Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/162

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NOTES AND QUERIES. i9*s.in.FEB.25,m

exhibition mentioned above, the Kotunda in the Blackfriars Road, I remember very well, and often visited it as a youth. The building stood on the west side of the road, near the bridge, and I should not be surprised to find that it still stands, but divided into tene- ments. It had been, if I remember correctly, the house where a famous collection of curiosities (1 the Leverian) had been pre- viously lodged. It was in its glory about the middle of the century, but degenerated into a "penny gaff" of the lowest sort, the delight of the lambs of Lambeth and the over- sharp costers of the New Cut, and finally expired " suffocated by its own filth." It is well some- times, perhaps, to be laudator temporis acti, but in nothing has there been such an im- provement as in the character of London popular entertainments. Such places as the Rotunda would now be summarily suppressed.

R. CLAEK. Walthamstow.

"TRES TOIS D'OR" (9 th S. iii. 48). II faut lire, "Tres Toison d'or." Apres que Felix Faure eut reu de la reine re'gente d'Espagne les insignes de FOrdre de la Toison d'Or, certains imbeciles de son entourage affecterent de dire, " Cette femme est tres Toison d'or; cette voiture est tres Toison d'or," &c., pour exprimer leur admiration. C'est tout simple- ment aussi idiot que le mot anglais smart que les imbeciles des Folies - Bergeres et du Casino de Paris ont vainement essaye de mettre a la mode. N. L. H.

Asnieres.

LETTERS FROM MINISTERS TO THE SOVEREIGN (9 th S. iii. 66). A correspondent asks, regard- ing the form adopted by ministers in writing to the sovereign, when and why it was adopted. He refers, of course, to the writer in the third person addressing the sovereign in the second. The " when " of the question is exemplified by the address of the Roman gladiators, " Ave, Csesar Imperator! Morituri te salutant." A. J. P.

CHARLES YOUNG AND MRS. YOUNG (9 th S. iii. 107). These could not have been Charles Mayne Young and his wife, for they were at Boston as early as the autumn of 1805, and remained in America. The lady, whose maiden name was Foster, died in New York in 1831. See Dunlop's 'History of the Ameri- can Theatre,' vol. ii. WM. DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

SCANDAL CONCERNING WALPOLE (9 th S. ii 529). As the " Historical MSS. Commission's Reports and Appendices [sic] " now consist of at least seventy-two volumes most with

separate indexes perhaps MR. LEADAM will 'condescend to particulars," as I believe they say in Scots law, and give a more exact reference. Q. V.

SEWARDSTONE (9 th S. iii. 67). Waltham Abbey, in the days before the dissolution of the monasteries, held three wards, Sewardstone being one, the manor being the property of the prior and monks. It was situated in the forest, but has long been disforested, and is now known as Sewardstone Street (sometimes as Road); it was, when I saw it some thirty-five years ago, one long street or way, with fields in front and at the back. It was then well known to anglers, many of whom had here a house of call, the name of which has slipped my memory. It is two and a half miles from Waltham on the road to Chingford, and three and a half miles from the station at that place. Gil well Park, an old hunting seat, standing in a park of seventy acres, was the property of Sir Anthony Denny in the reign of Edward VI., and he erected the hall there at that period. Sir Herewald Wake, of Courteen Hall, North- amptonshire, is now the lord of the manor of Waltham Holy Cross, and has lands there;

Eroperty is also held there by the Buxton imily. The so-called Queen Elizabeth's hunting lodge is not far from there, and was surrounded by woods years ago, but is now mainly used for picnic parties; the traveller, however, may call and be shown a portion of the interior. Sewardstone at the time I speak of was a thriving hamlet, and may possibly be so still, as well as more developed by building. The acreage of the manor is over three thousand acres. W. H. BROWN. Chesterton, Cambs.

There is a place in Essex called Seward- stone. It is three miles south of Waltham Abbey and a little north of High Beech.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

GLYNDYFRDWY (9 th S. iii. 6, 74). I, too, should like to have the opinion of a competent Welsh scholar. Meanwhile, I do not think D. M. R.'s suggestion a likely one. I have only a bowing acquaintance with Welsh, but I think I may say that, whether in combina- tion or otherwise, the numeral always pre- cedes the substantive. As for the termination dwy, I must confess that I took it as equivalent to wy, and I find it so explained in Canon Taylor's ' Words and Places' (ed. 1882, p. 137). I do not think dwy can be the feminine of dau in such river-names as Dwyfawr and Dwyfach, for in that case they would be meaningless. In the 'Gossiping Guide to