Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/496

 410 NOTES AND QUERIES, [io» s. iv. NOV. is, 1905. I am told there was a vocalized edition published at Bombay about a quarter of a century ago, but have failed to trace it. All the editions I can find in London are un- pointed. There is a small Arabic chresto- mathy, published at Lahore in 1896, called ' Tuhfat al Adab,' which contains a few of the shorter stories with points; and there is a charming edition of 'Zeyn Alasnam,' by Florence Groff, Paris, 1889, which is fully vocalized ; but I know of nothing else. JAS. PLATT, Jun. THE LYCEUM THEATRE.—Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell me at what date the Lyceum was a Roman Catholic chapel ? In ' Old Time Aldwych, Kings way, and Neighbour- hood,' by Charles Gordon, it is stated on p. 197 that "at one time it was a School of Defence, at another a Roman Catholic Chapel." So far I have been unable to find any record of this. Dr. Newman and the Fathers of the Oratory were in King William Street in the forties, but that was many years afterwards. This would be about 1810 or thereabouts, I conjecture; but a Catholic Directory of that date makes no mention of it. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME. [The authority for the statement in ' Old Time Aldwych' appears to be E. L. Blanchard. See 'The Player's Portfolio,' 'Era .'Almanack,' 1875, p. 1.] ROMNEY PORTRAIT.—Mrs. Anna Eliza Bray writes in her 'Autobiography,' edited by John A. Kempe (Chapman ife Hall, 1884), referring to the second wife of her grand- father, Nicholas Kempe:— " I must mention that he was lucky in his choice of wives, for when pretty well advanced in years he took for his second spouse a young and celebrated beauty. That her celebrity in this particular was well deserved I can myself attest, having seen an admirable life-size portrait of her with a pug-dog on her lap. This was painted in the days of her youth and loveliness by Romney, who declared her to be one of the greatest beauties that had ever sat for his canvas, and accordingly bestowed unusual pains upon the picture." Who was this lady ? and where is the por- trait now 1 T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Lancaster. PREBEND or CANTLERS, OR KENTISH TOWN, IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.—Can any one give trustworthy information as to the manner in which the area now known as Camden Town and Kentish Town came into the possession of Charles Pratt, first Earl Camden, Lord High Chancellor 1766-70, and afterwards from 1784 Lord President of the Council in the ministry of the younger Pitt? Up to [785-6 this area was ecclesiastical property, 'orming, it is said, the endowment of the prebend of Kentish Town, or Cantlers, in 3t. Paul's Cathedral; and as a good deal is now being heard and said regarding the alienation of tithes and other Church pro- perty, it would be interesting to inquirers into this subject to know how this valuable estate ceased to be ecclesiastical property. F. DE H. L AUTHORS OF SONGS WANTED.—What were the words of the songs ' Why, Soldiers, Why 1' and ' Immortal was his Soul,' and bj whom were they written ? ARTHUR HOUSTON. 22, Lancaster Gate, W. KINGSWAY AND ALDWYCH. (10th S. iv. 361.) MR. RUTTON'S note pleasantly recalls to our recollection the vast improvements that have been effected in London since Plancus was Consul sixty-five years ago. Of those that he enumerates, the formation of New Oxford Street was perhaps the earliest. In connecting Oxford Street with Holborn, this thoroughfare made a clearance of the worst rookery in St. Giles's, which in course of time had gained a footing on the site of the hospital vineyard, on a corner of which had been built one of the many Vine Streets of London. Any one travelling down New Oxford Street on the top of an omnibus will notice that it was built with an eye to architectural uniformity, although the lapse of years has caused deviations from the original plan as marked as those in Regent Street. Further eastward the Holborn Viaduct has facilitated transit to a degree hardly realized by the younger generation. During the whole of 1859 I was a clerk in the old East India House in Leadenhall Street, and as it was my practice to walk every evening to my home in the N.W. district,! have a lively recollection of the stiff climb up Holborn Hill. I took my revenge when I witnessed the opening of the Viaduct by her late Gracious Majesty in November, 18G9. Kingsway and Aldwych, as MR. RCTTON points out, restore to us historic names. The loss of Kingsgate Street, with its memories of King James I. and that not dissimilar person Sarah Gamp, may arouse a senti- mental regret, and it would be a graceful act on the part of the London County Council to affix a tablet showing where the old King's Gate formerly stood. In Faithorne's map,