Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/409

 9 th S. II. Nov. 19, '98.1

NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1898,

CONTENTS. -No. 47.

NOTES : Old Parliament Street, 401 Shakspeariana, 402 Harrington and the Botany Bay Theatre, 404 Residential Surnames The Sun-god and the Moon-goddess Charing Cross, 405 "Running amuck" Ghost- words Descend- ants of Sir Jonas Moore, 406.

QUERIES : " Fell " " Fennel " J. Bradock Chauncy MSS. ' The English Merchant'" The sair saunt for the crune" Dr. John Dee " Ductus litterarum" "To save one's bacon," 407 Mackenzie " Limerick "Liverpool Newspapers Sutherland Sir Walter Scott Nonjurors Louvre Pictures The Imperfect Subjunctive Jelf and Slingsby, 408 Feeding-bottles Sir John Townshend "In native worth" Architectural Niches "Jumble" Hackney Carriages, 409.

REPLIES :-Heysham Antiquities. 409 Royal Naval Club Characters in Dickens, 411 " Fefnicute " Gordon Family Camelry Water Corn-mill Trafalgar Chapel, 412 Mary Bowles Bench Mark Dr. Johnson Sheridan and Dundas Siege of Derry Barbers, 413 Wooden Pillars in Church The Virgin of Bressau Sir E. Godfrey Portraits of Cromwell, 414 Puddledock Tarr Danish Pronunciation, 415 Paolo Holli Theatre Tickets Theo- philus Metcalfe Lapsus Calami Oldest Parish Register Reade Family, 416 Survival of Druidism in France " WhtUul " Howth Castle" Cutting his stick "Sir C. Wren A Bookbinding Question, 417 The Organ, 418.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Hewins's 'Whitefoord Papers' Butler's Homer's ' Iliad ' Nevill's ' Memoirs of D'Ar- tagnan.'

Notices to Correspondents.

OLD PARLIAMENT STREET.

I HAVE been struck by the almost universal consensus of opinion, as gathered in omnibus rides during the past week, that it is " about time that the last corner of old Parliament Street should go." Most people add the remark that "it ought to have been pulled down many years ago."

Probably the clearance will do good ; it will certainly improve the approaches to the Abbey and the Parliament Houses. But before the last vestiges disappear I should like to put on record a few souvenirs of the past which make one feel a little sad to see these dingy, ugly old houses being dis- mantled.

My first recollection of this part of town dates back to about 1850-51, when my father had an office in Fludyer Street, and some- times I used to wander over from Chelsea, where we lived, to feed the ducks in St. James's Park, and can well remember the smart recruiting sergeants who then, and long afterwards, haunted Charles Street. That was, of course, before the India Office was built ; and between Downing Street and Great George Street there ran several short streets parallel with Downing Street. These were Fludyer Street, Crown Street, and

Charles Street ; the last piece of this is now being demolished. These ran through from King Street to Duke Street. Duke Street has disappeared ; part of it remains in what is now called Delahay Street.

Opposite the post office in Charles Street, which was formerly a grocery shop, there stood a pastrycook's shop, with the door on the angle and up several steps.

This was the favourite haunt of the engineers' pupils and assistants from all the offices round, and the pastry was excellent, or we thought it so then. In the part of King Street that was taken down for the India Office there stood a musical instru- ment shop, kept by an old man named Garrett and his niece; the latter made friends with me, and I spent many hours in the shop, watching the men polish the trumpets and repair the drums belonging to the bands of the Guards. But the old man died, the house was pulled down, and the business removed to Smith Street, and then it faded away, how or why I know not.

Later on, as a young man, I became more intimately connected, in a business way, with Westminster, and frequently purchased colours and drawing materials from a Mr. Dufour, whose shop faced the Abbey the same house, I believe, as that lately vacated by Mr. Korke, the father of the two charming actresses of that name. Dufour was a remark- able man ; he never wanted to sell anything ; it seemed a real pain to him to part with even a cake of Indian ink or a pencil. His shop was the haunt of some famous artists, and he generally had several beautiful water colours by Leitch and others for sale.

Vacher's, the well-known Parliamentary stationer's, was round the corner ; for many years there was no Vacher in it, a Mr. Lowe was the proprietor. The last time I met him was at the Volunteer fetes in Brussels in 1866, when he was a tall handsome man in the uniform of an officer in the Queen's West- minster Kifles. Mr. Priest, the quiet-spoken chemist with a long beard, was another well- known character in the street now doomed to destruction.

The A. B. C. shop at the corner was formerly a wine shop, and next door was the office of Dr. Pole, the well-known authority on organs and music.

Zerah Colburn, the clever but very short- sighted American engineer who founded the journal Engineering, also at one time had an office near by. On that side of King Street which has recently been destroyed stood for- merly the historical printing-house of Nichols & Sons ; and it was said that in one of the