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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL JUNE 29, 1901.

lished gives all the details that are known or sur- mised concerning the eponymous shop. 10, Green Street, near Leicester Square ; 24, Fetter Lafle ; and 14, Portsmouth Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, have all been mentioned. Only the last of these is now extant. We have no doubt that Dickens made the locality purposely obscure.]

LINES ON QUEEN VICTORIA. Amongst many poetical tributes offered to the late Queen when Princess Victoria during her early years was one by Mrs. Maclean, better known as L. E. L., commencing with the lines :

When has the day the loveliest of its hours ? It is the hour when morn breaks into day.

Can any one quote the full text of the poem, or state where it is to be found 1 A. B.

"A FOOT OF BEEF." The Rev. Peter Walker, Nonconformist minister, of Newton-in-Bow- land, on 17 December, 1725, "met with John Wilson, of whom I bespoke a foot of his cow in meat, and he told me he would kill her to-morrow night." On the 21st Walker "went to John Wilson, and bought half a foot of his beef, at 10s." ('Diary,' 1866, p. 25). Is it known what this quantity was 1 The 'E.D.D.' throws no light on the point.

Q. V.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. Was this Ame- rican author descended from a Devonshire family 1 The inquisition post mortem of Thomas Battishill, held at Hatherleigh in 1636, states that he held a messuage called Bowmead, in Sampt'ord Courtenay, of "Nathaniel Hawthorne gen. ffirmario de Sampford Courtenay." E. LEGA-WEEKES.

SCOTT QUERY. In ' The Fortunes of Nigel,' vol. ii. chap. vii. (edition of 1822), Aunt Judith, addressing Margaret Ramsay, says, "Here you come on the viretot, through the whole streets of London, to talk some nonsense to a lady," &c. What is the mean- ing of the phrase "on the viretot"? Mr. Lang passes it unnoticed in the "Border Edi- tion" of Scott, and it does not seem to be either French or Scottish.

R. B. BOSWELL.

[It means apparently a quick turn. Virer is to turn, tack.]

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. The golden Rood, the torch, the long procession, The Mass for parted souls, the song of even, With pardon frank for many a dark transgression, And melodies that dropped like dew from heaven.

E. H. COOPER.

God only knows, and none but He, What is, what was, and what will be.

JOHN T. PAGE.

DOWAGER PEERESS.

(9 th S. vii. 468.)

THE custom of widows of peers retaining their titles after remarriage with commoners, or with peers of lower degree, is by no means a recent innovation. As, however, a lady loses by marriage that which she gains by marriage, such retention of title is not a matter of right, but only of courtesy ; and at the coming Coronation, if, as no doubt will be the .case, precedent be strictly followed, those peeresses who have remarried commoners will not receive a summons thereto, while those who have remarried peers of lower degree than that of their former husbands will only receive summons in the lesser title, and take their precedence in accordance therewith. A search through 'Debrett's Peerage ' shows that over thirty widows of peers have married again, and of these three have abandoned the use of their former husbands' titles, the widow of the third Earl of Dunraven since her marriage with the second Lord Hylton being styled Baroness Hylton ; and Constance Gladys, Countess of Lonsdale, since her marriage with the eldest son of the first Marquess of Ripon being known as Countess De Grey ; whilst the widow of the fourth Lord Muncaster has taken since her re- marriage the name of Lady Jane Lindsay (thus, although now married to a commoner, obtaining higher precedence than as the widow of a peer). In the case of baronets' widows the matter is somewhat different, as the use of the title by right and not of courtesy depends upon the date of the husband's patent of creation, and whether that patent contains as some of the earlier ones dp a clause permitting its retention by the widow on remarriage ; failing this, the title can only be used by courtesy and not by right, and there are several instances where it has been discarded altogether after remarriage. A knight's widow, on the other hand, after remarriage uses the title by courtesy only. DEBRETT.

SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON'S MONUMENT (7 th S. iv. 309, 395 ; 9 th f S. vii. 410). The following points seem pertinent to MR. PAGE'S query at the last reference :

1. In * Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain,' vol. ii. part i. (1796), p. cccxxiv, Gough mentioned the figures " remaining of the old monuments, in tolerable preserva- tion," which he saw in 1783 in St. Faith's vaults at St. Paul's Cathedral. He did not