Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/244

 236

NOTES AND QUERIES,

MARCH 23, 1901.

conveyance of ships across an isthmus ; see Barbour's ' Bruce,' xv. 272, and the note. Tl^e note says that the same thing had been done in 1098 ; and I refer to further information to be found in Ty tier's ' History of Scotland,' i. 368. WALTER W. SKEAT.

A notable instance is that of the Turks at the siege of Valetta, when they drew their galleys across country from one of the marsas in the south of Malta to the head of the Grand Harbour. The knights commanded the mouth, but not the head, of the harbour with their guns. H. P. L.

Without being able to answer K.'s question, I can refer him to a passage in Baring- Gould's ' Study of St. Paul,' which will pro- bably be of interest to him :

"Ships from Italy reached the port of Lechteum, and on rollers were drawn by oxen along a straight and even road, five miles long, to Diolcus, where they were again floated to continue their voyage to the East. Or, if the vessels were too large, then their lading was transferred to pack-horses, tum- brils, and the backs of porters, to be carried across the isthmus and re-shipped at the other port." P. 242.

ST. SWITHIN.

THE TITLE OF ESQUIRE (9 th S. vi. 387, 452, 471 ; vii. 33, 94). At the last reference there is a quotation from MR. FOX-DAVIES'S work on ' Armorial Families,' affirming that the de- scription of gentleman throughout that book is limited to its ancient and legal interpreta- tion, namely, a person entitled to bear arms. Does the application of that term to persons in parish registers and other public docu- ments in the seventeenth century constitute proof that those who were there so described were entitled to bear arms ? INQUIRER.

" BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST " (9 th S, vii. 125). I pointed out long ago in ' N. &Q. the real origin of Tennyson's lines : 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. In Congreve's * Way of the World ' Mrs. Mar wood says, " 'Tis better to be left than never to have been loved." E. YARDLEY.

COUNTING ANOTHER'S BUTTONS (9 th S. v 496; vi. 30, 273, 371, 456; vii. 15). Girl count plum and cherry stones to see if some man's name comes exactly to the number either full Christian and surname, or initial and surname. If there be a stone too man; or too few for this, " he loves me not." Othe girls look on and guess from the numbe of stones who it is. I often saw thi done in Yorkshire about thirty years ago W. C. B.'s cassock is not the latest fashion apparently, for T saw one by an up-to-dat

London tailor the other day with no buttons t all, and, on irreverently inquiring "how he apple got in," was informed "no one vore buttons now," and that said cassock vas " absolutely Sarum." IBAGUE".

OLD LONDON TAVERNS (9 th S. vii. 69, 154). Although the " Five Bells Tavern " was behind he church of St. Mary-le-Strand, the sign
 * ommemorated the inauguration of the ring

jf bells belonging to the older church of St. Clement's. The former church still has ne bell only, which gave its sign to the 'One Bell Inn," described in the London Evening Post of 1 May, 1718, as situate ' behind the New Church in the Strand, near he Maypole" a noted coaching inn, where n 1741 the Richmond stage coach put up. !t is, I am afraid, improbable that MR. iloBERTSON will be able to obtain print or drawing of either this "Five Bells" or of he " Griffin " in Holborn. Neither of these laving been coaching inns, they had little hance of being perpetuated in print, and as rdinary tavern resorts they do not appear Hogarth or Bunbury. Diprose in his 'St. Element Danes,' quoting (p. 288) R. Seymour's London and Westminster,' 1734, says, " Holy- well Street, commonly called the backside of St. Clement's, a place inhabited by divers salesmen and piecebrokers. This street runs up to the Maypole in the Strand, where is the ' Five Bell Tavern,' which is a thorough- fare into Wych Street." There was, accord- ing to Larwood and Hotten's 'History of Signboards,' a "Ship and Fox" next door but one to the " Five Bell Tavern," near the Maypole, but this is the only mention there made of this house. There was a " Bell Yard " on the east side of Drury Lane, by the new church, so late as 1813 (see John Lockie's ' Topog. of London ' of that year).
 * o have possessed enough fame or interest
 * o have come under the notice of either

Jhe" Griffin" in Holborn was in Fuller's (Fulwood's) Rents, a narrow paved court opposite the end of Chancery Lane, which in 1720 Strype describes as

"a place of good resort, and taken up by coffee- houses, ale-houses, and houses. of entertainment, by

reason of its vicinity to Gray's Inn At the upper

end of the court is a passage into the Castle Tavern, a house of considerable trade, as is the Golden Griffin Tavern, on the west side, which also hath a passage into Fulwood's Rents."

At the "Griffin Tavern," in Holborn, sub- scriptions were taken for "a Mezzotinto Print of the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of England, done by Mr. Faber, from an original Painting of Hillyard's. Five Shillings subscription, half at subscribing,