Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/169

 12 S. V. JUNE, 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

'rench pates, these caisses being generally lirown away. , As the caisse was made of lour and water, it was eatable. " A bad ranslation gave the word * cake ' for ' case.' " HEBBEBT SOUTHAM.

[Lady Dillon's suggestion is ingenious, but the lying 'is older than Marie Antoinette, as shown by j.G.G. ante, p. 53.]

ALABACTJLIA, NAME OF A RACEHOBSE 12 S. v. 98). The word was coined from he name of a distinguished Oriental ad- r enturer Ali Bey Kuli, a native of Circassia, rho for some time arrested the attention of he politicians of Europe by his revolt gainst the Porte in 1770 and his attempt o found a new dynasty in Egypt.

WILLOIJGHBY MAYCOCK.

BYBON'S BUST AT OXFOBD (12 S. v. 122). Thorwaldsen executed, apparently, more han one portrait of the poet. To begin vith, there is the famous seated figure in the ibrary of Trinity College, Cambridge, or- Lered, according to the ' D.N.B./ by Hob- louse in 1829, finished in 1834, refused a >lace in the Abbey by two deans of West- ninster, and accepted for Trinity College >y Whewell in 1843. Hobhouse was raised o the peerage as Baron Broughton de jryfford. Is Y. T. right in speaking of his laughter Lady Broughton ?

I have a clear recollection of being shown, ome thirty years ago, a bust of Byron in he Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan by he learned librarian Canon Antonio Ceriani, tnd of his remarking, " This bust was T sculpted by Thorwaldsen."

Baedeker, ' Ober-Italien,' ]902, p. 87, aentions it. EDWABD BENSLY.

" PENNILES BENCH" (12 S. v. 126). ^yon's ' Hist. Dover,' vol. i. p. 19, gives the ollowing :

"'Severns's Gate.' This gate fronted Bench street, and in the apartments over it the customer >f the port anciently received the King's dues. Here was a place paved with stone, where the nerchants used to meet, about eleven o'clock in the orenoon, to transact business, and in a course of ime it was called Pennyless Bench."

R. J. FYNMOBE. Sandgate,

MEWS OB MEWYS FAMILY (12 S. f ii. 26, )3, 331, 419, 432 ; iii. 16, 52, 113, 195, 236, 1:21, 454 ; iv. 166). The Rev. John Thom- inson in his ' Diary,' under date Oct. 18, L717, writes: "King Charles used to say >f Peter Mew that he should preach and ight with any man in England " ('North Country Diaries,' Surtees Society Publica-

tions, vol. cxviii. p. 85). The editor, J. Hodgson, F.S.A., in a foot-note adds r "Peter Mews, D.D., Bishop of Winchester,, who lent his horses for the artillery at Sedgemoor." J. W. FAWCETT.

GOOD FBTDAY PLEASUBE FAIBS (12 S. v. 124). The gathering of persons, mostly young, on Holcombe Hill, near Ramsbottom r. Lancashire, on Good Friday, can hardly be called a pleasure fair it is more like a mob of picnickers. There are a few local stalls and swingboats at the foot of the hill, and,, perhaps, a couple of common -lodging-house- looking men singing and selling comic songs. The farmhouse on the top of the hill has some swings for children, and a band generally plays up there for dancing. The main thing for the visitors is to climb the moorland hill and the 120 ft. tower on its top. Teas are- provided at the farmhouse and at most of the houses round about the hill. Holcombe is visited all through the summer by pleasure parties, but the biggest crowd is there on Good Friday. The erection of the tower on the top to the memory of Sir Robert Peel in 1852 may have been the first cause of crowds assembling there at holiday time. I doubt if the custom dates farther back than the middle of last century.

There are several lesser Good Friday resorts in this neighbourhood : Ashworth Valley, Simpson Clough, Birtle Dene, and Grant's Tower. This last tower was erected by the brothers Grant, who are said to have been the originals of Dickens's " Cheeryble Brothers." It is on Top -o'-th' -Hough to the east of Ramsbottom. Holcombe Hill, much higher, is to the west of the town. Queen's Park, given by Queen Victoria to the borough of Heywood (1879), used to be a Good Friday resort for this district, but its novelty seems to have fallen off. Heaton Park, Manchester's big breathing space, is now much patronized on Good Friday and other holidays, as it is easily reached from all parts of this populous district by electric train and tram. Hollingworth Lake, near Rochdale, is another much frequented Good Friday resort. W T. H. PINCHBECK.

Bury, Lanes.

During the first half of the eighteenth century a great " Market or Fair for Cattle " was held at Wimborne on Good Friday, and was continued for seven weeks afterwards. To this the Pleasure Fair was naturally an adjunct. In the year 1765 the date of the commencement of the fair was changed from Good Friday to Friday in the preceding week, and it was succeeded by a market for