Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/231

 s. VII. MARCH 23, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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creature was drunk too, and could not help itself. My informant asked if they had kept the animal in spirits ; the reply was, "I didn't hear, but the man has never ailed anything since."

4. A young man of seventeen, educated at a Board school and quite intelligent on most subjects, declared lately to my nephew that a man who lived next door had had a live thing in his inside like a monkey, but with eight legs and a head the size of a billiard ball, and every now and then the thing rose up into his throat and nearly choked him ; and so he suffered much inconvenience until he consulted a herbalist at Bradford, whose treatment was so successful that the eight- legged creature is now on view at the her- balist's, preserved in a bottle of spirits.

My informants, who are in a position to know, say that these stories, related in all seriousness to them, would be fully believed by a large majority of the population in the neighbourhood. J. T. F.

Durham.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY. Twelve months ago, by Queen Victoria's command, all Irish regi- ments and Irishmen serving in the army were permitted to wear the shamrock, arid Sunday last being the first St. Patrick's Day parade of the Royal Irish Guards since their formation, both officers and men wore sprigs of shamrock on church parade. On their return from the service they found that Queen Alexandra had thoughtfully sent four boxes containing shamrock to be distributed to the men. The men at once removed the sprigs they had in their coats, placing those received from the Queen in their stead. By command of the King a sprig was sent to him from Covent Garden. This was the four -leaved shamrock, which is supposed to have a special significance. Perhaps some readers of 'N. & Q.' can enlighten us further in regard to this. A wreath of shamrock, by special permission of the King, was placed on the sarcophagus of Queen Victoria at Frogmore by the Royal Munster Fusiliers. The deputation consisted of General J. W. Laurie, M.P., Col. Johnston, Capt. Macpherson, and Sergeant Cullilane.

N. S. S.

AN EARLY REMINISCENCE : 1837. Let me chronicle a retrospect of more than sixty- three years, though rather faint and indistinct. On Sunday, 18 July, 1837, when only a child of six years of age, I accompanied my father, who resided at Congleton in Cheshire, to London, distant 168 miles, then an event in any one's life. We left at 10.30 P.M. in a coach cnlled the Red Rover, which started

from Manchester, and we had secured inside places. The coach ran through Newcastle- under-Ly me, Stone, Tarn worth, and Lichfield, arriving in the morning at Coventry, ninety- one miles from London, where we breakfasted. The journey was then pursued vid Daventry, Towcester, and Stony Stratford ; and then, on a lovely summer afternoon, we arrived in London, having seen the great city from Highgate Hill.

We put up at the " Golden Cross," Charing Cross, then a noted inn for coach travellers ; and well do I remember the bedroom looking out upon the extensive stables and the back of St. Martin's Church. The coffee-room was fitted up with boxes, and the little tables in them were firmly screwed down. Dickens has given a graphic description of this inn of about the same date in ' David Copperfield.' David gets but poor accommodation until he meets with his friend Steerforth, who insists upon better quarters being found for him. The interview between David and Peggotty occurs in the same room, and Little Em'ly is represented as listening on the outside a scene which Phiz has depicted. Since 1837 I have never entered the " Golden Cross," though I have often been tempted to do so, to see what alterations have been made.

On 20 June in that year the great bell of St. Paul's had announced the decease of William IV., the last son of George III. who was ever to reign in Great Britain ; and the proclamation of Queen Victoria followed shortly. William IV. was always a popular king, and I can remember a very favourite song in those days who the author was I do not know, but the song began :

The King is a true British sailor

As

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

[The "Golden Cross" of which you speak is not now in existence.]

NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE STATISTICS. The ' Newspaper Press Directory ' for 1901 gives some interesting statistics. There are now published in the United Kingdom 2,488 newspapers, distributed as follows :

England- London. 456

Country 1,488-1,944

Wales 108

Scotland 235

Ireland 181

Isles 20

Of these there are 196 daily papers published in England, 7 in Wales, 19 in Scotland, 20 in Ireland, and 5 in the British Isles. The first edition of the ' Directory ' (1846) records in that