Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/385

 12 S. 1. MAY 6, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUEEIES.

379

was the property of John Latton, Esq., who died there at the age of 83, on Nov. 15, 1727 ; and at a short distance from Burwood is Burhill (now the golf club and links), which also belonged to Mr. Latton, and was sold by him to Peter de la Porte, Esq., who bequeathed it to General Johnson. This General Johnson, Colonel of the 33rd Regt., had married Roberta, the youngest daughter of John Latton, Esq. Whose son was he, and was he related to Peter de la Porte ? He bore for arms Argent, a chevron sable between three lions' heads couped gules, crowned or ; and for crest, on a wreath arg. and gu.,a lion's head couped. gules, crowned or, between two ostrich feathers argent ; as borne by Archdeacon Johnson, the founder of Uppingham School, 1592.

CURIOUS.

THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA (12 S. i. 108, 175). In " Zoriada : or, Village Annals. A Novel. In Three Volumes. London : Printed for T. Axtell, Royal Exchange. 1786," one finds, vol. i. p. 112 :

"as I am alive, a prison with the dead and dying, lying before it, this must be the black hole at Calcutta; the savages, they never attempted to put her there." and vol. iii. p. 159 :

"but, whether, she had perished in the black hole, or fled with her husband, and fell a victim to famine was unknown."

I hope to send to ' N. & Q.' some reasons for believing that ' Zoriada ' was written by William Toldervy. Many details suggest at least close imitation of his ' Two Orphans,' and some of them deserve a place in the word-books. E. S. DODGSON.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PLATE (12 S. i. 248). Patrick Robertson seems to have been admitted to incorporation in 1751. A tea-urn made by him is in the Edinburgh Museum, dated 1778-9 ; this would probably have the Tower mark of a castle, and a thistle as the assay master's mark, in addition to the maker's mark and the date-letter on it. Edinburgh used the thistle as the Standard Mark after 1759 ; before that date the assay master's initials were used. The initials P. R. could stand for Patrick Robert- son. The Hall Mark, a castle with three towers, has been in use since the fifteenth century. The Duty Mark of the sovereign's head was added from 1784 to 1890. The marks on your correspondent's piece of silver should read like this : P. R., castle, thistle, date-letter.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE

Holywell Priory and the Site of the Theatre, Shore- ditch. (L.C.C., 2d., double number.)

THE London County Council is to be congratulated upon the addition to its collection of pamphlets on Houses of Historical Interest in London of Part XLIIL, entitled ' Holywell Priory and the Site of the Theatre, Shoreditch.' The Priory was one of the numerous ecclesiastical establishments which were set up in the City and suburbs of London in the Middle Ages. Fitzstephen, the monkish chronicler, counted 13 churches belonging to convents, besides 126 lesser parish churches; and Stow in his time (1525-1605) counted, in and about London, within a radius of four miles, 139 parish churches. The Priory of Holywell was thus named on account of its immediate proximity to an ancient well which was in existence at the beginning of the twelfth century. The precise date of the foundation of the Priory is not known, but is fixed at about 1128.

It was in the close neighbourhood of these religious houses that the monks, on holy days, performed their miracle plays and sacred dramas, whilst the early examples of less serious plays and comedies were, for the most part, acted in booths and open court-yards of inns, the audience being accommodated in the galleries surrounding the yard. The sole survival of the galleried inn in London is the George in the Borough, but only a small portion of the original remains. It is unfortunate that no definite information is avail- able which could enable us to connect the Priory at Shoreditch with the acting of plays, such as was the case at Clerkenwell, since on a portion of the site of Holywell Priory the first London theatre was afterwards erected.

On the dissolution of the monasteries the Priory shared the fate of other religious houses and was dissolved. Five years later the northern portion of the precincts was granted by the King to a Henry Webb, a gentleman of the Court, the property eventually reaching the possession of Giles Allen in 1576.

It was about this time that James Burbage, at one time a joiner, but afterwards a player in the Earl of Leicester's company, conceived the idea of erecting a building for the performance of the drama. He accordingly rented from Giles Allen a portion of the property on a twenty-one years' lease, and built thereon the first London playhouse.

Mr. W. W. Braines, who is responsible for the research work connected with this important subject, is to be congratulated on the interesting way in which he has managed to compress, within so short a compass, the main facts of the history of both the Priory and the Theatre. This little book will be well received by those interested in old London, and it is doubly welcome at this time of the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebrations, as it was at this playhouse that Shakespeare undoubtedly performed on several occasions previous to 1599. We must, however, confess to a little disappointment on finding that the position of the theatre and the other house in its immediate vicinity, the Curtain, has not been more precisely defined.