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NOTES AND QUERIES, [iis. in. APRIL 22,1911.

HORSES TAKEN TO CHURCH (11 S. - iii. 266). When the annual race is run for the pallio at Siena the horses competing for th prize are led into the nearest church to th head -quarters of the 17 contrade into whiclr the city is divided. I several times saw these barebacked horses rushing headlong rounc the Campo under the shadow of the Mangia tower surmounting the Palazzo Pubblico and particularly remember the ceremony of previously asperging with holy water ' th< champion horse belonging to the contrada o the Oca, or goose, in the big church of San Domenico, known for its lovely frescoes by Sodoma in the interior chapel of Santa Caterina, where all the namesakes of the Siena Saint are baptized. The race is often disgraced by brutality to man and beast.

WILLIAM MERCER.

The Roman church of S. Antonio Abbate on the Esquiline is well known in connexion with the custom by which horses and other animals are taken there once a year to be blessed. See, e.g., the passages collected in A. J. C. Hare' s ' Walks in Rome,' vol. ii. pp. 78-80 (1873), chap. xii.

EDWARD BENSLY.

In England the same custom obtained, and at Easter horses were brought up the middle of the church at Ippolyts (near Hitchin, in Herts) to be blessed. R. B.

Upton.

" TEAPOY " : " CELLARETTE " : " GARDE- VIN" (11 S. iii. 149, 194, 272). I think MR. PIERPOINT describes the " gardevin " correctly. The arched lid occurs occa- sionally, but the lids are more often flat. T! have one with six small divisions : it is on four short legs. It is worthy of note that many of these pieces of furniture will not take the modern tall bottle or decanter, but were made to hold the squat wine -bottle of a century ago, or the old-fashioned short decanter which held about a pint and a half. I have recently seen a " gardevin " of unusual height and size, with a tray on the top : it holds six bottles of Winchester size. W. H. QUARRELL.

LONDON GUNSMITHS AND THEIR WORK (US. iii. 49, 210). My thanks are due to T. W. W. and Miss LEGA-WEEKES for their replies, as well as to others who wrote to me direct.

Miss LEGA-WEEKES' s answer is inter- esting as a very early example, but it refers

! to a period anterior to that of my query, which I had intended to deal almost entirely with the " flint-and-steel " epoch.

T. W. W.'s reply opens up many points, but I fear space will allow me to deal very briefly with only a few of them :

1. With regard to the name Stauden- mayer. Since my query appeared I thought 1 had ascertained certain facts about this firm, but T. W. W.'s answer appears to throw doubt upon my information. Accord- ing to the 'London Directory ' of 1812, quoted in Blanch's 'Century of Guns,' p. vii, S. H. Standenmayer had a shop at 25, Cockspur Street, and he is described a& being gunsmith to H.R.H. the Duke of York. In the Royal Armoury at Windsor, where one does not expect to find spurious specimens of weapons made by tradesmen holding royal warrants, there are, according to the catalogue, at least two examples- with names differing from that given in the ' Directory.' One of these (No. 169), a D.B. fowling piece engraved with Prince of Wales's feathers on the thumb-plate, &c., has the name spelt Staudenmayer ; and the other (No. 409), a rifled air-gun, has it spelt Standenmayne. T. W. W. says that he was taught that when the name was spelt other than Staudenmayer, the weapon was spurious. Which of these three forms- is the correct one that over the shop ; T. W. W.'s Staudenmayer, also used at Windsor ; or Standenmayne, likewise in the royal collection ? Perhaps T. W. W. can throw some light on this point.

2. Tatham & Egg. This firm really existed, and in 1812 had a shop at 37, Charing Cross. As T. W. W. knew them as rivals- about 50 years ago, the partnership must have been dissolved between those dates.

3. I may have been misinformed about the Christian name of D. Egg, but there must have been more than one D. Egg in the firm, for the name is found for a

onger period than is probable for the working life of one individual. I have no definite information on the point, and it seems certain that one of the heads of the

irm was named " Durs " not Durward ;

ndeed, in the * Directory ' already quoted, the name of the firm appears as Durs Egg.

4. Baker. Ezekiel Baker, who is thfr earliest of the name I have yet traced,, appears to have begun business in White- 3hapel. He had premises at 24, Whitechapel Road, in the beginning of the nineteenth

entury, and had then, a, well-established