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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. SEPT. 23, 1911.

CLUB ETRANGER AT HANOVER SQUARE : CERCLE DES NATIONS (11 S. ii. 407, 477 ; iii. 96 ; iv. 179, 216). The Cercle des Etrangers was also called, if my memory does not betray me, Cercle des Nations. It was situated at the north corner of Cavendish Place and Regent Street (Langham Place, as it was then called). By a coincidence, I dined there on one occasion when the question of its being transferred to Hanover Square was discussed by my host and some friends ; but to the best of my belief the project was not realized. Possibly this was due to the fact that the Cercle des Nations had a brief and not altogether brilliant career. I was surprised at the sumptuous- ness of the dinner provided as much as at the modicity of the charge made for it. But the explanation appeared when, at a later hour, with very slight formalities, I was allowed to pass into an inner room where baccarat was being played, and for high stakes. This must have been in the late seventies or early eighties of the last century. L. C. R.

CARDINAL ALLEN (US. iv. 30, 78, 116, 215). I do not think that we can accept the spelling on the monument at Rome or in the will of Thomas Lyster as conclusive evidence of the correct spelling of Cardinal Allen's name. In the time of Henry VIII. a branch of the family lived at Rossall in the parish of Poult on-le-Fylde (see Chetham Soc. vol. viii. New Series), and amongst the debts due to the monastery of Dieulacres at the Dissolution were " To Elizabeth Alenn of Rossall xii 11 " and " To John Alenn of Rossall iiij 11 ." This John Allen was buried in Bispham Church before 1530, and his son George left a will, dated 27 March, 1530, in which he describes himself as " George Alen of Rosshall," and his four sons are called " Alens." One of them removed to London, where he was sub- sequently known as Thomas Allen.

John, the second son of George, and father of the Cardinal, was bailiff of Rossall under the Abbot of Dieulacres in 1539. In 1566 John Hogson of Little Carleton (in Poulton) in his will requested "Master John Allen to be his supervisor " ; and in 1565 Richard Cropper, the Vicar of Poulton, bequeathed to " Majister Allen xii' 1 ."

In the books of Oxford University William's name appears as Allen and Alyn. In no one instance have I found the name spelt Alan, except as quoted by the REV. H. L. L. DENNY (ante, p. 215).

HENRY FISHWICK.

JEW AND JEWSON SURNAMES (11 S. iv. 209). Canon C. W. Bardsley in his ' English Surnames' (1897) says that "Jew," as representing such former entries as " Roger le Jew " or " Mirabilla Judseus," is un- doubtedly of purely Israelitish descent.

On the other hand, he identifies Jewson with Jewitson, a common surname in the rolls of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, derived from Juet (Jowet or Jowett in the North), a once familiar corruption of the diminutive Juliet. The last-named equals Gilot, a diminutive of the female Christian name Julian or Juliana (pp. 74 y 167). A. R. BAYLEY.

May not these and similar names have originated with an ignorant parish clerk or careless parson ? The old names Dew, Dewhurst, Dewson, and Tewson are easily mispronounced or misheard. How often one may hear a vocalist sing of certain bonnie braes " where early falls the jew " !

A. T. W.

ANCIENT METAL Box (US. iv. 208). I think it more likely that the box in question was used to contain the wafers before con- secration, and not to convey the Sacrament to the sick. Such boxes are still in use for that purpose. H. BEAZANT.

Round way, Friern Barnet.

LEMAN STREET, E. (11 S. iv. 210). I was once, many years ago, in this street. The name was then pronounced allowing for the difference between the vowels a and o as the fruit lemon. J. P. STILWELL.

DICKENS AND THACKERAY (11 S. iv. 47 r 153). Madame Mantalini does not seem to have been the only example of the trans- ference of a Dickens name to Thackeray's pages. ' Vanity Fair ' contains an allusion of the kind. The closing paragraph of chap, vii., descriptive of old London coach- ing days, introduces a prominent character from ' The Pickwick Papers.' Here are the particular sentences :

" Where is the road now, and its merry incidents of life ? Is there no Chelsea or Greenwich for the old honest pimple-nosed coachmen ? I wonder where are they, those good old fellows? Is old Weller alive or dead ? "

W. B.

THE CUCKOO AND ITS CALL (11 S. iii. 486 ; iv. 30, 75, 96, 135, 195). The whole question has been treated at length in Eug. Rolland's * Faune Populaire,' vol. ix. (' Oiseaux Sauvages '), Paris, 1911, pp. 124 150. H. GAIDOZ.

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