Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/91

 us. VIIL A. 2, 1913.) -NOTES AND QUERIES.

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" ANAPHYLAXIS." The medical term " anaphyJaxis " applied. I presume, as a synonym of insomnia, to denote the dis- ease or continued state of being awake, i.e., sleeplessness which occurs neither in Liddell and Scott's * Greek-Engl. Lexicon ' nor in the ' N.E.D.,' deserves, perhaps, to be briefly recorded among your notes for the use of the future supplement of the latter work. H. KREBS.

GHOST AT STOKE DRY. From a news- paper report of a recent meeting of the Rutland Archaeological and Natural His- tory Society I learn that once upon a time a Rector of Stoke Dry shut up a witch in the parvise over the porch of his church, and starved her to death. Naturally, she still haunts the building. ST. SWITHIN.

EXTRACTING SNAKES* FROM HOLES. Ac- cording to Leo Africanus, ' Descrittione dell' Africa,' in Ramusio, ' Navigation! et Viaggi,' Venetia, 1588, vol. i. fol. 94 c, a large lizard named Dubb lives in the deserts, and is roasted and eaten by the Arabs. When the reptile hides itself in a hole, with its tail remaining outside, no force whatsoever can draw it out, but the hunters succeed in capturing it by much widening the hole with certain implements. Similarly, there is a Japanese belief that no athlete, however muscular, is capable of extracting from a hole a snake by its tail :

" But you can easily draw it out if only tobacco- juice be applied thereto, or if you pull it with your right hand whilst grasping your left ear with the other hand." Terashima, ' Wakan Sansai Dzue,' 1713, torn. xlv.

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

OLD LONDON FISH SHOPS. Many will have noticed with regret that the distinc- tively Georgian fish shop of Messrs. J. & C. Grove, in Bond Street, is be ing rebuilt to the requirements of a motor-car show-room.

Except the high-priced specimens behind plate - glass, there is not, to-day, much of the antique to be found in Bond Street. True, there are several businesses of con- siderable antiquity, but of buildings illus- trating its more remote past there ~is little to interest once we have seen No. 29 and the roof of Messrs. Atkinson. There may exist some written or printed history of this old fish shop, but I am not familiar with it, and am dependent on Directories for the information that John Grove was in busi- ness at No. 26 in 1813, and by 1826 the firm had become J. & C. Grove, and was

removed to 150, New Bond Street. The appearance of the shop, with its projecting front, stall-board, and fascia lettering, was of this date. When open to the public view with well-stocked slab, it was undoubtedly a picturesque study in a street that exhibits more of wealth than beauty, and it is a dis- tinct feature of this trade or public service that an old fish shop always has pleasant artistic advantages over other trades. The fish shop at Chelsea, and Crockford's at Temple Bar, have been preserved in drawing and engraving.

Another recent loss of this description has been the fish shop at the corner of Bedford Street and Maiden Lane. Although not of any remarkable age or appearance, its position gave it a distinct value for a coup ^I'ceil, and the trim, more evenly lit shop that has replaced it will never provide any artistic suggestions.

When fishmongers came away from the markets, and traded nearer their customers' kitchens, there was a fish shop in Berkeley Square that is, at least, in the year 1794 ; and Vigo Street and North Audley Street had others. Except these there were few shops outside the ordinary market districts, and no such artistocratic locations could be claimed by the rival trade, the butchers. These shops, no doubt, had the distinctive characteristic which belonged to Messrs. Grove and the fish shop at Charing Cross, and which at the other extreme of the town could, and still can, be found in the Ghetto ; I refer to the trade in fresh-water fish. The finest example of these picturesque shops and their interesting displays was that once existing in unspoilt Middlesex Street. Mr. Zangwill has immortalized it in ' The Children of the Ghetto ' ; but Wentworth Street has, every Friday morning, a pisca- torial (post-mortem) interest excelling that of any other London thoroughfare, and at its shops and stalls have been " caught " most of the specimens in that admirably arranged collection in the Public Library, Whitechapel High Street. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

THE COLLEGE (OR KING'S) SCHOOL, GLOU- CESTER. My note on ' John Clarke, School- master of Hull,' at 11 S. vii. 444, mentions a period in the history of this school when there appears to have been no formal appointment of a head master, the Chapter Act Book not recording an election to that office after the resignation of Benjamin Newton in 1718 until 30 Nov., 1725, when William Alexander was admitted. In look- ing over the accounts of the Chapter I