Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/189

 12 s. vn. AUG. 21, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

153

which is in my collection. It was probablj the house referred to as the Rainbow in Fleet Street in The Kingdom's Intelligencer (No. 51, Dec. 9-16, 1661, p. 769) when Peter Grey appears to have kept it. The thirc house mentioned, the Bagnio, was openec too late to issue a token.

WILLIAM GILBERT, F.RN.S.

RUE DE BOURG, LAUSANNE (12 S. vi. 274, 317 ; vii. 51). Not being quite satisfied with the information given by Cox (see ante p. 51) I sent a copy of this, together with the replies which appear on p. 274 and 317, to my friend M. David, of the Gazette de Lausanne, and asked him if he could throw any light on the subject. On the 9th of July, he wrote to tell me that not being a Vaudois he had forwarded my notes to M. Ch. Gilliard, directeur du Gymnase classique, at Lausanne who, in his " turn, asked the opinion of M. Gharri ere de Severy, of Valency, nr. Lausanne ; who, with his wife, has published much information concerning the Canton de Vaud.

Both of these gentlemen sent replies, which my friend forwarded to me ; and I give the translated gist of each letter. M. Gilliard remarks :

" The various notes that you send me, as far as I understand them, contain, besides some true facts, a medley of information, that is fantastic, misunderstood, or false. I have asked the opinion of M. de Severy, who has sent to me a paper which I enclose.

" Subject to error, the well known privilege of the owners of the rue de Bourg springs from the judicial rights conceded to the town of Lausanne by Berne in the year 1536.

" The best source of information on the judicial organisation of our country is : Aymon de Crousaz, 1' Organisation judiciaire du canton de Vaud. Journal de Tribunaux, Lausanne, 1885.' There are without doubt articles on this subject written by the former President Dumur : I cannot quote them."

M. Ch. de Severy writes as follows : " I have given in La Revue historique Vaudoise (nos. of June and July, 1907) observations on the houses in the rue de Bourg and their owners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; I mean particularly the houses on the side nearest the lake, which were the dwellings of the aristocracy of the district of Vaud.

' ' In our work ' la Vie de Socie"t6 au pays de Vaud ' a la fin du xviii. Siecle,' 2 vols. Georges Bridel et Cie., Lausanne, 1911, and 1912 Paris, libraire Fischbacher (article intitule" ' Autour d'un Tri- bunal ') which contains several chapters upon Gibbon allusion is also made (vol. ii. pp. 353 and 354, of appendix) to the Tribunal of the rue de Bourg and to the bad reputation it had acquired in 1723, by the condemnation of Major Davel.

This Tribunal disappeared in 1798, owing to the fall of the Bernese Government. Was it a creation of the said Government, or did it date back to the Savoyard period ? I do not know 1

" A note inserted at the end of our article (p. 354) mentions an article, published by ' la Revue Suisse ' in April, 1845, upon the old tribunals ol Vaud. It is there stated that the last sentence pronounced by the Tribunal de Bourg was given in. 1797.

(' La Revue Suisse ' has been continued by ' La Bibliothegue universelle et Revue Suisse.')

"Perhaps ? les Pages d'histoire lausannoises,'' by B. van Muyden, published by G. Bridel et Cie*. in 1911, contains information upon the subject in. question. The absence of an index makes the volume difficult to consult when one is in a hurry... M. Maxim Reymond, the learned Lausanne archivist, would be, without doubt, able to reply to Col. Southam's questions.

" Regarding the family de Cerjat, they did not,- to our knowledge, possess any especial privileges.. Several members of the family have been employed in England in important military posts, and dis- tinguished themselves therein.

"It is to be noticed that the road formerly called ' Derriere Bourg ' is now known as 'Avenue; Benjamin Constant.'

" Nearly all the houses of the rue de Bourg on the north and south sides, have been replaced by new buildings. The note which has been put into my hands alludes to the court of the former Police station (having a stone balcony and balustrades) with the police coat-of-arms (a cock),, and that of the de Saumaise family quartered-. This coat-of-arms, carved in stone, has been.

given to the Museum of ' Old Lausanne,' since the- emolition of the build ing. "|jy

All the above appears to be of considerable interest, and may be of use in the future. I do not remember to have noticed the name de Cerjat in any Army List, past or present. It will be of interest therefore,, if some particulars can be given ol the milit ary service of members of this family, in con- nexion with the Army of England, or of that of Great Britain. HERBERT SOTJTHAM.

FRENCH TITLES (12 S. vii. 110) ' practice of omitting titles in speaking of nobles is, or was in the eighteenth century, quite common in French. The compiler of" the index to the ' Lettres de la Marquise du, Deffand a Horace Walpole,' edited by the late Mrs. Paget Toynbee, draws attention to the inconvenience of this practice :

" Les personnes mentionne^s dans les lettres n'ont pas toujours pu etre identifiers avec certi- tude, en raison surtout de 1'habitude franchise ie ne pas donner leurs titres aux nobles, mais de- ies appeler simplement 'Monsieur ' ou ' Madame.* Ainsi ' M . de Noailles ' peut etre le Due de Noailles, ou le Marquis de Noailles, ou le Comte de Noailles,

ou le Vicomte de Noailles ' Mme de Boufflers"

peut gtre la Duchesse de Boufflers, la Marquise le Boufflers, la Comtesse de Boufflers, ou la* Comtesse Am&ie de Boufflers. . . ."