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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. iv. NOV. 11, 1911.

which Shakespear lodged. This tavern is a plain Georgian house, having six win- dows in Silver Street above the bar, two .above two, and several (I think twelve) windows in Monkwell Street, so that the length of the house is in Monkwell Street (I.L.N., 26 February, 1910). On comparing this with the view of the house in the isometrical plan of 1560, it is seen that they exactly agree, so far, for in Aggas's map this corner house runs down Muggle Street, as it was then called. So it would seem as if " The Cooper's Arms " just covered the space formerly occupied by Shakespear' s lodging house.

Opposite " The Cooper's Arms " is Falcon Square ( Shakespear' s crest was a falcon), which consists of the remnant of the old churchyard of St. Olave (Harper's Magazine, March, 1910).

This little secluded cemetery is very small, Tather grimy, and contains four young trees and four benches. It is raised above the narrow street, and so is approached through a rusty gate by a few broken stone steps. It contains three headstones laid flat, and three table tombs, all much worn and defaced. The only legible inscriptions I lound are the following :

1. On an oval stone in the left entrance wall, in capitals

This

Wall and Railing

Were Erected By

Voluntary Subscriptions

Anno Domini 1796

William Webster

Churchwarden.

2. On a square stone in the right entrance wall, in capitals, underneath a carved skull .and cross bones

This was the Parish Church

Of St. Olave's, Silver Street.

Destroyed by the Dreadful

Fire in the Year 1666.

3. On a~i oblong stone in the left entrance wall, in capitals

St. Olave Silver Street. This Churchyard was thrown Back and the Road widened

Eight feet by the

Commissioners of Sewers

At the Request of the Vestry

Anno Domini 1865. H. Cummings, Rector.

C. E ' Wuson } Churchwardens.

4. On a stone slab covering a brick table tomb, in capitals

Kerl

grandson of the above

Died October 1802.

Aged years.

5. On a carved stone table tomb, in capitals

The Wife of John Bull.

Mont joy's house being in St. Olave parish, Shakespear may have attended this church, and occasionally lounged in this ancient churchyard, in which some of his acquaint- ances may be buried. D. J.

LORD ROSEBERY ON BOOKS. The recent remarks of Lord Rosebery, deploring the large number of useless books (The Times, 17 October), have their parallel in the follow- ing remarks of Sir Thomas Browne (1605- 1682) in his ' Religio Medici' (Part I. sec. xxiv.) :

" I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero, others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the Library of Alex- andria ; for my own part, I think there be too many in the world, and could With patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican."

M.

THE ACT AGAINST PROFANE SWEARING. Here is an excerpt from The New Monthly Magazine, 1 September, 1819, part ii. p. 253 :

" Somersetshire. By way of caution to the clergy of this county, we state, that an informa- tion was lately laid against the vicar of Wellington, who was fined 51. for omitting to read publicly in his church the Act against profane swearing, as required by law."

The warning conveyed in this notice warrants the inference that the Act (19 Geo. II., c. 21) was not invariably read in the churches of Somersetshire on the appointed four Sundays following the Quarter Days. DANIEL HIP WELL.

FRANQOIS DE GAIN DE MONTAIGNAC. Perhaps space can be found for a note on this Bishop of Tarbes, concerning whom errors have crept into three well-known books of reference. Gams, in his ' Series Episcoporum,' p. 635, wrongly states that he did not resign his see (which he resigned 6 November, 1801), and that he died in 1802. Both the * Nouvelle Biographie Gen6rale,' xix. 190, and the ' Biographie Universelle,' xxix. 14, wrongly state that he died in 1806 in a convent near Lisbon. He was buried in Old St. Pancras Churchyard in June, 1812, aged 68. See W. E. Brown, ' St. Pancras Open Spaces ' (St. Pancras, 1902), 32. JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

BEARDED SOLDIERS. Chevalier Zavertal was by no means the only instance of a soldier being permitted to wear a beard (ante, p. 297), as, contemporary with him, I knew of three other army men having