Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/305

 i*8.VLMAT29,i9Jo.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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In relinquishing the Barony of Saxe- Coburg it may be presumed that the late King's warrant lapsed with it, but as a salve for the loss of this high distinction the late holder of it has been compensated with a baronetcy of the United Kingdom.

Is there any precedent, I would ask, for such a warrant as that granted by the late King to Baron Boxall ? CURIOUS.

BULLS AND BEARS. The ' Concise Oxford Dictionary ' says, with reference to the Stock Exchange term for speculators, that perhaps the word " bear " had reference to selling the bear's skin before killing the bear.

In vol. vi. of 'The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., containing Pieces of Poetry and a Collection of Letters, now first published,' printed in 1807, Dr. Warton has this note to the following sentence in ' A Relation of the Circumcision of E. Curll,' " He then sold the nine and thirty articles for a bull " :

" Bulls and Bears. He who sells that of which he is not possessed, is proverbially said to sell the skin before he has caught the bear. It was the practice of stockjobbers in the year 1720 to enter into contracts for transferring S.S. Stock at a future time for a certain price ; but he who contracted to sell had frequently ho stock to transfer, nor did he who bought, intend to receive any in consequence of his bargain ; the seller was therefore called a bear, in allusion to the proverb ; and the buyer a bull, perhaps only as a similar

distinction.'

J. R. H.

GROVE HOUSE, WOODFORD, ESSEX. This house, a long note upon which will be found in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1833, part ii., pp. 393-4, was in the main, pulled down in 1832, and the house which now stands on its site was about the same date, built. This modern house, which incor- porates, as a wing, part of Grove House on the north, was known for many years as Essex House School, but the school having been removed elsewhere it has been divided into four houses. The main structure of the north wing, though the run of it is somewhat obscured by modern alterations, would seem to be sixteenth century, and it contains a fair amount of woodwork (panelling and doors) of that date. Also, there are a pair of hinges (probably six- teenth century) and an original iron-framed lattice window with its fastening.

In the hall of the central main building are several bits of plaster work, evidently those referred to in The Gentleman's Maga- zine Tudor royal arms, one within the garter, the other larger and shorn of its

accessories ; arms of the Grocer's Company of London and of the Company of Merchant Adventurers; royal badges, a rose and a fleur-de-lis, and a lion's face within a chaplet. Also, there are medallions, men- tioned in The Gentleman's Magazine, of Octavius Augustus and Alexander the Great.

In this hall, too, is a cornice decorated with strap-work, presumably from the old house.

All this plaster work is said to have been found, some years ago, in the cellars of the modern house.

The arms of the Merchant Adventurers and Grocers are, also, fixed to the west wall of the north wing on its outside, and, against the red brick north wall of the same wing, is a sunk panel containing an orna- mental shield bearing the initials \K, and below the shield the date 1580. This shield and date are referred to in the note in The Gentleman's Magazine of 1833.

Who was I. L., Merchant Adventurer and Grocer, living and house building in 1580 ?

F. SYDNEY EDEN. Belle Vue House, Walthamstow, Essex.

DIVORCE AND MARRIAGE. The Gentle- man's Magazine for 1804, at p. 1171, under the date Nov. 19 records the death at Paris, aged 88, of " M. Francis Tanois, a clerk in the French Treasury," and adds :

" He has left no less than ten widows, though he was a bachelor until 1792. In his will he declares he never intended to marry, had not the National Convention passed the law for easy divorces. He leaves to each of his widows an annuity of 1,200 livres (50/.), as, he says, they were all equally dear to him. Not one of them is yet 30 years old."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

HUNGER STRIKE. The other night when browsing in Pepys's ' Diary,' I came across a curious and rather interesting case of this method of resisting the authorities. The pafesage is as follows :

" One Sir Edmund Bury Godfry, a woodmonger and Justice of Peace in Westminster, having arrested Sir Alexander Frazier for about 30 in firing, the bailiffs were apprehended, committed to the porter's lodge, and there, by the king's command, the last night severely whipped : from which the Justice himself very hardly escaped, to such an unusual degree was the King moved therein. But he lies now in the lodge, justi- fying his act,as grounded upon the opinion of several of the judges ;. . . .and says he will suffer in the cause for the people, and do refuse to receive* almost any nutriment." See ' Diary ' of Samuel Pepys, under date May 26, 1669, vol. 2.

T. F. D.