Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/213

 10 S. VII. MARCH 2, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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she and the Duke sang a duet, Before March, 1819, she had retired to a convent, according to Dr. Anderson, and doubtless she died in the odour of sanctity. Tradi- tion describes her as small, dark, and hand- some ; and as having a hasty temper, under the influence of which she was known to go into the garden and tear up flowers. But soldiers in danger of severe punishment, who appealed to her, were pardoned through her influence with the Duke. M. N. G.

Can MR. PEET give any ground or autho- rity for the extraordinary report that Constance Kent's father was a son of the Duke ? The fact that he and most of his children bore the Christian name of Savill, and must therefore be presumed to have been connected with a family of that name, is strongly against this, since, if he had been illegitimate, it is unlikely that the memory of a connexion on his mother's side would have been preserved in this way. On the other hand, there are facts which, taken in combination, point to a French connexion :

( 1 ) Constance's second name was Emilie ;

(2) she and her brother ran away from home at the ages of twelve and eleven, with the intention of going abroad ; (3) after the murder she was sent to a convent in France. These might be adduced in support of a theory that her father was son of Madame de St. Laurent ; and as he died 5 Feb., 1872, aged seventy, and was therefore born in 1801-2, this is not inconsistent with the statement of M. N. G. that the lady had no children down to August, 1800. B.

POST BOXES (10 S. vi. 389, 453, 475 ; vii. 72). In The Illustrated Times, vol. i. p. 452 15 Dec., 1855 are two pictures : one of a ' London Letter Post,' the other of a ' Paris Letter Post.' The former is square (?five square) and very plain ; there is a ball on the top, springing from a simple ornament of leaves. The latter is round, ornate, and rather taller, but of much less diameter. On one face of the former is " Post Office Letter Box No. 2. miles 7 furlongs 178 yards from General Post Office." On the other visible face is a hanging flap marked " Letters " ; below is a long inscrip- tion beginning " Letter Box," but the rest is illegible. On the French pillar are the words " Boite aux lettres," " Service des postes." In each picture a postman stands by the " letter post."

P. 454 contains an article on ' London and Paris Letter Posts and Letter Carriers.' It speaks of our " letter posts " as an im- provement borrowed from the French. It

calls them " cast-iron ' letter posts,' or r more properly, ' postal pillars,' recently erected as succursals to the old receiving houses." It asks :

"Why must everything English, to be useful, be

hideous? Squat, dwarfed, and clumsy in form,

they remind us of nothing so much as one of Doctor Arnott's stoves that has been given over to a bill- sticker The top of the pillar, capital we cannot

call it, is finished off by a circular knob, something, between a cannon-ball and the blazing fircone on the summit of the monument. Is not this knob provided with a view to the hindrance of the street boys in their much-beloved game of leap-frog, and to prevent their ' overing it ' ? It is certainly as eloquently suggestive of such an intention as the- iron-spiked posts in Burton Crescent." It asks why a postal pillar should have been erected at the corner of Norfolk Street, Strand, where a post office already existed.

It says that the first postal pillar erected in Paris was the one on the Pont Neuf.

The two postmen in the pictures wear tall hats. The Frenchman's is of sugarloaf shape, with a cockade or some mark like one. The colours of the pillars are not mentioned.

In The Illustrated Times, vol. iv. p. 39T (20 June, 1857), is the following :

"The last few weeks has \xic\ seen the removal of most of the ugly-looking letter-posts which about a couple of years ago were set up in the streets of the metropolis. These have given place to a more- tastefully-shaped substitute, an engraving of which- will be found on the present page. Mr. A. Cooper,. C.E., of Great George Street, we understand, supplied the constructional design, and Mr. W. J. Wills, we believe, superintended the ornamenta- tion of it. The plan of the pillar is a hexagon, and the top has a useful little article in the shape of the- compass let into the surface. The space this letter- post occupies is much less than that filled by its predecessor ; and so far as the matter of taste is concerned, the change is one which must meet with public approval."

The pillar in the accompanying print has a festoon of flowers hanging from, appa- rently, small human faces down each side- of the hexagon to about the middle of the pillar. The angles are decorated, and there- are ornamental bands two near the top' and two near the foot. The only visible inscription is " V.R." Beside the pillar stands a gentleman of the period with a letter in his hand. The colour of the paint is not mentioned. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

" ITO " : " ITOLAND " (10 S. vi. 461 ; vii. 12, 93). I do not purpose entering into a discussion with MB. BBESLAR as to the merits- or demerits of the " Ito " movement ; but it would be unjust to the Jewish community if from his statements it was supposed they are in sympathy with this unorthodox Zionism, or that they believe their welfare is-