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NOTES AND QUEEIES. tn s. i. MAR. 26, 1910.

HAMMERSMITH TERRACE. (11 S. i. 169.)

SOME account of Hammersmith Terrace and its associations is given in Thomas Faulkner's 'History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hammersmith,' 1839, pp. 342-50. This "pleasant row of houses ? ' was built, Faulkner says, "about the year 1770.' * With his customary vagueness, he states that Arthur Murphy, dramatist, "resided many years in the last house of this terrace.' 1

Philip James De Loutherbourg, artist, resided at No. 13, died here on 11 March, 1812, and was buried in Chiswick Churchyard, where his tomb, with an effusive inscription, may be seen. At the Hammersmith Public Library I am told that there is reason to believe that De Loutherbourg lived at Nos. 7 and 8, and that his widow afterwards lived at No. 13 in the Terrace. In this library there is a curious 12-page 4to pamphlet with the following title-page :

" ^ List of a Few Cures performed by Mr. and Mrs. De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without medicine. By a Lover of the Lamb of

God, M.P At the Mary-la-bonne Printing

Office, No. 108, Great Titchfield Street, Oxtord Street Price Sixpence."

The dedication, to the Archbishop of Canter- bury, is signed Mary Pratt, July 21, 1789.

Other forgotten notabilities who lived in Hammersmith Terrace were Sir Clifton Wintringham, Bt., Physician to his Majesty and Physician to the Army, who died 10 Jan., 1794 ; and Mrs. Mountain, a " charming songstress,"- who retired in 1815.

The barges mentioned by the querist are still moored underneath the backs of the houses, and give the place a quaint old- world look. Writing of these reminds me of a fire which occurred at a timber-wharf on the riverside, adjoining the west end of the Terrace, about twenty- two years ao-o. Awakened by a red glare in the sky shortly after midnight, I got up and went out to see where the fire was. The roadways around the burning timber-yard were blocked by the police and firemen, so that I could not approach nearer than the other (eastern) end of the Terrace. Here some steps lead down to the water-side, and with two other young men I engaged a boat and rowed out to the middle of the river, where we had a magnificent and unimpeded view of the blaze. We approached as close as the heat would allow us, sheltering our faces with our hats.

It was a cold winter night, and I remember putting my feet up on the side of the boat to warm them by the fire. Now and again the blazing piles of timber would fall on to the coal-laden barges moored below, and set them, too, on fire. It was a sight not to be forgotten. FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

39, Agate Road, Hammersmith, W.

In Leigh's ' New Picture of London.' 1823, p. 442, a few of the celebrities who have resided at Hammersmith are named. Probably the best account will be found in Faulkner's ' History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hammersmith,' 1839, 8vo. The same author has an earlier work, ' An His- torical and Topographical Account of Ful- ham : including the Hamlet of Hammer- smith,' London, 1813, royal 8vo.

W. SCOTT.

See James Thome's ' Environs of London,' 1876, p. 277. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

ALFRED AND THE CAKES (11 S. i. 129, 211). There is more to be said. It is high time that this cruel falsehood should be exposed. The story appears only in the interpola- tion in Asser's ' Life of Alfred,' as taken from the highly embellished Latin version of the ' Life of St. Neot. ? It would be desirable to know the date of the MS.

That it is false is palpable ; for the in- ventor of it expects us to believe that the neatherd's wife, in chiding the king, did so by employing two hexameter lines in monkish Latin ! Obviously he gives himself away, and confesses that he has "improved' 4 the story. Moreover, the king displays his arms, yet no one knows who he is !

It so happens that we possess the story in an older and more reliable form in a form that by its straightforwardness and simplicity gains assent at once. The Latin ' Life of St. Neot ' is merely a monkish version of the older (probably the much older) English Life of the same saint, extant in Anglo-Saxon in MS. Cotton, Vespasian D. xiv, and faithfully edited by the Rev. T. O. Cockayne in ' The Shrine,' pp. 12-22. The original is at p. 16, but I quote from Mr. Cockayne's translation :

>" By God's direction he [the king] came safe to Athelney and asked for shelter in a swain .s house, and also willingly obeyed him and his ill wife. It happened one day that the swain's wife heated her oven, and the king sat there! >y warming himself at the fire ; the people of the house not knowing that he was king. Then was the ill wife suddenly astirred, and said to the king with angry mind, ' Do thou turn the loaves