Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/121

 a* s. VL A™. 4, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 99 the story of the Prodigall childe [=spn] (a very edifying peece ot workeman-ship for the guests of that place)." But it does not appear clear to which of the two Compters, Poultry or Wood Street, this refers. Wheat- ley, in ' London Past and Present,' 1891. states, however, " the hall of the Wood Street Compter." W. I. K. V. NOTES ON BOOKS, Ao. Fulham Old and New : being an Exhaustive History of the. Ancient Pariah of Fulham. By Charles James Feret. 3 voU. (Leadenlmll Press.) MANY years of conscientious, enlightened, and indefatigable labour have been spent by Mr. Feret in the acquisition of material towards a history of Fulham. Students of ' N. & Q,.,' the columns of which have been occupied with numerous queries concerning the inhabitants of the place and its associations, have been in a position to judge of the amount of labour bestowed on the work, and even to guess at the progress that was being made with its compilation. When now it appears in three handsome volumes, with nearly five hundred illus- trations, maps, plans, facsimiles, £c., it stands forth a model of the way in which the great parishes constituting London should be treated, and constitutes one of the very best local histories that our capital can boast. Marvellous changes have taken place since Thomas Faulkner issued, in 1813, his ' Historical and Topographical Account of I following ' The History and Antiquities of Kensington and similar works. Since that time the population has increased from something under 6,000 inhabitants to considerably over 120,000, the number of occupied tenements having necessarily augmented in a similar ratio. When first heard of, circa A.D. 691, the population was about 250; in the Lordship ol Fulham in 1384 the pig-keepers who paid rent to the bishop numbered no fewer than 109. We may state before entering further on the work that Mr. Feret acknowledges assistance from well-known contributors to 'N. & Q.,' such as Prof. Skeat, Col. Prideaux, Lady Dilke, Sir Horace Rumbold, Mr. Milner-Gibson-Cullum, Mr. Arthur Hussey, Mr. Hilton Price, Mr. C. Mason. Col. Hunter-Weston, Mr. W. J. Harvey, Mr. Hitchin Kemp, &c., and that his large list of sub ecribers includes very many of our supporters Among sources of information employed with ex emplary care and gratifyingly remunerative result! are the Court Rolls of the Manor of Fulham beginning with 1382 (a specially productive source of supply), accounts of the churchwardens am overseers from 1625, the assessments and parisl records, the church registers, and our priucipa national collections, besides original documents ir private hands. Very many of these were inaccessibly to Mr. Feret's predecessors. The superiority of hi work over all that has gone before is testified no less in the amount and quality of the information supplied than in the character of the illustrations most of which are interesting and well executed •while some reproduce prints of much rarity. In the case of a work so ambitious and covering o much ground it is obviously impossible to give an analysis of the contents or an idea of the treat- ment. All that can be done is to deal with a few mints of interest out of the many that are raised. ,ii ii regard to the much-disputed origin and significance of the name, Mr. Feret dismisses the whimsical derivation, favoured by Camden, Norden, and others, from Fullonham, " the place of fowles, and accepts the view now generally entertained that it is from Fulanham=toul or miry town or }lace. an appellation drawn from the successive inundations by the river and the consequent deposit of river mud. An alternative derivation from iU. a supposed Saxon chieftain, needs not be discussed. " From time immemorial" the parishes of Fulham and Hammersmith formed a manor, the lords of which were the Bishops of London. Not until 1831 was an Act passed for making the hamlet
 * >f Hammersmith a distinct and separate parish.

The right of fishing the river belonged to the manor, and it was the custom of the lord to lease the royalty to sundry persons on certain terms, which included the gratuitous supply of three salmon and four hundred smelt, together with the sale at current market rates of such fish as the household might require. Sturgeon, we learn, were claimed by the Lord Mayor, who usually sent them to the king, the fisherman being entitled to a pound (then a large sum) for each fash. The early habitants of Fulham seem to have been given to dice play and other prohibited games, among which were bowls. We find several persons amerced in 6s. 8d. for indul- gence in this game, to which, however, Bishop Aylmer was addicted. Mr. Feret may be glad to know that the prohibition of bowls in the sixteenth century was due to a desire to encourage archery, the practice of which was falling into neglect, " harquebussing," and similar pursuits. Futtams, fullomy, orfulham#, it is grievous to hear, was a term for false dice, so named, it is supposed, from the place of their manufacture. Under Puritan rule we find a penalty of 21. for gambling. Turning from matters which were not peculiar to Fulham, we come to the account of spots or monuments of note, beginning with Fulham Ferry and Fulham Bridge. With regard to the bridge of boats constructed by Essex in 1642 parish records are silent. Of the old bridge opened in 1729, and the new bridge opened in 1886—of the former especially—very numerous designs are given. Beginning then at the High Street, Mr. Feret pro- ceeds through the entire parish, describing with minute fidelity and scrupulous accuracy every place and object of interest, giving historical particulars, and frequently pedigrees and portraits, of the occupants of memorable houses, dwelling lovingly upon such objects as the palace and the church, and treating with due respect the newly erected theatre. It is impossible to enumerate the eminent residents in Fulham. Not a few spots of beauty or interest have now disappeared. Craven Cottage, esteemed the prettiest specimen of cottage architecture in England, where Bulwer Lytton wrote ' Night and Morning' and the ' Last of the Barons.' was burnt to the ground. Brandenburgh House, the residence of the Margravine of Anspoch and that of Queen Caroline, was razed. Processes of destruction have indeed raged here as elsewhere. Fortunately much remains to delight the historian and the antiquary, though Fulham, like other parts of London, can