Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/230

 222

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. SEPT. 20, 1902.

however, goes back to the Sanskrit com- pound suffix -vara- (-vala-), which not only denoted the agent, but was used in a much more general way to form adjectives ; cp. Skt. plvara, Gr. Triepos, Triapos (fat), Skt. vid-vala (prudent). The suffix vara (vala) is due to -ra- (-la-) being added to stems in -van. See on this point Whitney's 'Grammar,' 1171, Brugmann's ' Comp. Gram.,' ii. 189 (1889).

7. Jehovah. The ' Concise ' cites a non- existent, grammatically impossible Hebrew form yahovdh. According to the Oxford Gesenius the pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by Galatinus. The Tetragrammaton YHWH occurring in the Scriptures was regarded by the Jews as a nomen ineffabile. It was never pronounced. It was written with the vowel points of Adondi (the Lord), and " Adonai " was read wherever YHWH was written. Our pronunciation " Jehovah " is due to a mistake of scholars of the sixteenth century. The 'Encyclopaedia Biblica' tells us that the vowels of Elohlm were written under the Tetragrammaton when it was preceded by Adondi, and " Elohlm " was read instead of Adonai. COMESTOR OXONIENSIS.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES.

UPON three previous occasions (8 th S. viii. 61 ; 9 th S. i. 502 ; and 9 th S. iii. 162) I have drawn attention to the great changes taking place in Westminster, and I now propose to supple- ment those notes by some further remarks ; for in the old city a very rapid transforma- tion is going on, and there is every probability that it will be greater before long. Now that what were the '^liberties " have been brought into closer relationship with what was always spoken of and known as the City of West- minsterthe parishes of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist it will be manifestly impossible for one person not overburdened with leisure or blessed with a superabundance of energy and physical strength to note all the changes in "Greater" Westminster. I must still restrict my notes to the two parishes in question, as I did in the former cases, for it will at once be seen that the pulling down and rebuilding, the closing of old and the opening up of new streets in the btrand district of the city, is a work of such magnitude that in itself the mere noting would be a task of considerable labour and some diffi culty, albeit one that should be undertaken and the result preserved for future reference elsewhere than in the daily or weekly press

In my allusion to the demolition of the

Emanuel Hospital in James Street (now somewhat ridiculously renamed Bucking- lam Gate) I stated that the block of build- .ngs being erected was to be called " Dacre Gardens." This arrangement, as has been stated, fell through, and a much larger erection has been put up and called St. James's Court. This has been opened for some time, and is largely occupied, as are all the other piles of flats alluded to at 9 th S. i. 502. The ground at the rear of Artillery Mansions has been utilized for a continua- tion of this, known as the South Block, and makes with the other portion one of the biggest blocks of residential flats in this neighbourhood, where they abound. Victoria Street is undergoing a great change, not so far as pulling down is concerned, but in alterations, for shop - fronts are being put into the ground - floor flats, and it is fast becoming a street of trade and traders, following in the wake of the Army and Navy Co-operative Society, which has brought trade to this locality to an extent little dreamt of less than a quarter of a century ago, when, so far as it was completed, this street was one of private residences only. At the rear, facing Ashley Place, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, now fast nearing completion, a building of magnificent pro- portions and artistic design, reflecting the greatest credit upon the architect, the late Mr. J. F. Bentley. Much regret has been expressed among Catholics and Protestants alike that he did not live to see the consecra- tion and opening of his masterly conception, truly his magnum opus. Around this building has grown up a very town of flats, known as Ashley Gardens why or wherefore not being at all clear. There would appear to be some- thing in a name after all, for, although I believe that the late vestry vetoed the name, it has been stuck to in spite of opposition and objection. There are here two thorough- fares Ambrosden Avenue and Thirleby Road without a house bearing either name, but the houses in and around them, in Francis Street, Coburg Row, and Emery Hill Street, have all been persistently dubbed Ashley Gardens.

In Tothill Street, upon land at the rear of the Westminster Palace Hotel, lately a livery stable, some offices have been erected, called Broad Sanctuary Chambers ; and higher up the street, at the corner of New Tothill Street, down which it extends to St. Margaret's Mission Hall, has been put up an extremely ornate building, called Sanctuary House, with limited shop accom- modation ; but this is as yet scarcely com-