Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

XL JAN. 17, MOB.

century Madonna which stood in a niche over the south porch doorway, till a recent vicar, of severe views, removed the image and stowed it away in a drawer in the vestry, where I saw it in 1890. MR. HIBGAME should consult the half-dozen or so of popular works on church antiquities published of late years by Mr. William Andrews.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

18TH HUSSARS, 1821 (9 th S. x. 488). Capt. J. M. Clements was the youngest son of the Right Hon. Henry Theophilus Clements, of Ashfield, co. Cavan, and was born in 1789. He married a Miss Wentworth, by whom he had two sons : the late John Marcus Clements, Esq., who was married to a sister of Sir- George White, and the Rev. H. G. J. Clements, the present vicar of Sidmouth, Devon.

H J. B. CLEMENTS.

Killadoon, Celbridge.

Having written a ' Regimental History,' I can suggest the following sources of infor- mation to COL. MALET : ' Waterloo Roll Call,' by C Dalton ; old county newspapers ; regimental histories of other regiments ; 'Regimental Colours,' by S. Milne; county histories of towns where the regiment recruited. (Mrs.) J. HAUTENVILLE COPE.

13c, Hyde Park Mansions, W.

In continuance of my query as above. In December, 1838, there resided at Newbridge, in Ireland, a Sergeant Foster,* who had been in the 18th. I am aware that in 1821 he kept a journal of the campaigns that he went through in Spain and France, and was in possession of some regimental books, as well as those of Capt. Deane, the paymaster. He does not appear to have been living in 1847. I should be most grateful for any information helping to find the present holder of these books.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

THE KING'S WEIGH HOUSE (9 th S. x. 427 ; xi. 13). Is MR. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL correct when he writes "the Steelyard in Upper Thames Street" was "so named pro- bably from the balance or beam of steel employed there"? The best explanation of the term, to my mind, is to be found in the introduction to 'Early Records of the Com- pany of Grocers,' edited by Mr. J. A. King- dom (sometime Master of the Grocers' Com- pany) in 1886, where (p. xxvi) the following passage occurs :

" As to the derivation of ' steelyard,' there is little doubt it is the same word as ' statera,' the first


 * Probably Paymaster Sergt. Alexander F. Foster.

official word used in England to signify the King's

beam The word was written 'Stadera' in Italian,

and signified the weighing lever with unequal arms in contradistinction to the ' bilance,' whose arms were equal."

The term "steelyard," or "stiliard," of which it appears to be a corruption, came to be applied to the place where the king's beam (not necessarily made of steel) for weighing goods was used. I may add that in the City's records the distinction drawn between "statera," or beam, and the ''bilancia," or balance, is not always observed (see ' Calendar of Letter-Book D,' p. 209). R. R. SHARPE. Guildhall, E.G.

ROUBILIAC'S BUST OF POPE (9 th S. x. 408, 471 ; xi. 12). I have only just seen this query and MR. GREEN'S reply. The bust was for- merly the property of James Bindley, of the Stamp Office ; then of Mr. G. Watson Taylor, the well - known collector ; and then of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos at Stowe. At the Stowe dispersal in 1848 it was bought for (or by) Sir Robert Peel ; and at the sale of a portion of the Peel heirlooms at Robin- son & Fisher's, 10-11 May, 1900, this bust was purchased for 510 guineas by Messrs. T. Agnew & Sons, of Old Bond Street, W., who might possibly reveal the name of the present owner. W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S.W.

EXEMPTION FROM POOR TAX (9 th S. x. 467). O. W. refers to the power of exemption two hundred years ago. A receipt for the same tax of the current month indicates, in a modified form, a continuation of the prac- tice, the last printed line reading "Allowance to Owner at percent." R. B.

Upton.

LORD SALISBURY ON DECAYING NATIONS (9 th S. x. 427, 515). The answers of your correspondents confirm that which I gave to Prof. Gaidoz privately, namely, that the speech in question concerned the latest war between Spain and Cuba. The professor returns thanks by the following note on a postcard :

" Rue Servandoni, Paris, 31/12/02.

" CHER MONSIEUR DODGSON, Merci pour votre bon souvenir, et votre intervention a ' N. & Q.' J'ai vu les re"ponses et j'ai maintenant mon texte. Votre Marquis de Salisbury n'est pas un homme ordinaire, et il voit le cours des choses de tres haut. Ainsi, a Oxford, capitale de la scholarship anglaise, le Celtique n'attire pas d'etudiants. et avec un maitre comme M. Rhys ! (Test humiliant et attris- tant. Je compte que votre adresse sera encore la meme vers le 15 ou 20 Janvier : autrement, si vous deviez deme"nager, prevenez-moi, parceque je vous adresserai une brochure que j'imprime en ce moment sur 1'interdiction du Breton, et en ge'ne'ral sur la question des langues provinciates en France.