Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES. or* s. v. JAN. 6, uoo.

written about Sir John in that storehouse of historical fact and original opinion, ' View of the btate of Europe during the Middle Ages,' twelfth edition, 1868 (Murray), pp. 470-2 :

"This very eminent man had served in the war of Edward III., and obtained his knighthood from that sovereign, though originally, if we may trust common fame, bred to the trade of a tailor. His name is worthy to be remembered as that of the nrst_ distinguished commander who had appeared in Jl^urope since the destruction of the Roman empire. He appears to me to be the first real general of modern times ; the earliest master how- ever imperfect, in the science of Turenne and Wellington. Every contemporary Italian historian speaks with admiration of his skilful tactics in battle, his stratagems, his well-conducted retreats." Hawkwood, Hallam states, was not only the greatest, but the last of the foreign condot- tien, or captains of mercenary bands. Byron alludes to Henry Hallam in his 'English Bards ' as

Classic Hallam, much renowned for Greek.

HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W.

COMPENSATION T0 BRYA *, LORD FAIRFAX (9 th S. iv. 399, 427). Some particulars con- cerning the American estates, which lay between the Potomac and the Rappahannock m Virginia, may be seen in 'The Fairfax Correspondence/ London, 1848, pp. cxxvi- cxxxvii. H. DAVEY.

THE MINT (9 th S. iv. 348, 403, 506). I do not pretend to be infallible, but I fail to see in what respect my information was inaccu- rate, unless it be that I referred to Mint btreet as still existing, whereas, according to your correspondent BRUTUS, it is now called Marshalsea Road. In one of the latest Lon- don maps in my possession, that which accompanied the newest reissue of 'Old and New London ' in 1897-8, Mint Street is still shown, while Marshalsea Road runs into it at an angle, and only usurps the old title at the easternmost end. The change of name must therefore be of very recent date,* and I can only regret the disappearance of the last memorial of a district which filled so large a place in the satiric literature of the last cen- tury. It is almost impossible for any one to keep abreast of the London County Council in its extraordinary mania for changing the names of old and historic streets. I believe the latest victim of this craze, unless sound and saner counsels prevail, will be James btreet, Buckingham Gate, which was called alter the last of the Stuarts, in whose time it

holds a place m the 'Post Office London Directory,' and that bt. feaviour s Workhouse is situated in it
 * I think it will be found that Mint Street still

was built, and which is full of interesting associations. Perhaps here I may be told that I am inaccurate, for the Westminster Vestry will, I understand, be actually respon- sible for the alteration, though the County Council is the head that instigates the arm to do the deed. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

"BRIDGE" (9 th S. iv. 497). The real name is " britch," and the game is supposed to have a Russian origin, which may help philologists to trace the source of the term, if it is un- known. Skat and bridge have little in com- mon. Skat is a three-handed game, a kind of cross between gleek and hombre, with borrow- ings from other quarters ; bridge is an im- proved dummy-whist for four players, with sundry details likewise borrowed elsewhere. The only semblance between them is that the trump is named by the players, and suits have an order of preference, with the trace of a link, perhaps, in the honours and mata- dores. The objects of the games are quite different (as well as the methods). In whist and bridge, it is tricks numerically ; in skat, the values contained in the tricks which places skat on a higher level of skill than either of the other two games. Can any readers of ' N. & Q.' throw light on the evolution of the game itself (bridge) 1

J. S. M. T.

The Russian term schlem (sch = sh or s), when used in the card-play at whist, is evidently borrowed from the German Scklemm, denoting the total loss, or defeat, inflicted upon the opposite party of the game. Schlemm, again, has been adapted to German after the English whist-term slam, which bears the same mean- ing (s. Grimm's ' Deutsches Worterbuch,' ed. Heyne, ix. 632). H. KREBS.

Oxford.

THE STAFFORD FAMILY (9 th S. iv. 477). See the many members of it noticed in * Diet. Nat. Biog.' A. F. P.

" LOWESTOFT CHINA " (9 th S. iv. 498). MR. RATCLIFFE will find an able discussion upon the subject of his query in 'Marks and Mono- grams on European and Oriental Pottery and Porcelain,' by Win. Chaffers (new edition, revised and edited by Frederick Litchfteld, 1897). The author has, scerningty, disposed of the theory that the " Lowes tof t ware was simply Oriental porcelain, painted only at Lowestoft":

" Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, in an interesting paper on Lowestoft china, in the Art Journal of July, 1863, has fallen into the same error. He says : * The best of the productions of the Lowestoft works are painted on Oriented body, but there are many good