Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/523

 io«» s. iv. NOV. 25.1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 433 these cells were constructed in the eighteenth century. I forget the precise legend attached to it. EDWAED HERON-ALLEN. The picture was painted by Hereyns1 of Meddin. An engraving of it is in the possession of a friend of mine. Size, including oak frame, 2ft. 7in. high by 2ft. lin. wide. Inscription at foot as follows :— " Filial Piety | Beddiditque Vitam quam re- (i'l irrat. | She gave back that Life which she had received. | From a beautiful Copy in Crayons by 8. de Roster from the Original by Hereyna of Meddin, in the possession of J. Thiorais Esqr | En- graved by James Daniels (?) | Dedicated to his Ex- cellency Count Dezborodko Privy Counsellor [sic] of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of all the Kussias, &c. | London. Published May 23rd 1796 by F. Brydon at his Print and Looking Glass Warehouse, Charing Cross." Will MR. J. SMITH send me his address ? W. R. HOLLAND. Barton-under-Needwood, Stalls. "CATAMARAN"(10th S.iv. 286).—A coloured caricature of Rowlandson's, date 1811, by virtue—or vice—of a pun, gives a specimen of another kind of catamaran. An old woman nursing cats, one of which a servant feeds with a spoon, is shown under the title of 'A Catamaran, or an Old Maid's Nursery.' This was recently advertised as being on sale by Messrs. Myers & Co., 59, High Holborn, W.C. ST. SWITHIN. WAKERLEY (10th S. iv. 369).—The name Wakerley is, of course, due to the place- name Wakerley, in Northamptonshire, on the N.W. border, at no great distance from Uppingham, in Rutlandshire. The sense is " Wacra's lea," or field. The name VVacra is recorded in list B as given in Ellis's ' Intro- duction to Domesday Book' ; and the gen. Wacran would regularly become Waker in later English. Wakeley has a different prefix ; like Wakefield, it means " a lea (or field) in which •wakes were formerly held." The name Wacra is short for Wacora, a •weak masc. nom. from the A.-S. adj. wacor, •vigilant; which is spelt waker in the ' Ancren Kiwle,' p. 142, where " ich was waker," i.e, I •was wakeful, is used to translate the Lat. virjilavi in Pa. cii. 7 (Vulgate). In the ' Promp- torium Parvulornm,' p. 514, we find the entry " VVakyr, pel-vigil." WALTER W. SKEAT. KTNGSWAY AND ALDWYCH (10th S. iv. 361, 410).—The book published by the London County Council on the occasion of the open- ing of Kingsway and Aldwych on 18 October is such an excellent piece of work that it seems ungracious to point out any defects in it. It contains, however, two statement* that ought not to be allowed to pass with- out protest. The first of these is on p. 25, where we- read :— " The Black Friars, on their arrival in England it* the thirteenth century, first established themselves in a monastery on Holborn, which, subsequent to their removal to Blackfriars, the district named after them, passed into the hands of the Earls of Lincoln and became Lincoln's Inn." This statement, which was first made by Stow ('Survey,' ed. 1598, pp. 362, 363), is merely founded on a guess, that Lincoln's Inn must be the site of the Earl of Lincoln's house. Some years ago I made a careful inquiry into the history of the site of Lin- coln's Inn, and I claim to have proved ('Black Books of Lincoln's Inn,' vol. iv. pp. 263-302) that the House of the Black- friars, granted to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in 1286, stood at the north-east corner of Shoe Lane, and was the mansion, subsequently known as Holborn Hall. Ott the earl's death it descended to his daughter, Alesia, and subsequently became the pro- perty of the Lords Strange of Knockyn ; it passed to the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, on the marriage of Sir George Stanley with Joan,. Baroness Strange of Knockyn, circa 1480, and was in their possession as late as 1612. Lincoln's Inn, on the other hand, has » clear title from 1227, when Henry III. granted a site in Newstreet (Chancery Lane) to Ralph Neville, Bishop of Chichester. The original patent is in the possession of the Society, and was doubtless handed over as the root of title when William and Eustace Suliard purchased the freehold from Richard Sampson, Bishop of Chichester, in 1535. The second point arises not in the text, but in the title to one of the admirable illustrations. Near the end is a photograph of the old house in Portsmouth Street, near the south-west corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields. The house itself bears in large letters the inscription : " The Old Curiosity Shop, immortalized by Charles Dickens." The title to the plate is more cautious, and says i "The Old Curiosity Shop, Portsmouth Street (said to have been the original of Dickens's 'Old Curiosity Shop')." Said, forsooth! Said by whom 1 There is not a tittle of evidence to support it; it is an impudent assumption. And the witness to prove the lie is Dickens himself. On the last page of the novel he says : "The old house had been long ago pulled down, and a fine broad road was in its place." It is to be regretted that