Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/365

 I

s. i. APRIL so, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

357

vas entirely absorbed, and a staircase had to >e constructed outside. The story is tolc vith much humour and detail in Gozlan's 1 >ook, and completely exonerates the architect ( >f the house from blame in the matter.

The architect of the Lyceum Theatre repudiated the story that he had forgotten 1 he gallery staircase at the time the theatre was built; butthe repudiation wasnotbelieved, and the story is repeated to this day : it was too good not to be true, the public thought. ] have published elsewhere my reasons for doubting the story, which, if they would interest your readers, I should be glad to repeat. JOHN HEBB.

One of your correspondents doubts if a house has ever been built wanting a staircase owing to the architect's forgetfulness. There is a cathedral school in the south of England, which not fifty years ago enlarged its pre- mises by the erection of a two-storied edifice, in front of which there may be seen a double

i staircase, raised in triangular fashion above the entrance. Boys in whom the bump of veneration is often undeveloped always de-

1 clared that half the building had been com- pleted when it was discovered that the stairs

the report for what it may be worth, but I never heard any other explanation.
 * had been forgotten by the architect. I give

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

I am under the impression that the men's quarters of the original permanent barracks at Aldershot were built without staircases,

i which, connected by verandahs, were after- wards added outside. CELER ET AUDAX.

"KEG-MEG" (9 th S. i. 248). I never heard "keg-meg" applied here or elsewhere to a i gossiping woman, but can quite well under- stand its being so used, especially when the llady's gossip is of an offensive or malicious nature. "Keg-meg," as I know it, signifies bad food, and thus might easily be transferred to mental food which is evil or disgusting, nd, by a further expansion of the idea, to the erson who provided it. I heard the follow- ng sentence but a few days ago in this town : 'That 'keg-meg' mun be buried, or them

airf-starv'd dogs o' 's will be gettin' hold

n it, an' we shall be hevin' the stinkin' stuff >uird all ower th' Market-place." "Old Meg " means here, and, I imagine, elsewhere, .n ugly or ill-dressed person. It is commonly pplied to women only, but I have sometimes leard it used to those of the male sex. Old i this relation is a mild term of abuse, having o relation to the person's age to whom it is pplied. I once heard the term " Old Meg " ised concerning a young girl under twenty,

solely because, at the moment, she was an unwelcome visitor. EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

For full information on the various mean- ings and uses of this word I would refer your correspondent to the 'English Dialect Dic- tionary ' (s.v. ' Cag-mag '). A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

[Many replies are acknowledged.]

THE BURIAL-PLACE OF LORD CHANCELLOR THURLOW (9 th S. i. 327). Lord Thurlow died at Brighthelmstone, and in vol. v. of Camp- bell's ' Lives of the Chancellors,' p. 631, it is thus written :

"The ex-Chancellor's remains being sent privately to his house in Great George Street, Westminster, were conveyed thence, with great funeral pomp, to

the Temple Church The coffin, with the name,

age, and dignities of the deceased inscribed upon it, and. ornamented with heraldic devices, was deposited in the vault under the south aisle of this noble structure, which proves to us the taste as well as the wealth of the Knights Templars."

Lord Campbell adds the following note :

" Here I saw Thurlow reposing when, nearly forty years after, at the conclusion of funeral rites as grand and far more affecting, I assisted to deposit the body of my departed friend Sir William Follett by his side."

If MR. HIBGAME wants any further informa- tion I recommend him to pay a visit to the Temple Church, which is open to the public, or to read Mr. Baylis's book on the history of the church. H. B. P.

Temple.

THE WENHASTON DOOM (9 th S. i. 328). The panel painting of the Doom in Wenhaston Church (near Southwold) has been fully described by Mr. Keyser in Archceologia, vol. liv. (part i. pp. 119-30). A reproduction in colour of the original painting accompanies the description. A pamphlet (price 6c.) con- cerning the parish records and curious relics at Wenhaston has been issued by the vicar, the Rev. J. B. Clare, which refers also to this interesting picture and mentions that a very successful photograph of it is obtainable.

R. B.

Upton.

LEVERIAN MUSEUM (9 th S. i. 288). I learn, by the kindness of Prof. Alfred Newton, that
 * he sale of the objects contained in the

Leverian Museum began on Monday, 5 May, 1806, the fifty-seventh day being Thursday, 10 July, and the number of lots 6,840. Then came an " appendix " of five days from Tuesday > 15 July, to Saturday, 19 July ncluding 684 lots. There is also a catalogue of "the last three days' sale," announced as