Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/182

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. HI. MAR. 4, ion.

" Graschirche." This was to prevent their selling " false work " in a hole-aiid-cornei way by wandering about the city or suburb. It is well known that Grass-Church Street was the original form because of the herb- market kept there (Stow) ; but there was, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a Gracious Alley in Wellclose Square (W. Stow's ' Stranger's Guide '), known pre- viously (Dodsley's 'Environs') as Grace Street. Also, later, in Lockie and Elmes.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEI..

FAIRFAX: SAYBE : MAUNSELL (11 S. iii. 88). Perhaps the information desired is to be found in ' Original Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fairfax,' written by himself daring the Great Civil War, printed by Hargrove & Sons, and S3ld by them at Knaresborough and Harrogate, also by Longman, Hurst & Co., London, Wilson & Son, York, and other booksellers, 1810, duodecimo ; ' The Families of Ga soigne and Fairfax,' by Wm. Brailsford, in The Antiquary, May, 1884 ; ' A Collection of Autograph Letters, written by various eminent persons of the ancient and noble family of Fairfax ' (fifty-two of these are de3cribed in Thomas Thorpe's ' Sale Catalogue of Manuscripts,' 1831, pp. 136-9) ; Whitaker's * Leeds ' (Fairfax of Walton) ; ' Fairfax Wills of Norfolk and Suffolk ' (Northern Genealogist, 1895, vol. i. p. 49) ; ' Fairfax Wills at Carlisle,' p. 92, ibid. ; and at Worcester, ib., p. 946. See also ' Analecta Faiifaxiana,' a manuscript on vellum, consisting of historical, genealogical, and other collections and records relating to the various branches of the family of Fairfax preserved in the family down to the present time, illustrated by drawings of arms, &c. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

KEATS, HAMPSTEAD, AND SIB C. W. DILKE (11 S. iii. 145). Excellent as this impending endowment of the Hampstead Public Library with Keats relics appears, it has many serious disadvantages, and for lovers of the poet generally it would be preferable to see the gift diverted to the British^ Museum. The Branch Library near Keats Grove may be appropriate by sentiment for such memorials, but it is unfitted in every other sense and circum- stance. MB. CECIL CLABKE will, I am sure, realize that local library committees are, as at present constituted, not suitable custodians of relics of national interest, and the administration generally at Hampstead has not given evidence of exceptional fitness. So in the event of the bequest

being diverted to the British Museum, there- will result a loss to the few at Hampstead and a gain to the world generally.

ALECK ABBAHAMS.

LEADEB OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS (11 S. iii. 108). The title "leader of the House of Commons " cannot well go further back than 1680 or thereabouts, when members of Parliament became separated into two distinct divisions. The two divi- sions were at first termed Addressers (or Petitioners) and Abhorrers, but these name& were soon merged into the better-known titles of Whigs and Tories. Curiously enough, the Whigs are said to have been originally far better organized and dis- ciplined and more obedient to their leaders than were the Tories. As a party cannot well exist and prosper without a leader, it is probable that the recognized head of the Whigs or Tories, in power at the moment, became known for the time being as the " leader of the House of Commons." Pos- sibly the title originated in the time of Queen Anne. Sir Robert Walpole seems a likely enough person to have been so dis- tinguished. S. S.

ABSINTHE-DBINKING : ITS OBIGIN (11 S. iii. 149). : I remember being told in Paris, some time in the seventies, that absinthe was then used by the French troops in Algeria as a febrifuge; also, that they could not drink the water of the country with safety unless they added the bitter draught to it. These troops were further credited with introducing the "mazagran" (or large glass-full of light coffee without milk) into France. This drink was held to be a pro- tection from malaria. DUBLINEB.

AMPHISBJENIC BOOK (11 S. iii. 89). An instance of an amphisbaenic book is a pam- phlet or book entitled " The Great Question : Tariff Reform or Free Trade ? By L. M. S. Amery." Turn the book upside down, and begin at the other end, and you find a different cover, a title-page bearing the title " The Great Question : Free Trade or Tariff Reform ? By J. M. Robertson, M.P.," and a fresh book. This work was published in London, 1909. LANGABUS.

Out of many thousands of volumes that I have handled at different times I can only recall two specimens of the kind of publica- tion referred to by Q. V. One of these was a " Staff Kalendar " with " Supplement," somewhat similar to that described in the query. The other was a devotional text-