Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/358

 296 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9°-s. VL OCT. 13, IQOO. larity on more than one occasion, but the erring persons only smiled in a superior way. The " spirit of the times" is not favourable to pedantry, and carefulness with, for in- stance, the example given is regarded as pedantry. This same spirit accounts for many slips set down to ignorance. P. F. H. Perth. THE ELEANOR CROSS, WALTHAM (9th S. vi. 211).—The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette must have been perpetrating a hoax. The original Waltham Cross is still where it always has been, viz., at Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Herts, at the junction of the main road from Waltham Abbey with the main road from London to Hertford. The "Four Swans" public-house is situate at the corner; but the cross is not, and never was, in the garden. A. COLLINGWOOD LEE. Walthara Abbey. The Eleanor Cross at Waltham is still on the original site. Having become much dilapidated, it was restored in 1892 under the auspices of a most painstaking com- mittee, who by collecting old drawings, &c., of the cross nave set an example to many so-called restorers. As for the fragments, I have heard there are some belonging to a chapel near the site of the cross in the yard of an adjacent inn, which were unearthed at the time of the restoration ; but for this J cannot vouch. MATILDA POLLARD. Belle Vue, Bengeo. Some light is thrown on the original Eleanor Cross at Waltham by a letter which I have just unearthed from the Table Book of December, 1827. The anonymous •writer there remarks :— " Surely common decency, if they are deficient in antiquarian feeling, should induce the inhabitants of Waltham Cross to take some measures, if not to restore, at least to preserve from further decay anc dilapidation the remains of that beautiful monu iiicnt of conjugal affection — the cross erected b; Edward I. It is now in a sad, disgraceful state." The same correspondent quotes the follow ing interesting epitaph from a gravestone o: Waltham Abbey :— REV. ISAAC COLNETT. Fifteen Years Curate of this Parish. Died March 1, 1801-Aged 43 Years. Shall pride a heap of sculptured marble raise Some worthless, unmourn d titled fool to praise, And shall we not by one poor gravestone show Where pious, worthy Colnett sleeps below ? The question is not as to whether thi "sculptured marble" alluded to in thi epitaph was the original cross referred tc jy your querist; but, at any rate, my quo- Cation is evidence that the Eleanor Cross over evenly years ago was in a very bad way. WALTER A. LOCKS. Wanstead. 'THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE' (9th S. vi. 210). — " The Milanese boar, serai-fleeced," s not Marshal Radetzky, but a much older animal, viz., the half-woolly sow (not boar) md her litter of pigs who, according to the egend, indicated the site and gave the name o Mediolanum. SHERBORNE. " TEMPERANCE " (9th S. vi. 230).—A reference » Dr. Dawson Burns's' Temperance History ' London, 2 vols., 1890-91) or to Mr. Peter SVinskill's 'Temperance Movement and its Workers' (London, 1892, 4 vols.) will show the history of the word temperance in its special meaning of abstinence from intoxi- cants. The increase of drunkenness in many parts of the United States led to the forma- tion of societies intended to counteract this evil, and, as American intemperance was mainly the result of dram drinking, a pledge against the use of spirits was adopted. The movement spread to this country, and the British and Foreign Temperance Society was formed on that basis, and many local societies came into existence in 1829 and 183O. In the latter year the Government passed the mischievous Beer Bill, and before the end of the year 24,000 beerhouses were licensed. "Everybody is drunk," wrote Sydney Smith ; "those who are not singing are sprawling. The sovereign people are in a beastly state." The natural result was an increase of drunken- ness, and those who had engaged in the crusade against spirits had to face the ob- vious facts that people can become intoxicated on wine as well as on whisky, and that beer as well as brandy makes people drunk. Hence a new pledge against all intoxicants was in- troduced. The abstainers were zealous pro- pagandists, and after a time the temperance societies that adhered to the old anti-spirit platform died out or adopted the more thoroughgoing basis, and the temperance movement became what it is to-day — a crusade against all intoxicants. The only exceptions are the Church of England Tem- perance Society and some other sectarian organizations, established at a much later date, which have a " dual basis "—one sec- tion of "total abstainers," and the other of non-abstainers who are desirous of pro- moting temperance. The earliest instance known to me of the use of the word tem- perance in the sense indicated by MAJOR SUNDER is the title of the Young People's