Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/442

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NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. NOV. 9, 1907.

since then in the dim distance. Curiously enough, in 1883 four violins and a violoncello, dated between 1687 and 1739, by Stradivari and others, made 1 615/ against 612/. for the intervening library of a "entleman. The violin by Stradivari headed this list by 500/., but in 1893 one completely beat the record by fetching 860/."

In 1871 Messrs. Puttick & Simpson sold the music plates and copyrights of Cramer & Co., which brought a total of 35,0002.

In 1859, after having been in Piccadilly for sixty-three years, the firm moved to their present quarters, 47, Leicester Square the house in which, as Mr. Beresford Chancellor reminds us in his valuable work on the squares of London, Sir Joshua Reynolds went to live in the summer of 1760, " being then thirty-six and at the height of his fame." This he took on a forty-seven years' lease, for which he gave 1,650Z. He lived there until his death, which took place, after a short illness, on the 23rd of February (not July, as given by Mr. Chancellor), 1792. On the 29th the body was removed to Somerset House, then the home of the Royal Academy; and on the 3rd of March it was borne to St. Paul's, the funeral procession being of such length that when the first carriage reached the Cathedral the last was leaving Somerset House. While the other houses in Leicester Square have been rebuilt out of all recognition, Mr. Chancellor states that the front of Reynolds's house remains virtually the same.

In the year in which Puttick & Simpson moved to Leicester Square they sold the famous Dawson Turner Collection. This included the catalogue of Dr. Seaman's library, to which I made reference recently under Hodgson's. Other important book- sales included the Emperor Maximilian's Mexican library in 1869, which realized 3,985Z. ; books from William Penn's library ; and the stock of John Camden Hotten, the publisher, 3,751?. The greatest of all, how- ever, was the Sunderland Library in 1881-3, which brought 60,OOOL

To the influence of Fell Puttick is due the unique position the firm occupies in reference to all sales connected with the world of music. He was a great friend of Costa, and for years occupied the position of honorary secretary of the Sacred Harmonic Society. His charm of manner endeared him to all its members, and he caused many a full band rehearsal to be held in his auction-room in the Square, under the leadership of the beloved conductor, Sir Michael Costa. Sun- day morning was Costa's favourite time for rehearsing the principals, and he was often heard to praise the fine acoustic properties

of the old rooms, which have been still further improved in the rebuilding by the addition of a domed ceiling.

JOHN C. FRANCIS.

CAPT. COOK'S HOUSE AT MILE END. The placing of a tablet on No. 88, Mile End Road, where Capt. Cook lived for some time, is, I think, worth recording in ' N. & Q.' In Cook's time the house now numbered 88 was known as 7, Assembly Row, and here he lived after leaving Shadwell, where he had taken a house after his marriage. It has, however, been impossible to identify this house. A year before he settled at No. 88 he had been appointed Marine Surveyor of the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. For four years he held this position, returning at intervals to Mile End in the winter months to prepare his papers. It was while he lived here that he took command of the Endeavour, chartered to observe the transit of Venus from the Pacific. In the interval between two of his great voyages he spent over a year in his Mile End house, and from there he started on the expedition that ended in his death at Hawaii on 14 Feb., 1779. In 1782 Elizabeth Cook was still living in this old house. Now that Capt. Cook's house has been marked, perhaps we may one day see a statue of him in this part of London, with which he is so closely identified. FREDERICK T HIBGAME.

THE SKITTLE ALLEY nsr ORANGE STREET. The Daily Express of 3 August had the following interesting paragraph :

" Workmen engaged in laying a new sewer in Orange Street, at the rear of St. George's Barracks, found a disused skittle alley, 60ft. long, 9ft. 6 in. wide, and 7 ft. 9 in. high, running along and under the south side of the street, adjacent to the pro- perty of the Office of Works. Its existence was unknown to the authorities."

1 have not been able to examine this inter- esting find, but suggest that it formed part of the " Green " or " Upper Mewse." Vide E. Waters's ' Plan of the Parish of St. Martin,' 1797, reproduced in The Builder,

2 July, 1904, and 'The Story of Charing Cross,' p. 246. There is, of course, an alternative supposition that it was an adjunct to some tavern in Orange Street or Orange Court. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

39, Hillmarton Road, N.

COST OF A PEERAGE IN 1628. It is not often that the price paid for a peerage can be ascertained, but in the reign of Charles I., at any rate, it was apparently often a purely business transaction, and the following item