Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/177

 11 S. XL FEB. 27, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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published from the Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, Sir Edward Letchworth, concerning the enlargement of the head -quarters of the craft, which adjoin No. 56, itself already the property of the craft. In spite of numerous protests, the ruthless decree has gone forth, and the house is now in the hands of the housebreakers. 'Great Queen Street was named after Hen- rietta Maria, the Queen of Charles I., and building operations appear to have com- jnenced about 1620, when fifteen houses were erected on the south side. The street was completed after the Kestoration, the outh side being designed by Inigo Jones and his pupil Webb.

According to Leigh Hunt, Great Queen Street was at the time of the Stuarts one of the most fashionable of thoroughfares. Certainly it numbered amongst its inhabit- ants many persons of note. Lord Herbert of Cherbury died here in 1648. Lord Chan- cellor Finch, who presided at Strafford's trial, lived here, as did also Lord Bristol, and the Conway and Paulet families. Sir Thomas ^Fairfax is supposed to have once lived here, -as a proclamation bearing his signature was issued here on 12 Feb., 1648. The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Lauderdale, Sir John Finch, Waller the poet, and the Earl of Rochford were all residents at some time of their lives.

A good deal might be written about the history of Great Queen Street, but we are mostly concerned with No. 56 for the present. This house was inhabited by James Hoole, scholar and author, who died here in 1803. He wrote three plays which were produced at Covent Garden Theatre. Hudson the artist lived here, and also Wor- lidge, an artist of some celebrity, who engraved after the manner of Kembrandt.

Mrs. Kobinson the actress, the beautiful and renowned Perdita, also resided at No. 5(? after her marriage in 1773. She described the house as " a large old-fashioned mansion, the property of the widow of Mr. Worlidge." Richard Brinsley Sheridan is supposed to have resided here ; and Boswell, the bio- grapher of Dr. Johnson, to whose memory a plaque was affixed to the wall facing the street.

An attempt had been made to preserve the red brick frontage, but the style of architecture did not agree with the proposed new structure, and in a few days' time No. 56 will cease to adorn Great Queen Street, although a portion of the fagade will be re- erected at the Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Road. REGINALD JACOBS.

SENRAB STREET. This is the name of a street in Stepney, and in order, if possible, to prevent any learned discussion as to its probable Hebrew origin, allow me to record the fact that it was named after Mr. Barnes, a local builder, whose name when spelt backward is decidedly uncommon. This information was communicated to me by an official of the London County Council.

R. P. B.

THE FRENCH FLAG AND THE TRINITARIAN ORDER. A writer in The Pall Mall Gazette of 8 Feb. says :

" St. John of Matha, whose Feast day this is, was the thirteenth- century priest who founded the Order of the Holy Trinity for the redemption of Christian captives from the Turks and Moors. The habit worn by the ' Trinitarians 'was red, white, and blue, and their historic connection with freedom suggested to Lafayette at the Revo- lution this combination of colours for the ' Tri- colour ' of France."

This is not at all accurate. St. John of Matha was born in 1154. An account of the saint and the Order he founded can be seen in the Misses Malleson and Tuker's ' Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome,' part iii. pp. 221-5, and there is a picture of a Trinitarian friar opposite p. 225. One may see Trinitarians walking about in Rome at the present day, but not in a red, white, and blue habit.

" The Trinitarian habit is a white tunic and scapular, a black cloak, and a lined hood ; on the scapular a blue and red cross. Like all Mendi- cants, they wear the rosary. The 3 colours signify the Trinity, the blue the Redeemer, the

red the fire of charity of the Holy Spirit The

device of the Order is the red and blue cross on a shield, surrounded by a captive's chain. In France this is placed within a blue bordure charged with fleurs-de-lis. The arms have some- times 2 white harts as supporters." The red line, which is uninterrupted, is vertical. The blue, which is intersected by the red, is horizontal.

What evidence is there for the Marquis de Lafayette's invention of the Republican flag of France, or for its being based on the red and blue cross and white scapular of the Trinitarians ?

' Jack's Reference Book,' at p. 298, says :

" TRICOLOR, the flag of the French Republic, first adopted by the National Assembly in 1789. It consists of three vertical bands, the colours being red, white, and blue. The tricolor is said to have been invented by Mary, Queen of Scots, for the Swiss Guards in France. The white was for France, the blue for Scotland, and the red for Switzerland."

This is surely most unlikely. It seems much more probable that the red symbolizes