Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/101

 9»»S. IV. Sept. 2,'99.] 197 NOTES AND QUERIES. to have explained this at the first reference, where the unsupported statement that a quarto of 1609 was impossible, because the play had not then been acted, looks at first sight unteuable. Percy Simpson. 154, Grosvenor Terrace, Cainberwell, S.E. Battle of Edge Hill, 23 October, 1642 (9th S. iv. 146).—There is a very interesting account of the battle of Edgehill and the surrounding country in Howitt's 'Visits to Remarkable Places' (vol. i. pp. 367-81, third edition, 1856). Like several great battles, as Towton and Waterloo, it was fought on Sunday. Mr. Howitt observes, after spend- ing the night at an inn close to the field of battle, called the "Sun Rising " :— " In the night after the battle, and during which both annies continued under arms, came a severe frost with a most bitter wind from the north, and any one who stands on that height in winter and feels how keenly the air comes sweeping over the wide, open champaign from that quarter will not wonder that in the morning neither army felt much desire to renew the contest. I was there but ten days earlier in the season than the anniversary of the battle, and a heavy snowstorm, driving fiercely for two hours, made me feel sympathetically what must have been the sufferings of the hundreds who lay wounded on the open field; yet to this very cir- cumstance the preservation of the lives of numbers was attributed, the cold stopping their bleeding when they otherwise must have died of exhaus- tion. Such are the miserable comforts of miserable war."—P. 376. I have on two occasions visited the battle- field of Edgehill, and the view from the plateau on which the " Sun Rising "—formerly an inn, now a gentleman's residence — is situated is grand. The country lies beneath like a chessboard : in the distance may bo seen the spire of Stratford-on-Avon, and on a clear day the Wrekin. In the valley below is the ancient dwelling of the Comptons, called Compton Winyates, built in the reign of Henry VIII. But even in the middle of summer there is a wind blowing, and in the autumn and winter the cold must be most severe. Edgehill has now become a great place for excursionists from Leamington and Banbury. John Pickford, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. Peerless Pool (9th S. iv. 128).—This pool was formerly a spring which overflowed its banks, forming a very dangerous pond, where so many lives were lost that the name be- came corrupted to Perilous Pool. It was in the City Road. " And not far from it" (i.e., from St. Agnes le Clair), says Stow, p. 7, " is also one other clear water called Perillous Pond, because divers youths by swimming therein have been drowned." Maitland de- scribes it as " the completest swimming bath in the whole world " (' Hist, of Lond.'). It was one of the ancient springs that supplied the metropolis with water when our ances- tors conducted their water thereto by means of wooden pipe conduits. William Kemp, an eminent citizen of London, "after ten years of experience of the temperature of the water, was led for public benefit to open the spring in the year 1743 He spared no expense or contrivance to render it quite private and retired from public inspection " (Maitland). The cold bath, supplied by a remarkably cold spring, was 40 ft. long and 20 ft. broad. Subscription for the use of it was U. 10s. per annum, 17s. for two months, and 10s. for one month. The pleasure bath in the open air was 170 ft. long and upward of 100 ft. wide, nearly surrounded by trees, with an arcade and boxes for dressing, nowhere so deep as 5 ft., and at one end less than 4 ft.; ll. 10s. per annum, 16s. two months, 9s. one month. Single bath at either, Is. Much of the above information is gathered from a scarce old handbill, bearing woodcut illustration of the bath, and in my possession. Mr. F. Hitchin-Kemp is welcome to see it if he so desires. J. Holden MacMichael. Mayford, Wimbledon Park Road. This pleasure bath, which was 170 ft. in length by 108 ft. in breadth, was said to have been the largest in England. It was open to the air, and surrounded by trees and shrubberies. The under-mentioned views may be seen in the ' Collection of Maps, Plans, and Views of London' formed by Frederick Crace, 1878, now in the British Museum: ' The Plea- sure Bath, Peerless Pool, City Road, with a Plan of the Vicinity'; ' A View of Peerless Pool, Bath, and Gardens in 1848.' I possess a woodcut illustration of the pleasure bath as I recollect it from 1827 to 1834, which is open to the inspection of your correspon dent. Everard Home Coleman. 71, Brecknock Road. There are illustrations of the bath and fish- pond at Peerless Pool in vol. i. of Hone's Every-day Book.' These, with the descrip- tive letterpress, will be found under date 21 July, and on pp. 485-9 of the edition pub- lished by Ward, Lock & Co. in 1888. John T. Page. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. An engraving of " Peerless Pool" may be seen in Hone's 'Every-day Book,' 1825, with a description of it; also Stow's remarks on " Perilous Poole," and why so called. B. B.