io" s. iv. SEPT. so, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 277 bus fair pair of gallows wrought with many curious borders and works,'' Coryat, not being an antiquary, may have intended to describe the two columns in the Piazzetta at Venice, between which it was customary to execute criminals, although, as he says, the columns are not alabaster, but of red and grey Egyptian granite respectively. The explanation appears to me to be a plausible one. JOHN HEBB. DANTE'S SONNET TO GUIDO UAVALCANTI (10th S. iv. 297).—In Mr. W. M. Rossetti's two- volume edition of D. G. Rossetti's ' Collected Works,' 1888, vol. ii. p. 126, a translation of this sonnet is given. To the lines— And Lady Joan, and Lady Beatrice, And her the thirtieth on my roll, a foot-note is appended to the following effect :— "That is, his list of the sixty most beautiful ladies of Florence, referred to in the ' Vita Nuova,' among whom Lapo Gianni's lady, Lagia, would seem to have stood thirtieth." And compare with this the sonnet and note on p. 69 ante (the ' New Life'). A. II. BAYLEY. The probability is that Bice is an abbrevia- tion of Beatrice. In ' What I Remember,' vol. ii. p. 368, by my friend T. A. Trollope, he gives the name Bice to his little girl:— "But the picture of child and nurse—how life-like none can tell but 1—was the picture of her ' baby Beatrice,' and the description simply the reproduc- tion of things seen." Bice was married to Mr. Charles Stuart Wortley, and died 26 July, 1881. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. THE DOKE'S BAGNIO IN LONG ACRE (10th S. iv. 24, 115, 217).— Before this subject is -closed I would ask. What is known of Mr. Henry Amy, or Ayme, or Aimes. who is described as " the Surgeon at the Bagnio in Long Acre," and as " a Surgeon in Long Acre who kept a bath," and who advertised it in The Taller on 1 December, 1709? Was he a Huguenot • In which part of Long Acre was it situated ? Who was the Duke after whom it took its name of " The Duke's Bagnio " in 1683? C. MASON. 29, Emperor's Gate, S.W. [Is not the last question answered by MR. ELIOT HODCKIX at the first reference?] INDEX OF PROBATES (10th S. iv. 188).—MR. LiVMB's suggestion, if practical, would be a boon to genealogists and others : but the small proportion of people interested in the recent probates would hardly justify local libraries in purchasing these annual printed lists, even if they could be bought. The official objection to issuing the lists to libraries would be on the ground of conse- quent loss of revenue, for one shilling is charged for each name searched for, whether a will is traced or not. If these books were at a library any one might avoid these fees, which amount to several thousand pounds annually. Only recently the Clerk of the Calendars at Somerset House objected to a gentleman searching the printed index of wills (1398 to 1604) himself for fear that the list would give him at a glance more informa- tion than the shilling entitled him to see. This seems a little arbitrary, for at the Record Office the printed index of these old wills can be seen and examined at leisure, without fee or difficulty. These printed lists of ancient P.C.C. wills can, of course, be bought from the British Record Society, and one hopes that the index for later years will be printed by the same society at no very distant time. The annual list of wills proved in the various Probate Courts is officially printed, and appears in five or six large volumes eight or nine months after the close of the year. Of this annual only some fifty copies are printed ; of these forty go to the forty district registries, one to the Probate Court, Dublin, and one to Edinburgh, leaving a few copies at Somerset House for reference. The cost of production must be very consider- able, and the price would be proportionately great. The present generation of officials are unlikely to give copies away. FRED. HITCHIN-KEMP. 6, Beechfield Road, Catford, S.E. So long as the Government charge a search fee, copies of the calendars cannot be placed in the libraries. When the Probate practice was taken over in 1858, it was promised that one index should be made and printed of all the wills in each of the old courts. Nothing has been done except the P.C.C. was printed back to 1850. The least the authorities could do would be to buy copies of the grand indexes to the P.C.C. wills of the British Record Society, and send a copy to each district registry. I understand that fees are not charged in America, and as they bear very hardly on the poor, I think they ought to be abolished in England. GERALD FOTHERGILL. 11, Brussels Road, New Wandsworth, S.W. ' VlLLIKINS AND HIS DlNAH ' (10th S. iv. 188). —There are several published versions of this song. The latest is on p. 98 of 'Modern Street Ballads,' by John Ashton (London,