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NOTES AND QUERIES. 111 s. vi. OCT. 19, 1912.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S OBSERVATORY. When visiting St. Ippollitts, near Hitchin, recently, I saw in the shrubbery belonging to St. Ibbs (the residence of Major Amos) what is believed to be the observatory built by Sir Isaac Newton, and brought thither from Cambridge.

It is an octagonal brick building lighted by three windows, the roof being boarded and surmounted by a weathercock. Near by is a large circular block of stone having a slight projection on one side ; this is supposed to have been the base of the telescope. W B. GERISH.

LONDON SANCTUARIES. LADY RUSSELL'S reference (ante, p. 15) to the Act for abolishing sanctuaries (8 & 9 Wm. III. c. 27) suggests that a list of all the sanctuaries abolished might be interesting. Those named in s. 15 of the Act are : White Friars, Salis- bury Court, Ram Alley, Mitre Court, Fuller's Rents, Baldwin's Gardens, Montagu Close, the Minories, Mint, Clink, and Dead- man's Place.

Ram Alley was the old name for Mitre Court, Fleet Street, which was then known by both designations. Fuller's Rents, now known as Fulwood's Rents, and quite respectable, is a passage leading from Holborn to Gray's Inn.

Montagu Close, destroyed in 1831-2 to make room for the approach to the new London Bridge, stood near the church of St. Saviour, Southwark, now Southwark Cathedral. The poet Gower lived there till his death. The Mint was a district in Southwark near the present St. George's Church, whilst the Clink and Deadman's Place were also in Southwark, near Bank- side. Deadman's Place, now called Park Street, Borough Market, is on the east side of Barclay's Brewery. Alexander Cruden, the compiler of the well-known ' Concord- ance,' was buried in the Dissenting ground in Deadman's Place.

The locality of the other sanctuaries named in the Act is well known, and does not require any explanation.

I may add that the right of sanctuary was abolished by giving the sheriff and his officers the right of entry. If the sheriff refused to do his duty he was liable to a fine of 100Z., but, on the other hand, he was entitled to call for the assistance of the posse comitatus. Persons resisting the sheriff or his officers were liable to a fine of 501., and to be imprisoned or put in the pillory.

R. B. P.

" MUSETTE," A DANCE. The earliest illus- trative quotation in ' N.E.D.' for " musette " as a dance is 1811 ; but in The Daily Courant for 27 and 29 April, 1726, " the Muzette " was advertised among the " several Enter- tainments of Dancing " at Drury Lane, and on both occasions by the same performers " young Rainton and Miss Robinson."

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

SIGNS OF OLD LONDON. (See 11 S. i. 402, 465 ; ii. 64, 426 ; iv. 226 ; v. 4, 77, 286, 416 ; vi. 167, 266). The subjoined list concludes my excerpts from Britten's directory of ' Former Clock and Watchmakers ' :

Dial, Aldersgate Street, 1790.

Dial, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, c. 1733.

Mermaid, Lothbury, 1674.

Dial, Pall Mall, 1684 and 1691.

Golden Salmon, New Bond Street, 1785.

Bunch of Grapes, Strand, near York Buildings.

1705.

Cross Keys, Holborn, 1691. Black Boy, against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet

Street, 1691. Rainbow Coffee - House, Cornhill, near Birchin

Lane, 1694.

Newton Head, Fleet Street, c. 1782. Golden Hind, Fleet Street, against St. Dunstan's

Church, 1680. Three Kings and Golden Ball, Cheapside, opposite

Foster Lane, c. 1769. Hand and Buckle, near King Edward Stairs,

Wapping, 1715. White Hart, Poultry, 1731. " Cross Keys in Bethlern," c. 1686. Crown and Sceptre, Fleet Street, 1744. Naked Boy, West Smithfield, 1706. King's Arms, Exchange Alley, c. 1680. Dial, Bishopsgate Within, c. 1691. " Style in Lothbury," c. 1670. Golden Bottle, Cheapside, 1678. Mermaid, Lothbury, c. 1633. " Dyall in Holborne," c. 1682. White Horse and Black Boy, Great Old Bailey,

1705. " Fan and Flower-de-Luce, over against Somerset

House in the Strand," 1730. Golden Ball, Lombard Street, c. 1682. Three Flower-de-Luces (sic), Strand, 1692. Dial and Three Crowns, Birchin Lane, near the

Royal Exchange, c. 1699. Crown, Lombard Street, 1697-1710. White Horse and Bell, near Cheapside Conduit.

c. 1717. " Goldsmiths' Hall in Gutter Lane " (sic, a sign),

1696.

Dial and Three Crowns, Exchange Alley, 1713. Fleece Tavern, Fleet Street, 1688. King's Arms, Panton Street, 1720. Swan Tavern, King Street, Westminster, 1687. Cross Keys Tavern (no place), c. 1694.

The appended note, from p. 547 of Mr. Britten's work, may be deemed worthy of insertion for purposes of comparison with