Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/293

 9* a iv. OCT. 28, 357 NOTES AND QUERIES. readily make a general appeal. Had Tanna hill lived now near a busy Clyde seaport, h would have had a chance of hitching into hi rime the bellowing foghorn and the ear piercing wail of the siren. THOMAS BAYNE. " EGGISTE " (9th S. iv. 307).—A gamekeeper in this neighbourhood tells me that eygiste is i name for the magpie in Lincolnshire, wher he was for some time; but he has neve heard the bird so named in Dorset. Furthei he asserts that there are two sorts of magpie differing not in plumage, but in manner o nesting. One kind nests in timber trees, th other in bushes. H. J. MOULE. Dorchester. FIRST HALFPENNY NEWSPAPER (9th S. ii 504 ; iv. 270).—There was a halfpenny news paper, bearing the—to Scotch men—significan title of The Bawbee, published for a shor time in Edinburgh during the latter part of 1856 or 1857. I have not a copy in my possession, and am not certain whether ii was a daily or a weekly, but I fancy the former. Perhaps some Scotch correspondent may be able to give some definite information respecting it. ALEXANDER PATERSON, F.J.I. Barnsley. It is doubtful if the Echo can claim to be the first halfpenny newspaper, though doubt- less it was the first of any great importance In 1706 there was established a small quarto foolscap newspaper, entitled the Norwich Postman, price Id., but "id not refused." See 3rd S. iv. 38. JAMES HOOPER. Norwich. ALBERT GATE (9th S. i. 164, 294; iv. 204, 296).—H. R. J.'s memory has certainly de- ceived him with regard to the position of Mr. Hudson's house. Under the provisions of the Act 4 Viet. c. 12, passed 10 March, 1841, the Commissioners of Works were em- powered to purchase the land on which the present Albert Gate now stands for the purpose of forming a new entrance to Hyde Park. The purchase-money, amounting to 20,844/. 10s. 9d, was principally paid to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, who were lords of the manor of Knightsbridge. A portion of the land was leased by the Com- missioners for ninety-nine years to the late Mr. Thomas Cubitt, who immediately built on the eastern side a large mansion for which Mr. Hudson is stated to have paid 15,000^. This is the house which subsequently became the residence of the French ambassador, and which aroused the satire of the London wits. The writer in the Daily Telegraph of 17 Aug., who, via the Pall Mall Gazette, is quoted by MR. HEBB at p. 204, in stating that Mr. J. 11. Planche made this and the opposite house " the subject of a sparkling little farce that amused the town for a season," had evidently in his mind the burlesque from which a quotation was given by MR. HEBB at the second reference cited above. Perhaps MR. HEBB will be good enough to com- municate the name of this piece, which was included in the collected edition of Planche's 'Extravaganzas.' W. F. PRIDEAUX. MILES FAMILY (9th S. iv. 268). — I re- member as a boy, nearly sixty years ago, " Miles's Madhouse" in Hoxton Old Town. It was a large brick house, on the right coming from the City, in a line with Curtain Road. It had extensive grounds at the back, reaching, I should think, nearly to the backs of the houses in the Kingsland Road, these grounds being the exercise grounds of the patients, apparently gentle and middle-class people. I lived in the neighbourhood at the time, and unless I am mistaken there was at this time an old brass plate on the front door with the name " Mr. Miles." Mr. John Hollingshead tells us much about Hoxton in his autobiography, 'My Lifetime," 1895. He was, he tells us, born there in 1827, and his father's house overlooked one of the rather numerous asylums of Hoxton ; while at another he was a visitor through two maiden aunts of his being matrons there. Perhaps he could impart to ' N. & Q.'something about "Miles's" in addition to what I have given here. The two asylums Mr. Hollingshead may be said to have been connected with, as ibove stated, seem to have been Whitraore House in Whitmore Road, and one near Ivy Lane, the locality of part of the plot of Sir Walter Besant's ' All Sorts and Conditions of Men.' J. W. M. GIBBS. BRITISH SUZERAINTY IN SOUTH AMERICA 9th S. iv. 328).—Surely K. R. should have ooked at some reference-book. The " Argen- ine Republic" did not exist in "the last
 * entury," when the country was, of course, a

Spanish colony. The story of our capture of its capital in the great war is well known, a is the State trial which arose out of the isaster of its loss along with that of the olours of a British regiment. B. S. I. " HARD " (9th S. iv. 228).—Is it possible that white hart "is meant? I do not find hard s hart in Chaucer's or Shakespeare's glossary, hough if it does occur, and the badge of the ItzAlans was a white hart, an interesting