Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/432

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* B. v. MAY 5,

reappears in Thomson & Sons' ' Twenty-Four Country Dances,' 1760, and again in 1773.

In Horace Wai pole's letters to Sir Horace Mann, iii. 65, dated 28 October, 1752, it is mentioned that " Lady Coventry excused herself from the fireworks at Madame Pom- padour's because it was her dancing master's hour." At vol. i. p. 170 of 'Selwyn and his Contemporaries,' her death is said to have occurred on 1 October, 1760.

JAMES WATSON.

Folkestone.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AT LE PORTEL (10 th S. v. 228). En ce qui concerne le passage de Sir Joshua Reynolds au Portel, pres de Boulogne, lors de " ses voyages dans les Fl and res et en Italie [1]," j'ai consulte ses trouver aucune allusion a cet endroit. Voici 1'itineraire de ses voyages en 1'annee 1781, d'apres 1'ouvrage cite : II partit de Londres le 24 juillet, et passa par Margate, Ostende, Gand, Bruxelles, Anvers, Dort, La Haye, Leyde, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Aix-la- Chapelle, Liege, Bruxelles, Ostende, Margate, Londres, ou il reviut le 16 septembre.
 * Literary Works' (ed. 1835, 2 tomes), sans y

Je ne dis pas que le " guide " en question ait tort, mais il parait qu'il y aerreur quelque part. EDWARD LATHAM.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES IN 1905 (10 th S. v. 221, 262). To an old resident the notes by MR. HARLAND-OXLEY are extremely inter- esting, and I should like to add a few words with reference to the little court and cottage in North Street.

Mr. T. Fairman - Ordish contributed an article to Cornhill, February, 1904, but he too gives no information why the little court has always been known, and is still alluded to, as Noah's Ark. Old inhabitants of the neighbourhood will confirm my assertion, and I have a distinct recollection of Mr. Barnes, the pantaloon, alluding to his studio by that name. It is not generally known that he was a clever photographer. I have some of his work by me at this moment. And in con firmation of this, strange to say, after so many years, his name and profession as photo grapher may still be made out, in black paint, on the shabby old wooden facia above the iron gateway.

It may not be generally known that in Bentley's Miscellany, vol. vii. p. 457, will be found an amusing account of a continenta tour, 'Journal of Old Barnes, the Pantaloon, in 1830. There is a woodcut portrait in

Within the cottage at the end of the court will be found, in the second room on the right of the entrance, a ceiling which will surprise those visitors who care to obtain the very civil owner's permission to view it. It is far finer than the Carey House one. The medallions, portraits, four classic heads, and the floral wreaths are in excellent pre- servation. It has been purchased, and will no doubt be shortly removed.

John Carter, F.S.A., author, antiquary, and artist, resided in Wood Street in 1785, and in Great College Street in 1787, before removing to Hyde Park Corner. JAS. ARROW.

character "Here I am. !J he was a charming old school.

I knew him well fellow of the ok

CHEMISTS' COLOURED GLASS BOTTLES (10 th S. v. 168, 231). Many of these containers ^ of coloured waters were formerly adorned with planetary symbols. Is it beyond the verge of likelihood that the sign and the hue had mutual reference to each other? In old heraldry the tinctures of royal arms were- indicated by the names of the planets ; thus the vert of the commoner became Venus; his purpure was Mercury; his gules, Mars; his azure, Jupiter ; and so forth. We must remember that the organs of the body were- supposed, and are supposed, to be under direct planetary influence. ST. SWITHIN.

A correspondent informs me that he has- been told

that the blue and red colours represent venous- and arterial blood, and that the exhibition of these colours was to let the public know that the gentle- man displaying these signs was capable of bleed- ng, and willing to bleed, people who were so desirous."

Jeaffreson, in his 'Book about Doctors/ 1861, p. 49, says :

"The dispensing chemists and druggists, whose shops, flashing with blue bottles (last remnant of empiric charlatanry), brighten our street corners and scare our horses at night, are the apothecaries of the last century."

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

This custom is, I think, traceable to the old alchemists, the coloured waters sym- bolizing the different minerals that they used in their compounds. Thus yellow would represent gold ; red, iron ; green, copper ; blue, tin ; and purple, quicksilver. So far as I know, white or black bottles are never seen, although it would be interesting to hear of any instance of their use, or, indeed, of the use of any other colours than those mentioned above. H. T. SMITH.

KEBUS IN CHURCHES (10 th S. v. 188, 250, 297, 317). In Middleham Church, Yorkshire, formerly collegiate, is the fine slab once