Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/258

 208 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.vm. MARCH 12, 1921. half the long queer names I see inscribed over the shops, and that is another good reason for being here, since I surely ought to learn how." ' In the French -Flemish Country ' is one of the most pleasing among the ' Uncom- mercial Traveller ' papers, and, although Hazebrouck is nowhere named in it, the attentive reader has little hesitation in identifying the place, and his conjecture is confirmed if he looks at the last twenty lines of ' The Calais Night-Mail ' in the same volume. EDWARD BENSLY. BOOK BORROWERS. These are sometimes, and too often justly, classed amongst the enemies of books both in the matter of ill- treatment and careless and culpable reten- tion. No wonder that generous lenders of books, affix to their treasures ominous fulminations against those who damage, lose, or purloin them. The following speci- mens from the "Miscellany" column of The Manchester Guardian are worthy of preservation in these pages. "There must be many variants on the rhyme' ' Steal nob this book for fear of shame ' written by Lord Haig in one of the schoolbooks now exhibited at a bookshop in Bayswater. Some are more aggressive, such as Hie metis est liber, And that I will show ; Si aliquis rapiat I'll give him a blow, and Si qnisquis furetur This little libellum Per Boechum, per Jovem ! I'll kill him, I'll fell him. In ventrem illius I'll stick my scapellum. And teach him to steal My little libellum. " French schoolboys draw a man hanging from the gallows and write underneath Aspice Pierrot pendu Qui hoc librum n'a pas rendu ; Si hoc librum redidisset Pierrot pendu non fuisset. " An early example of these comminatpry rhymes was discovered on a manuscript belonging to Jean d'Orleans, Comte d' Angouleme' who was imprisoned for 33 years in this Country during the reign of Henry VI. The Count's warning to book-thieves runs Qui che livre emblera A gibet Ce Paris pendu sera, Et, si n'est pendu, noiera, Et si rie noie, il ardera, Et si n'art, pire fin lera." Here is another, quaint in expression, and over a century old, penned by a Benjamin Bury, of Accrington, a great book collector in his day. As a lender he was also renowned but found it necessary to attach the following to his volumes : " This Book belongs to Benjamin Bury. If thou art borow'd by a friend Right welcome shall he be. To read,,to copy, not to lend, But to return to me ; Not that imparted knowledge dotfer Diminish learning's store. But books I tind if often lent, Return to me no more. " Read slowly, pause frequently, think seriously,, keep cleanly, return duly, with the corner of the? leaves not turned down " A collection of such literary trifles would form an interesting volume. Neither Burton nor Disraeli touches upon them. E!ven> Fitzgerald ignores them in his ' Book Fancier,' the single approach to the subject being: a quoted statement of Dyce regarding Heber's generosity in book-lending : " He was the most liberal cf book-collectors: I never asked him for the loan of a volume, which he could lay his hand on, he did not immediately send me." Heber had a library of 119, 613 volumes, and we must hope that his borrowers never forced him to attach a minatory warning to each volume. J. B. Me GOVERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. ST. AGNES-LE-CLERE = ANISEED GLARE. This instance of the corruption of a local place-name is provided in the Plan of London and Westminster accompanying 'The Universal Pocket Book,' 1745. Pre- sumably the engraver " E. Borren " has here recorded the popular name, which has some phonetic resemblance to its original and no other derivations. ALECK ABRAHAMS. CARDINAL NEWMAN'S BIRTHPLACE. From an old Directory it appears that John; Newman, banker, lived at 80 Old Broad Street in 1801, and this would be the birth- place (Feb. 21) of the future Cardinal. The- number of the house is not given in Ward's ' Life ' and the matter is ignored in the ' Blue Guide.' From the map it appears that the house was in a court at the back approached by a passage between 79 and 81 , The whole site is now covered by a block of offices (75). St. Benet Fink was the parish church, and there he was baptized ; it was pulled down in 1844 and the site is marked by the Peabojly statue. The family re- moved to Ham about 1804, and returned to London in 1808, to 17 Old Broad Street,