Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/273

 vs. xu. OCT. s, 19(0.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Novels. "I* that any Novels, sir? " (554a.) Jonson mocks the French "que nouvelles 1 " in 'Every Man Out,' V. ii. (1599).

" Less Appetite to desire such Novels "' (i. 190). Harvey has also "Novellets" (i. 215) .and " Novellists " (ii. 208).

The foregoing parallels seem to me to show that Gabriel Harvey was the chief offender in word-coining, against whom Jonson designed the part of Juniper. There is nothing, or very little, personal in these hits. The very selection of the humblest of trades and the love of balladry may have been pleasantry against Harvey, who detested both. Jonson had no real quarrel with Harvey, as he had later with Marston and Dekker. H. C. HART.

(To be continued.)

DEAN'S YARD, WESTMINSTER, NO. 17.

A VERY pleasant book of Westminster memories connected with the old school has been written and given to the world by Capt. F. Markham, under the title of ' Recollections of a Town Boy at Westminster, 1849-55.' As is, perhaps, only natural, the pages which afford the best reading [are those wherein the schoolboy scrapes, &c., are recorded. Among his early escapades perhaps his first was stealing a bell-handle at the instigation of a bigger boy named Slade, which is recorded as follows :

"Slade joined me with another bludgeon con- cealed under his gown. He led the way to the Bishop of Gloucester's house. The door was painted a beautiful olive green ; the knocker, door-bell, name-plate, and letter-box were of brass, all beau- tifully polished. Slade said, 'Now, then, here you are ; you take the bell and I will take the knocker. When I say "Go," pull the bell out to full stretch and give it a good whack with your stick.' I have the bell-handle on my mantelpiece,"

the author unblushingly continues when closing the story, and there appear to be but few regrets underlying the admission. The house herein described as the residence of the Bishop of Gloucester ceased to be so soon after Capt. Markham went to West- minster in 1849. In that year the Rev. Dr. Milman, Canon of Westminster and Kector of St. Margaret's, where he had been since 1835, was preferred to the Deanery of St. Paul's. He had lived, so far as I can find out, at any rate for a considerable portion of the time while holding his Westminster ap- pointments, at Ashburnham House, standing in Little Dean's Yard, and with, in those days, an outlet in the rear into the south walk of the cloisters. This house, in many ways very notable, was called after Lord

Ashburnham, who occupied it in 1708, its chief attraction being its exceedingly beautiful staircase, constructed by Inigo Jones. Here had also been housed the King's Library in 1712, and in 1730 that of Sir Robert Cotton. Therefore it will be seen that Dr. Milman was lodged amidst memo- ries likely to be congenial to a student of his character. A subsequent occupant was the Rev. Lord John Thynne, for many years a Canon of Westminster and Sub-dean. At his death the house became associated with Westminster School, by the authorities of which it is still used. Dr. Milman's suc- cessor at St. Margaret's and in the canonry was the Rev. Dr. William Cureton, and during his early days at Westminster, if not from the first, the fine house alluded to as having been hitherto that of the Bishops of Glou- cester was vacant. By the special desire of Queen Victoria, it became the rectory of St. Margaret's parish, and in it have lived all the subsequent occupants of that position, viz., the Rev. William Con way, M.A. ; Rev. Frederic William Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., after- wards Archdeacon of Westminster, and lately Dean of Canterbury ; Rev. Robert Eyton, M.A. ; Rev. Joseph Armitage Robinson, D.D., now Dean of Westminster ; and the present rector, Rev. Herbert Hensley Henson, B.D. It is a noble structure of good old honest brick- work, containing many large rooms, and is in every way an ideal residence for the student, as the quietness of the spot is proverbial, and it would be difficult to find another locality in the centre of one of the busiest parts of London where the sound of the passing traffic of the outside world becomes but a low murmur, adding to the charm of its almost complete isolation. That its situation has lent itself to the cause of study there are many who will be thankful, for beyond all doubt many of the sermons preached both in the Abbey and in St. Margaret's Church have gained much from the peacefulness of the surroundings of the study in which they were prepared ; and much of the work, less clerical and more secular, of Drs. Cureton, Farrar, and Robinson gained not a little from the same happy circumstance. The edifice has also been the scene of many reunions, at which most of the notabilities of the latter half of the bygone century, in the world of poetry, art, science, drama, law, and medicine, have assisted, in addition to those whose avocations were almost entirely centred in religious work. One can scarcely help fancy- ing that the present Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Ellicott, must often feel a pang of regret at its alienation from his diocese, and it