Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/287

 9"" S. IV. Oct. 28, W.] 351 NOTES AND QUERIES. almost exactly the same lines existed along the south side of Commercial Road East, London, until 1871, when it was removed for " improve- ments." It consisted of a couple of parallel lines of grey granite, long slabs, each about 18 inches wide and 8 or 10 feet in length, laid at a convenient distance from one another to take the wheels of heavy waggons. When the tram-line was removed in Com- mercial Road East, thirty years ago, it was credibly stated the selfsame stones had been in situ considerably over a century. It was originally laid by the East India Com- pany, and was situated upon part of the direct route from the Company's docks to their vast warehouses in tenchurch Street. The waggons carrying the mer- chandise landed from the East were very strongly built without springs, high, covered in at top like a furniture railway van, or perhaps more like those large ones affected by Wombwell for the conveyance of wild beasts about the country. They were all of them painted green, and their respective numbers were also painted conspicuously upon them. Drawn by two horses, these waggons were loaded with tea, silks, indigo, and other Eastern produce. The full waggons only used the tramway, those returning empty going along as ordinary vehicles. Like our present trams, the loaded waggons pos- sessed a monopoly of the road, all other con- veyances giving way to them. As a lad in the forties I used occasionally to visit a kind aunt resident in Commercial Road East, and, refreshing my boyish recollection, it seems to me the heavier laden of these waggons used to rumble along with a sound like moving artillery, almost shaking both road and houses. Perhaps, however, this was simply the impression made upon my sen- sitive young ears in those days. As already noted, the City warehouses were in Fenchurch Street, near to the East India House, itself a long two - storied Portland stone building with a sculptured pediment supported by fluted columns in the midst of its street facade. It must have been fully 200 ft. long, extending, as it did, along the south side of Leadenhall Street from Lime Street to close to the market. There were two entrances to these storehouses, situated in Jewry and Fenchurch Streets respectively. The double gates were always kept closed (a small wicket being used for ordinary passenger egress) save when the wains were there. Tea, silk, &c., went in at the Fenchurch Street gateway, and indigo, ifcc., vid the Jewry Street one. Thehours of labour for all connected with these warehouses will probably sound somewhat unusual to modern ears. In summer they extended continuously from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and in winter from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with simply a fifteen minutes' in- terval at noon. The old tram-line stopped by Church Lane, at the western end of Com- mercial Road, and was not continued through High Street, Whitechapel, or Aldgate. Harry Hems. Fair Park, Exeter. Sir Matthew Mennes (9th S. iv. 289).—Mr. Arthur Hussey's note is interesting, as I do not think it is generally known that Sir Matthew was involved in any treasonable practices. Boys, in his ' History of Sand- wich,' says that " he had the misfortune to kill his servant, James Creek, for which he was tried and convicted of manslaughter, whereby his goods and chattels were forfeited to the Crown, and such of them as were within Sandwich and its liberty were seized for tho use of the corporation ; to redeem which he paid a composition of 150/. in the year 1640." The authority for this statement is the " new black book," ff. 371, 372 ('Hist. Sandwich,' note to pedigree on p. 351). Can the supposed punishment for treason have had reference to this case ] W. F. Prideaux. Maheu de Redman (9th S. iv. 288).—This name is the old French and Anglo-French popular form of the Latin Mat l/ieeus, of which the learned form is Matthieu, whence our Matthew. The form Maheu represents a Romanic Maleum, the intervocal dental of which fell out according to rule, the hiatus being supplied by the aspirate. The name Maheu is found in the 'Chanson de Roland,' 1. 66. It is the origin of the modern East Anglian surname Mayliew. A. L. Mayhew. Oxford. Maheu is an old French form of Matthew, and is now represented by the surname May- hew. Thus the Anglo-Norman Jordan Fan- tosiue, II. 29, 87, 92, calls Matthew, Count of Boulogne, Maheu de Buluine. Examples of the nom. Maheus, ace. Maheu, Mahin, may be found in Gustave Fallot's 'Recherches sur les Formes Grammaticales de la Langue Fran- chise' (Paris, 1839), p. 181. The spelling, generally without the nom. s, is to be met with commonly in Anglo-French documents of the thirteenth century, after which period it became gradually superseded by Matheu (modern French Mathieu), from Latin Mat- thcus, Greek MuTflatos, whereas Maheu pre- supposes a vulgar Latin Maiens, Mattrus. The name Matthew was a favourite one with the Redman family, a Cumberland landowning