Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/526

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. DEC. 28, 1901.

but a reference to the map of the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, 1725, of which a copy is given from the original plan in possession of the vestry, shows that the stream was called not "the West Bourne," but " Westburn Brook," which is analogous to Westburn Green or Westburn Place. I have examined a great number of maps in my possession, but have not, in a single instance, found the name " West Bourne " applied to the stream. It is more than once mentioned in White's 'Proposed Improve- ments of the Western Part of London,' 1815. At p. 61 the " valley of the Serpentine River near Westbourn Green" is referred to. At p. 62 it is called the "Serpentine River or W est t )ro k : >" while in the appendix, p. Ixix, it appears under the name of the "Bayswater stream." This indeed seems to have been its general appellation. In Cruchley's map of the environs of London, 1830, it is called " Bays Water," while it is termed the " Bayswater Rivulet " in Bartlett and Britton's large map of the borough of Marylebone, 1834. This name seems to have clung to it for many years, for it will be found in the Illustrated Times postal district map of 1856, and in Davies's map of 1869, at which date a portion of the district lying between Sutherland Avenue and St. Peter's Park was still unbuilt over, and the brook is clearly seen.

Any evidence showing that the stream was named the "West Bourne" in any topo- graphical work or in any map produced during the first half of the last century will be welcomed. In default of that evidence it would, I think, be better to regard the use of the name merely as a matter of convenience, and not as an historical fact. In the maps of Norden, Rocque, and other early carto- graphers the stream is nameless.

W. F. PKIDEAUX.

THE JUBILEE OF THE ' LEISURE HOUR.' FRIP:NDS of pure literature for the people must hail with delight the success which has attended the publication of the Leisure Hour. Its record of fifty years shows uninterrupted progress from the date of its first number, January 1st, 1852, to its Jubilee Part, January, 1902. Its influ- ence for good in encouraging a taste for wholesome reading among the masses has been immense. Reference is made to this by my father in an article on * The Literature of the People' in the Athenaeum of the 1st of January, 1870, in which he stated that " the Leisure Hour^h&s run the highwayman's

horse into a fence, and left him with his head inextricably fixed in it." The earliest projectors of the Leisure Hour at first thought of naming the new venture the Friend of the People, but the former title found the most favour.

The Jubilee number contains portraits of a hundred of its contributors. These include those of its first three editors, W. Haig Miller, Dr. James Macaulay, and William Stevens, with biographical notices. A record is given of the chief subjects treated on during the fifty years, and it forms almost a history of the nation's progress. To travel and discovery a prominent place has always been accorded, and in 1852 Dr. John Kennedy contributed papers on Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition ; there were also articles on Australia and its then recently discovered gold diggings, and a description of M. Dupont's proposal to span the Atlantic by suspending a cable by means of buoys placed at certain determinate distances. In 1853 we have an account of Layard's explorations at Nineveh, and of Commander M'Clure's voyage during the same year, when he proved the circumnavigation of North America pos- sible by the North-West Passage. For this he received the honour of knighthood and also a gift of 5,000.

It was not until 1854 that fiction began to assume the longer serial form. During this year and 1855 considerable space was devoted to Russia and the war. Mention is made, among other things, of the great kind- ness shown to the Russian prisoners of war, of whom there were 400 at Lewes, and who were much surprised at their treatment. On first receiving intimation that they were to be taken out for a walk they wept and wrung their hands, supposing they were to be led to execution. In 1858space is largely appropriated to the Indian Mutiny, and a description of the laying of the Atlantic cable is also communicated in a series of papers. In 1859 Dr. Scoffern contributed articles on the South Kensington Museum ; an illustra- tion is also given of the first public drinking fountain, opened on the 21st of April near the church of St. Sepulchre, Skinner Street. In 1861 the war in Italy and the Civil War in America are among the subjects treated at length.

In 1862 a new and enlarged series was launched, and the contents included Mrs. Henry Wood's tale 'A Life's Secret,' which touched on the question of strikes. While she was writing this her 'East Lynne' appeared, and the Times pronounced it to be the novel of the year. In 1863, for the first time, coloured