Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/168

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. JOKE, wis.

MAGNLA.C FAMILY. Wheatley and Cun- ningham's ' London, Past and Present,' states that in 1869 Mr. Charles Magniac paid 175,000?. for Chesterfield House, May- fair. Details are asked concerning the origin and records of this wealthy family. I believe that one was M.P. for Bedford- shire. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

CONSTITUTION HILL. Why and when was the name Constitution Hill given to the road past Buckingham Palace garden to Piccadilly ? I have been searching all our own old books on London and also those of the excellent Free Library in this town, but cannot find this particular information.

M. L.

Folkestone.

[DR. P. J. FURNIVALL supplied at 8 S. viii. 6 the following note on the name, taken from Richard King's ' The Complete Modern London Spy,' 1781, p. 27: "Having left the hospital [St. George's], we proceeded through the Green Park, sometimes called Constitution Hill, on account of the salubrious air which is there found."]

PILGEIMS' MABKS. On the south door of Shere Church, near Guildford, are certain " pilgrims' crosses," scratched by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Will some reader kindly give information concerning similar " pilgrims' marks " to be seen elsewhere ? COLET.

" LAYCOCK." In Marjorie Bowen's ' The Governor of England,' p. 180, we read :

" She made no reply at all, but stared at the haggled corpse of Major Cuffe, twisting her hands in her flowered laycock apron."

What is the meaning of the word " laycock " ?

M.A.

[Is it possibly a misprint for " laylock," one of the many spellings of " lilac " ?]

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

1. Un Dieu defini, c'est un Dieu fini.

L. G. B.

2. " There a bit of England is." These words are sometimes used in reference to one of our soldiers who has died and been buried in France. Whence come they ? A. C. T.

[2. Are they a reminiscence of the opening lines of Rupert Brooke's ' The Soldier ' ?

If I should die, think only this of me : That there 's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England.]

3. He claps his hands. Now, twanging, braying, You tuning fiddlers, fall to playing ! Scrape it, fiddlers ! Foot it, dancers ! See how heel to fiddle answers.

THOS. BATCLTFFE. Worksop.

PICKWICK, ORIGIN OF THE NAME : PICKWICK FAMILY OF BATH.

(12 S. iv. 12, 51, 89.)

I SEE no reason for doubting the statement which appears in the fifth chapter of John Forster's ' Life of Charles Dickens,' 5th ed., 1872, vol. i. p. 88, note : " The name of his hero [Pickwick], I may add, Dickens took from that of a celebrated coach -proprietor of Bath." This " celebrated coach-pro- prietor " was Moses Pickwick. Cf. ' Pick- wick,' chap, xxxiv. p. 374, original edition. It is, perhaps, interesting to note that one of Alfred Crowquill's extra plates (c. 1837) presents ' Mrs. Dowler in the Bath Coach.' She is looking out of the window. On the door is " Moses Pickwick Bath."

In the Pickwick Exhibition at the New Dudley Gallery, 169 Piccadilly, 22 July 28 Aug., 1907, was shown a " Threefold Screen, formerly belonging to Moses Pick- wick of Bath. On the Screen are painted the Rules and Regulations relating to Passengers, Fares, Luggage, &c., &c. Lent by Mr. Austin King." In The Dickensian of September, 1907 (vol. iii. p. 235), is a small but legible reproduction of the screen. At the top is " From the White Hart, Bath " " Coaching Notices formerly in the office." At the foot of the third fold is " Moses Pickwick & C, September !,, 1830."

A legend about this Moses Pickwick was given in ' N. & Q.' of April 2, 1887 (7 S. iii. 273). After referring to the name of Pickwick having been taken by Dickens from " Moses Pickwick " which appeared " on many of the stage-coaches that plied between Bristol and London sixty to seventy years ago," the writer continues :

" This coach proprietor was a foundling, left one night in a basket in Pickwick Street, and brought up in Corshana workhouse till he was old enough to be employed in the stables where the mail and stage coaches changed horses. By his good conduct and intelligence he got on to be head ostler, and from that to horse coaches, and eventually to be a coach proprietor. His Christian name was given to him as being a foundling, and his surname from the village where he was left as an infant."

The article is signed P. No authority is quoted, no references are given. No ex- planation appears of the assertion that the child was found in Pickwick Street (name of