Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/474

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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would begin to crow. I stayed for a considerabl< time watching the operation, but up to the time o; my departure the bird had seen no reason for exer cising his vocal powers.' "

H. ANDREWS.

BOSWELL'S LAST LONDON KESIDENCE. The house No. 122, Great Portland Street, now in course of demolition together with some adjacent houses, is said to nave been the one in which Boswell spent the last few years of a life that, on the whole, does not appear to have been a happy one. The * D. N. B.' states that "in the spring of 1795 he came home ' weak and languid ' from a meeting of the Literary Club. His illness rapidly proved dangerous, and he died at his house in Great Portland Street on 19 May, 1795." There is no mention of the number in this account. In a letter preserved in Mr. Murray's John- son collection, addressed by Mrs. Ogbourne, of Great Portland Street, to the late John Thomas Smith, author of the ' Life of Nolle- kens' and other works, Boswell is said to have died at No. 47. The difference appears to have been due to the thoroughfare having been renumbered and in part renamed, it having been formerly known under three different names. The lower part, from Mor- timer Street to Oxford Street, was John Street, and the northern part was named the Portland Road. The British Architect of 4 February, in noting that the house was " marked for immediate demolition," observes that it was never marked by a tablet, although " Boswell has very distinct claims upon our permanent literary calendar." The writer thinks that something might yet be done to mark the spot. So many of our ancient London landmarks have disappeared, and others are continually disappearing, that some attention ought to be given to marking the changes, if only for the benefit of future generations who may take an interest in the History of our ancient city. The Society of Arts has done a little in this direction by placing tablets on some houses where notable individuals have resided ; but the duty seems to belong to some central authority such as the County Council, if it could be induced to take it in hand. The house in which Boswell died is said to have a second claim to recog- nition as having been the home of Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, during his residence in England, where he arrived 011 17 October, 1850. B. H. L.

MR. GLADSTONE'S HERALDRY. In the Athenasum of 28 May, p. 695, is given a story, told by a Brighton bookseller, as to the keen- ness of Mr. Gladstone's collecting eye, even in old age. He took up a French book, from,

said the bookseller, the library of Catherine de Medicis. "But there's no fleur-de-lis in the top lozenge," objected Mr. Gladstone. Lozenge? The arms are six balls in orle (sometimes 3, 2, 1) gules ; but in 1465 the red ball in chief was changed for one of France, Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or. I sup- pose it is to this that Mr. Gladstone alluded.

GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B.

NATURE'S PORTRAIT OF MR. GLADSTONE ASLEEP. Has it been observed by travellers approaching Terracina from the north that the outline of the mountain peninsula, evi- dently once an island, called Promontorio Circeo, near the Roman Archipelago, forms the silhouette of Mr. Gladstone as if lying in effigy on a tomb 1 The likeness is quite as striking as that of Washington at the Isla de San Vicente in the Cabo Verde group.

PALAMEDES.

MR. GLADSTONE'S DEATH. It is a remarkable coincidence that Mr. Gladstone died on 19 May, being St. Dunstan's Day and also Ascension Day. These dates have coincided only three times in the last ninety-five years, viz., in 1814, 1887, and 1898. WALTER LOVELL.

Chiswick.

"MESS OF POTTAGE." Probably ninety- nine persons out of a hundred believe that the familiar expression " Esau sold his birth- right for a mess of pottage" is Scriptural ; but hey will look for it in vain in the Authorized Version. It occurs in the chapter heading of the Genevan version of Genesis xxv. ; and it is owing, no doubt, to the popularity of wide a currency. A. SMYTHE PALMER, D.D. South Woodford.
 * hat version that the phrase has obtained so

SOME AFRICAN NAMES OFTEN MISPRO- NOUNCED. The following lines occur in Scott's 'Bridal of Triermain':

Dread the race of Zahara,

Fear the spell of Dahomay. Again :

Mount the winds, hurrah ! hurrah !

Zahara and Dahomay.

We have here the old spelling, and the old and correct accentuation, of the names now niscalled Sahara and Dah6mey. In English, as PROF. SKEAT has already shown (3 rd S. ix. 380), the tendency is usually to throw the accent back from the second to the first lyllable. Here we have the reverse, viz., a progress from the first to the second. What s still more curious, there are numerous other ixamples. Even the accurate Smith (' Cyclo- >sedia of Names ') has Bagtda (where Nachti-