Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/11

 us. iv. JULY i,i9ii.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

at Canterbury ; and it is hoped that anti- quaries will be able to add to the evidences and prove that the ancient kings resided at this spot in Fordwich, their park being within the parish, and the manor belonging to them. The upper road from Fordwich to Canterbury some two miles is known as the King's Street, while the existence of the King's Gate and King's Bridge at the entrance to Canterbury from Fordwich goes to support the belief that the kings had their palace in Fordwich before they had one in Canterbury. Plans of the discovered foundations and other details are being prepared, and I shall be glad to hear from any antiquaries interested. FRED. HITCHIN-KEMP.

Clyderhovis, 51, Vancouver Road, Forest Hill, S.E.

AVIATION IN 1811. In view of modern determined attempts to conquer the air, the following, as quoted from The Observer of 9 June, 1811, may be worthy of record :

" The act of moving in the air by means of wings continues to engage the attention of a number of persons in Germany. At Vienna, the watchmaker Degen....has recently taken several public flights in the Prater. At Berlin Claudius, a wealthy manufacturer of oil-cloth, is engaged in like pursuits. He rises in the air without difficulty, and can move in a direct line at the rate of four miles an hour. . . .At Ulm a tailor named Berblinger announced that he had invented a machine in which he would rise in the air and fly twelve miles."

CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

AVIATION IN 1911 : THE TAXI- AERO. The following extract from Le Temps, Paris, 16 May, deserves, I think, a place in 'N. & Q.':

AERONAUTIQUE.

Le Taxi- Aero.

Cela devait arriver. Apres le taxi-auto et imite' de lui, la locomotion par 1'aviation devait voir se creer le taxi-ae"ro, l'ae>oplane de tout le monde bientot nume"rot comme une auto- mobile qui, a tant le kilometre ou la minute, emportera a cent a 1'heure dans 1'atmosphere le passager d'un moment ou le voyageur par trop press, mais peu encombr^ de bagages.

C'est de Suisse que nous yient la nouvelle, mais c'est une spciete" franeaise, la Compagnie transae'rienne, qui la premiere a pris 1'initiative de lancer le nouveau v^hicule des invisibles routes de 1'air.

Nous recevions hier en effet le tele"gramme suivant :

Lucerne, 14 mai.

La Soci^te Astra vient d'envoyer au pare aerostatique de notre ville un lip Ian qui, conduit par le pilote brevete Erbster, fera d^sormais un service de taxi-ae'ro pour le compte de la Com- pagnie gne"rale transa^rienne.

Ainsi les temps preVus s'accomplissent, et quoique les progres de la locomotion ae>ienne

aient encore a se manifester pour arriver. determiner le mo dele d^finitif de 1' aeroplane sans danger ou a peu pres, c'est-a-dire automatique- meiit stable, facile au depart et sur a 1'atterrissage, voici que la confiance des constructeurs est cependant telle que dja un service organise" va- fonctionner pour donner M. Tout-le-Monde sa promenade en 1'air.

Aujourd'hui c'est a Lucerne, demain ce sera sur toutes les plages a la mode, dans toutes les stations balne"aires, et peut-etre 1'an prochain. aux portes de Paris.

La Compagnie transae'rienne avait 1'an dernier installe des services d'excursion en dirigeable r a Pau 1'hiver et a Lucerne l'e"t. Nous avions- ainsi les ae>obus pour les transports en commun ; nous avpns main tenant le taxi-ae'ro pour les- voyages individuels.

Et dans quelques anne"es on trouvera cela tout naturel.

C. CAREY.

SERJEANTS' INN : DINNER IN 1839. - As the last remains of Serjeant's Inn, Fleet Street, have so lately disappeared, the following account of a dinner there more than 70 years ago will perhaps be interest- ing to readers of ' N. & Q.' It may be observed that many distinguished mem were present on the occasion : Thursday, June 6 th, being in Trinity Term, 1839.

On this day the Society gave a grand banquet to celebrate the completion of the improvement of the Inn commenced in the year 1836. Cards of invitation had been issued to those Peers whose ancestors had been elevated to the Peerage whilst members of the Society, and to other dis- tinguished members of the Society now living. The party consisted of the Marquess Camden, Earls Hardwicke, Bathurst, Mansfield, Eldon and Lovelace, Viscount Lifford, Lords Kenyon, Ellenborough, Manners, Lyndhurst, Wynford and Tenterden, Sir William Alexander, Sir John Cross, the fifteen Judges, and fifteen Serjeants (Serjeants D'Oyley and Scriven being unable from indisposition). Excuses w r ere received from Earls Mansfield, Rosslyn, Guilford, Winchelsea and Harrowby, Lords Walsingham, Alvanley and Gifford, Sir John Bayley, Sir Samuel Shepherd, Sir William Garron, Sir William Bolland and Sir John Richardson (of whom the five latter were prevented from attending by advanced age or indisposition ; and the Lords Harrowby, Wal- singham, Alvanley and Gifford by absence from London).

Three tables were provided for the accom- modation of the party. The three chiefs presided, and the guests were arranged according to their precedence, a peer and a member of the Inn alternately. The Hall was decorated with rich crimson cloth, and brilliantly illuminated by a profusion of lamps pendant from the walls, whilst large pier glasses fixed at the upper ard lower ends of the hall gave great splendour to the scene. The portraits of Lord Camden and Chief Justice Willes (presented by the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster), of Lord Lynd- hurst and Lord Denman (presented by their Lordships), of the late Earl of Eldon (presented