Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/30

20 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S. X. JAN. 7, 1922. Their work is here most carefully and critically discussed. On the period of debasement which closed the eighteenth and began the nineteenth century Mr. Freeman writes with vigour, but also with discrimination; on the revival and on modern examples and tendencies he is appreciative but also ready with suggestive and helpful criticism. He advises a return to the use of shutters which would both be useful to enclose the organ at cleaning times and add a signal opportunity for decoration; and he says all that should be said about the enormity of letting the tops of pipes appear above the wood-work of the case.

We have not discovered upon what principle the illustrations are arranged, and there is no index of persons. Moreover, so good a book might, we think, have been more attractively printed. Otherwise we have nothing but praise for a sound and careful piece of work.

RATCLIFFE CROSS AND STAIRS MEMORIAL.

movement for the restoration of Ratcliffe Cross and Stairs to public memory and honour as the rendezvous and sailing-place of many of the first oversea adventurers of England (whose little ship-crews were mainly recruited in the maritime parts of Old Stepney), would appear to have originated some sixty years ago at the instance of the teaching corps of the two most conspicuous Foundation schools in the locality, supported by the authorities of the Mother Church of St. Dunstan, Stepney. And of late years it has enjoyed attention in the most exalted quarters with intimate Naval associations, in connexion with the designing of the King Edward Memorial Park, at the adjacent Shad well, in the same reach of the Thames.

Long before the reign of the Tudors when men-at-arms and archers were for ever passing to and from the French heritages, fiefs and acquisitions of English kings the shipwrights of Ratcliffe were building vessels for what was to be, practically, the King's Navy in the making; and the ancient Stepney Vestry had scarcely settled to its functions ere resident Masters, Captains, Brethren, Mariners of the Trinity Guild are found serving actively on the body, wi^h brewers, arti- ficers, craftsmen, gunmakers, powdermakers, cannon-founders, ropemakers, sailmakers, riggers, blockmakers, shipwrights, carpenters, sawyers, shipsmiths, fleshers, victuallers, salters, coopers, &c., upbuilding the Port of London. In the report of the Records and Museums Com- mittee submitted at the last meeting of the Lon- don County Council, it was recalled that, in May, 1914, the Committee had under consideration a I proposal made by Sir John Benn, Bt., that a memorial to Elizabethan explorers and navigators I should be erected at the place " formerly known as Ratcliffe Cross." It was proposed that a bronze tablet with a suitable inscription and a design in ! enamel of a ship of the Tudor period in full sail j should be affixed to the wall of the Ratcliffe en- 1 trance of the Rotherhithe Tunnel (which is the actual site of the historic Ratcliffe Cross). The project was estimated to cost 270. It was, how- ever, postponed until after the war, and now it would be about 650. In present circumstances the committee were not prepared to advise ex- penditure of so large a sum for this purpose, but proposed a tablet of similar design, although executed in painted tile panels instead of in bronze and enamel, which can be provided at a comparatively small cost. The committee pro- posed that the inscription placed on the tablet be in the following terms : " This Tablet is in memory of Sir Hugh Wil- loughby, Stephen Borough, William Borough, Sir Martin Frobisher, and other navigators, who, in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century, set sail from this Reach of the River Thames near Rat- cliffe Cross to explore the Northern Seas. " Erected by the London County Council, 1922." As regards the position for the tablet, the com- mittee expressed the opinion that it should be erected on a stone to be placed in the King Edward Memorial Park. With the concurrence of the Parks Committee a site had been selected for the purpose. In this position the memorial will be close to the river and will be well under observa- tion and thus less liable to damage than if placed on the Ratcliffe tunnel entrance in the open street. Moreover, it will probably be seen by more people. An offer to present and fix a suitable stone has been made 'by Mr. E. C. Hannen, of the firm of Messrs. Holland and Hannen, and the total cost of providing and fixing the panel will, it is esti- mated, not exceed 60. The London County Council adopted this re- port, none dissenting, and the Records Committee were empowered to take all the necessary steps in the matter. Me. CORRIGENDA. 1. ANCIENT BRITISH DYE (12 S. ix. 491, 531). In my communication at the last reference, for " Cambridge " read Corbridge, and for " will not," read would. J. T. F. 2. At 12 S. ix. 527, col. 1, 1. 12, for " 1541 " read 1542. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. JJottce* to Correpontiente. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' ' ' Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' N. & Q.,' Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses im- mediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found.