Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/355

 10 s. VIIL OCT. 12, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES:

" BUMBLE - PUPPY " AND " DOVES " TAVERN (10 S. vii. 306, 456; viii. 72). In a small book called Philosophical Recrea- tions; or, Winter Amusements,' &c., "Lon- don : Printed for T. Hughes 3, Broadway Ludgate Hill " (no date), p. 47, No. 73, is " La Bagatelle Boards, and Bumble Puppy Grounds, how to arrange the holes, so as fifteen shall count every way." Then ap- pears a plan of three rows of numbers, one above the other : first or top row, 492- second, 3, 5, 7 ; .third, 8, 1, 6. This plan gives 15 whether the numbers are taken from side to side, from top to bottom or from corner to corner. It is then said that "to this arrangement of figures has been attributed

some connection with magic Combinations of

ngures, or the congregation of other objects, that should produce fifteen, as a balance, or a congrees \jnc: ? congeries or congress] of totals, were long held in high veneration by the Egyptian Magn f.szc], and their scholars, from Greece, Syria and Abyssina [sic], all of whom attributed many virtues to numbers so disposed, as to produce fit teen.

Judging from the paper-board cover and the letterpress thereon, I should put the date of the book at about 1830. The pre- face is signed J. B.

" Bumble-puppy " used to be a name given in derision to whist badly played ten to twenty years ago, and probably much earlier. I remember seeing a good many years ago a facetious book about bad whist, entitled, I think, ' Bumble-puppy.'

ROBERT PlERPOrNT.

THE HAMPSTEAD OMNIBUS (10 S. viii. 86, 156). The paragraph quoted by A. F. R. from The Daily Telegraph appeared in several other journals, but it is slightly inaccurate, for although it states that " as late as 1835 the only public conveyances to London were two coaches, each constructed to carry eighteen persons," Pigot's 'London Direc- tory ' for 1823-4 gives the following list of these vehicles to the City :

" Mr. John Dance's coaches, at eight, nine, ten, and eleven in the forenoon, and at two, three, six, seven, arid eight in the afternoon, from the Office in the High Street.

"Messrs. Hamilton & Clarke's coaches hourly, from eight in the morning till eight in the evening, from their office in the High Street.

"Mrs. Mary Woodward's coaches, hourly, from .half- past eight in the morning till eight in the evening, and till nine in the summer, from the office in the High Street."

From this it would appear that Hampstead was very well served in the matter of con- veyance to town.

Now, after trying one or two new routes,

the Hampstead omnibuses have again reverted to their old one from " The Bird in Hand," High Street, to St. Giles's Church, this taking place on 1 September, the present starting- and stopping-places being within a stone's throw of the same spots used for these purposes for upwards of 150 years, for " The Bird in Hand " was formerly one of these coach offices, and " The Blue Posts," Tottenham Court Road, was the end of most of their journeys.

E. E. NEWTON. 7, Achilles Road, West End, Hampstead, N.W.

"SHAM ABRAHAM" (10 S. vii. 469). Although one can find no account of how the name of Abraham came to be used in such a connexion, yet all accounts agree that when Bethlem Hospital was first built, or soon after it was built and endowed, a part was appropriated for the reception and maintenance of idiots. These were called Abraham Men (Tom o' Bedlam's Men, or Bedlam Beggars) because Abraham was the name of the ward in which they were con- fined. It would be well if the statement could be better substantiated, but it is said that on certain occasions, as of holidays, those inmates who were not too incapacitated had permission to visit their friends outside the hospital, while those who had no friends begged about the streets. The ridicule to which the latter class were subjected by the young and ignorant excited pity on their behalf, and to be an Abraham Man was soon found by the vagrant to be a profitable vocation, with the result that idiotcy, and the Bethlem dress which indicated it, became too fashionable, and such unscrupulous persons were said to " sham Abraham," until the offence was punished by the whipping-post and con- finement in the stocks. In ' King Lear ' the country gave Edgar " proof and precedent of Bedlam beggars " when he borrowed " Poor Tom's " dress for the purpose of disguise (Act II. sc. iii.). But it has yet to be explained, I think, why the particular ward in Bethlem Hospital was named the Abraham ward. Who was this Abraham ? Or was the name of the ward adopted in allusion to the beggar Lazarus being " carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom " ? J. HOLD EN MACMICHAEL.

Deene, Streatham.

I can remember how, fifty years ago,. " bone-idle " or " born-idle " men were called " Sham Abrahams," which meant that they shammed some ailment so as to avoid working. The saying was also often