Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/613

 io«-s. iv. DEC. 23,1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 507 Civil Service Commission. A proof of the esteem in which Sir James was held by his colleagues may be found in the fact that on the completion of the west wing of Somerset House he was presented with a gold medal subscribed for by seventy-five of the leading architects of the metropolis ; and in 1865 he •received the Royal Gold Medal placed at the disposal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The design of the Record Office, Chancery Lane, may not commend itself to many at the present day, but Pennethorne's design was completed by Sir John Taylor, of the Office of Works, and earned for him the distinction of K.C.B. JOHN HEBB. PARLIAMENTARY WHIPS. — Readers of 4N. & Q.' may be interested to observe from the following transcript of a MS. in my possession that parliamentary " whips " are of considerable antiquity. The letter is written by some clerk, but signed by Lord North himself. SIB,—AH the new parliament which is summoned lor the 31st of this month is immediately to proceed on the Dispatch of Public Business in which mattersof very greatlmportance will come before the House ; I hope you will excuse the Liberty I take in apprizing you thereof, being persuaded your Zeal for the Public Service will induce you to attend the Meeting. I am with the greatest respect, Sir Your most Obedient and most faithful humble servant, NOKTH. Downing Street, 17th October, 1780. It would be worth [knowing at what date the custom originated. H. [Many articles on Whips in the House of Com- mons will be found in 8th S. iv., v., vi., vii., viii.] " INFANT PHENOMENON." — The " Infant Phenomenon," daughter of Mr. Vincent Crummies, has long been known to us, though it is not so well remembered that Dickens had previously caused Sam Weller to give the like nickname to the Fat Boy. Butthere were brave men before Agamemnon, And a much earlier use of the term is to be found in the following extract from The Times of Saturday, 20 October, 1804 :— "Amongst the infantine phenomena of the day may be justly reckoned a boy, not four years old, the son of Mr. Wigley, music-seller, opposite St •Clement's Church, in the Strand, who performs the most difficult passages on the bugle-horn with All the full-toned powers of a regimental trumpeter. ALFRED F. BOBBINS. JOHN PENHALLOW.—Some years ago several •of the members of Clifford's Inn inspected an •old oak room at No. 3 in the Inn, with the view of determining if the oak was worth selling. We all agreed that it would cost more to replace the room in tenantable repair than the oak was worth. It was encrusted with paint, nails had been freely used, and at one time all had been covered with wall-paper. In 1903 this oak was put up for sale by auction, looking dirty and generally in a miserable condition. Toevery- oody's astonishment it realized 550 guineas, and was bought for the Albert and Victoria Museum, who, I presume, have added cost of removal, &c., as they put the price at 6061 7s. 6d. It has been re-erected there ; but how marvellous is the transformation that skilled hands have brought about! It now looks worth double the price given for it, and is undoubtedly a fine specimen of old English oak and English workmanship. Of course Grinling Gibbons's name at once occurs to the visitor: but there is no authority for attributing the work to him. The label says the oak was put up for John Penhallow, wlio occupied the room from 1688 till his death in 1716. Over the fireplace is a shield of arms, Penhallow quartering Pen- warn. Is anything known about him ? There is an account in Boaseand Courtney s ' Bibliotheca Cornubiensis' of Samuel Pen- hallow (1665-1726), who embarked for .New England and arrived there 1686. RALPH THOMAS. TWIZZLE-TWIGS.—This name of the jointed rush, Juncus articulat-us, in use here, is not mentioned in the 'English Dialect Dictionary.' J- P- STILWELL. Yateley, Hants. ROCKEFELLER.—This name is attracting the curious attention of those taking an interest in American genealogy. So far the family- history explorer, whether amateur or trained, has gathered in little worth recording. Kegs of ink, in sooth, have been wasted by news- paper and magazine scribblers in vainly trying toexplainanddisclose the busmesssteps of a certain individual enjoying the cognomen, one J. D. Rockefeller, of Cleveland, Ohio, of Standard Oil Company notoriety, largely because of his having attained that pre- eminently solitary position, viz., of being "the richest man in the world. By the side of his accumulations the combined wealth of the European Rothschilds is a bare zero mark, if public opinion throughout the United States is to be believed. His for- bears appear to have originated in the hritish Isles, despite the odd, hard patronymic ap- pellation which is his ; I say hard, knowing our national American weakness, outside of Indian designation, to generalize the