Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/479

 ii s. XL JUNE 19, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

469

were ordered to be removed, and replaced by Parliamentary emblems. The Court of Aldermen were ordered to see that the head of Charles's statue in the Exchange was struck off, the sceptre in the effigy's hand broken, and an inscription set up hard by proclaiming the abolition of tyranny "Exit Tyrannus, Begum Ultimo " and the dawn of liberty. On 14 Aug., 1650, the entire statue was ordered to be removed, and on the following day a certificate to that effect, under the hand of the Town Clerk, was forwarded to the Council of State. The Guildhall Museum contains a head (13" X 11") from a statue of Charles ; perhaps this is the head that was struck off. The king's statue appears to have been replacedtby a picture of Cromwell (1 S. iii. 516). In" 1660 a man came with a ladder to the Exchange and obliterated the inscription announcing the abolition of tyranny, and shortly after- wards a new statue of Charles was in course of construction by direction of the Mercers' Company, who, as trustees for Sir Thomas Gresham, were bound to do so. About this time, too, the royal arms seem to have been replaced in many of the churches, &c. (Pepys's 'Diary,' 16 and 29 March, 11 and 22 April ; ' Cal. State Papers Dom., 1659- 1 660 ). This statue perished in the Great Fire. Sir Thomas Gresham 's finger-ring is in the Guildhall Museum, and his steelyard in the London Museum.

SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE.

The head (9"X8|"X8") from the statue of Edward VI. is in the Guildhall Museum. In November, 1688, during the religious dis- turbances, the sceptre belonging to the statue of Queen Mary was broken. There seems to be some doubt as to who was the sculptor of the statue of Charles II. which stood in the centre of the quadrangle, now in the south-east angle of the Exchange (7 S. v. 145 ; 10 S. x. 492; 11 S. ii. 322); the style of treatment resembles the statue of James II. now in St. James's Park. ' The Microcosm of London ' states that the work was under- taken by Gibbons, and executed by Quillin of Antwerp. The Ambulator ' (1820) states the statue is by Bacon, and was placed here in 1792 (see also ' Life in London,' Methuen's reprint, p. 224). On the south side of the pedestal, surmounted by various decorations, was the following inscription :

Carolo II. Caesari Britannico,

Patriae patri, Regum optimo, clementissimo, augustissimo,

Generis humani deliciis,

Utriusque fortunse victori,

Pacis Europ arbitro,

Marium domino acvindici,

feocietas mercatorum adventur. Anglise

QUSB per cccc. jam prope annos

Regia benignitate floret, .tidei intemeratse et gratitudinis aeternas.

Hoc testimonium

Venerabunda posuit,

Anno Salutis Humanae MDCLXXXIV.

On the west side of the pedestal, cut in relievo, was a cupid resting his right hand on a shield, containing the arms of France and' England quartered, and holding a rose in- his left hand. On the north side, a cupid supported a shield with the arms of Ireland ; and on the east side were the arms of Scotland, supported by a cupid holding a thistle. On the south side was the following inscription on the base of the pedestal :

"This statue was repaired and beautified by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of England, anno 1730. John Hanbury, Esq., governor."

An interesting account of the burning of the Exchange in 1838 is given in Ashton's ' Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's. Reign/ pp. 23-27. At the sale of the salvage the figures realized the following sums :-. busts of Queen Elizabeth, 10Z. 15s. and 181. the pair ; Anne, Wl. 5s .; George II., 9Z. 5s. ; George III. and Elizabeth, III. 15s. ; Charles II., 91. ; and other royal statues similar sums. It would be interesting to ascertain the present whereabouts of these figures.

THIBD ROYAL EXCHANGE.

The statue of Queen Elizabeth by Watson,, in the south-west angle, was erected about 1844 (10 S. x. 492 ; 11 S. iii. 187, 230, 315). A statue of Queen Victoria by Lough was erected in 1845 at a cost of 1,000 guineas (10 S. x. 491); the sceptre from this statue- is in the Guildhall Museum. On one of the staircases is a marble statue of Prince Albert by Lough, dated 1847 (Illustrated London News, 24 July, 1847). There are several plans and more than 120 views of the Exchange in the Crace Collection. The frescoes are described in 'The Pictures in the Royal Exchange,' by Wilfrid Meynell (Windsot Magazine, May, 1904). J. ABDAGH.

35, Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin.

FOLK-LOBE ABOUT THE KAISER. The*

present writer remembers that on the oc- casion of the birth of the last members of the Kaiser's family there was a flutter irt Prussia because of an oracle which declared that the country would be ruined by a king who would have seven sons. When the- sixth son was born in 1890 it was feared that the next child would be also a son. But ii*