Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/500

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NOTES AND QUERIES, cio* s. v. MAY 26, IOOG.

get the loan of it for purposes of giving fuller description. JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

This is unmistakably St. John of Nepomuk the patron saint of Bohemia. A biograph} of him appeared in one of the early volumes of the Transactions of the English Historica 1 Society, from the pen of the late Mr. Wratis law, I believe, who was a Protestant clergy

j. K.

man.

L. L.

This is St. John of Nepomuk, who was thrown into the Moldau, and is representec with stars (sometimes seven) about his head in commemoration of seven lights \\hicl marked the position of his body in the water

ST. SWITHIN.

"PLACE " (10 th S. v. 267, 316, 333, 353, 371) No doubt your English correspondents wil be able to furnish DR. MURRAY with infor mation about the use of this word in England Meanwhile, the history of the first " Place ' in Boston, Massachusetts, will perhaps not be without interest. The first block of brick buildings to be erected in Boston was designed by Charles Bulfinch, a noted architect in his day, was built in 1793-4, and was called the Tontine Buildings or the Tontine Crescent. On 31 December, 1793, Bulfinch, Scollay, and Vaughan stated that "in erecting the centre building of the Crescent it was our intention to accommodate the [Massachusetts] Histori- cal Society with a convenient room " (1 Pro- ceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., i. 58 note). In a deed dated 1 May, 1794, is the following :

"Know all men by these presents, that we, Charles Vaughan, William Scollay, and Charles

tfulnnch do hereby give, grant, bargain, sell,

and convey unto the said Society the upper

apartment or room in the centre building in Frank- 1m Place, in said Boston, called the Crescent." Ibid., i. 65, note.

Presumably, therefore, the word u Place " arose between December, 1793, and May, 1794, and it can be shown that the term was used in February, 1794. The following extract is taken from The Massachusetts Magazine for February of that year (vi. 67) :

buildings now erecting in the centre of this town on a Tontine principle. One half of these buildings is nearly completed, and the foundations are laid lor the remainder, which will be urged on as soon as^the spring opens.
 * . k The annexed Plate exhibits a view of the

" The _ enti re range wil1 be four hundred and eighty feet long, and consist of sixteen dwelling houses, and one ornamental pile in the centre

devoted to public uses

. " The figure of a crescent has been adopted, as, independent of the beauty of the curve, it afforded an opportunity of introducing a green or grass plat surrounded by trees, which will contribute to the

ornament of the buildings, and be useful in pro- moting a change and circulation of air

" The gentlemen concerned have agreed to dignify the scene of improvement with the name of Frank- lin Place, in honour of that great philosopher, a native of Boston, and one of its greatest boasts."

In * A Topographical and Historical De- scription of Boston,' written by Thomas Pemberton in October, 1794, the author quotes from some unknown source the fol- lowing :

"The Crescent in Franklin place consists of a range of sixteen well-built and handsome dwelling houses, extending four hundred and eighty feet in length

" The open space in front of these buildings is one hundred feet wide in the centre, and fifty feet at the ends. A grass plat three hundred feet long occupies the middle of that space. This is sur- rounded with trees, and enclosed with posts and chains, and is supposed to serve the purposes of health by purifying the air, at the same time that it adds a natural ornament to artificial beauty. The opposite side is intended to be built in a straight line, and in a varied style of building ; and we may anticipate, that when complete, it will be a favourite part of the town, and in some degree its boast." 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iii. 250.

From this evidence it appears that the word "Place" was applied not to the build- ings themselves, but to the entire open space. In 1858 Franklin Place was made part of Franklin Street. There are now, of course, many "Places" in Boston, the word being apparently chiefly applied at present to a short street. ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.A.

Another instance of an old Welsh farm- house may, perhaps, deserve to be recorded. It is called " Plas Hen," or " Hen Bias " (ob- serve the euphonic initial mutation of ^) into &), i.e., old farm-house, and is at Llaneilian, near Amlwch, at Ynys Mon, or Anglesey. I question whether plas really belongs to the number of English words borrowed in Welsh between the sixteenth and eighteenth cen- turies. It is, certainly, not borrowed from the Latin palatium (which, at first, denoted merely a * place where cattle feed "), but akin to it, and, as an indigenous Cymric word, probably quite as old, if not older in usage. M. J. Loth, in his vocabulary of Latin words identified in the Celtic languages 4 Les Mots Latins dans les Langues Brit- x>niques, J 1892), did not include it.

H. KREBS.

In the city of Chester there are several Places." Stanley Place (where the veteran

Recorder and county-court judge, Sir Horatio loyd, lives at No. 8) ; Linen Hall Place,

off Watergate Street ; Bold Place, near