Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/111

 12 S. VIII. JAN. 29, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 87 "PARAPET," A STREET FOOTWAY. In 1908 a note of mine appeared (10 S. x. 366), in which, after remarking that "parapet " was the word generally used in Lancashire (possibly I should have said South Lan- cashire) for a street footway, I gave a quotation from a 1766 French book in which the word apparently meant footway. The ' New English Dictionary ' gives this meaning as used "locally," but has nothing -earlier than, 1840, and its one quotation is dated 1900. The 'Dialect Dictionary' does not give the word. John Chetwode Eustace uses "parapet " apparently for Italy, An. MDCCCII.' I am referring to the fourth edition, published at Leghorn, 1818, vol. iii. In his description of Pompeii he writes : "The street which runs from the neighbourhood -of the soldiers' quarters to the gate is narrow, that is, only about thirteen feet wide, formed like the Via Appia at Itri and other places, where it remains entire of large stones fitted to each other in their original form, without being cut or broken for the purpose. There are on each side parapets raised about two feet above the middle and about three feet wide." (P. 66 .) "The gate has one large central and two less openings on the side, with parapets of the same breadth as the street." (P. 67.) The footways in Pompeii were of various heights. There are several plates (6, 11, 51, 85) in Sir William Gell's 'Pompeiana,' .837, in which they do not appear to be at all high. In the description of plate 38, vol. ii., viz., 'Windows of the Atrium ' (of the house of the Tragic Poet), Gel! writes, pp. 101, 102 : "The foot pavement itself is here one foot The vicus, without the footpaths, which are each a-bout three feet nine inches wide, measures only seven feet six inches in breadth." ^ A 'Guide de Pompei,' by Nicolas Pagano, 'Surveillant des fouilles d'antiquite, 6th ed.,
 * ' footway" in his 'Classical Tour through
 * even inches higher than the street or vicus
 * Scafati, 1881, p. 27, says, "Toutes les rues

sont bordees de trottoirs." It is not improbable that "parapet" meant "footway" in Staffordshire where Eustace was at Sedgley Park school, 1767, or thereabouts 1774, according to the Dictionary of National Biography. ' Appar- ently in his ' Classical Tour ' he was, -on P- 56, referring to an unusually high parapet. " I find in ' Pompeii : its History, Buildings, and Antiquities,' by Thomas H. ).ver, LL.D., 1867, pp. 70, 71 : " The width of the streets varies from eight i* nine feet to about twenty-two, including the footpaths or trottoirs The kerb-stones are elevated from one foot to eighteen inches, and separate the foot-pavement from the road. Throughout the city there is hardly a street unfurnished with this convenience. Where there is width to admit of a broad foot-path, the interval between the curb and the line of building is filled up with earth, which has then been covered over with stucco, and sometimes with a coarse mosaic of brickwork." Perhaps Eustace was not exact in his measurements. ROBERT PIERPOINT. [See also 12 S. i. 190, 319.] EARLY EFFORT AT FLYING. Possibly one of the first attempts to use the air was that of Eilmer, or Oliver, of Malmesbury, in the reign of King Harold. So confident was he of success that, after fitting on a pair of large wings, he threw himself off a lofty tower and is said to have skimmed through the air for quite a furlong before he fell, breaking both legs in go doing. He ascribed his accident to having neglected to fit on a tail for the purpose of balancing. R. B. Upton. JOHN EGERTON, THIRD EARL OF BRIDG- WATER (1646-1701). A French novel founded on the fortunes of this earl and his first wife forms Sloane MS. 1009, ff. 360-365. This does not appear to be noted in the 'D.N.B.' J. ARBAGH. SIR WALTER SCOTT AND FRANCE A CENTURY AGO. It is not generally known that Charles X. was the first to introduce Sir Walter Scott's novels into France. The last legitimist King of France during his first exile in Britain resided some time at Holyrood House, Edinburgh, and is said to be the first Frenchman who read ' Waverley ' on its first appearance. The King, after his coronation, told the Duke of Northumber- land that the happiest time of his life was when he was reading the ' Vicar of Wake- field ' in England and the ' Lady of the Lake ' in Scotland. Armand, Comte de Pontmartin, who afterwards became a dis- tinguished literary critic, as a small boy was one of the pages at the coronation, and four years before his death in his feuilleton of the Gazette de France (July 17, 1886), gives the following account of the vogue of Scott's novels in France a century ago : " Quel que soit le talent ou,le ge'nie d Pouch- kine, de Go&ol, de Tourguenef, de Dostoiesky, de Tolstoi, quelle que soit leur vogue aupres de la jeunesse Iettr6e, avide de renouveau, elle n'egalera jamais celle de Walter Scott pendant la phase brillante qui va de 1820 a 1835. Cette fois, ce n'^tait pas un groupe studieux et curieux, se pas- sionnant pour une litte>ature e'trangere : c'^tait la