Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/142

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. AUG. 10, mi.

" CAVEAC " TAVERN (10 S. iii. 29). No reply appears to have been made to MB. J. P. SIMPSON'S query on the subject of this old City tavern ; and, oddly enough, it would seem from a letter which appeared in The City Press of 8 June that nobody is so well able to answer it as MR. J. P. SIMPSON himself.

In The City Press of 1 June a similar request for information as to the " Caveac " Tavern appeared above the signature of Mr. Cecil Clarke ; and, in reply, the letter above referred to, written by Mr. Richard Davies, and another by Mr. W. Howard Flanders appeared, both of which are so interesting to London topographers that they seem worthy of reproduction in these pages, as containing matter new to many readers of ' N. & Q-,' even if not to MR. SIMPSON.

The letters in question are as follows :

OLD CITY TAVERNS. To the Editor of The City Press. SIR, Your correspondent, Mr. Cecil Clarke, desires information about an old City hostelry known as the Caveac Tavern. The following par- ticulars are derived from the very interesting ' History of the Caveac Lodge,' by one of its Past Masters, Mr. John Percy Simpson. I there learn that, in the churchwardens' accounts of the then existing church of St. Bennett Finck, the name of Bertrand Cahuac is first mentioned in 1687, he being probably a French refugee. This Bertrand Cahuac set up business as a wineseller in Spread Eagle Court, Finch Lane, which was in the parish above alluded to. His tavern was known as Cahuac's Tavern. The name reappears in the churchwardens' list as Cavehac, and later (about 1710) as Caveac. The vestry minutes allude to the above-mentioned Bertrand Cahuac as "Bert Caveac." In 1704 he served the office of constable of the parish, and at the end of that year was fined for failing to serve as churchwarden. He carried on the business of keeper of Cahuac's Tavern till 1738. It is probable that the entries in the parish register of Beudington of the birth of Martha Caveac in 1738 and Bertrand Caveac in 1741 refer to members of the same family, inasmuch as Bertrand retired to Beddington from Finch Lane, died there in 1743, and is registered as having been buried there. His will gave directions for his burial at Beddington, but no trace of his tombstone can be found. The connexion of the stil existing Caveac Lodge with the Caveac Tavern is I think, satisfactorily established by Mr. Simpson in his most interesting little volume. It appears to have been the practice of the vestry of the parisl to adjourn to "Caveac's," and there is little dpub that the tavern was xised for purposes of festivity and hospitality by the Common Councilmen for th ward of Broad Street. I personally like to think as a member of the Common Council and a Pas Master of the Caveac Lodge, that I am the solitar representative of a connexion between the ward anc th e Lodge which, in those far-away days, probabl e xisted to a larger extent. I am, &c., Stock Exchange. RICHARD DAVIES.

SIR, In your impression of June 1 there is a query as to the Caveac Tavern. In ' Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,' vol. xix. p. 18, is an illustration of the houses in Spread Eagle Court, Threadneedle Street, forming the old Caveac Tavern. In the- account it is simply mentioned as standing where the Peabody statue now stands ; and being the last resting-place of the Caveac Lodge, No. 176. I am, &c.,

W. HOWARD FLANDERS.

ALAN STEWART. Latchingdon, Essex.

LADY-BIRD FOLK-LORE (10 S. viii. 9). ' The Rosicrucians,' by Hargrave Jennings, has much interesting matter on this point in chap. vii. He connects the lady-bird (lady-cow in West Yorkshire) with the- scarab of ancient Egypt ; with the fleur- de-lis of old France, and the " bees " (really scarabs, found in Egypt) of Napoleon r also with cancer, the crab, in the zodiac.

H. SNOWDEN WARD.

The expression " God's little cow " ap- pears to have gone eastward, probably through translation, i.e., Russian Bozhia korovka, and Bulgarian Bozha-kravitsa. The echs call the creature pinka linka (pinka f finch ; linka, a little line), but this sounds- ke a nickname rather than a name of meaning. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

The lady-bird here is called a " cushjr owlady." There was, when I was a child,, a sort of rime :

Cushy cowlady, fly away home ; Your house is on fire, your children all gone.

R. B R. South Shields.

One of the names of the lady-bird used irt Baskland is Catalina gorria, i.e., " the red Catherine." Can any folk-lorist tell us-

E. S. DODGSON. 274; vi. 255 r

why Catherine, of all otherjadies^was chosen to name this insect ?

See also 9 S. v. 48, 154, 417 ; vii. 95, 396 ; viii. 87.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

STEBBING SHAW STAFFORDSHIRE MSS. (10 S. viii. 47). Some information might be obtained by applying to the Cathedral Librarian at Lichfield. The library there includes a copy (probably unique) of Shaw's

privately printed

History of Lichfield.' WILLIAM JAGGARD.

" DAPIFER " : " OSTIARIUS " (10 S. viiu 48). The "dapifer" of a monastery wa the refectorer or cellarer ; the " ostiarius "' was its chancellor.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.