Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/92

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. x. AU. i,

when fully apprehended, so scathingly refers. Wise's words, on pp. 43-5, are as follows :

" Under the Stuarts we find the first traces of that system which at last resulted in the almost ontire devastation of the New Forest. James I. granted no less than twenty assart lands, there having been previously only three ; whilst officers actxiafiy applied to him for trees in lieu of pay for their troops : and Charles II. bestowed the young woods of Brockenhurst to the maids of honour of his court.... The consequences soon came. There was nothing left but wind-shaken and decayed trees in the New Forest, quite unfit

for building ships At last William III. in 1693

legislated on the subject, for, to use the words of the Act* ' the Forest was in danger of being destroyed ' ; and power was given to plant six thousand acres. In 1703 came the great hurri- cane, which Evelyn so deplores, uprooting some four thousand of the best oaks. In 1707 only 12,176 trees are reported as serviceable, whereas in 1608 there had been no less than 123,927 grow- ing trees fit for felling. Nothing was done towards planting during the reigns of Anne and George I. ; Phillipson's and Pitt's plantations in 1755 and 1756 are the next, but they have never thrived owing to the land not having been drained, and the trees not having been thinned out at the proper time."

Fielding, who wrote the note in question probably about 1746-7, was a member of the Western Circuit, and consequently his know- ledge of the Forest was first-hand, for in those pre -County Court days questions in which forest-lands were concerned were doubtless litigated at Winchester Assizes, albeit the ~Verderer's Court was busier judicially than /low.

Moreover, the Bar who travelled the circuit halted atRomsey (until 1785) in passing from Winchester to Salisbury, and it will also be remembered that " Partridge " himself lived in Lymington for three years (bk. xviii. chap, vi.). It is noteworthy, too, that Fielding, soon after his call to the Bar, pur- chased, inter alia, Manwood's ' Forrest Laws ' <1741 ed.). J. PAUL DE C ASTRO.

1, Essex Court, Temple.

GRINNIHG MATCHES. Readers of ' Xotre Dame de Paris ' will recall among the vivid scenes of that masterpiece the grinning match, "le concours de grimaces" (liv. l cr, chap, v.), in the description of which Hugo lavished such wealth of epithet. As did an early English reviewer of the book (Eraser's Magazine, July, 1835), they will recollect Isaaxi Bickerstaff's description of the old English amusement of grinning through a horse-collar in Addison's Spectator. (Hugo's sources for this episode have been carefully worked out by M. Maurice Souriau in La Revue des Cours et des Conferences, x., 1902.) That this queer amusement still found favour

even a few years ago in Hugo's own land i.s evident from the following newspaper notice :

"Le 14 juillet le comite des fetes de Beziers avait organise des 'jeux' populaires, et parnii ees jeux ngurait un concours de grimaces. Pour ce concours deux prix devaient etre distribues aux heureux vainqueurs : l er prix, ciixj francs ; 2 prix, un objet d'art." cho de Paris, Echos, 31 juillet, 1911. WM. A. MCLAUGHLIN.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.

OLD ST. PANCRAS CHURCH. It is hoped the appeal for funds to restore this much- mutilated church will be successful, as it is possible some of the harm done in previous restorations by incongruous additions may be made good.

The greatest harm was done in 1848, when it was largely rebuilt. The following ex- cerpt from Nathaniel Bryceson's Diary indicates, however, that some work for its preservation was necessary : " Sunday, 2 JarCry, 1848.

" .... before coming home I walk'd round to see old St. Pancras Church, or rather what is left of it. The Tower is now totally removed, and some of the Church and the Vestry room too have disappeared, about the foundation of which [sic ? the church] and near to some brick vaults as I was prowling I discovered a Human Skull in pretty fair preservation, which I hurriedly wrapped in my handkerchief and made off as precipitately as an hungry Cat possessed of its meat, but not without some feeling of fear of discovery which might have caused a little un- pleasantness, but which I evaded [sic] and [arrived] back home with my prize under my arm, and deposited it in my box unbeknown to poor old Dame Granny Shepard. It is in rather a filthy state and will want cleaning. My object in possessing this is to view myself [in] time to come. It may be beneficial in checking any feelings of pride which at times may arise."

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

DOVER AND CALAIS TEMP. JAMES I. At 11 S. ix. 29 I cited a passage (1595) indicat- ing that people might be seen from Calais sands walking on Dover Cliff. Beaumont and Fletcher, in 'The Scornfvl La-die,' 1616, c2, speak of " Captaines of Gallifoists, such as in a cleare day haue seene Callis " ; but add that they " haue no more of God, then their oaths comes to." In the same play, B2, it is intimated that an ordinary passage took five hours :

" The thing by her commanded, is to see Douers dreadfull cliffe, passing in a pore waterhouse ; the dangers of the mercilesse Channell twixt that and Cattis, fiue long houres saile, with three pore weekes victuals.

May it be that Calais sands extended much further north than they do now ?

RICHARD H. THORNTON.