Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/89

. JAN. 29, 5 98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

81

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1898.

CONTENTS.-No. 5.


 * Manor House, Upper Holloway, 81 Shakspear-

iana, 82" Other Suns, perhaps "Prince Bismarck The al Dictionary ' Ignored Works attributed to

' Historical

other Writers, 84 The

strangers' Cold, St. Kilda

Artistry": "Energeticness "A Typographical Blunder "Cross" vice "Kris," 85 Book Inscription Verbs ending in "-ish" " Prospecti " Waltham Abbey, 86.

OUBRIES : " Creekes " " Hesmel " R. W. Buss Goud- hurst Miss F. Vavasour Wren and Kidout Families Superstitions Francis Douce Solomon's Gift to Hiram The Manx Name Kerruish, 87 " Steed" Painting of Napoleon Cromwell's Pedigree Anne May Chevalier Servandoni Lady Elizabeth Foster Painting from the Nude Strutt Indian Magic Dunbar, 88" Whiffing " " Yeth-hounds "Authors Wanted, 89.

REPLIES : Major Williams's Voyage to Canada, 89 Duke of Wharton's Tomb Tom Matthews Madam Blaize, 90 ' Pegamoid " Augustine Skottowe Horace Walpole "The long and the short of it "-St. Paul's Cathedral Drummonds of Broich, 91 Era in Monkish Chronology, 92 "One touch of nature," &c., 93 Boadicea G. J. Harney St. Syth, 94 Protestant Churches of Poland- Col. H. Ferribosco " On the carpet," 95" Hide "The Mauthe Doog Construction with a Partitive, 96 Peter Thellusson Poem by Miss Procter Heberfield, 97 The Golden Key Slipper Bath Dental Colleges Swansea, 98.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Yarker's The Assistant G6nies and Irreconcilable Gnomes ' Hadden's 'George Thomson' The Amateur Angler's ' On a Sunshine Holyday 'Henley's ' Burns's Life 'Gross's ' Bibliography of British Municipal History ' Routledge's ' Book of the Year 1897 ' Whitaker's ' Directory of Titled Persons.'

Notices to Correspondents.

MANOR HOUSE, UPPER HOLLOWAY.

THE recent 'destruction of this old house should, I think, find a place in the pages of ' N. & Q.', as probably some future reader may wish for information on the subject. It was situated at the corner of a lane opposite the " Mother Kedcap," and was reported to have been the home of Claude Duval, the cele- brated highwayman.

The house in question was from 1858 until a few years since, when it was sold to Messrs. Betts & Co., Limited, "in Chancery"; and I, having been connected with the suit in question since 1868, claim to know something about the matter. It was described in the suit as "the mortgaged hereditaments the subject of the action," and the suit has several times been compared with the ever memorable Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, to which I object, it having nothing in common with that suit but the rancour with which it was carried on and the fact that parties have died out of it and been born into it. "Our" suit, moreover, began in debt, the property having two heavy mortgages on it, whicn have been, with interest and costs, paid off, leaving the parties now the pleasant task of dividing some few thousands amongst them, whereas

Jarndyce v. Jarndyce began with a fortune and ended with nothing. A view of the house appeared in the Morning Leader of

24 April, and articles pro and con were given on 27 and 31 August, 1897. Another view and observations appeared in the Islington Gazette of 27 September, 6 October, and

25 October, 1897 ; and a picture in the Even- ing News of 27 August, 1897.

I wish to call particular attention to the letter in the Islington Gazette of 6 October from Mr. Arthur Fagg (a grandson of K. W. Sievier, F.E.S., the former owner and resident of the house in question), he being well able to speak on the subject :

"So many theories have been set forth as to the history of the house that I wish I could give actual and unerring data. As you rightly remark in your article, it is curious that the history of the house seems shrouded in mystery. No authority, as far as I am aware, has stated for whom the house was originally built. That Turpin, or Duval, or both, ever lived there has been doubted by many, on the ground that the house was too large an establish- ment to have been owned by highwaymen. To this I think I can offer an adequate reply. At one time the house was less than half the size it became sub- sequently, the whole of the front, with its extra roof and parapet, having at some time or other been added. This I had always maintained, and when the place was in course of demolition signs were not wanting to prove this. I may enumerate a few of them : 1. The absence of an entrance-hall, and the existence of a long passage passing right through the front half of the house and terminating at the foot of the stairs, which point was originally the front door. 2. A division in the floor-boards at about this point. 3. Curved beams (in addition to straight transverse beams) across both dining and drawing room, added, doubtless, to bear the weight above. 4. The small size of the cellar for so large a house, as it extended only beneath the back part, and ter- minated in a line with the original front wall. In addition to these reasons, the back portion was the older half, not only in general appearance, but by tradition. It was in this older portion that a secret room or space was located, and a nook in which two flint-lock pistols were discovered forty-eight years ago. It was on the boards of a room close by, approached by a curious and irregular passage, that an indelible mark of blood (?) was found, supposed to indicate murder. It was in the roof here that a dried and mummified cat was found fixed between two beams. (This is in a careful state of preserva- tion now.) It was in this older portion of the house that most singular noises are reported to have been heard, always, of course, in the dead of night. Rushing ana bumping sounds and strange voices were heard on several occasions ; and it seems un- fortunate that the Psychological Society never directed attention to this house, for with all its possible history one would have expected definite results. It was in this older part that some boards were once removed, revealing coins of no great value, and, what was significant, counterfeit coins also, pointing to the likelihood that the gallant Turpin and the romantic Duval were not always engaged in the more aristocratic or select, though equally unpleasant, * Stand, and deliver ; your money or your