Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/474

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. N" 24, JUNE 14. '56.

(hews; and has but one Finger upon each Hand, and one Toe upon each Foot, and a bursten Belly. Whoever can give any Intelligence of them, so that they may be apprehended according to Law, shall have half a Guinea Reward and reasonable Charges, and send to Mr. George Baxter's, at the 'Bell' in Church Lane, in St. Giles's-in- the-Fields; to be taken in a Month's time, or else no Reward." Weekly Journal, Dec. 22nd, 1722.

The ugly little Count, who conducted the for- tunes of the Italian opera, was forced to descend to steps which would make the hair of a Lumley or a Gye stand on end :

" We hear that Count Heydreiggar has taken in a Subscription for three Redoltos, in which, besides the Musick and Entertainment of Sweet-meats and Wine, &c., even' Lady is to have a Ticket for a Lottery, which will be drawn in the Presence of the Company ; in which every Prize will be intitled to some curious Toy." Weekly Journal, Dec. 29th, 1722.

Another significant hint of gaol privations :

" On Monday last, the Lord Mayor, according to the Annual Custom, visited the several Markets in the City, to collect the Charities of well-disposed Persons for the Poor Debtors in Newgate, Ludgate, and the Compters. And, besides the Supplies of Money and Provisions sent them in pursuance thereof, 'tis not doubted but a con- siderable Relief will be added to them from private Charities." Weekly Journal, Dec. 29th, 1722.

The differences between the King and the Prince of Wales were now marked by a breach of decorum :

" On Sunday last the Court of Leicester Fields went into Mourning, but not the Court of St. James's, on occa- sion of the Death of the Margrave of Brandenburg Anspach, Brother to Her Roval Highness, the Princess of Wales." Weekly Journal, January 19th, 1723.

The announcement of the publication of Flam- stead's Works, runs thus :

" Whereas we are well assured that several Copies of a false and imperfect Edition of the Historia Ccelestis of the late Reverend Mr. Flamstead, contain'd in one Volume, have been clandestinely sold in Great Britain, Ireland, &c. This is to satisfy those into whose Hands the} 7 are fallen, that his true and genuine Works consist of 3 large Volumes in Folio, besides 25 large Charts of all the Stars visible in our Hemisphere ; as also large Hemispheres, both of the Northern and Southern Constellations ; and that they will speedily be published.

" MARGARET FLAMSTEAD of Greenwich, in Kent. " JAMES HODGSON, Master of the Royal Mathe- matical School in Christ's Hospital.

" Executors." Weekly Journal, Jan. 19th, 1723.

When the following was penned Bristol and her merchant adventurers had little fear of ri- valry from the borough so modestly named :

" Liberty is given to withdraw the Petition complain- ing of an undue Election and Return for the Borough of Leverpole, in the County of Lancashire." Weekly Journal, Jan. 26th, 1723.

The " borough of Leverpole" was, at that time, but in bud as a port, and Brighthelmstone as a watering-place.

Here is another act of the farce of the court of the Old Pretender :

" By Letters from Rome, we are told that on Christ- mas Day last, the Chevalier de St. George invested his young Son with the two Orders of the Garter and the Thistle, and afterwards made a very splendid Entertain- ment." Weekly Journal, Jan. 26th, 1723.

Notice to quit for some illustrious lodgers at Somerset House :

" The Lord Clarendon, Lady How, and other Persona of Quality, who had lodgings in Somerset House, have been obliged to remove their Coaches and Horses out of the Stables belonging to that Palace for the Conveni- ence of the Guard." [Thirty men of the Life Guards, and eleven of the Horse Grenadiers.] Weekly Journal, Jan. 26th, 1723.

We will finish this string of extracts with a reminiscence of Peggy Fryar, a veteran danseuse, who had danced through two generations :

" AMILITAS MIRA.

" At the Netfr Theatre, right over against the Opera House in the Hay-market, on Mondaj', January 28, will be acted the Half -pay Officers, with HobUs Wedding; the Widow Rich performed by the Celebrated Peggy Fryar, aged 71, for her Benefit, who dances the bashful Country Maid and the Irish Trot, and played but one (sic) Since the daj's of King Charles, And taught three Queens to dance." Weekly Journal, Jan. 26th, 1723.

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

THE TOAD.

Perhaps the following notice of the discovery of a toad at a considerable depth may not be unac- ceptable to some of the readers of " N. & Q.," the more so as the particulars of such events have generally been very vaguely described.

Hearing that a living toad had been dug up near the village of Benthall, close to Broseley, in Shropshire, on September 23, last, and being in the neighbourhood, I walked over on March 21, and had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. His present possessor and discoverer, Mr. Bat hurst, a manufacturer of earthenware, at Benthall, who has taken great interest in the subject, courteously gave me a minute description of the " find, ' and took me to see the exact spot. He assured me that his father, who was present at the exhuma- tion, and himself had carefully, but vainly, sought for any fissure in the superincumbent strata through which the animal could have crawled or fallen, and my own examination, which was a leisurely one, also failed in detecting any. The total depth was five feet six or seven inches from the surface, and the order of the strata, as shown by a perpendicular section, as follows. First, the turf of the meadow, resting upon a bed 'of clay mixed with gravel, beneath which was a thickness of three feet of clay, laying on a stratum of fer- ruginous coal, of the inferior kind used in the