Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/278

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. V. OCT, 1919.

board the St. Patrick and he bought from a Lascar who had been living with Buchert a silver sword-hilt, which had come from Vanikoro. It bore the initials of the ill-fated Comte de la Perouse, and Dillon reported this discovery to the Royal Asiatic Society at Calcutta on his arrival there. He was not in the service of the H.E.I.C., but one of their cruisers, the Research, was fitted out and he was given the command, with orders to proceed to Vanikoro to make further in- vestigations. This he did and secured brass guns, besides silver, copper, and iron articles which conclusively proved that the vessels wrecked at Vanikoro were those of La Perouse's expedition. He returned to Cal- cutta in April, 1828, and was sent to France with the relics, arriving in Paris in February, 1829. Charles X. created him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and granted him an annuity of 4,000 francs. He was then appointed French Consul to the South Sea Islands, and resided for a few years in that capacity at Tahiti. He resigned his consul- ship and returned to England, where he lived on his pension until his death in 1846. There is an article on Dillon in the ' D.N.B.,' Supplement II., which gives the date of his birth as about 1785, but does not state parentage or birthplace. It quotes his ' Narrative,' published in two volumes in London, 1829. R. S. PENGELLY.

PLANE TREES IN LONDON (12 S. v. 205). The theory that the minute spicules shed in spring from the ripe fruit of the plane act as agents causing catarrh in, human beings is not only, as MB. ARDACH observes, " with- out definite proof," but, so far as known to me, is pure hypothesis, devoid of any evidence in its support. It reminds one of the delightful lines in ' Rejected Addresses,' satirising those who traced every mishap and adversity to the direct agency of Napoleon Bonaparte :

Who burnt, confound his soul ! the houses twain Of Coveiit Garden and of Drury Lane ? Who makes the quartern loaf and Luddites rise? Who fills the butcher's shops with large blue flies

It is true that the dispersal of plane seeds and^their volatile achenes by the winds o\ March synchronises with a vast amount of catarrh among the inhabitants of London But before the beautiful planes, so patient of an urban atmosphere, are condemned would it not be prudent to ascertain whether spring catarrh prevails to a greater extent in London, where planes do greatly abounc for our delectation, than it does in cities where there are no planes, such as Bir
 * anin.gham, Chester, Manchester, Edinburgh,

Glasgow, &c. It is cruel to give a bad name, without attempting to justify it, to the aoble tree which is almost unique in its capacity to resist the many adverse con- litions it has to encounter in our vast netropolis. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

COWAP (12 S. v. 206, 247). This is a very 3ommon name in Cheshire. Harrison gives
 * he derivation as a " dweller at the Cow-

Hope." " Hope " is a valley or a sloping hollow, or, as Camden says, " the side of a hill." This seems a reasonable derivation, and I have been told that in Herefordshire we get the name of Cowmeadow, which is corroborative evidence, if true. Perhaps some Herefordshire correspondent will en- lighten us on this point. In Chester we frequently shorten this word to Cowp.

JOSEPH C. BRIDGE.

Chester.

SEVEN KINGS (12 S. v. 210, 249). This spot was originally in the parish of Barking, and remained so until 1888, when the ancient parish which extended from Chigwell to the Thames was divided by Act of Parliament. Ilford took the north and Barking the south. Seven Kings is now in Ilford. Tradition tells that in the time of the Heptarchy, seven kings, after a hunting expedition in Waltham Forest, watered their horses at a stream which crosses under the Great Eastern Railway here. No written testimony prevails of the original story ; but in the MS. tithe-book of Thomas Cartwright, Vicar of Barking, and Bishop of Chester, there are two entries, and this carries the record back to 1669. The first entry calls the place King's Watering, the* second says Seven Kings. Both entries relate to land called Crackbones or Crack- lands, then in the occupation of a certain Richard Clark. W. W. GLENNY.

Barking, Essex.

QUEEN ANNE : THE SOVEREIGN'S VETO ; THE ROYAL ASSENT (12 S. v. 95, 155, 214). In my reply at the last reference, viz., p. 214, col. 2, last line, " sujects " should be " sujets " ; i.e., I meant that May in his modernised version substitutes " sujets ' for " subjects." I ought to have added that he gives " vos " for " vous " a justifiable emendation. Seeing that he was writing a book on ' Parliamentary Practice, not necessarily of antiquarian research, i1 may be that he was right in modernising the old French, but it is curious that he should give " parlment " not " parlement," and that he should retain " touts " and " vostre."