Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/372

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xii. NOV. 6, 1915.

Johann Valentin Meidinger, who was ^ a teacher of French in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and published a French grammar in 1783 at his own expense as he could not find a publisher to undertake the risk. The book reached not less than thirty-seven editions, and about a quarter of a million copies of it were sold by 1857, not counting reprints issued at Reutlingen, Schaffhausen, and Vienna. The exercises seem to have in- cluded anecdotes, because " Meidinger " became the name for a stale joke or " chest- nut." To the present generation, however, the name is only known as that of the inventor of a highly successful slow-com- bustion stove.

Oddly enough, The Athenceum prints the name of the author of the dictionary as Meidurger. L. L. K.

KING OF POLAND (11 S. xi. 379; xii. 190, 246). -I presume the haham's letter was dated according to the Jewish calendar, and your correspondent has correctly reduced the Judaic year to the year of the Christian era. A certain M. Le Coq was acting for the King of Poland in October, 1720, and May, 1721 ; and Count Volkra was the Polish resident in 1716. L. L. K.

"LIENIN" (11 S. xii. 321). Walker's ' Dictionary ' gives " Lien. The participle of Lie Lain. Obsolete," from which, and the context of MR. DODGSON'S quotation, I think it may be reasonably inferred that " lienin " means a place for cattle to lie, and is equivalent to " lays-tall."

WM. DOUGLAS.

I suggest that the name used in the sense quoted is that used nowadays to gignifv a " lean-to " range of sheds, or roofs to shelter cattle. I have heard such cattle - shelters referred to in Somerset as " lean-to's," and they seem to consist of a roof only, propped by uprights back and front, and built against the outside wall of some farm building.

ARCHIBALD SPABKE, F.R.S.L.

In Devonshire cattle kept in the fields at night are described as " lying-out," but when removed to shelter as " lying-in." Is this a possible solution ? Shelters for cattle in the fields and around the farmyards are known as " linhays " or " linheys." The former are roofed with furze or " browse " (twigs), and interested me when a boy as being favourite nesting-places of " cuddies " (wrens). W. CURZON YEO.

Richmond, Surrey.

ARCH AT HEAD OF CONSTITUTION HILL (US. xii. 241, 283). Perhaps it may be as well to recall the fact that before the bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington- was erected on the arch, the place was occupied by an effigy constructed of wood. An engraving of this wooden effigy appeared in The Mirror of 15 Aug., 1838. In the letterpress it is stated to have been set up on the " triumphal arch " on 8 Aug. (1 838) " by whose orders it is not exactly known. Mr. Wyatt's friends deny the erection ; nor is it exhibited by the direction of the sub-committee * nor with their sanction or concurrence. Doubtless it was placed there to see whether the site was proper for a statue. The arch seems made to be the pedestal of a group ; and as The Spectator observes, ' whoever has stuck up the scenic effigy deserves thanks : it demonstrates two things that the position is a good one, and that a bad

statue placed there would be an intolerable r

Is it known who constructed this wooden effigy and by whose orders it was placed on the arch ? JOHN T. PAGE.

The name " Pimlico Arch " given it by Thackeray reminds me that the name Pimlico as a London place-name is curiously elastic. Where is Pimlico exactly ? Ac- cording to Dr. Brewer's ' Phrase and Fable ' it was situated at Hoxton in 1598, but in another paragraph he refers to some ' Nat. Hist, of Surrey ' (?) implying it was south of the Thames.

In Harrison's ' London,' 1777, there is a good map of the West End showing Gros- venor Place, at one end of which is Knight's Bridge, and at the other end the King's Road. At the corner of the garden wall of the present Buckingham Palace, where Grosvenor Place met the King's Road, the name " Pimlico " is written over the cross-roads. A large isolated building of some kind is shown at the comer of Grosvenor Place and the King's Road : was this the tea-garden or public-house known as " Pimlico " ? It seems to me that in the eighteenth century the south-western corner of Buckingham Palace garden was known by the place-name Pimlico ; and during the early nineteenth century the whole region of open fields to the south and west of Buckingham Palace, gradually covered over with houses built chiefly by the famous Cubitts became known also by this name. There is an old joke in Punch of more than fifty years ago,, referring to this name : a Dundreary swell is asked if Lupus Street is not "down Pimlico way," and replies : " Perhaps you mean South Belgravia-a." The river at any rate is one of its boundaries, although it would