Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/237

 10 s. VIIL SEPT. 7, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

195

place in Camomile Street : their subsequent migrations being to the Poultry and to Hoi- born Viaduct.

The City Temple congregation used Miles Lane by arrangement with another society, which occupied the place in the morning, and to which it belonged.

MR. W ATKINSON is such a diligent student of 'Nonconformist history, and has done so much good original research, the result oi which will, I hope, by and by challenge the verdict of the public, that I feel sure -that his mistake about Miles Lane is a mere slip. , T. G. CRIPPEN.

SHREWSBURY CLOCK : " POINT OF WAR " (10-S. viii. 8, 96). For some years past I have been trying to trace the origin of Falstaff's remark, but without success.

The old Market Hall was built in 1596 (not -in 1595, as stated by MR. BAVINGTON JONES). My idea is that a clock had lately been fixed, not on the front or side of the building, but on the side of a small centre bell turret, and that this clock, being a new thing of which the Shrewsbury people were proud, caused many jesting remarks at the time, and Shakspear, hearing of these, made use of them in the play of ' Henry IV.' This is probable, as the first part of the play is stated to have been written in 15967. It is a matter of local interest that the King's players were here in 1606, and Shakspear might have been with them ; but this, of course, is a date after the words regarding the clock had been written.

It is certain that, with the wind in the right <Iirection, the striking of a loud-voiced clock could have been heard some three miles or more from Shrewsbury, but hardly in the din of battle. But if there was a Shrewsbury clock in 1403, where was it ?

In 1903, when Mayor of the town, I had some old clock works removed from under the roof of the old Market Hall and photo- graphed. These works are now in the room kept for witnesses attending the Mayor's Court, which is held in the building. I have sent the photograph to experts, but failed to obtain an opinion as to the age. Perhaps ome one reading this may offer to satisfy my curiosity.

I read in The Manchester Evening Chro- nicle of Saturday, 8 June last, in an article on Shrewsbury, signed " Centurion," the following curious and inaccurate statements :

"Not a stone's throw from the stately Grammar 'School, with its ancient dial still doing duty as a public clock the legitimate descendant or that Shrewsbury clock by which Falstaff fought ' a long hour,'" &c.

Why the writer should have fixed on the clock of the Free Library formerly Grammar School I do not know. The building now standing was not commenced until 1617, and was completed in 1630. He also states that Henry IV. arrived in time to take up high ground at Shrewsbury Castle to prevent the union of Hotspur's forces " with the wild Welshmen under Owen Glendower." I thought that all students of history at any rate, those who read the accounts of the five hundredth anniversary of the battle were aware that Glendower was far away in South Wales at this time. The day for romancing history has departed : we must have solid facts. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

Shrewsbury.

PIE : TART (10 S. viii. 10f>, 134, 157, 178). Errors spoil communications, therefore I should like to correct two at the penultimate reference. I intended to say that all tarts had top and bottom crusts, and that pies had only top crusts. Further, the couplet at foot should be :

Apple pie '11 make you cry ;

Gooseberry pasty '11 make you nasty ; not " hasty," as printed.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

" Tart " is by no means universal in the North, though it was at one time considered in certain circles more " genteel." Except in the case of mince pies and pork pies, I have never heard " pie " applied to any- thing with an upper and a lower crust : for this the word would rather be " pasty " riming with " nasty " and the couplet MR. RATCI.IFFE quotes I have always heard in this form :

Apple pie will make you cry ; Apple pasty will make you nasty. In support of " pie " we may quote Southey's " Gooseberry pie is best." C. C. B.

Perhaps the following recipe from a scarce book, ' Carmina Quadragesimalia, Series Prima ' (1723), may amuse your readers, and induce them to say, " O dura messorum ilia." It describes a Cornish dish which used to be called " squab pie ":

An Omne Corpus componatur? Aff f - Quseris quo victu Cornubia gaudeat ? artem, Qua formes placidas, accipe, Phylli, dapes. Erige triticeo Cerealia mcenia farre ;

Et pandat largum massa rotunda sinum ; Turn poma in minimas redolentia divide partes ;

Et carnem pinguis suppeditabit ovis ; Ccepe saporato contingat csetera succo ;

Sparge tamen parca flebile ccepe manu. His bene compositis rebus, te, Phylli, tuasque__ Laudabit mixtus helluo quisque dapes. P. loo.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.