Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/153

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��83

��ANCIENT SCOTTISH CUSTOM.

It is stated in The Daily Telegraph of October 15th, 1900, that, in accordance with the express wish of the late Marquis of Bute, his heart will, at an early date, be conveyed to Palestine for burial at the Mount of Olives ; and that at the funeral from Cumnock House the heart was carried in a specially prepared receptacle. This appears to have been in ancient times a favourite request among the Scottish nobility.

��Marquis of

Bate's heart

to be buried

on the Mount

of Olives.

��THE MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT, FETTER LANE.

The Secretary of the Moravian settlement, who had so cour- teously supplied me with materials for my former note (ante, p. 81), informed me that the Moravians were certainly in possession of their present premises in May, 1738, but that the date does not appear in the church report until 1742. They hold the house in Fetter Lane, including the chapel, on a lease of four hundred years. In reference to Mr. Philip Norman's query as to Dr. Nicholas Barbon being a son, and not a nephew, of " Praise God Barebones," I find the information to be uncertain. Mr. F. B. Macdonald, the secretary of the Phoenix Fire Office, informs me that in Relton's ' Fire Insurance Companies,' on p. 19, it is stated that " Dr. Nicholas Barbon, who died in 1698, is said to have been one of the sons of Praise God Barebones, of the Cromwellian Parliament." He appears to have been a very clever man, not only as a physician, but also as a builder, besides being the first projector of fire in- surance in England who brought the scheme to maturity. It was the outcome of Barbon's beginning of fire insurance that a fire office, afterwards called the Phoenix, was established. This did not survive, Mr. Macdonald thinks, above twenty to thirty years. The present Phoenix did not begin till 1782, and, Mr. Macdonald informs me, was for some time known as " The New Fire Office." It had nothing to do with the previous Phoenix.

Those interested in the building recently known as the Rolls Chapel should procure Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte's Report, published by Eyre & Spottiswoode. It contains an account of the chapel, and a description of the monuments. These were carefully pro- tected during its demolition, and included that of Dr. Yong, which had long been its chief ornament, being " one of the finest examples in England of the monumental art of the Italian Renaissance." Almost opposite to the tomb of Dr. Yong stood the Alington monu- ment, " a fine example of the Elizabethan period." The register of burials and marriages is also given. The entries are but few. The report contains many illustrations.

r 2

��1900, Nov. 3.

The Moravian Settlement, Fetter Lane.

��Dr. Nicholas Barbon.

Mr. F. B.

Macdonald on

the Phoenix

Fire Office.

�� �