Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/155

 s. x. AUG. 23, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

147

bilia in archaeology, &c. Mr. Edwin O. Sachs, the authority on fire prevention, will write on this and cognate topics. Major F.L.Nathan and his brother Major Matthew Nathan will discourse on military matters. Sir Samuel Montagu will take charge of currency and bi-metallism ; David Schloss will furnish some interesting data on labour questions ; Edward Bernstein is engaged on Socialism ; Mr. G. C. Levey, who has had a unique experience in the management of exhibitions, will show the wonders of our Australian colonies ; Leopold Hoffer takes chess ; and Sidney Lee deals with Shakespeare.

M. L. R. BRESLAK. Percy House, South Hackney.

SUPERSTITION ABOUT PORTRAITS. It is a well-known fact that the Arab dislikes having his portrait painted, from the belief that the person who thus delineates him can exercise upon him his will. I find an interesting superstition corresponding to this mentioned as existing among the Irish peasantry. The incident is related in the ' Reminiscences of Frederick Goodall, R.A.,' just published. Mr. Goodall states that once, when sketching in Galway, he had a conversation with a priest on the subject. The immediate cause of the colloquy was a drawing by Mr. Goodall of a village girl. The reference by the artist is as follows :

" The kindly priest said, ' That girl has asked me whether it was a good trade you followed, and my answer was, " If you work all your life, you could not do what he is doing. It is a gift from God."' This completely cured them of the ridiculous fear they had cherished, that when they were actually being sketched, their names were being put down in a book for enlistment."

W. B.

[The idea that the painter of a portrait has power over the person painted is widespread among savages, but the Irish incident related above is hardly akin.]

CROOKED USAGE, CHELSEA. This curious survival has on a former occasion attracted notice in c N. & Q.' Inquiry was made regarding the origin of this and other London names several years ago (6 th S. ix. 148), and a valued correspondent, H. S. G. (the late Mr. H. Sydney Grazebrook), replied by saying that the term "usage" was equivalent to user, or right of way. At that time, according to H. S. G., the passage was straight from Lower Stewart's Grove to Britten Road, after which it made an elbow and ran diagonally along the north-west side of Chelsea Work- house into Arthur Street, King's Road. This description will apply to the passage at the present day, if we remember that the

thoroughfares formerly known as Stewart's Grove and Bond Street -have within pecent years been renamed Cale Street. The land on which the workhouse was built consisted of three-quarters of an acre, " situate opposite the little houses near the Conduit in the King's Road."* The site of the Conduit is uncertain, but it is probably indicated by Conduit Court, near the present Oakley Street, which is marked on Gary's ' Map of London,' 1819.

The Academy for 12 July, in noticing Mr. Mitton's 'Chelsea,' recently published the series called "The Fascination of London," says :

" The Chelsea street-name which has the most picturesque significance and the greatest value for a literary mind has escaped Mr. Mitton's notice. We refer to Crooked Usage, a narrow lane that skirts the Infirmary in Cale Street. Crooked Usage takes us back at one bound to days when the plough and spade were in possession of Chelsea. The straight strips of ground between the various holdings of land were known as usages, and to the circumstance that one of these cartways or usages was crooked we pwe the name which so curiously reminds us how London came from nature."

It will be seen that this explanation differs somewhat from that given by H. S. G., and it would be interesting to have corroborative evidence on either side.


 * W. F. PRIDEAUX.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

SIR CHARLES ALDIS, KNT. In Walford's 'County Families' (1864) it is stated that Sir Charles was created a knight in 1821. I can find no mention of such creation in any other work to which I have access ; but I have a private note to the effect that he was created an Irish Knight Bachelor. Townsend, in his 'Calendar of Knights' (1828), gives a list of such Irish knights, which list he received, from Sir William Betham, Ulster, and James Rock, Dublin Herald, but the name of Aldis does not appear therein. Did Sir Charles neglect to pay his fees, and thus escape notification in the Gazette ; or was he the other of those two persons one of whom was dead in 1828 who surreptitiously obtained the honour from his Majesty, and who were alluded to in a royal order dated

of Chelsea, 3 1829, ii. 25.
 * Vestry Minutes, quoted by Faulkner, ' History