Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/382

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VIL MAY 10, 1913.

once, ' Bread ! Bread ! ' * My friends, we are

' All reply at once, ' Bread ! Bread !

To everything he says, they will answer, ' Bread 1 ' Not only will they utter nothing but this laconic word, but they will utter it always in the same tone, because the great passions have only one accent."

THOMAS FLINT. New York.

EAST ANGLIAN FAMILIES : HITS AND GOSSE (US. vii. 277). There are few details known about the early life and family of the Reformer Jan Hus, who was born of humble parents at Husinec, South Bohemia. The name hus (Russian gus] means goose, and husinec is goose -stall. The name Gosse appears to be of Teutonic origin. A former municipal official of Prague tells me that he does not think that Hus was related to a foreign family. FBANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Streatham Common.

Two KENTISH MEMORIALS (11 S. vii. 305). 2. The Arch. Cant., vol. x. p. 334, has the following entry from the Parish Register of Charing :

1701. Catharine, wife of Edward Dering, Vicar of Charing, buried Dec. 7 ;

and at p. 342 a copy of the monument, where the year is also 1701, not 1707.

Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' under ' Levett of Milford Hall, co. Stafford,' does not claim that William Levett was on the scaffold, merely stating that he was " page to King Charles I. at the time of that monarch's death." R. J. FYNMORE.

THE YOUNGER VAN HELMONT (11 S. vii. 307). I have a copy of the 'Alphabeti vere Naturalis Hebraici brevissima De- lineatio,' printed at Sulzbach by Abraham Lichten thaler in 1657. The name and initials are given as " F. M. B. ab Helmont," and facing the title - page is an engraving which may or may not contain a double portrait of the author : a profile, and a full face as reflected in a mirror, the mouth of which he is measuring with a pair of dividers. This bears the signature " T. Franck Sc."

E. E. STREET.

Chichester.

Puca in Irish is a malignant spirit whose name is used to frighten children. The puca assumes various forms, and induces people to get on his back, after which he rushes through space at a furious rate, all the time endeavouring to throw his victim. If the latter " holds on " all will be well. The
 * 'BUCCA-BOO" (11 S. vii. 89, 155).

puca who anciently made this valley his home met his match once in a huntsman who had his spurs on, and plied them so well that the poor sprite had to howl for mercy, and was not seen afterwards.

T. O'NEILL LANE. Tournafulla, co. Limerick.

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A Londoner's London. By Wilfred Whitten. (Methuen & Co.)

THIS delightful gossipy book may well claim a welcome from lovers of London. The very preface with which Mr. Whitten (" John 6* London") introduces his pages reminds us of old haunts now no more, for it is dated from " The Conk Tavern," Fleet Street another "Cock," however, than the old - fashioned tavern to which we used to go, not only for its noted fare, but also for its association with Tennyson, who appreciated its fine old port and its chops and steaks. We should have liked a view of the interior with its old oak seats on each side of a narrow table, and the backs of the seats reaching nearly to the ceiling, and shutting off the diner from general view different from nowadays, when one eats in public.

We observe with regard to another noted Fleet Street tavern, " The Cheshire Cheese," that Mr. Whitten considers the evidence of its association with Johnson to be very weak, as it rests on the hearsay evidence of " two Cyruses," Cyrus Bedding and Cyrus Jay (the latter a son of Jay of Bath, one of the most popular preachers of his time). Cyrus Jay spent much time at " The Cheshire Cheese," where we have often seen him indulging in the old port for which this tavern, like " The Cock," was celebrated. Tennyson we have also seen there.

The book opens with the passing of Temple Bar, which we saw draped with black velvet on the occasion of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington on November 18th, 1852. Urns in which incense was burning were placed on the top, a cause to some people of much offence. But the great time to see Temple Bar was on an occasion of public rejoicing, when it was illuminated with coloured glass which gave the impression of a blaze of emeralds, diamonds, and rubies. It was so illuminated when the City entertained the Queen and Prince Albert to commemorate the Exhibition of 1851. The last time the Bar was illuminated was in 1863, for the marriage of the Prince of Wales (the late King Edward) with the Princess Alexandra.

Under ' The Veils of Yesterday ' Mr. Whitten discourses pleasantly on the old horse " bus," where, seated on " the knifeboard," passengers would be conveyed to " London " from Hamp- stead, Highgate, or St. John's W T ood. The horse omnibus was pronounced by a great authority to be " probably the lightest and strongest vehicle in the world for carrying twenty-eight people at a speed of nearly eight miles an hour."

A visit to Booksellers' Row, formerly Holywell Street, takes us back to that happy hunting- ground of book-lovers, to the vanishing of which