Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/19

 ii s. xu. JULY 3, 1915. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

11

there. The views of the trustees of the 'Globe Memorial were set forth in a letter which appeared in The Athenceum, 5 Dec., 1914, p. 591 a letter which, although com- municated simultaneously to The Times was not inserted in that newspaper. The trustees, after examining the new evidence which had been adduced, concluded that there were no grounds for supposing the traditional view of the site to be incorrect, mid decided that the detailed result of their investigation might be left unpublished until the publication of the book which had been promised by Dr. Wallace. For this book the trustees are still waiting.

As regards the evidence of Dr. Wallace which appeared (without references) in The Times of 30 April and 1 May, 1914 evidence from, which it was concluded by Dr. Wallace, and editorially by The Times, that the site of the Globe was undoubtedly to the north of Maid Lane I have copies of the documents from which the evidence seems to have been taken. The evidence of these documents is no better than, and is all reducible to, that of the Coram Rege Roll (1454, 13 Jas. I., Hil. 692). As bearing upon the meaning of this Roll, MBS. STOPES refers to a description of first-class importance in this connexion. The description of Richard Shakespeare's house in the Snitterfield property of the Ardens shows how the meaning which is sought to be placed on the Coram Rege wording is not the real meaning in the similar and contemporary wording of the Snitterfield description. And doubtless there are extant many other examples of the use of wording similar to that on the Roll examples refuting the interpretation that some have given to its wording.

In addition, your valued correspondent L. L. K. informs me that he reads the wording of the Coram Rege Roll, " abutan- tem super peciam terrse vocatam The Parke super boream," as " abutting on the Park on its north side " ; and so on with those other statements in Latin upon w r hich the case for the northern attribution of the site hangs.

These instances of MBS. STOPES and L. L. K. show how ambiguous may be the descriptions of property, and how extraneous evidence is necessary for the true meaning to appear. As the whole case for the northern attribution of the site of the Globe is based upon one interpretation of the Coram Rege Roll, and since that interpreta- tion does not accord with the facts as we have them, the contention for the placing of the site to the north of Maid Lane wholly fails.

Should, however, the Latin of the Roll be capable of being read as meaning that the Park was, in fact, to the north of Maid Lane, as some have said, I would here merely remark that if this document is correct, it is a remarkable coincidence that the pro- perties and physical features Park, sewers, ditches, plots, &c. to the north of Maid Lane are found to be duplicated on the immediate south. I preferred in my paper in the Surrey Archaeological Collections to say that, in these circumstances and fol- lowing analogous instances, the draftsman of the account on the Roll had before him a plan in which the south was at the upper edge of the plan, and that he had consequently mistaken the north for the south, with the result that if the plan were turned round so as to bring the north to the north, and south to the south, all the statements in the Roll would accord with what extraneous evidence indicates as being correct.

I suppose, however, that until a contem- porary plan of Bankside is forthcoming there will continue to be two opinions : the one that the site was to the north of Maid Lane ; the other, which I believe to be true, that the site was where tradition and documentary and topographical evidence place it, viz., to the south of that thoroughfare.

WILLIAM MABTIN.

2, Garden Court, Temple, B.C.

The controversy as to the site of the Globe Playhouse of Shakespeare is one which,

I believe, has existed for something like one hundred years.

The whole question at issue revolves round the point as to whether the Playhouse stood on the north or south side of Maiden Lane, now Park Street, Southwark.

MBS. STOPES in her contribution at

II S. xi. 447 supports the south-side partisans, and she bases her argument partly on the fact that, as there was at one time a Globe Alley on the south side of Maiden Lane, there is presumptive evidence that the Playhouse was on the south side also.

I hope to show, however, that there was another Globe Alley on the north side of Maiden Lane which did, in fact, lead to the Playhouse. It was not till after the Play- house had been demolished in 1664, together with the Globe Alley which led to it, that the second Globe Alley, to which MBS. STOPES refers, came into existence. The evidence as to the first Globe Alley on the north side of Maiden Lane is made clear by simply accepting as accurate the plain statements of contemporary documents. It