Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/271

 9*s.vi.sKpT.22,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 221 LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3!, 1900. CONTENTS.-No. 143. NOTES :—Vanishing London, 231—Footprints of Gods, 4c.. 223—"Shoddy" Cloth Binding! — Scott and Carlyle on Laughter — The Mischiefs of Tobacco, 226 — • Mistletoe Bough' Tragedy Again—The Locomotive and Gas—Car- rington, Watchmaker—Pronunciation of "Orisons," 227— Mill's Definition of Matter—T. S. Cooper's Life, 228. OUBKIBS :—St. James's Shell — Address Wanted, 228 — "Cheval de St. Jean" — " Perflde Albion" — English Ambassador and Napoleon—Source of Quotation—" The mains more "—Medallion of Walter Scott—' Kombert'— " Honours are easy "—S. P. Fielding—Foley—Parody on •TheMistletoe Bough'—Calvin Letters—"Moving heaven and earth," 229 —"Goal" and " Gaol " — Pole-Carew— Ferocious Doolys— Temperance— Feudal Courts Baron— Firebuck, Guumaker—Kton College and Ham Hunting- Old Masonic Engraving — Shrewsbury Records—"Old England "—Walton, 230—Berners Family—Line* on Eat- ing—Buskin's Road—Sources of Quotations Wanted, 231. REPLIES :—Huish, 231—Volcanic Eruption at Krakatoa— Holy Rood of Lisle—Early Irish In Iceland—Author of Poem Wanted, 232-" Max": Slang for Gin—Plantagem-t Chair—"Lorlot"—Quotations in Text-Books—Deprecia- tion of Coinage — Quotations in Green, 233 — Long and Young Family — " Heart of grace " — " Macabaa "- Lord Brougham's Confession — Capel Family, 234 —Cutlers' Poetry—" Free-bord " — Regimental Nicknames — Joseph Inchbald—Sergeant-atrArms — Durham Account Rolls — "Chink," 235—Konj«t — Clifford : Braose—' The Stream of Time,' 236—Wem—" Dick Kitcat"—" Inwardness "— Donald Walker—Richard Crashaw —Tomb in Westminster Abbey, 237 — Thackeray's Contributions to ' Punch ' — St Anne's Church, Blackfriars — Poem attributed to Milton—French Prisoners of War, 238—Quotation, 239. NOTES ON BOOKS-.—Hand's 'Life, Letters, 4c., of An- thony, Barlof Shaftesbury '-Albert's • Les Theatres de la Folre'—* Calendar of Inquisitions/ gottt. VANISHING LONDON. No part of London has been richer in interesting landmarks than the neighbour- hood of Bream's Buildings. Most of these have now been removed. Indeed, the only one likely to remain is the old gateway to Lincoln's Inn. This, although long threatened, still survives. Fetter Lane—" Fewter Lane," so called of fewters or idle persons. Here once resided Hobbes of Malrnesbury; Sir Thomas Went- worth (Strafford) writes from it on March 26th, 1621 ; John Bagford, the antiquary, was born here in 1675; Tom Paine lived at No. 77; and ten or twelve years ago one of the houses bore the inscription, " Here liv'd Dryden, yc poet, born 1631, died 1700." The first great change to be made was in 1851, when the building of the new .Record Office was commenced on the Rolls estate, to which the public records have been re- moved, and where they are easy of access. This important work was largely brought about by the late Prince Consort, Lord Langdale, Sir Henry Cole, and the strong advocacy of the Athencriim, whose con- tributors had found great difficulty in making historical researches among the State Papers at Carlton Ride. Lord Langdale was the first to commence the consolidation of the several offices by placing as many records as it would hold in the riding school of Carlton House. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Cole was placed in charge of the building on the 25th of November. 1841. Lord Langdale strongly opposed the proposal to place the records in the Victoria Tower, then about to be built, and in a letter to the Treasury on the 4th of October, 1842, urged that the oest and most convenient site for the Record Office would be on the Rolls estate. It was, however, not until the 8th of February. 1850, that his final appeal was successful. He was not spared to see the great work accomplished for which he had fought so earnestly. He died on the 18th of April, 1851, and was buried in the Temple Church. The first stone of the new building was laid by Sir John Romilly on the 24th of May following. In order that the new building in Fetter Lane should be thoroughly fireproof, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Pennethorne the architect, con- sulted with Braidwood of the Fire Brigade, and we have as the result a stone building, fireproof, full of windows, and as strongly built as a fortress. Mr. Cole enthusiastically describes it as "the repository of the Public Records of the nation in unbroken series dating from the Norman Conquest eight centuries ago. It is wonderful for a completeness in Europe, or even perhaps in the world, which is due to our insular position, and to English conservative instincts. These records tell an indisputable tale of English events, life, manners, justice, and property, to be preserved as long as England lasts."* Mr. Henry Cole's connexion with the Public Records dates from 1832, when he had charge of the Court of Augmentations—a Court which Henry VIII. had established to look after the " augmentation " of his revenues arising from the dissolution of the monasteries. At the time of the fire which burnt down the Houses of Parliament on the 16th of October, 1834, the office, which adjoined the Houses, was threatened, and Cole, assisted by the Guards and policemen, removed the whole of the documents into St. Martin's Church. This narrow escape of the records caused him to be anxious as to fire all through his life, and during his last years at the South Kensington Museum he would frequently go over the building after it was closed, to be sure that the treasures it contained were quite safe In 1896 the Rolls Chapel was pulled down. It had been proposed to incorporate it in the C.B.,' vol. i. p. 32 (George Bell & Sons).
 * ' Fifty Years of Public Work of Sir Henry Cole