Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/161

 ii s. i. FEB. 19, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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nivm,' an edition which Mr. Walter Begley had never seen (' Nova Solyma,' ii. 385), and which Mr. G. H. Powell, while assigning it to a wrong year, suggests " may have been rarified by students anxiously verifying the numerous passages, borrowed thence by the English poet '* (' Excursions in Libraria,' pp. 10, 11). EDWARD BENSLY.

Aberystwyth.

" ALTES HAUS, FIDELES HAUS" (11 S. i. 88). The fullest dictionary of German student terms is the ' Burschikoses Worter- buch,* by J. Vollmann (a pseudonym), pub- lished in Ragatz, 1846. This will supply the information desired by J. R. C. H. Other synonymous terms are " ein forscher studio," " ein Kapitalkerl," " ein Bierhahn,'* and " ein Eisenfresser " ; but all these are in disuse nowadays, and date from the middle of the last century. FRANK SCHLOESSER.

KING'S PLACE, CROWN COURT, OR PAVED ALLEY (11 S. i. 30, 74, 92). The oldest dis- coverable inhabitant of Crown Court, by calling a tailor, informed me that his father used to speak of Crown Court, Pall Mall, as having been known at one time as the Paved Alley. It seems to have been called alter- natively Old Paved Alley (possibly in contra- distinction to Paved Alley in Charles Street) and Crown Court so early as 1761, as we learn from Dodsley's ' London and En- virons.' In William Rhodes's ' Plan of the Parish of St. James,' 1770, it is still called " Old Pav'd Alley."

It is a curious by-way, retaining to this day in its provision shops a relic of the old St. James's Fair and Market. It has been etched by Mr. Ernest George ('Etchings of Old London,' with descriptive letterpress by the author, 1884). The utilitarian Builder (18 July, 1885, p. 84) speaks of it somewhat disparagingly :

C1 Ft is oii? of the close corners of the picturesque, and a dirty hole it is, occasionally, but unwillingly, used as a short cut; but it looks well in Mr. Gteorge'e <-ti-hing. Now that we have such a good record of it from his needle, let it be pulled down and daylight be let in. It has been etched: away with it."

This may be good builder's logic ; but its general application would, I fear, rob us of nmny a "close corner of the picturesque," which, on account of associations, should iv main taboo to the Philistines. There are, no doubt, dcmves of sensitiveness in the or-;)M of snn'11 ; but there was no unpleasant absence of fresh air when the writer last visited the spot, where the old stalls are

evidently lineal descendants of those in St. James's Market and St. James's Fair.

The Court was named after a tavern with the sign of " The Crown n (vide Dodsley's ' London,' s.v. Crown Court) ; and since booksellers often tenanted a floor above an inn or tavern, it is probable that the John Barnes dwelt here to whom the following advertisement of the time of William III. or Queen Anne appertains :

" ** A Sermon preached at Westminster, on the Publick Solemn Fastday, December 19, 1701. By Vincent Alsop, Minister of the Gospel. Printed for John Barnes at the Crown in the Pall Mall," &c. Postman, 14 March, 1702.

An account of Vincent Alsop will be found in ' Biog. Brit.'

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

[For Vincent Alsop see also 10 S. xi. 47, 114, 195.]

' EDWIN DROOD ' CONTINUED (11 S.i. 69). There appear to have been five attempts made to finish ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood.'

The first was palmed off on the public as being the work of Charles Dickens the younger and Wilkie Collins. It emanated from America, and bore the title of * John Jasper's Secret * (see 10 S. i. 331).

The second was a burlesque : ' The Cloven Foot : being an adaptation of the English Novel " The Mystery of Edwin Drood " to American Scenes, Characters, Customs, and Nomenclature/ by Orpheus C. Kerr, New York, 1870.

The third, which is probably that to which O. S. T. refers, was also published in America (Brattleboro' ) in 1873, under the title :

" The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Part the Second. By the Spirit Pen of Charles Dickens, through a medium : embracing also that part of the work which was published prior to the termination of the Author's Earth Life."

The fourth was published by Remington & Co. in 3 vols. octavo in 1878, and en- titled ' A Great Mystery Solved : being a Sequel to " The Mystery of Edwin Drood, " by Gillan Vase.

The fifth and most remarkable of all was written by the famous astronomer' Richard A. Proctor. It was published in 1887 by Allan & Co., under the title ' Watched by the Dead : a Loving Study of Dickens's Half-told Tale.'

See also 10 S. i. 37, 331.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.