Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/12

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. JAN. 3, i9u.

other day, on trying to revisit the old Roman bath in Strand Lane, regarding which some interesting notes appeared not long ago in '* N. & Q.' I found it was shut up, and on making inquiries in the neighbourhood was told that it is open to the public for only an hour in the week on Saturday forenoons. On my asking the reason of this, my infor- mant said that it had been " let to a club." This sounds almost incredible, and, if true, seems to require explanation. T. F. D.

CHANGES AT ALDGATE PUMP. Aid- gate, the most village - like part of the City of London, has recently suffered further loss by the demolition of the seven- teenth-century wooden house situated east -of the Saracen's Head Yard. I have written " village-like " because even to-day the pump, the church, and the High Street provide a slight, but pleasant suggestion of rural England. We must seek the Borough, Clerkenwell, or Broad Street, Bloomsbury, for any street alignment or grouping of buildings providing similar urban traces of early rustic life.

Mr. Richard Kemp's useful work ' Some Notes on the Ward of Aldgate,' 1904, has .n excellent frontispiece showing the south side of Aldgate, from Jewry Street, west to the Pump, in 1862. Nearly all the houses -could be attributed to the period covered by the dates 1 590-1620, but I cannot trace any published record of their erection. Most of these interesting buildings were taken down before 1885, but Nos. 6 and 7 survived, converted to amazing strange uses, until last November. Originally one house, with a tall projecting front, surmounted by a wooden gallery, having pilasters orna- mented with well -carved swags of fruit and flowers, which made it conspicuous, it had, in late years, undergone some very violent repainting, which gave it a garish appearance, somewhat in character with the fried onions and other dishes for strong stomachs prepared in the shop below.

Its shape, position, and decorations sug- gested that it was originally the front of " The Saracen's Head Inn," and Mr. Wheatley ('Later Reliques of Old London,' p. 27) records having seen a painting of the head of a fierce Saracen on the front of the house. Mr. T. R. Way's beautiful lithograph in this work is one of many pictorial records of the building. The late Mr. William Smart, the best of the local antiquaries, examined the carvings before one of their many repaint- ings, and said the work was particularly good, and ought to be preserved at the

Victoria and Albert Museum. Perhaps that is now the destination of these valuable fragments.

This demolition and the huge clearance for the Port of London Authority's offices have left only scattered fragments of the older London in this end of the City. Sly & Son's house in Jewry Street and " The Hoop and Grapes" in Butchers' Row still survive, but Littlefield's picturesque shop at the corner of Mansell Street was lost last year, and apparently the only record of its appearance is an etching by Mr. Ernest George published in 1883.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

HISTORIC " COURT " : SHEPPEY TREE CUT DOWN. The following is from The Daily Telegraph of Thursday, the llth of Decem- ber last :

" The old ' court ' tree, which has existed for centuries on Kingsborough Hill, in the centre of the Isle of Sheppey, has been cut down. The venerable tree died a few years ago, and its remains suffered in the recent gales.

" For hundreds of years courts were held under the tree every Whit Monday, only being discon- tinued in 1856, when the rights of the court over King's Ferry were taken over by the Sheerness Railway Company, which constructed a bridge over the Swale, the arm of the sea dividing the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland of Kent, in place of the ferry. From time immemorial the ' annual general court and law day in the King's name ' was held before the steward of Kings- borough, and the homage was there sworn fov the choice of the constable, who held jurisdiction over the island of Sheppey. The election of ferry warden and ferrymen took place under the old tree, and matters relating to the ferry between Sheppey and the mainland were here discussed. The jurisdiction of this ancient court was regu- lated and enforced by an Act passed in Queen Elizabeth's reign. The ancient records^ accord- ing to the Act of Queen Elizabeth, were described as from ' time immemorial,' and it is believed that courts were held at the very spot on Kings- borough Hill from the earliest Saxon times."

J. 2.

SIR THOMAS DINGLEY. Dr. Cox ends his list of the Preceptors of Godsfield or Bad- desley (' Victoria Hist, of Hampshire,' ii. 188) with Sir William Weston, 1518. In 1531 Sir Roger Boydell held the united Pre- ceptories of Bacldesley, Hants, and Friars' Mayne, Dorset, and was succeeded in 1533 by Sir Thomas Diiigley (Hutching, ' Dorset,' ii. 501). This knight was a native of Hamp- shire, and a nephew to Sir William Weston, who at this time was Grand Prior of Eng- land. In 1535 he was the bearer of a letter from Henry VIII. to the then Grand Master Perin del "Pont at Malta, and apparently brought back his reply. On 1.3. March,