Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/222

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. MAR. is,

ence to the history of the regiment by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue, that the original uni- form at the time it was raised, late in 1759, was scarlet with white facings (the lace having at that time a black edge in memory of General Wolfe) ; it was changed to blue, retaining the facings, in 1784, and the marine and West Indian service of the regiment did not occur till 1795-7. In 1830, however, when William IV. came to the throne, the uniform of the regiment was altered to scarlet, and the white facings of the naval uniform were also altered to scarlet. This latter change did not last long for either, the one re- suming its blue uniform and the other its white facings after a few years. There can, I am sure, be no possibility of the " horse- marine" mentioned in the original query being a human being; it is evidently an heraldic creature, otherwise the " sea horse," described as in my last reply.

C. S. HARRIS.

DAVID ANDR (9 th S. iii. 127). This name is found in connexion with the Corporation of the Hospital for Poor French Protestants. "David Andre" was elected a "Directeur" on 6 Oct., 1756, and was secretary from 1785 to 1792. " David Andre, Junr.,' y was elected a Director on 10 July, 1782. H. S.

GATE : SIGN OF INN (9 th S. ii. 526). I have for some time past been interested in the subject of rhyming public -house signs, and have collected a good many specimens. In reply to a question of mine the following paragraph was embodied in a note from the editor on p. 62, vol. iii. (1890) of Northampton- shire Notes and Queries :

" At Cotterstock (Northants) there still exists a public-house called ' The Gate,' and though 1 cannot say the following lines were painted on the sign, they have often been repeated to me in connexion with it:

The Gate hangs well, and hinders none ; Refresh and pay, and travel on. The sign of ' The Gate ' is by no means infrequent. One exists in Northampton, in Scarletwell Street, at the corner of Crispin Street, on which may be seen the couplet as above."

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

Between Buckland (Dover) and the little village of River, on the road to Kearsney, is a small wayside inn with this sign. The sign- board itself has a gate painted on one side, while the reverse bears the identical couplet quoted by MR. PEACOCK :

This gate hangs well, and hinders none ; Refresh and pay, and then ride on.

In this connexion I might also record " The

reen Gate" as being the sign of a well- mown tavern in the Bethnal Green Road, London. A full-size model of a five-barred jate, painted green, projects from the front and still swings over the pavement as the expressive sign of the house. This house is probably the successor of an inn standing near an actual gate of the ancient West Heath, a great tract of common land long since disappeared, which included Bethnal Green Common and Whitechapel Green, this sign alone remaining to remind the inhabitants of the commoners' rights extinguished.

G. YARROW BALDOCK.

South Hackney.

There used to be, and I believe still is, an inn with this sign at Nottingham. MR. PEACOCK "s probably aware that the Duke of Cumber- and is still commemorated by the "Duke William Inn " at Haxey, near here.

C. C. B.

Ep worth.

" CIRAGE " (8 th S. xii. 347, 454 ; 9 th S. ii. 514). There is a notice of shoeblacks in Hone's ' Table-Book,' ii. 435. The writer speaks of them as a departed feature of the streets, obliterated by Day & Martin. In Hodder's ' Life of Lord Shaf tesbury/ 437, it is intimated that the brigade was instituted for the sake of the boots of the foreigners who visited the Great Exhibition.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

THE DATE OF SHAKSPE ARE'S ' JULIUS C^SAR ' (9 th S. iii. 105). In discussing this question I overlooked an important reference pointed out by Mr. F. G. Fleay, in his * Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama,' vol. i. p. 107. A play called ' The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green ' was published in 1659, as the work of Day ; from Henslowe's ' Diary ' we know that it was the joint work of Day and Chettle, and that it was finished by 26 May, 1600, when Henslowe paid them for it. In IY. i. Canby, disguised as master of a puppet-show, says, in advertising his motions :

" You shall likewise see the famous City of Nineveh, and the stabbing of Julius Caesar in the French Capitol by a sort of Dutch Mesopotamians.

11 Young Stroud, How the French Capitol! iiayl remember Tully's Offices sayes the Capitol that Caesar was stab'd in was at Rome.

" Can. Impute the gross mistake to the fault of the Author."

Mr. Fleay comments : " This unquestionably applies to Shakespeare's play, which therefore dates May, 1600." The puppet-play of 'Julius Csesar' is honoured with several sarcastic notices in contemporary literature. For