Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/410

 336 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i*s.x.APn.2t,iM. the proportions of that thoroughfare, there- by misleading the unwary. Accurate topo- graphical and portrait painters have rendered invaluable services to the science of history, but when an artist subordinates fidelity to artistic licence his productions engender confusion and beget uncertainty. Cesar de Saussure, who visited London in 1725, wrote to his friends in Switzer- land : The four streets the Strand, Fleet Street, Cheapside and Cornhill are, I imagine, the finest in Europe. What help to make them interesting and attractive are the shops and the signs. Every shop has a sign of copper, pewter, or wood painted and gilt. Some of these signs are really magnificent and have cost as much as one hundred pounds sterling ; they hang on big iron branches, and sometimes on gilt ones. The signs belonging to taverns are generally finer than the others. One cannot but think that had Cheapside shown any of La Serre's " breadth of treat- ment," de Saussure would not have linked it with the other three thoroughfares, but would have reserved it for special remark. With respect to MR. LUCAS'S second query, whether the roadway and footway were differentiated in Tudor times, one would' suppose from La Serre's picture that they were one, but as I am questioning La Serre's accuracy it is not open to me to crave him in aid. The following announce- ment in Lloyd's Evening Post of July 10, 1765, may, however, put MR. LUCAS on a line of inquiry : The inhabitants of Cheapside from the end of King Street to the end of Old Jewry have begun to have the footway in the same manner as the Strand, by raising it and taking away the posts. J. PAUL DE CASTRO. THE Loss OF H.M.S. TIGER (12 S. x. 264). -A boat -flag from the Tiger shared, with a similar trophy taken from a boat which drifted ashore at Gamle-Karleby, the honour of hanging as trophy in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity near the Warsaw railway station at St. Petersburg at least so it was recorded in Murray's ' Handbook ' for 1888. In 1884, when I went to the church, in spite of a bribe to the custodian, we could not find it. It may have been removed for political reasons, but I remember hearing the suggestion that the flags had been taken to the Naval Museum in the Ad- miralty. They were the only British colours among a very large collection in the churches of the Russian capital. It would be in- teresting to know if these trophies are still in existence. HUGH R. WATKIN. MURDERS IN ITALY (12 8. x. 289). The contrast between Tuscany and the States of the Church towards the end of the eigh- teenth century is an interesting one. It is ! one of the paradoxes of history that on the ' eve of the cataclysm that was " destined ulti- mately, perhaps, to destroy the monarchies of Europe, the sovereigns were men of con- spicuous excellence ; among these benevo- lent despots none was more remarkable than Leopold, the son of Maria Theresa, who ruled Tuscany for a quarter of a century. He introduced there all the reforms that are so dear to the friend of progress, and, be it noticed, abolished capital punishment. One of his great difficulties arose from the number of ecclesiastics, of whom there were perhaps 27,000 in a population of one million. Most of the land outside the towns belonged to them. On the other hand, the Papal States, which were probably at their worst, had been ruled by a succession of Popes, who in many cases were ho longer in the prime of life. The government of the Church absorbed what energies they had, and, after that, the adornment of Rome was their principal care. This was the period, approximately, when the fountain of Trevi was finished, and when treasures were being collected to fill the Museum Pio-Clementino. Beyond Rome things were left to take their course. Eccle- siastics swarmed, and the great number of murders that occurred outside the Eternal City was clue to ecclesiastical immunities. A murderer pleaded privilege of the clergy ; the case had to be tried by an ecclesiastic ; there was probably delay, and meanwhile the criminal escaped. Or, after the assassina- tion, he took refuge in one of the numerous churches, where there was a right of sanc- tuary, and soon emerged, wearing the livery of a prince or cardinal. This, according to Montesquieu, was the weak point in the government of the States of the Church. The immense sums of money that flowed into Rome rendered living easy ; there was next to no taxation, no attempt at industrial development. Everywhere were idleness and mendicancy, and they are fertile fields of crime. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG. The Authors' Club, Whitehall, S.W. SPBUSEN'S ISLAND (12 S. x. 288). Sprucers Island, on the N.W. side of Wapping, between King Edward's stairs and New Grain stairs (ex 'A New View of London,' 1708, vol. i. p. 78). W. J. M.