Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/329

 ii s. v. APRIL e, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

his surprise that De Quincey should have been entrusted with the task of supplying any note to the work in question. Moreover, any note of De Quincey's in Wordsworth's fine essay would have been written in London, not in Grasmere. What, then, was this unknown pamphlet ? That is my query. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

BACON : REGISTER OF BIRTH. Can any of your readers tell me in what parish I can find the register of the birth of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam ? I am aware that he was born at York House in the Strand on 22 Jan., 1561. A. HARTLAND.

AN EPIGRAM OF SPENSER. The first of four epigrams by Spenser, printed in the Globe edition after the sonnets, runs :

In youth, before I waxed old, The blynd boy, Venus baby, For want of cunning made me bold, In bitter hyve to grope for honny : But, when he saw me stung and cry, He tooke his wings and away did fly.

The second line does not correspond metric- ally with the fourth. Can it be that a word has dropped out, i.e., " bonny " ?

The blynd boy, Venus baby bonny, would restore metre and rime.

C. W. BRODRIBB.

[In the 1611 edition the line reads, " The blinded boy, Venus' baby."]

DR. JAMES, MASTER OF ST. BEES SCHOOL. Can any one tell me more of the ancestry of Dr. James (Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and Master of St. Bees School) than is given in the volume of letters between James and Boucher which the Oxford Historical Society published ? I greatly wish to learn from what part of Cumberland he originally came, and any facts con- cerning his family. Y. T.

ARMS FOR IDENTIFICATION. By what family or families have the following arms been used ? Ermine, on a chief invected azure, three escallops argent.

L. C. PRICE.

Ewell.

KROLL'S HOTEL : MYSTERIOUS CRIME. A house in America Square, near the Minories, known as Kroll's Hotel, was destroyed quite recently. I am told that many years ago a mysterious crime was committed there. I should be grateful for information on the subject.

PHILIP NORMAN.

THE KNELL BOOK OF BARKING. Can any one tell me the present whereabouts of this ? W. C. BORLAND.

Lincoln's Inn.

" QUEER HIS PITCH." What is the origin of this strange expression ? I always re- garded it as a vulgarism until I observed it in The Daily Telegraph.

M. L. R. BRESLAH.

Percy House, South Hackney.

[Farmer and Henley's ' Dictionary of Slang ' says : " To queer a pitch (cheap Jacks and showmen), to spoil a chance of business."]

JAMES BROOKE. In Forster's ' Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith,' book iv. chap, x., it is stated :

" Among his acquaintances at this time [1771] was a Mr. James Brooke (related to the author of ' The Fool of Quality,' and himself somewhat notorious for having conducted The North Briton for \Vilkes), whose daughter became afterwards resident in the family of Mr. John Taylor ; and from his letters we learn that ' Miss Clara Brooke, being once annoyed at a masquerade by the noisy gaiety of Goldsmith,' " &c.

Can any reader supply me with information as to the parentage of this Mr. Brooke, or concerning any near relations of his ? The above reference to Henry Brooke, the author, leaves much to be desired in the way of bridging over their supposed kinship, inasmuch as none of Henry's grandfather's descendants appears to have borne the name James. J. N. DOWIJNG.

48, Gough Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

BELASYSE. I wish to ascertain the exact position in the Belasyse pedigree of the following member of the family, for infor- mation about whom I am indebted to a friend :

" On 20 Nov., 1807, Thomas Edward Wynn Belasyse was appointed Prothonotary for the Counties of Carnarvon, Anglesey, and Merioneth vice Glynn Wynn (who held office in 1781 until his death 25 June, 1793), and his brother, Sir Thomas (who was created Lord Newborough in 1776), held the office 1793 until his death, 12 Oct., 1807. Belasyse held office up to 1830, when it was abolished."

I suppose this was not the Thomas Edward Wynn who married Lady Charlotte Belasyse, and assumed the name and arms of Belasyse.

(Miss) E. F. WILLIAMS. 10, Black Friars, Chester.

"SPORTSMAN" HOTELS. How could a list be obtained of hotels in the Eastern Counties during the eighteenth century called " The Sportsman " ? Was there one in the Retford district ? E. F. W.