Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/279

 io" S.V.MARCH 24, 1906. NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The Tribune of 24 February, gives a picture of the liberties taken with our standard litera- ture by colonial Ministers of Education :

"Everything relating to Christianity was de- leted, and so far did this eviscerating process go that Burns's ' Cotter's Saturday Night ' was muti- lated ; the 'Wreck of the Hesperus' was shorn of the stanza describing how the maiden ' thought of Christ who stilled the waves On the sea of Galilee,' and the ' Christian mother ' of the poet became the 'frantic mother' of the secular pedant. Years after the Victorian Parliament directed the restoration of the expurgated passages, but this has not yet been carried out. Apart from the literary barbarism involved, could anything be more calcu- lated to defeat its ends ? "

There is the further danger of some of these " cooked " passages, when notobviousl} 7 bad, creeping in as " new readings, 3 ' if they are quoted separately or transferred from these spurious sources. R. B.

"WALKER" IN LATIN. The reply of MR. W. R. HOLLAND on p. 153 on the occurrence of the Latin form Smithus reminds me of an inscription on a monument in Sonning Church, which describes the deceased as belonging to a certain family of a certain county, and uses the words "ex stirpe Walkerorum," &c. FRANK PENNY.

ROYAL PEDIGREE IN * BURKE.' For some years the tabulated pedigree of the Royal Family in Burke's ' Peerage 3 has contained a misleading statement, namely, that Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Edward L, was twice married, her first husband having been Alphonso, King of Arragon. She was es- poused by proxy to King Alphonso, but he died before the solemnization of the marriage. Perhaps this is only a "terminological inexactitude." LEO C.

FLEET STREET CHANGES. The constant changes in Fleet Street require a very obser- vant chronicler. Within recent years, from the expiration of leases and the widening scheme, it has altered more than most London thoroughfares. Thelosses that this reconstruc- tion entails are not always important, and in some instances the new buildings are to be preferred to the uninteresting plain brick "shells" that, probably ninety years pre- viously, replaced a fine "Queen Anne" building which had been built on the site of an Elizabethan half-timber house. No street in London has changed its boundaries less, and none, therefore, so readily permits this retrospective reconstruction.

Each change was perhaps deplored by the antiquaries of the time, but we may gain some satisfaction from the fact that the latest change is at least to a more ambitious

style, with corresponding improvement in the appearance of the street.

In the instance of Nos. 143 and 144, the recently completed building is to be preferred to its immediate predecessor ; the Gothic ornamentations, Tudor windows, and statue of Mary, Queen of Scots, have also the merit of novelty. I am indebted to Sir J. G. T. Sin- clair, Bart, for the following particulars, and permission to quote them in these pages :

"I write to say that I am the proprietor of 143 and 144, Fleet Street, and that my architect, Mr. Roe, built it in the Gothic style in accordance with my detailed instructions. He also built for me Byron House* and 53f and 71, Fleet Street. There is also a house built by Mr. Roe for me in Leadenhall Street, in the medieval style, with a statue of a man in armour in front ; and I also built Leadenhall House, fronting Billiter Street, with Mr. Holmes as my architect, and a house in Cannon Street, opposite the Railway Station, all the front of which is of polished granite."

It may be of interest to note that the first- mentioned house stands immediately east of what is now Cheshire Court. This is a re- cent change of name from Three Falcon Court, but I cannot trace in Noble (' Me- morials of Temple Bar ') any mention of this court. It can perhaps be connected with the sign of "The Falcon" between Bolt Court and the Conduit, where in 1660 there lived George Sedley, a saddler of the livery. This sign is also mentioned in 1661 and 1667 (vide pp. 382, 377, ' Signs of Old Fleet Street/ by Mr. F. G. Hilton Price).

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

MRS. FlTZHERBERT AND GEORGE IV.'i?

CORONATION. I have in my possession a card of admission to Westminster Abbey on the occasion of the coronation of George IV. It has ivritten in the space intended for a number "4524," and is signed "Howard of Effingham," who, I presume, was for some reason acting in the place of the Duke of Norfolk as Earl Marshall. In the same hand- writing as the number is written on a white margin " Mrs. Fitzherbert." It is to admit by the "North door" to the " Upper boxes." The engraving of the plate is of high class.

Is it possible to ascertain from the records whether this ticket was issued to the Mrs. Fitzherbert? If so, it appears to be an


 * Vide 10 th S. iv. 147. t Vide 10 h S. iii. 42", 493.