Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/354

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. NO 18., MAY 3. '56.

officer of the guard at S. James's Palace put them both under arrest at their respective houses, to prevent any mischievous consequences, and sentinels were placed at their bouses all night." Ibid.

When shopkeepers still dwelt over their shops, and " merchant princes " resided at their places of business, there were few offices to be had in the city. The shipbrokers, agents, and smaller fry, therefore transacted their business at taverns. Thus:

" THE CHANDOIS, Sloop, Tobias Jewers, Commander,

Sails to-morrow morning for Eotterdam, now lying at St. Katherine's to take in goods and passengers, and may be spoke with every day at Batson's Coffee House, over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, or at the Red Lyon and Sun, in Swithin's Alley, or at John Dodmead's at the King of Spain's Head, near St. Katherine's Stairs, and upon Exchange at Exchange time, and after Change at the White Lyon Tavern in Cornhill.

" JOHN TWYMAN, for the Master."

Daily Courant, May 7, 1728.

No wonder that John Twyman's notions of the construction of sentences were rather obscure !

A quack medicine vendor lodging at a clergy- man's, and requiring her patients to send a hackney coach to fetch her, is not a person to be met with every-day, so she shall introduce her- self:

" A Safe and Speedy Remedy to give Ease in the Gout.

By a plaister that draws out the pain and strengthens the part ; takes off the fitt in a night's time. Several persons that have made use of it have never had the gout since. It is to be had of a gentlewoman that lives at the Rev. Mr. Sharp's in Stepney Churchyard.

" N.B. She goes not to any person out of the neigh- bourhood, without a coach being sent for her." Daily Postboy, Oct. 19, 1728.

An exuberant Jacobite in his cups gets into trouble :

" One John Rhode?, who was apprehended last week on a charge of cursing his Majesty and the Government, as also of drinking the Pretender's health, &c., being ordered for tryal on Thursday at Hicks's Hall, traversal the same, in order to be try'd next sessions, and has given good se- curity for his appearance accordingly ; and the Justices Cooke and Parsons, who committed him, are to manage the prosecution." Postman, Oct. 17, 1728.

A part of the revenue of the Bishops of London, of the Duchess of Marlborough, &c., was derived from the tolls of the Putney and Fulham ferry :

" The commissioners for building the new bridge from Fulham to Putney have concurred, pursuant to act of parliament, to allow the sum of 9000Z. to the Dutbhess of Marlborough, Bishop of London, and others concerned in the ferries, on account of the loss they sustain by the said bridge being erected." Ibid.

The hackney coaches were so liable to the at- tacks of street robbers, that

" Whereas a figure (plate) for driving of an hackney coach used lately to be sold for about 601., besides paying the usual duties to the commissioners for licensing them,

they are at this time, for the reasons aforesaid, sold for 31/. per figure goodwill." Ibid.

How suggestive is the following of a rule tot- tering to its fall :

" Lisbon, September 16. On Monday last arrived here four Maltese men-of-war, having on board Count d'Har- rach, Ambassador Extraordinary of the Great Master of Malta." Daily Courant, October 22, 1728.

The inconvenience which must have been ex- perienced by the want of numbers to the houses, is apparent in the laborious description of the places at which some lately imported sturgeon could be had :

"At a warehouse, the corner of Cross Lane on St. Dunstan's Hill ; at the Salmon and Lobster, under the Sun Tavern, near the Monument on Fish Street Hill; at a shop, the corner of the Market House, over against the Bull Head Ale House, in Hungerford Market ; at a shop the corner of Newport Market, lately Cnpt. Mad- dock's, where attendance will be daily given." Daily Courant, Nov. 9, 1728.

The King of Sardinia appears to have been actuated by the same liberal and tolerant spirit which distinguishes his present Majesty Victor Emanuel, and like him to have resisted the dic- tation of the Pope of Rome :

" Geneva, Oct. 29, N.S. Letters from Turin say that the Pope has used a world of arguments to persuade the King of Sardinia to dismiss out of his service two Pro- testant regiments he kept many years ; but his Sardinian Majesty, instead of complying with the desire of his Holiness in that respect, assured the colonels of the same that he is fully resolved to keep them on foot." Daily Postboy, November 12, 1728.

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE's " SEVEN AGES OF MAN."

I have been exceedingly interested in the " Il- lustrations of Shakspeare " which from time to time have appeared in your invaluable periodical. The following will perhaps be new to some of your readers, and will add one proof more to the fact, that the " Seven Ages of Man " have been a most fertile subject. It is from the pen of Jean de Courcy, a trouvere, from the neighbourhood of Falaise, m in Normandy, who wrote early in the fifteenth century. Besides some historical work, he wrote a long poem, called " Le Chemiu de Vaillance, containing instructions for young nobles in war, religion, manners, morals, &c., abounding in many amusing descriptions of the usages and customs of the time. A young disciple takes a long journey, and meets with many temptations and difficulties on his way to " Vaillance." The " World " detains him, conducts him to his palace, and shows him, in one of the rooms, seven pictures, representing the seven ages of man, which are called Enfanee; Pueritie; Adolescence; Jeunesse ;