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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. xn. JULY 25, 1903.

" I am now going to speak of clouds coming out of the sides of hills in exactly the same manner that you see smoke come out of a tobacco pipe, and, rising up, with a wider and wider head, like the smoke from a tobacco pipe, go to the top of the hill or over the hill, or very much above it, and then come over the valleys in rain. At about a mile's distance from Mr. Palmer's house at Bolli- tree, in Herefordshire, there is a large long beautiful wood, covering the side of a lofty hill, winding round in the form of a crescent. It was here that 1

first observed this mode of forming clouds The

hill is called Penyard, and this forming of the clouds they call Old Penyard' s smoking his pipe ; and it is a rule that it is sure to rain during the day, if Old Penyard smokes his pipe in the morning."

Cobbett goes on to say that he noticed the same circumstance at Butser Hill, in Hamp- shire, where he saw on some days thousands of clouds come puffing out. One would like to know the cause of the phenomenon, which probably still continues.

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

OLD ROCHESTER Row, WESTMINSTER : CHANGE OF NAME. The intention of the London County Council has been notified as under :

"The London Building Act, 1894, sec. 34 & 35. Notice is hereby given that the Council proposes after the expiration of one calendar month from the date hereof to make an o^-der incorporating Old Rochester Row with and under the name of Grey Coat Place, and that such order may be issued oh or after the 29th day of June, 1903. Any objections made, in writing before that day, to the proposed alteration will receive attention.

G. L. GOMME, Clerk of the Council.

County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W. 29/5/03.

The proposed change is not a bad one, for the old city of Rochester is at present kept in memory by Old Rochester Row, Rochester Row, and Rochester Street, all close together, so that one of them can be easily spared. The name originated from the fact that the Deans of Westminster were, through eight incumbencies from 1663 to 1802, also Bishops of Rochester, the united offices being held by Deans Dolben, Sprat, Atterbury, Bradford, Wilcocks, Pearce, Thomas, Horsley. With the appointment of Dean Vincent the severance of the two offices took place we are informed to the great regret of King George III., who declared that they "ought not to have been separated." It is a noteworthy fact that only one of the holders of the double office Atterbury, and that only recently is commemorated in Westminster ; while, as we are reminded by Mr. J. E. Smith (the author of the 'Parochial Memorials of St, John the Evangelist, West-

minster '), the dean with whose appointment the separation of the two offices took place is perpetuated in a "square," a "street, "a " place," a " court," and a " row." Grey Coat Place, under which the combined thorough- fare is in future to be known, comes from the Grey Coat School or Hospital, as it was formerly called a foundation of 1698 "for the education of 70 poor boys and 40 poor girls " ; and although there have been many changes, the old buildings have remained very much the same as when founded. There still remain the central building, its old clock, turret, and bell, the royal arms of Queen Anne, the motto "Semper eadem," and the figures habited in the bygone costume of the children; therefore the name is one possessing a very respectable antiquity. Altogether the change is one for good, and, so far as I hear, there has been no opposition to the proposal. This is just one of the things which 'N. & Q.' should record. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S.W.

INACCURACY IN ' BARNABY RUDGE.' In chap. Ivii. (Household Edition) we read that Grip peered into the straw with his bill, "and rapidly covering up the place, as if, Midas-like, he were whispering secrets to the earth and burying them," &c. It was not Midas, but his servant, who, discovering the fact that his master's ears had been changed to those of an ass, and fearing the con- sequences of revealing the secret, made a hole in the earth, and, after whispering there that Midas had the ears of an ass, covered the place as before, as if he had buried his confidential utterance in the ground. Curiously enough, the words " Midas-like " do not appear in the first edition of the story, but were a subsequent interpolation.

F. G. KITTON.

"PRIOR TO "= BEFORE. We find this ex- pression frequently employed in newspapers and periodicals, whence it is creeping into works of a more ambitious character.* But is it good English ? If one of our smart writers happened to be noticing a new edition of a famous book, he would probably speak of its chief character thus : " Prior to his marrying Squire Western's daughter, Tom Jones had led a somewhat dissolute life." If that will pass, so ought this, and perhaps

tine Birrell's lecture on Edmund Burke, is a gem in its way: "What I propose to do is merely to consider a little Burke's life prior to his obtaining a seat in Parliament," &c., 'Obiter Dicta,' Second Series, p. 151, London, 1887.
 * The following example, taken from Mr. Augus-