Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/254

 248

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. SEPT., igu.

DESSIN'S HOTEL, CALAIS (12 S. iv. 187). In reply to T. F. D.'s inquiry, I learn from the British Consul at -Calais, Mr. H. A. Richards, that the original Hotel Dessin (not Dessein) was sold in 1861, when it ceased to be a hotel, the Calais College being built on part of the ground. The hotel was then transferred to the Rue de 1'Amiral Courbet, and continued there as a hotel until 1890. The Dessin family still reside there. (fe^KS^ *.-.$

The son -of the last Dessin to live in the old hotel could not say when that building was actually pulled down. He did not think that the building had ever been a chateau, although its appearance would probably give rise to this idea. It is mentioned in ' Annals and Legends of Calais ' (a work published in London in 1852) as " perhaps the most perfect example of a chdteau-like hostelrie, embosomed in flowers, foliage, and tranquillity, ever en- countered in the midst of a town."

H. AUSTIN LEE.

Paris.

Some information about this house is given by Prof. Wilbur L. Cross in his ' Life and Times of Laurence Sterne,' chap, xvii.:

" Burned out in 1770, Dessein built anew, adding a theatre, and fitted up a room in honour of his famous guest, hanging over the mantel a mezzotint of Beynolds's ' Monsieur Sterne d'Yorick,' and painting on the outside of the door in large characters STERNE'S CHAMBEB. There numberless Englishmen down to Thackeray slept, in the fancy that they were lying in the very place where Sterne once stretched his lean shanks. At the new inn Fpote laid the scene of his ' Trip to Calais,' containing a caricature of the master under the name of Monsieur Tromfoit. There, too, stayed Frederic Reynolds, another dramatist, for a day or two in 1782, when the merry host was still alive."

Prof. Cross then quotes Dessein's remark :

" Your countryman, Monsieur Sterne, von great, von vary great man, and he carry me vid him to posterity. He gain moche money by his Journey of Sentiment mais moi I make more through de means of dat, then he, by all his ouvrages reunies."

See ' Life and Times of Frederic Reynolds,

written by himself,' i. 179-81 (London, 1826).

EDWARD BENSLY.

This hotel is mentioned as the " H. Dessin " (the right spelling) in the 1861 or 8th edition of ' Murray's Handbook for France,' p. 3, where it is stated that Sterne's room still bears his name, as that occupied by Sir Walter Scott (1825) is marked with his name : it stands first in the list of hotels. In Joanne's ' Dictionnaire Geographique

de la France,' vol. ii. (1892), p. 682, the " H. Dessin " bears the number " h. 4 " on the plan of Calais. The same is the case with the plan in Joanne's ' Nord de la France ' (edition revised in 1895), though the house is not mentioned in the list of lotels given in the Appendix. On p. 73 t is said that the" College " occupies its site. [t was a little south of the railway station which serves the old town of Calais or. ' Calais Nord " a long way from either the 3are Maritime or the Gare Centrale. The ' Citadelle " rises to the west.

W. A. B. COOLIDGE.

This hotel was standing on Aug. 30, 1859, and Sept. 8, 1860, as I slept there on those dates. In my notes, made at the time, it s called " Dessin's." I have a strong mpression that I saw there the outside of a room marked " Sterne's Room." The beautiful manners of the waiter or head waiter, Monsieur Charles, remain in my memory. ADRASTINE.

[DR. J. B. MAGKATH also thanked for reply.]

FITZREINFREDS IN LANCASHIRE (12 S.

iv. 190). Gilbert, son of Roger Fitz- Reinfrid, owed his future position as a baron to the favour of Henry II., whose sewer he was. William de Lancaster II., usually described as the second baron of Kendal, died in 1184, leaving issue by his wife Helewise de Stutevill an infant daughter, who was named after her mother. Towards the end of his reign Henry II. bestowed the young heiress upon Gilbert, son of Roger Fitz-Reinfrid, " our sewer," by charter attested by Geoffrey " our son and Chan- cellor," William Marshal, and Richard de Humet (Reg. of Deeds at Levens Hall, Westmorland). The young heiress had been previously in the wardship of William Marshal. At Rouen, July 20, 1189, King Richard confirmed his father's grant of Helewise de Lancaster to Gilbert Fitz- Reinfrid, sewer to the king's father (' Gesta Ricardi,' ii. 73 ; ' L'Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal,' ed. Paul Meyer, 11. 9379-84). By this gift Gilbert became possessed of the whole barony of the family of Lancaster, which consisted of the extensive Lancashire manors of Garstang, Warton, and Ulverston ; the manor of Kirkby in Kendale, which extended over the greater part of the Westmorland parishes of Heversham, Beetham, and Burton in Kendal ; the whole of those of Kirkby in Kendal and Kirkby in Lonsdale ; extensive lands in the Yorkshire hxindred of Ewcross, the entire parish of