Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/356

 348

NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. xn. OCT. 30, 1915.

Brand to Mempris. The freehold would have been sold subject to the Burbage leasehold interest.

L. L. K.'s second point is that it would be necessary to stop Maiden Lane to the west of the land sold to Mempris, so that the Bishop's Park, and not Maiden Lane, should, in accordance with the deed of transfer, form the southern boundary of the land.

This is a point of law upon which I think there is no question. Let it be realized that originally there was simply a common brook or sewer which divided Brand's land on the north from the land which was known as the Bishop's Park on the south. By this I do not wish to suggest that Brand did not hold land also on the south of the brook or sewer ; but for the moment that is not the question. All I am insisting upon is that Brand was the freeholder on the north side of the brook or sewer. Before the end of the sixteenth century Maiden Lane was continued through from the west into Deadman's Place on the east, and, whether Maiden Lane was on either side of the brook or sewer or over it, the fact would still remain that Brand's freehold extended to the brook or sewer. The wording of the deed of transfer would be perfectly correct, wherein it is stated that the land sold to Mempris was bounded " by the brook or common sewer which divided the land from the park of the Lord Bishop of Winchester on the south." The public in fact would, then as now, only have surface rights over the land occupied by the road ; the freehold would remain vested in the individual right up to his boundary, which in this case was the common brook or sewer.

My reason for locating the site on the north side of Maiden Lane rather than the south is chiefly founded on the fact that in the deed of transfer the land is said to be bounded by

"an alley or way leading to the Globe Playhouse,

commonly called Globe Alley, on the north and

contained in breadth from the path called Globe

Alley on the north to the common sev/er on the

south one hundred and twenty-four feet or there- abouts."

I have already pointed out 'in a previous letter (ante, p. 11) that this distance of 124 ft. coincides with the distance from the sewer in Park Street (Maiden Lane) to the alley or way (Globe Alley) which is shown in the early views to be opposite Clink Street.

If now the Mempris land is to be placed on the south side of Maiden Lane, then another Globe Alley must be shown to be in existence at the date of the deed of transfer, i.e., 1626.

There is no sign of a Globe Alley in the Bishop's Park south of Maiden Lane in the- view known as ' Londinum Urbs precipua regni Angliae,' the date of which is probably between 1630-40. Again, there is no sign of a Globe Alley in the Bishop's Park in De Wit's view, the date of which is probably between 1640-44. In both these views the Globe Playhouse is shown close on Bankside r and therefore a Globe Alley leading to the Playhouse on the south side of Maiden Lene- is impossible.

GEORGE HUBBARD, F.S.A.

UGO BASSI (US. xii. 237, 310). Ira reply to MR. J. B. WAINE WRIGHT, specially/ seeking the date of the papal excommunica- tion of Ugo Bassi, I add a few further particu- lars of " his sad story." The excommunica- tion was probably published three or four years before the period MR. WAINEWRIGHT suggests in his letter (3 to 18 Aug., 1849).

Having made himself suspected at the Papal Court (Curia), Bassi was exiled to Sicily in 1846, only returning a free man on the accession of the new Pope, Pius IX. During the struggle to render Italy united he served in the field hospitals, and acted as. chaplain in the Garibaldian Legion.

His principal poems were ' The Churehi according to the Image of Christ,' ' Con- stantine, or the Triumph of the Cross,' many sacred hymns, ' The Return from Captivity/ and verses in praise of Pio Nono as a liberal Pope. The personal piety of Ugo Bassi admits of no doubt.

WILLIAM MERCER.

" PODDEN PLACE " AND " UPPER PODDEN PLACE" (11 S. xii. 277). Alterations have been made in the neighbourhood of Millman Street since Bulwer wrote ' What will He do with It ? ' but within my recollection, which may have a bearing upon MR. FROST'S theory, Millman Street, which consisted of large houses mostly occupied by professional men, formerly extended only from Chapel Street to New Ormond Street, by which it was bounded on the north the houses on. the north side of Great Ormond Street joining those on the east side of Millman Street, with which they formed an angle. There was consequently at that time no thoroughfare into Guilford Street. The street from Guilford Street with the public-house at the corner was then called New Millman Street, and was a cul-de-sac. The houses a few of them shops were much inferior to those in Millman Street, and were, I believe,, nearly all let out in apartments. The street,.