Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/354

 346

NOTES 'AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. OCT. 26, MOI.

identical with a " King's Arms " at 66, Lom- bard Street, the sign of a goldsmith, in 1710 (F. G. H. Price's 'Signs of Lombard Street'). There were, of course, many other "King's Arms," but the above appear to have been four of the most central. "Grigsby's" Coffee-house was also "behind the Royal Exchange" in Threadneedle Street, facing the "New England" Coffee-house, and having for its next-door neighbour the " Antigallican." It was a very popular and fashionable English mid-eighteenth-century resort, as advertisements of the period, especially in the Daily Advertiser, testify. It is spoken of in the ' Epicure's Almanack ' of 1815 as " a Steak-house where they do dress dishes. A rich larder is tastefully displayed in front, where everv individual member of that board of health seems to say to the passer-by, 'for your own sake, if not for ours, pray come and try how you like us.'" According to a list of coffee-houses in the reign of Queen Anne, in John Ashton's 'Social Life of the Reign of Queen Anne,' 1882, Grigsby's in Threadneedle Street was altered to "Smith's "in 1712. At the "New York" Coffee-house, also "behind the Exchange," VS? neral Meetin S of the Proprietors of the West New-Jersey Society was appointed on the 25th of March, at Twelve O'Clock, for electing a President, a Vice-President, eleven of the Committee, and a Treasurer for the Year ensuing" (Daily Advertiser, 18 March, Ju 42 <K T In x The Picfcur eof London 'for 1803 A i? ^? W York " is descr ibed as in Sweeting's Alley, Cornhill, and was then frequented by shipbrokers, merchants, &c. "Grigsby's" was at the same time used by "merchants and stockbrokers." Of "Caviac's" I know of no mention anywhere, and think there must be some mistake in the name, at all events as representing either a tavern or coffee-house. It sounds like the name of a famous cook, or of a caterer like Pontack. Perhaps ' Kivat's " is meant. "Kivat's," in Mackys 'Journey through England,' is de- scribed as one of two (theother being Pontack's) very good French Eating Houses, where there was a constant Ordinary as abroad for all Comers without Distinction, and at a very reasonable Price " (ed. 1714, vol. i. p. 113).

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

ANIMALS IN PEOPLE'S INSIDES (9 th S vii 222, 332, 390; viii 89). -I can remember hearing, when a lad forty-five vears ae-o It Coxbench in Derbyshire, 'what were thtn to me frightful tales of people who had "live things* m their msides, and I now believe that some of them were not without some

foundation. In the whole of that district of Derbyshire nearly all the water obtainable was from open wells in the little dells or on the lower hillsides, and men, women, and children used to drink in the old-fashioned way by sucking from the trough, or drinking with the hand as a ladle. Many were the tales of water-newts and frogs swallowed in this way, and growing big in the insides of people. Many of the ailments were attri- buted to this cause, and one elderly man who lived near my parents used to declare that when he was hungry the creature in his inside leapt into his throat. He drank many decoctions of " yarb-tea " in the hope of reliev- ing his torment, and in the end he succeeded in producing something "alive and black." I did not see it, but that is what the neigh- bours told us. I knew several children who were said to have " things inside them," and there was a standing warning, constantly repeated during the hot summer days, not to "sup watter from t' wells " except by lifting it with the hand. I might add that cattle ailments of the throat and chest were attri- buted to the same causes.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

In the Leeds Intelligencer for 20 July, 1801, Dr. Gardner, " the inventor of the Universal medicines in the form of pills, plaister, and ointment," was advertising his arrival in Leeds, and was exhibiting worms and other creatures of which he had rid men's bodies "to prove what no man, nor any body of men upon earth, can deny." His exhibits, which could be seen at the doctor's lodg- ings, No. 8, St. Peter's Square, included " Two uncommon creatures, one like a Lizard, the other has a mouth like a Place [sic], a Horn like a Snail, Two Ears like a Mouse, and its Body covered with Hair. It was destroying the Man's liver, a portion of which it has brought off with it."

CHAS, H. CROUCH.

"Askard" or "asker," as meaning a newt, is not restricted to North-Country or Midland districts, as would seem to be inferred. The late Rev. William Barnes (the Dorset poet), in his ' Grammar and Glossary of the Dorset Dialect,' gives : "Asker, a water newt." The newt is also called " evet " (eft) by Dorset people. J. S/UDAL.

Antigua, W.I.

Cf. ' The Worm Doctor's Harangue,' Gent. Mag., April, 1735. J. H. MACMICHAEL.

SCILLY ISLANDS (9 th S. viii. 205). The following may refer to the aboye query, but