Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/525

 9"-s.vn.JcNE29,i90i.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

517

century ago. A statement appeared in the Morning Post, as I believe, to the effect that he was a woman. He once, I am told, fought a duel. I neglected at the time to make a note of the facts, which some one with more prudent habits or a better memory than I may recall and be able to supply. H. T.

This question has been previously asked, but not satisfactorily solved. See a long article in All the Year Round for 18 May, 1867, 4 A Mystery Still,' and 7 th S. iii. 288.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

VANISHING LONDON: CHRIST'S HOSPITAL (9 th S. vii. 205, 296, 431). Although when I wrote my note I was not sufficiently mindful of the readers I intended addressing, still I think I can justify what I said. I really feel very much obliged to MR. PAGE for what I look upon as his kind way of reproving what he considers a wild piece of unjustifiable assertion on my part.

With every intention of praising every- thing he could, the writer of Bohn's (or Weale's) 'London' was unable to find any part of the Bluecoat School that he could mention as good. Therefore I infer that it is all bad. But besides this the best he can say is that one part might be presumed to be good, but it had been destroyed (i.e., restored). He says :

" It occupies the site of the Monastery of Grey Friars, and contains a slight relic thereof in a row of arches, formerly a cloister, on the south side of the principal quadrangle. The parts built in the reigns of Edward and his sisters have all been restored, and are not now distinguishable from the modern additions, which all affect the style (if such it can be called) of that period, except the Great Hall (the building seen from Newgate Street), which is well-proportioned Gothic work, very creditable to its designer John Shaw, and was built between 1825 and 1829. The Grammar School (pseudo-Elizabethan) has been added still more recently."

The cloister, to judge from the little stone- work that is left, might perhaps be Ed- wardian ; it is bad enough for that, but I should say it was a poor copy : all the interior of the cloisters has been altered, for it now has a lath-and -plaster ceiling. I have just had a look from Newgate Street with a good field-glass at the details of the Hall ; they are mongrel Gothic. I do not as a rule use the absurd word "Gothic "for "early English," but here it seems more convenient, as it is somewhat abusive. RALPH THOMAS.

DUAL NUMBER IN PROVINCIAL GERMAN (9 th S. vii. 449). Information about this may be found in Grimm's 'Deutsches Worter-

buch,' sub vpce 'Enker.' It is described as " nur im bairisch-ostreichischen Volksdialect haftend, und dessen auffallendes Kenn- zeichen." It may be heard, for instance, in the Tyrol. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

The well-known Middle High German dual forms of the pronoun enk = ihr (you) and enker=euer (your), the only remnants of the complete dual of the personal pronoun found in the Gothic language, have been preserved in the Bavarian dialect down to the present time (see Schmeller's 'Bayerisches Worter- buch,' i. 83, first published in 1827).

H. KREBS. Oxford.

PEWS ANNEXED TO HOUSES (9 th S. vii. 388). The vestry book for the parish of St. John Baptist, iCardiff, under date 1813, contains this record :

"Resolved that the several Seats in the Gallery be apportioned to and among the several persona hereunder named in respect of the premises set opposite their names and they chuse & fix upon the Seats in order as they are hereafter named and that such Seats in future be attached to the premises to which they are to be fixed.

"John Kichards Esq e in respect of the Corner House.

"John Wood J nr his own dwellinghouse.

"Penydarran Corny house

occup d by Joseph Da vies," &c.

This was an apportionment of seats in a newly erected gallery, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the churchless parish of St. Mary, Cardiff. The seats were rented, and the income applied in aid of church rates. The company referred to was the Penydarren Iron Company.

In the previous year it was resolved that

" every Parishioner claiming Title to the Seats of the Outdwellers sho d at their own Expence take such measures for recovering of the same as to them shall seem meet."

With the exception, however, of the resolu- tion of 1813, I find nothing in the parish books to illustrate the annexation of pews to particular dwelling-houses. There is, of course, ample evidence that the appropriation of seats to individuals was the practice right back to the Reformation, and probably to an even earlier period ; but at Cardiff the evidence is rather against the antiquity of the usage as to which your correspondent inquires.

On the other hand, the identification of pews with houses seems to have prevailed much earlier in the parish of Liang wm Uchaf, Monmouthshire. I have a MS. of the year 1671 recording an appropriation of the