Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/499

 9s.x.D E c.2o,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 491

'Life of St. Hugh of Avalon' (London, 1879, 1 stairs was originally known as 'TheKin p. 153), quotes Giraldus as giving this amongst Wedding,' then as 'Music on the Stair? and instances of the grotesque ignorance which finally, when it was first shown to the pubHc prevailed among the clergy in the twelfth I as ' The Gnlrlmn St.-.iro ' DllC '

., m ._ century. Canon Perry's words are :

"Another [priest], confused by the words

running together, asked what was meant by busillis. The learned man to whom he applied was fairly puzzled until the priest showed, at the bottom of his missal page, m die, and at the beginning of the next bus illis."

Canon Perry does not give the reference to Giraldus, so I cannot tell whether the latter gives the story as hailing from Italy or from some other country.

GILBERT H. F. VANE. The Rectory, Wem, Salop.

The version given by Zambaldi is that the cleric read in his breviary M in die," which he i T translated by " le Indie " ; but he owned he I ^ ondon > was puzzled by "busillis." Hence the phrase " Qui sta il busillis " (" Here is the crux ").

H. A. STRONG.

University College, Liverpool.

ST. KATHERINE'S HOSPITAL, REGENT'S PARK (9 th S. x. 428). Two or three years ago I had occasion to look up, at the Inner Temple and elsewhere, the polemics of the promotion and construction of St. Katharine's Dock recollection is that in several of the pam- phlets referred to the old charity was men- tioned, and I have the impression that the dock was constructed on the site of the Hospice or Hospital, which was removed to Regent's Park. The references to the charity were neither important nor very direct, and probably they are not what is required. I offer these remarks, however, on the off- chance of their being of any use.

DOUGLAS OWEN.

as ' The Golden Stairs.' It has been said of the original that in it a decorative motive was elaborated into a picture almost as sweet and delicate in its a white lily." It was shown in the spring exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880, and afterwards, I believe, became the property of Lord Battersea.

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

GROAT : BITS (9 th S. ix. 84, 454). With reference to the .coin (bit) the following might interest your correspondent. In a Geographical Grammar,' &c., by William. Guthrie, published in 1777. and printed by J. Knox, E. & C. Dilly, and G. Robinson, I find on p. 750, under 'W. Indies, Jinghsh, in table of money, "7i pence=a Bit = 5p." The * in 7 and the~8 in | are badly printed. In the French West Indies 15 sols = l scalin, ako = to 5$d. A sol seems to have been an imaginary coin. Under 'Flanders and Brabant' a scalin is shown as 5|d., an imaginary coin = to 6 petards. Also under 'Holland and Zealand' a soalin, a real coin, is = to 6 stivers, or 6 T 3 3 cZ. R. B. B.

' THE GOLDEN STAIRS ' (9 th S. x 427). This well-known work has already been the subject of an unanswered query (9 th S. iii. 88). But why should the picture have any definite subject at all, or be anything more than a material representation of one of those sights that

youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream,

for the artist's idea of a picture was "a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be in a light better than any light that ever shone in a land -no one can define or remember, only desire and the forms divinely beautiful " 1 However, the subject is really not so enigmatic after all. This composition then of a "sad Mantegnesque and beautiful company " of eighteen minstrels descending a curved flight of pale golden

SAMUEL CLARKE, D.D. (9 th S. x. 408). There is a good pedigree of Samuel Clerke, D.D., who was of Kingsthorpe, co. North- ampton, in the Heralds' College (2 D. xiv, 111). Presumably he was the rector of St. Peter's, Northampton, 1608 to 1640. He was certainly born 14 December, 1582, and died March, 1640. His wife Margaret (who died 1643) was sister to Sir Edward Peyto, of Chesterton, co. Warwick. Their eldest daughter Katharine married, 30 May, 1637, at Kingsthorpe, Sir Richard Raynsford, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench (1676), and was by him ancestress of a numerous progeny, including (inter olios) G. E. C.

P.S. The Samuel Clercke, D.D., who mar- ried at Canterbury Cathedral, 13 September, 1635, "Mrs. Katherine Simpson" was, appa- rently, no relation to the above.

SIR NICHOLAS SMITH (9 th S. viii. 283, 373 ; ix. 193, 353). I hope DUNHEVED will excuse the delay in replying to his intimation of my error. The books I consulted were the 'History of the Suburbs of Exeter,' by Charles Worthy, 1892, and Vivian's 'Visi- tations of Cornwall.' On examination I find that Grace, daughter of Sir George Smith, who married Sir Bevill Grenvile, of Stow, was heir to her mother, who was probably the second wife of Sir George and widow