Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/58

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NOTES AND QUERIES, pi s. vm. JULY 19, wis. Indies speak of "south side," "east side," &c., "in describing the position of anything, even the smallest articles of daily use." On p. 94 of the same volume a correspondent mentioned a similar habit among the peasantry in the south and west of Ireland, and suggested that the West Indian use might be a legacy of early Irish planters.

There is a parallel in Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' III. ii. iii. (wrongly headed III. ii. iv. i. in the sixth edition, 1650-51, and in some modern reprints), over five-sixths through,

Burton is quoting from Daniel Heinsius's 'Epistle to Primerius,' "An, & qualis viro literato sit ducenda uxor," and the original Latin on p. 369 of the 1629 Elzevir edition of the 'Laus Asinicum aliis f estivis opusculis,' runs, "Vtrum latus barbæ quod ad Orientem spectat, recte conueniat cum eo quod in Occidentem tendit."

As a supplement to 's interesting note, it may be added that in Welsh deheu, "south," also means "right." This shows that in Welsh, as in Irish, the speaker is imagined as facing east. H. I. B.

THE LARGEST SQUARE IN LONDON (US. vii. 470). Mr. E. Beresford Chancellor in his ' History of the Squares of London,' like Mr. Whitten, states that Russell Square is, with the possible exception of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the largest square in London. He gives its dimensions as follows : North and south sides 665 ft., west side 672, and 667 on the east. This works out to an area of circa 448,210 sq. ft., whereas the area of Lincoln's Inn Fields is 513,125 sq. ft. But these again are exceeded by Eaton and Cadogan Squares, the areas of which re- spectively are 607,327 and 536,500 sq. ft.

WlLLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK.

Mr. Charles Bouch, the freeholder of No. 35, Edwardes Square, Kensington, tells me this square comprises " three and a half acres and eight poles," so it is con- sidered to be the largest in London.

The " Battle of Edwardes Square," which resulted in a victory for the residents, will


 * Mushato's in ed. 4 sqq.

always be remembered as establishing rights- of-way and other ancient vested privileges, Now the beadle may be seen, dressed in his brown frock coat with gilt buttons, and tall silk hat with gold band, as a symbol of authority in this beauty spot, named after the patronymic of Lord Kensington.

F. W. R. GARNETT. Wellington Club, Grosvenor Place, S.W.

I have heard it said that Ladbroke Square,, Notting Hill, is the largest in town.

A. R. BAYLEY,

[MR. J. LANDPEAB LUCAS also thanked for reply.]

IZAAK WALTON AND TOMB -SCRATCHING (US. vii. 405, 492). I beg to be allowed,, as an Old Westminster of just sixty years' standing, to enter a most emphatic protest against the assumption so lightly made at both the above references that all crimes against decency committed in the Abbey, from desecration of the monuments to the rifling of royal tombs, must be put down to the discredit of the Westminster School boys.

I am absolutely confident that they would be the very last people in the world to be guilty of such atrocities; and, as to opportunities, there are countless others who would have just as many. To take one instance, it is common knowledge that for many weeks both before and after every great state ceremonial, the entire building is given over into the hands of crowds of workmen.

But MR. BAYLEY goes one better or worse. He accuses one of the Westminster boys of having in 1766 actually stolen the jawbone of King Richard II. He does not offer any suggestion as to how the boy could by any possibility have done such a thing, nor any evidence beyond his having been told that there still exists a statement to that effect in the handwriting of the grandfather of the present possessors of the ghastly relic. It seems strange, to say the least of it, that no writer on the Abbey whose works I have access to has ever mentioned the amazing circumstance in print.

On the other hand, I have found two printed statements which would appear to be inconsistent with it.

In Knight's ' Cyclopaedia of London ' (1850), p. 223, it is written :

" And here [i.e., in the Confessor's Chapel] did the piou--. and generous care of Henry V., the son of his [Richard II. 's] destroyer, soon after his accession, remove the murdered remains from