Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/70

 54 NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. rv. JULY 15,1905. landowners to the Poor Law authorities to do the best they could with it for the poor, and the authorities thought that, if aided by an adjoining parish or parishes, they might •manage to support the poor of Cholesbury. At Uley, in Gloucestershire, the rates were ll. 7s. 6d.—we cannot say in, but, to be -correct, 7s. Qd. outside the pound. It was less the needs of the poor than the corruption which existed under the old Poor Law which brought about the excessively high rates. HARRIETT MC!LQUHAM. ACADEMY or THE MUSES (10th S. iii. 449).— A propos of this inquiry, I may refer MR. UTTON to the mammoth bookshop of James Lackington, regarded at the time as one of London's wonders. Formerly at 46-7, Chis- well Street, Moorfields, Lackington removed in or about the year 1796 to a specially •equipped establishment known as the Temple of the Muses, adjacent to the old address. The following characteristic notice was issued in 1795 :— "The very great share of public favour that 1 have experienced for some years past has often created a grateful wish that it were in my power to accommodate purchasers in a better manner; it having been always extremely mortifying to mo to see my numerous and respectable Customers frequently pushing, as it were, one another out of my shop, or driving each other into holes and •corners for want of room. To remedy this incon- venience was for many years totally impossible, as I never could bear the idea of leaving that spot that to me had proved so fortunate. The long- wished-for opportunity is at length arrived. "An eligible and commodious place is found, purchased, and now fitting up, at many thousand pounds expence, but a few yards from the famous old shop. This new shop will be about 70 ft. long and 401C. wide, so that there will be ample room for my numerous customers to walk about or sit •down at their ease. "For such Ladies and Gentlemen as wish to •enjoy a literary lounge, somewhat more retired than a public shop will admit of, a communication •is opened between the shop and the ground floor •of my dwelling house. This house is situated at the S.W. corner of Finsbury Square and the shop in Finsbury Place, the whole forming a front of about 140 ft. In the centre of the shop a dome is •erecting, round which will be galleries for books. " My old shop having long been acknowledged the cheapest in the world, 1 hope that the new one will not only be the cheapest and contain the largest collection, but will also be the beat shop in the world, and I have no doubt but that the public will add their good wishes that it may long stand a monument to shew mankind what Industry and Small Profits will effect. " It perhaps may not be amiss to inform the Public that although this shop will be grand and contain an immense collection of capital and Buperb books, that [«t>] the most trifling customer will not •be neglected. At the shop of Lackington, Allen & Co. may be had a second-hand ' Pilgrim's Progress' or ' Universal History' in 60 volumes 8vo; a Primer or the 'Philosophical Transactions' at large, the ' History of Little Dick' or ' Grayii Thesaurus,' 37 volumes in folio—in short, Books in all languages, in every class of literature, in new and splendid bindings, or soiled second-hand copies, and as his ready-money plan is strictly adhered to, every article, whether second-hand or new, will siill be sold from 20 to 50 per cent, under the common prices." WM. JAGGARD. Probably this is the Academy known as the Museum Minervse, of which Sir Francis Kynaston was "Regent." It was instituted in the eleventh year of the reign of Charles I., and established at a house in Covent Garden, purchased for the purpose by Kynaston. This he had furnished with books, manu- scripts, paintings, statues, musical and mathematical instruments, &c., and every requisite for a polite and liberal education : only the nobility and gentry were admissible into the Academy. Professors were appointed to teach the various arts and sciences, under the direction of the "Regent." The constitu- tions of the Museum Minervse were published in London in 1626 in 4to. In 1636, during the time that Dr. Featley was provost, the plague raged with so much violence in Lou- don that Sir Francis presented a petition to the king, requesting his permission to remove the Academy to Chelsea College. But this was found impracticable, and SirF. Kynaston and Dr. May, one of the professors, were obliged to remove the Academy to Little Chelsea. See Faulkner's ' History of Chelsea,' 1810, vol. i. pp. 148-50. J. HOLDEX MAcMlCHABL. It is given as pertaining to London in Robson's ' British Herald ' and Berry's ' Ency- clopaedia Heraldica,'and the arms are printed thus : Argent, two bars wavy azure; on a chief of the second a music book open or, between two swords in saltire of the first, Killed and pommelled of the third. Crest, a Sagittarius in full speed ppr., shooting with baw and arrow argent. Supporters, dexter a satyr: in sinister a merman with two tails, both ppr. Motto, " Nihil invita Minerva." 'London Armory," by Richard Wallis, 1677, No. 4, plate xix., gives a fine illustration of the arms. JOHN RADCLIFFE. Has MR. UTTON referred to' Schools,' <fec., by W. Carew Hazlitt, 1888 ? In my ' Swimming Bibliography' I refer, p. 19, to a "Museum Minervee," a scholastic institution. RALPH THOMAS. "Pop GOES THE WEASEL" (10th S. iii. 430. 491).—The word " weasel" should be " weevil." The stanza runs thus:—