Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/13

 9 th S. II. Jew '2, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

writer evidently thinks that Charles II. hid in the Boscobel Oak in May ; whereas it was during his wanderings after the battle of Worcester, which took place on 3 September. Oak leaves were worn in memory of the event on 29 May, 1660, upon which day, being also his birthday, Charles II. made his triumphal entrance into London at the Restoration. They have been worn upon that day ever since ; but, of course, no one with the least pretension to even a rudimentary amount of historical knowledge supposes that Charles was hidden in an oak tree in May. FLORENCE PEACOCK.

Kirton-in-Lindsey.

BACILLI.

" Which I look upon with contempt likewise

the Opinion of others who talk of infection being carried on by the Air only, by carrying with it vast numbers of Insects, and invisible Creatures, who enter into the Body with the Breath, or even at the Pores with the Air, and there generate or emit most accute Poisons, or poisonous Ovae, or E"gs, which mingle themselves with the Blood, and so infect the Body.' Defoe, 'Journal of the Plague Year.'

FRED G. ACKERLEY.

Keighley.

" CHILD-BED PEW." This unusual name for the " churching pew " occurs in the original entries of the Visitation of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, under date 1640. The church- wardens of Stourmouth, in Kent, presented their rector for refusing to church a woman "in the accustomed child-bed pew, as it is called, where the women of our parish have ever accustomarily and usually presented themselves to that end." It was situated "in the body of the church, towards the upper end, but not in the chancel." The rector required the woman to kneel " nigh unto the place where the table standetn,' : which was then the rubric.

ARTHUR HUSSEY.

Wingham, Kent.

CHURCH Row, HAMPSTEAD. The disaster prophesied by many admirers has, alas overtaken this choice eighteenth - century street. The vandals are upon it with pickaxe and shovel, the onslaught being made upor its northern side. The speculative anc voracious builder is now nard at work hacking away at his first victims, namely that delightful old garden and house whicl stood to the immediate right as one enterec from busy Heath Street. The neighbour if also doomed, its walls already crumbling beneath the weight not of age, but o: destiny. Presently from behind poles anc scaffolds will rise the inevitable block of

lats, which will, no doubt, be advertised in lue course as eligible, commodious, and self - contained. But flats of barrack -like uniformity they will be, nevertheless, and )robably remain so until the end of the hapter.

Where will the next attack be made ? is the question upon many anxious lips just now it is impossible to say. From indications, loweyer, I am disposed to think that the Duildings on the opposite side will next receive unwelcome attention, as there are several hateful notice-boards up. Or that very tempting gap close to the old parish churchyard may be coveted. It is sad to consider how the efforts of vestries, trusts, and private individuals have failed to rescue this altogether unique spot from the hands of the despoiler. The result illustrates very forcibly how futile are the protests of an honest sentiment and veneration when un- allied with the more persuasive charms of lucre. Nor is it po.ssible to conceive how, with the best intentions in the world, any architect can " preserve the character "a favourite argument this with the apologists of our quaint, incomparable Church Row. Think of such an attempt, and despair !

CECIL CLARKE.

Authors' Club, S.W.

" ROUGH." This word, as an abbreviation of " ruftian," is stated generally to have got into the English language about the year 1870. The editors of the 'H. E. D.' may be glad to know that it is quite ten years older. Lord Shaftesbury, in the House of Lords on 24 Feb., 1860, spoke of "the class called ' roughs '-the most violent, disorderly, and dangerous of all the men in that very quarter " (' Hansard,' clvi. 1682).

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings. " CORDWAINER " AND ' QUARTERLY REVIEW.'

The Quarterly Review for April contains an article called 'Prehistoric Arts and Crafts.' That article, at p. 414, has a description of the still existing relics of the lake-dwellings of the neolithic period, and contains the following passage :

" Scraps of fishing-nets have come to light, show- ing the identical stitch still in use ; and so too have hanks of rope and twine, these latter, except for their being burnt to blackness, looking as new and untouched as if just come from the nands of the cordwainer " [italics mine].

Here it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the writer of the article thought that

, the word cordivainer means a maker of cords.

I But all the dictionaries to which I have