Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/99

 12 8. II. JULY 29, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

93

ST. GEORGE'S, BLOOMSBURY (12 S. ii. 29). When I was writing the first volume of ' The Church in Madras,' I had a good deal of information about Mr. Streynsham Master, who was Governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies at the time the Fort Church was built. I regret that I have mislaid the papers ; but if I give the facts as I remember them, perhaps others will be able to supply the references. I did not record this particular fact in the volume, as I was not writing an exhaustive life of Streynsham Master. When Governor Master returned to England he lived in Bloomsbury, and took a prominent part as giver and counsellor in the erection of the Bloomsbury church. At his suggestion it was dedicated to God in honour of St. George, the patron saint of England, in memory of his connexion with Fort St. George in India, and the distin- guished position he held as its Governor under the Hon. East India Company. There may have been a hidden reference to the reigning sovereign in the case of the church. Such references were not unusual at that period. But the primary reference was to " St. George of Merrie England," under whose flag Streynsham Master had worked and rule<L As far as I recollect, the information was given to me by one of Governor Master's descendants. FRANK PENNY.

I well remember the late Lord Aldenham telling me at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, in the summer of 1901, that the statue of George II. had been erected upon the steeple of St. George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, by his (maternal) ancestor William Hucks, M.P. Abingdon 1709-10, and Wallingford 1715 till he died, Nov. 28, 1740, who was " The King's Brewer," or Brewer to the Royal Household, 1715-40. His only son Robert Hucks, M.P. Abingdon 1722-41, Treasurer of the Found- ling Hospital, May, 1744, till he died, Dec. 21, 1745, was also a wealthy brewer in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury; but Robert Hucks, his son, spent his money on the turf, and sold the brewery to Meux of Tottenham Court Road. W. R. W.

The statue on the summit of St. George's steeple is by no means always taken to be that of King George II. Such books of reference as, e.g., ' Old and New London ' ; Timbs's 'Curiosities of London'; Leigh's ' New View of London ' ; ' London in the Nineteenth Century ' ; ' Return of Outdoor Memorials in London,' cite the statue as that of George I. This was also the pre- ponderating opinion when the question received attention at 11 S. ii. 7, 50, 98, 135.

That versatile correspondent of ' N. & Q.. v the late MB. C. A. WARD (7 S. iv. 410),. favoured the George II. theory, and referred to 5 S. vi. 454 for evidence. He, hov\ eyeiv could only produce the name of one writer,. C. J. Partington, "no great authority," to help him. When referring to the statue in my ' London Statues and Memorials ' ( 1 S_ ix. 364) I felt compelled to adhere to George I. as the evidence seemed to be so over- whelmingly in his favour.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

In his account of Bloomsbury and St. Giles, Mr. George Clinch says the statue is of George I., and gives an illustration of the steeple, and the following account of it:

" Nicholas Hawksmoor was the architect \yho

designed the building One cannot help marvelling

that Hawksmoor should have committed so grave air architectural error as the designing of the ridiculous-

steeple of St. George's Church a series of steps,.

gradually narrowing so as to assume a pyramidical appearance. The lowest steps are ornamented at the corners by lions and unicorns guarding the- royal arms. At the apex, on a short column, is a statue of George I., in Romanesque costume, whiohi was given by Mr. William Hucks, an opulent brewer of this parish. Walpole stigmatizes this- extraordinary steeple 'a masterpiece of absurdity. v The bad taste and the implied compliment to the- King were satirically alluded to in the following contemporary epigram :

When Henry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch The Protestants made him the Head of the Church : But George's good subjects, the Bloomsbury people,. Instead of the Church, made him head of th& steeple."

RICHARD LAWSON.

Urmston.

MEWS OR MEWYS FAMILY (12 S. ii. 20). I should like to refer MR. S. GREEN to US. iii. 105, where TEMPLAR gives a good deal of information as to Mews ancestry.. The Mews pedigree in the 'Visitation of Hampshire,' 1686, starts with Ellis Mews of Stourton Caundle. No date is given against his name, but as he was the father of Richard Mews, who died aged upwards of 60 in 1646, it is a fair inference to say, as- MR. GREEN does, " circa 1550," for his birth,, of course. TEMPLAR says :

" Peter Mewe [the name is the same sometimes- Mews, sometimes Mewe] of Caundle Purse [Purse Caundle and Stourton Caundle adjoinl died before March 6, 1597/8, having had issue at least four sons."

Does it not seem exceedingly probable that this Peter was the father of Ellis of the pedigree, i.e., Ellis of Stourton Caundle, oiv at all events, some connexion ? C. H. M.