Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/214

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. MAR. K,'98.

before Dickens's time. For example, I read in the Connoisseur, No. 123, which is dated Thursday, 3 June, 1756, and refers to the doubtful benefits the Foundling Hospital of those days conferred upon society, a note which shows considerable knowledge of cer- tain forerunners of Mr. Squeers. The sardonic author, after describing various persons who brought babies to be cared for, according to the philanthropy of those days philanthropy which is now indulged in other directions and at the cost of involuntary subscriptions out of the rates describes " a pert young baggage" who brought to the hospital "a brat " which was her mistress's and not her own, and further tells us that, a few years previously, the said mistress had

"produced another charming boy; which, being too old to be got into this Hospital, is now at a school in Yorkshire, where young gentlemen are boarded, cloathed and educated, and found in all necessaries, for ten pounds a year."

F. G. S.

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. (See 9 th S. i. 180.) The book by Mr. Sergeant calls this " the largest cathedral in Northern Europe," mean- ing, apparently, the longest in ground plan. Even this is no longer true since St. Alban's has been made a cathedral. But the bare length made by low additions gives no such claim, when compared with those retaining their full height throughout, as York, Lincoln, and Ely : still less with buildings of double the height, as Amiens, Chartres, Reims, Paris, and now finished Cologne. These have fully twice the capacity of Winchester. The fact that the central tower fell the year after Ruf us was buried under it is mentioned, and that the Normans rebuilt it, but not to the full height; and no notice is taken of the four belfry towers on the corners of the transept, which were certainly begun, if not finished, and appear in the five towers of the city arms. It would be a fine way of commemorating Alfred, two years hence, if all these could be restored. The story of circular windows on the great lantern tower reproduced those at East Meon by the same Bishop Walkelin; and there is plenty of strength to bear it. But to rebuild the belfry towers would involve underpinning the foundations, which all indicate a falling away from the transept. They were doubtless taken down to prevent their falling. E. L. GARBETT.

BIRTH OF EDWARD VI. : A RECTIFICATION. In October, 1537, Margaret, Queen Dowager of Scots, wrote to congratulate Henry VIII. on his son's birth, of which he had just informed her. The day of the month, first written

" viij," was altered in the queen's hand, so as to make it doubtful whether to read " xiij " or " xviii " (' Hamilton Papers,' vol. i. pp. 49- 51). Mr. Gairdner (in 'Letters, &c., of Henry VIII.,' vol. xii. part ii. No. 1079) remarks in a note that October is " evidently for November." This cannot be so, for, as he shows (ibid,, Nos. 911, 1060), Edward was born on 12 Oct., 1537, christened on the 15th, and his mother died on the 24th of the same month. When the date of the queen's letter is read " xviij " (as it should have been), and five days allowed for Henry's messenger reaching his sister in Scotland, this puts the thing right. Margaret would surely not have let a whole month pass before congratulating Henry, his wife naving died meanwhile, to which she makes no reference.

JOSEPH BAIN.

BOOTLE IN CUMBERLAND. Permit me to point out an inaccuracy in Mr. Charles Creighton's 'A History of Epidemics in Britain.' On p. 568 of vol. i. the author writes : " We get a glimpse of a heavy mor- tality among the country people the year after [1652] at Bootle, in Cumberland, just across the border from Lancashire," &c.

The foregoing statement does not concern Bootle in Cumberland, but should be ascribed to Bootle in Lancashire (see 'Hist. MSS. Commission,' x. part iv. p. 106).

CHAS. HY. HUNT.

"To SUE." A woman in Sheffield, who was carrying a large market-basket, and who, judging from her appearance, was a farmer's wife living in one of the adjoining villages, said the other day to a man who accompanied her, "Tha can soo along; I'm going to Boot's" (a well-known chemist's shop). This was site in the old sense of "follow."

S. O. ADDY.

THEROIGNE DE MERICOURT AND MARAT. Many of your readers may not have noticed the narrative relative to Theroigne de Me'ri- court in the first volume of the ' Memoirs of Barras.' She was, according to Barras, seized by the populace and dragged before the Com- mittee at the Feuillants with loud cries of "To the lamp-post." (In passing, I did not think that the Committee was often consulted on a lamp-post case.) The Committee desired to save her, but seemed not likely to succeed, when Marat interfered and told the mob that it would be beneath their dignity to hang such a contemptible courtesan, and by this means succeeded in saving her life.

It seems hardly likely that after this occur- rence she would have remained in Paris to be again seized and flogged. It looks as if either