Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/169

 i2s. viz. AUG. 14, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 137 IN"ot far behind these in weight was one weighing 4 Ib. 8 oz. which was shot by the late Mr. R. J. Balstom in November 1897 at Pluckley, Kent. But such weights as these are of course abnormal, and due to the artificial food, especially maize, on which the birds have been reared. J. E. HARTINa. Gnaton Hall is well-known to residents in
 * South Devon and Plymouth. It is situated

dn Newton Ferrers parish a short distance to the north of Wembury Church. It was recently for a number of years, in the possesion of Michael Williams, Esq. until his death a few years since. As -Sir Wm- Houston Stewart was at one time Commander - in - Chief of the Devonport Station, it was probably at that time that he resided at Gnaton. W. S. B. H. Gnaton in Devonshire was the seat of the Roe family in 1825 : the Rev. Sir Philip Perring, 3rd Baronet married in 1825, Prances Mary, only daughter of Henry Roe of Gnaton, Devon. (See Burke's ' Peerage and Baronetage.'). LEONABD C. PRICE. Essex Lodge, Ewell. CURIOUS SURNAMES (12 S. vi. 68, 115, 196, 238, 282, 302, 321 ; vii. 15, 34, 95). About 1860 the Rev. John Knox Stallybrass was minister at Ebenezer (Independent) Chapel,
 * Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham. He had

previously been a missionary in Russia. He was highly respected, but the name, taken ^aa a whole, was scarcely euphonious, and was the subject of some amusement. HOWARD S. PEARSON. In the registers of St. John at Hackney the burial of a " young wench " is recorded under the date of Aug. 29, 1593. Her name was Maudlyn Brickbatt and she died of the '"plague." G. W. YOUNGER. 2 Mecklenburgh Square, W.C.I Having transcribed some thousands of 'names connected with Essex I have natur- ally met with curious ones, but I think the one that struck me more than any other was on a headstone in Ramsey churchyard to Joseph Sneezum, dated 1866. The curious name Septvans (brass in Chartham Church, Kent) was discussed in The Genealogical Magazine (vol. iii. pp. 283, 364). I saw, on a shop fascia in South London some years -ago, the name Stumackchin. WILLIAM GILBERT, F.R.N.S. PEACOCKS' FEATHERS (12 S. vi. 334). The following (from The Boston Sunday Globe, July 25, 1920) is part of the text to illustration of a gift recently placed on Smith College campus at Northampton, Mass., by the class of 1883, viz : " At the 25th reunion of the class, which con- sisted of 49 members, in 1908, all the members were reported to be alive, and the class, in com- memoration of this, adopted the peacock ' The Immortal Bird,' as its class emblem, and the members wear a peacock feather at reunions. The emblem still holds good, for to-day nob one of the members of the class has ' passed across the river.' " The designer has embodied the class emblem in the centre of the memorial seat, where it will remain until all the members of the class have joined ' The Immortals.' " ROCKINGHAM. Boston, Mass. PRINCIPAL LONDON COFFEE HOUSES, &c (12 S. vi. 29, 59, 84, 105, 125, 143, 162 ; vii. 26, 67, 103). In the late Mr. G. W. Potter's ' Random Recollections of Hampstead ' mention is made of many ancient taverns which existed in that salubrious suburb. Their dates were, however, probably anterior to the eighteenth century. But he says that the Blew Boar " dated from 1703," and was believed to have stood at "New End, otherwise Boad's Corner." There was also the Cock and Hoop, adjacent to West End Green which I think deserves a place in Mr. Paul de Castro's most instructive list. Then there was the Holly Bush Inn, 1775, which was the original abode of George Romney, the artist CECIL CLARKE. Junior Athenaeum Club. BLACK MASS (12 S. vii. 48, 90), In the series of articles entitled ' The Cause of the World Unrest ' which have recently been appearing in The Morning Post, the name of Albert Pike occurs several times, though not much information is given about him. In the article appearing on July 15 he is spoken of as the "Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry." Quotations are given from a letter which is alleged to have been written by Albert Pike, assisted by Ten Ancients of the Grand Lodge of the Supreme Orient at Charlestown, to the " very illustrious brother Giuseppe Mazzini." This letter ia dated Aug. 15, 1871, and sets forth an anti- clerical policy which Mazzini is to follow in Italy : " The multitude, disillusioned of Christianity . . . .thirsting for an ideal, will receive True Light, by the Universal Manifestation of the pure Luciferian doctrine, at last made public, a mani- festation which will arise fromj the general