Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/331

 10 s. VIL APRIL 6, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

271

.appearance of The Oxford Gazette, No. 1, 7 13 Nov., 1665. The latest number of the Intelligencer that I have seen is 2 Dec., 1665 ; and the latest of the Newes, No. 93, 16 Nov., 1665.

The British Museum possesses only a few odd numbers of the various papers published from 1620 to 1665. MERCURIUS.

" BADGER'S BUSH " OR " BEGGAR'S BUSH " INN (10 S. vii. 209). The " Beggars' Bush " public-house stood nearly in the centre of what is now New Oxford Street, and was reached, by those going from the West End towards the City, by means of a turning on the left hand, nearly opposite St. Giles's Churchyard. The entrance to this turning or lane was obstructed or defended by posts with cross bars, which being passed, the lane itself was entered. It extended some twenty or thirty yards towards the north, through two rows of the most filthy, dilapidated, and execrable buildings that could be imagined. In the saloon of this temple of low debauchery were assembled groups of all " unutterable things " all that class distinguished in those days, and, I believe, in these, by the generic term " cadgers " :

Hail, cadgers, who, in rags array'd,

Disport and play fantastic pranks, Each Wednesday night in full parade, Within the domicile of Banks.

A " lady " presided over the revels, collected largess in a platter, and at intervals amused the company with specimens of her vocal talent. Dancing was " kept up till a late hour," with more vigour than elegance ; and many Terpsichorean passages, which partook rather of the animation of the " nautch " than the dignity of the minuet, increased the interest of the performance. It may be supposed that those who assembled were not the sort of people who would have patronized Father Mathew, had he visited St. Giles's in those times. In the lower tier, or cellars, or crypt, of the edifice, beds or berths were provided for the company, who, packed in bins, after the " fitful fever " of the evening, slept well.

This notorious house was a favourite resort of Londoners in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was known by the sign of the " Beggars' Bush " previous to the reign of Charles II., when the name became altered to the " Hare and Hounds," in consequence of a hare having been hunted and caught on the premises, where it was afterwards cooked and eaten.

During the improvements which were effected about 1844-5, when the greater part

of the " Rookery," or the " Holy Land," was swept away, the " Hare and Hounds " (late " Beggars' Bush ") disappeared.

Pepys saw the play called ' The Beggars' Bush,' and notes in his ' Diary,' under date 20 November, 1660 :

"To the new play-house, near Lincoln's Inn Fields (which was formerly Gibbons's Tennis-court), where the play of ' The Beggars' Bush ' was newly begun ; and so AVC went in and saw it well acted." ALFRED SYDNEY LEWIS.

Library, Constitutional Club.

The inscription on the pewter tankard belonging to C. V. H. S. clearly refers to the " Beggar's Bush " Inn, Gravel Lane, South- wark. This ancient hostelry is mentioned by W. J. Meymott in his ' History of the Manor of Old Paris Garden,' printed in 1881 for private circulation. Your correspondent may call to mind that Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the play called ' The Beggars' Bush,' lived together on the Bankside, hard by. PHILIP NORMAN.

Undoubtedly the " Beggar's Bush " is intended, and " Grauel " = Gravel (Lane). Beggar's Bush Yard is described in Dodsley's ' London and its Environs,' 1761, as being in Gravel Lane ; but whether Gravel Lane near the Falcon Stairs, Scuthwark, or the street of the same name in Houndsditch, be meant, one cannot say. It would hardly be Old Gravel Lane, in Ratcliff Highway, since that thoroughfare, through which the sand-ballast carriers conveyed gravel from the neighbouring fields to the ships in the Thames, is distinctively described as Old Gravel Lane. So that Beggar's Bush Yard in Gravel Lane was probably a yard apper- taining to the " Bager's Bush " of C. V. H. S.'s query. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

PANTALOONS v. TROUSERS (10 S. vii. 207). " Pantaloons " are still made at the Army Clothing Factory, and form a separate heading in the accounts, as do breeches, trousers, and trews. P. A.

SlNDBAD THE SAILOR : MONKEYS AND

COCOA-NUTS (10 S. vi. 209, 256, 312). G. Ferdinando d'Oviedo's ' Sommario della natural e general historia dell' Indie occi- dentale ' in Ramusio, ' Navigation! e Viaggi ' (Venetia, 1606), torn. iii. fol. 47f., has this passage :

"Accade, che se si tiran pietre alii detti gatti [mammoiii], e che quelle restino sopra qualche tronco d' arbori : li gatti subito vanno a lanciarle contra li huomini, in questo niodo, un gatto diede una sassata ad un Francesco di villa castino, rilevo del Governator Pedrarias d' avillas, che gli caro di