Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/87

 118. V.JAN. 27, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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recollected that the dress and badge brought tribulation upon the recipient of the favour. There was published at Sheffield in 1823 ' Tom and Charles, or the Grinders : the History of two boys educated at the Charity School at Sheffield, faithfully delineating Personages and Scenery of the Neighbour- hood.' May this also supply a source whence Dickens may have taken a hint and a character ? W. B. H.

THE SAURIANS IN ENGLISH POETRY. In liis essay on Spenser ('Among my Books,' ii. 136), Russell Lowell devotes some atten- tion to the poet's contemporaries, showing generally how unlike they were in inspiration and method to the author of ' The Faery Queen.' After referring to ' The Mirror for Magistrates,' ' Albion's England,' ' Poly- olbion,' and so forth, he summarizes in characteristically humorous fashion. " This," says he,

" was the period of the saurians in English poetry, interminable poems, book after book and canto after canto, like far-stretching vertebrae, that at first sight would seem to have rendered earth unfit for the habitation of man."

This criticism is recalled now by an item in a bookseller's catalogue just to hand. The entry is suggestive of something like a faint saurian recrudescence. Apparently in the year just ended a collection of ' Poetical Pieces ' was issued at 10s. 6d. net in "a very thick roy. 8vo cloth " volume. Pre- mising that he is in a position to offer this substantial work for 2s. 6d., the advertiser proceeds thus :

" The author's production may well be called that of a ' Long-winded Poet,' " for the poems occupy 1,261 pages. It would, no doubt, occupy a reader's present life and part of the future as well."

THOMAS BAYNE.

CLIFTON CAMPVILLE CHURCH. The fine church of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire (near Tamworth), has just been saved from ruin at a cost of about 3,0001. an expenditure of 5001. or so being still needed to preserve the ancient windows and to complete the tower. This magnificent build- ing has for many years been in a deplorable state. The thirteenth - century masonry and buttresses in the north wall, and the southern pillars, have been fully repaired where necessary ; and the roof has been put back to its original place. Considerable fresco-work has been discovered, evidently that noted by Shaw, but it is very indistinct. The chantry chapel has been restored, and is now no longer screened off from the church,

while the fine roof is once more revealed. The southern aisle, called the Haunton aisle, has been extensively repaired, this being necessitated by the bad state of the stone ; and the removal of the poor plaster-work has shown the best features of the structure, and with these an interesting fresco appa- rently depicting the founder, Sir Richard Stafford, who built the church about 1353. The work merits reporting in better detail.

W. H. QUARRELL.

ST. PANCRAS, 1817. There has come into my hands a sketch, 9 in. by 4 in., of the St. Pancras Workhouse, and inn at the corner of King's Road, 1817. The work- house is a row of small houses, with a high red-brick wall in front, through which is an entrance gate surmounted by a lamp. The inn stands opposite, at a corner where two roads meet ; it has a hanging sign, a tall (iron) pump, and a lamp on a post. There are some trees behind, and in front are open spaces of grass surrounded by a single-rail fence. W. C. B.

THE GLAMIS MYSTERY : A PARALLEL. It would appear that Glamis Castle has not the monopoly of a mysterious secret chamber. Re-reading that interesting ' Memoir of a Highland Lady,' edited by Lady Strachey, I find therein mentioned Comyn Castle :

"The people said there was a zigzag causeway beneath the water, from a door of the old castle to the shore, the secret of which was always known to three persons only. We often tried to hit upon the causeway, but we never succeeded.'''

OUTIS.

" CLEAR CASE." In transcribing the Sarum Marriage Bonds for The Genealogist I came across what seems to me a very early example of the phrase " clear case." I reproduce it in its original spelling :

" John bachalers of 32 ears eage of oten refers [Wootton Biversl and Ales Worman of 30 ears eage of esbary in the pariash of lambarn the plas that we will be niareid is at est gasan [East Garsdon ?] Yow ned not fere for it is a clar kase. 5 Dec 1633."

EDMUND R. NEVILL, F.S.A.

Salisbury.

" THE SAME YET," INN SIGN. At Prest- wich, in Lancashire, there is an inn with this sign. It once bore the name of "The Seven Stars." When the sign was being repainted, the painter asked the landlord what he was to put upon the board, and received the answer. " The same yet," and the man took him at his word (Millgate Monthly).

FREDERICK LAWRENCE TAVARE.

Manchester.