Smith, in his 'Book for a Rainy Day,' pp. 32-37, and in a letter which is quoted by Thomas Smith, in his 'Historical Account of St. Marylebone,' p. 33. Up to 1737, although illuminations and concerts were occasionally provided for the amusement of the public, admission seems to have been free; but after that year, Gough, the proprietor, probably thought it would enhance the respectability Opposite the north-western corner of the gardens of the concern if tickets were issued; and entrance was the old church, which was replaced in 1742 by charges were accordingly demanded, which varied the building which was long the parish church, from time to time. In 1753," the bowling green " but is now the parish chapel, of St. Marylebone. -probably that belonging to "The Rose of Nor-The interior of the old church is known from the mandy" was taken in, and the gardens were fifth plate of Hogarth's 'Rake's Progress,' but much improved by several additional walks. At very few representations of the exterior exist. It this time, which appears to have been the period is seen in the distance in Chatelain's rare view of at which the gardens were in their fullest splen- Marylebone Basin, and a short time ago I was dour, they appear to have covered the space now fortunate enough to obtain a sketch in Indian ink occupied by Beaumont Street, Devonshire Street, of the church which was taken by a Devonshire and Devonshire Place. The principal entrance, by gentleman not long before its demolition. which "carriage company" was admitted, was in High Street; but, as I have noted above, there was a back entrance, which admitted visitors who came by a foot-path from Cavendish Square. According to J. T. Smith ('Nollekens and his Times,' i. 33) the orchestra of the gardens stood upon the site of the house which at the time he wrote was No. 17 in Devonshire Place, and very near the spot where Mr. Fountayne's boarding school stood (the old Manor House). It is not my purpose to detail the entertainments for which the gardens became renowned, as a sufficient account of them may be found in Malcolm's Anecdotes,' ed. 1810, ii. 276, 289 sq, and Smith's 'Book for a Rainy Day,' ed. 1845, pp. 40-57. According to Thomas Smith's Historical Account of St. Marylebone,' p. 166, the gardens were finally closed in 1778, and the site sold to builders, who lost no time in erecting the houses which now occupy the spot once dedicated to amusement and display. So late as 1810, however, according to Malcolm (ii. 276), a few trees stood as mementoes of the gardens near the north end of Harley Street. It should be remembered that at the time the gardens flourished a better class of buildings existed in High Street, Marylebone, than is now the case. When J. T. Smith was a boy, many of the houses, particularly on the western side, continued to be inhabited by families who kept their coaches, and who looked upon their residences as country houses. Facing the gardens was Staton's Tea House, a fashionable place of refreshment. Immediately to the north was the old Manor House, which was included within the precincts of the park, until the construction of the new road in 1756, and was replete with memories of Queen Elizabeth, who used it as a temporary restingplace during her hunting excursions in the park. It subsequently fell from its high estate, and was converted into a seminary for young gentlemen, and, having been demolished in 1791, seems to have afforded a site for stabling ever since. An interesting account of its position when under the government of the Rev. Mr. Fountayne is given by From the village with its church and manor house it was but a step to the royal park with its uplands and woods. Mary bone Park was not only a favourite hunting ground of the Tudors, but with its dairy farms was one of the principal sources of the milk supply of London. Interesting as is the history of the park, which is closely connected with that of St. John's Wood, I do not propose to touch on it on this occasion, but to confine myself to giving a slight sketch of its topography during the time that Mary bone Gardens were in existence. Its boundaries were nearly identical with those of the present Regent's Park. At the south-eastern corner was an old tavern known as the "Old Farthing Pye House," which was subsequently designated the "Green Man," a title which the public-house that now occupies its site still bears. Opposite this tavern was a large farm, which in the middle of the last century was occupied by Mr. Bilson. It is shown in B. Cole's 'Plan of the intended New Road from Paddington to Islington,' and was afterwards occupied by Mr. Richard Kendall, whose tenancy did not expire until the land was resumed by the Crown at the beginning of this century. It was a fairly large farm, comprising, with appurtenances, more than 133 acres, and roughly occupied the site of Osnaburg Street and the neighbourhood. From Kendall's Farm a road known as Clay Lane sprang, and, taking a circular course, ended at the Manor House. The enclosure formed by this road appears to bave been specially maintained as park land, and within it was situated a very famous old hostelry, known as "The Queen's Head and Artichoke," which, according to J. T. Smith, bore as a sign a much weather-beaten, though perhaps once a tolerably good portrait of Queen Elizabeth. The tradition was that the house had been formerly kept by one of Her Majesty's gardeners. A turnstile nearly opposite the "Old Farthing Pye House led to a narrow lane by which the house was approached. There is a print and description of the house in the Gentleman's Magazine, November, 1819, p. 409. Crossing Clay Lane, another turnstile and lane led to the celebrated "Jew's Harp Tavern " and Tea Gardens," of which Smith gives a pretty passing under the holy rock of St. Declan, Stretched at full description. A short distance to the south-full length on the ground on the face and stomach, each west was Willan's Farm, the area of which, including the fields, &c., let to under-tenants, amounted to 288 acres. It was under the advice of Dr. Armstrong that in 1772 Mrs. Smith, the mother of the gossiping picker-up of unconsidered topographical trifles, took daily an early morning walk in order to drink the excellent milk at Willan's Farm, and the lad, who was his mother's constant companion, remembered that the room in which she sat to take the milk was called "Queen Elizabeth's Kitchen," and that there was some stained glass in the windows. It would be interesting to know what has become of the stained glass which was formerly common in many of the old houses at Islington, Hampstead, Marylebone, and the other suburbs of London, and much of which was certainly in existence in the early years of this century. THE FESTIVAL OF ST. DECLAN.-The celebrations in honour of St. Declan took place on December 23, and will be of interest at this time. The two accounts here excerpted are from a pamphlet, The Holy Wells of Ireland,' by Philip Dixon Hardy, M.R.I.A., 1836. These rites were annually performed during the early decades of the present century : "The annual scene of disgusting superstition is exhibited at Ardmore, in the County of Waterford, on Dec. 23, in each year. Several thousand persons, of all ages and sexes, assemble upon this occasion. The greater part of the extensive strand which forms the western part of Ardmore Bay is literally covered by a dense mass of people. At an early hour in the day, says a correspondent of the Roman Catholic Expositor, those whom a religious feeling had drawn to the spot commence their devotional exercises in a state of half nudity, by devotee moved forward, as if in the act of swimming, sexes were obliged to submit to this humiliating mode of and thus squeezed or dragged themselves through. Both proceeding. Upwards of eleven hundred persons were observed to go through this ceremony in the course of the day. A reverend gentleman who stood by part of the of so great veneration is believed to be holy, and to be time exclaimed, 'Oh, great is their faith! This object endued with miraculous powers. It is said to have been wafted from Rome, upon the surface of the ocean, at the period of St. Declan's founding his church at Ardmore, and to have borne on its top a large bell for the church human skull of large dimensions was placed at the head tower, and also vestments for the saint himself. A of the tomb, before which the people bowed, believing it to be the identical skull of the tutelar saint, who that day was present to look upon their devotions, and who would, on his return to the mansions of bliss, intercede at the throne of grace for all such as did him honour. exercises of the day, held in greater honour than the This visit to St. Declan's grave completed the devotional Sabbath by all those that venerate the saint's name and worship at his shrine." "I visited Ardmore, and am sorry to say that the superstitious practices of the people there exceeded anything I had before witnessed. Devotions had commenced low water that the people can go under the stone, and perat the stone previous to my arrival. But it is only at form their devotion there; they must always take advantage of the tide. On the saint's day it is always necessary to remove some of the sand which accumulates under the stone, to make sufficient passage for a large man or woman; as the little rocks on which the stone rests form irregular pillars, it is necessary to have the surface under the stone lower than the front or rear. In order to begin here, the men take off hats, coats, shoes, and stockings, and if very large, waistcoats-they turn up their breeches above the knee, then, lying flat on the ground, put in hands, arms, and head, one shoulder more forward than the other in order to work their way through the more easily, and coming out from under the stone, at the other end (from front to rear is perhaps four feet), they rise on their knees and strike their backs three times against the stone, remove beads, repeat aves, &c. They then proceed on bare knees over a number of little rocks to the place where they enter again under the stone, and thus proceed three times, which done, they wash their knees, dress, and proceed to the well. The women take off bonnets, shoes, stockings, and turn their petticoats up above the knee, so that they may go on their bare knees. I saw but one woman who put her petticoats under her knees, a little boy took off his breeches; the women proceed in the same less careful in saving their knees from being hurt by the manner as the men, excepting indeed that they appeared rocks than the men. The knees of one man bled, others were bruised, and all were red." Dublin. W. A. HENDERSON. THE NAME BRONTE. -In the Daily Graphic of Dec. 13, 1894, we are informed, as the revelation of a quite unknown fact hitherto, that the original form of this name was Prunty, a gentleman who has been travelling in Ireland having lately made the interesting discovery. This is rather old news, for the circumstances of Mr. Prunty's adoption of the name of Brontë are narrated in Wemyss Reid's Hastings. ELIA ON MAJOR ANDRE'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.-In his essay, addressed to Southey, on 'The Tombs in the Abbey,' Elia remarks upon 66 a ridiculous dismemberment committed upon the effigy of that amiable spy, Major André." This is done to give point to an allusion to Southey's early political principles; for, after suggesting that the depredation had been the wanton mischief of some schoolboy fired with raw notions of Transatlantic Freedom," he asks, "Do you know anything about the unfortunate relic?" If Lamb seriously entertained a suspicion that Southey, when at Westminster School, had committed the sacrilege referred to, it would seem that we have now evidence that the suspicion was groundless. For we read in Mrs. Gordon's life of her father, Dean Buckland, that there once came from America to the dean a parcel containing "two small marble heads, which had been taken as a relic from Major Andre's tomb by some American, who, on his death-bed, had desired that they might be returned to the Abbey. With his own hands the Dean replaced these on this beautiful bas-relief." It may be doubted whether Dean Stanley was quite strictly adhering to historical accuracy when, in his account of this monument, he wrote, "Often has the head of Washington or André been carried off, perhaps by republican or royalist indignation, but more probably by the pranks of Westminster boys." Is not "often" here an exaggeration ? F. JARRATT. LAMMAS. A Hebrew deed in the British Museum-Cotton, Nero, c. iii. p. 1836-is signed by three eminent London Jews, temp. Henry III., viz., Jacob Crespin, Elias l'Eveske, and Peiteven fil Benedict. These men give up possession of ten acres of land which they had acquired from Hugh de Marines, the latter being bought out by Richard, otherwise Raoul Edward, Prior of St. Trinity, Minories. The Hebrew instrument states that the ten acres were contiguous to the monastery, and were thus subdivided: Lammas Appleton, four acres; Middlefield, two acres; Lemon Grove, two acres; Whiteday, two acres; all adjacent to the fossé, which is either the Tower Ditch or Houndeditch. All near Aldgate. The names are suggestive. Whiteday apparently is connected with Whitechapel; Leman Street still exists in Whitechapel; and Lammas Appleton is another reading for White Appleton. Besant's 'London,' p. 170, observes that "Basket-makers, wiredrawers, and other foreigners resided in Blond Chapel, or Blanch Appletone Lane." We note, then, that Lammas, Blond, Blanch, and White are convertible terms. The question naturally arises CURIOUS USE OF COMMUNION TABLE.-In a description of the church of Creeting All Saints', Suffolk, I find the following: "The communion table probably dates back to the early part of the sixteenth century. In it is a circular metal tube which runs underneath the table from one end to the other. In this curious receptacle it was the custom in years gone by to put all parochial documents, and it is also said that private documents were allowed to be placed here under certain conditions. In most instances a chest with three locks was provided for such a purpose, and certainly there was an order issued that chests should be provided of the kind described. In Creeting the curious receptacle mentioned above may have been in use instead. We are not aware of any other church which contains so curious an article as this metal tube, and it would be an object of curiosity to discover if the custom of placing documents of importance under the communion table in this manner was in any way usual. Certainly no safer plan could have been adopted, for in addition to the security of the tube itself, the communion table was in early times an object of peculiar veneration." - Suffolk Times and Mercury, Nov. 30, 1894. I have very slightly curtailed the account, but no details of the size of the tube are given. Nowhere else have I seen an account of so singular an arrangement, and it certainly deserves a place in church-lore gleanings. Norwich. JAMES HOOper. Epistles of Anthony Guevarra, where there is both golden wit and good penning: the stories of king Arthur: the monstrous fables of Garagantua: the Pallace of pleasure, though there follow never so much displeasure after: Reynard the Fox: Bevis of Hampton: the hundred merry tales: Skoggan: Fortunatus: with many other infortunate treatises, and amorous toyes written in English, Latine, French, Italian, Spanish.' W. C. B. A RELIC OF KING CHARLES I.-I venture to think that the following letter, which I lately addressed to the editor of the Isle of Wight Ecpress, deserves to be placed on record in 'N. & Q': King Charles I. was at one time detained a prisoner in our neighbourhood, at Carisbrooke, and at Hurst Castle. At one time also he was kept as a sort of honorary prisoner at Caversham House, Oxfordshire, not far from Reading. Here he was able to walk over to Goring Heath, on the high ground above Pangbourne, and to play there his favourite game of bowls. Till quite lately there stood in a cherry-orchard on the heath a small rural inn, old-fashioned and built of timber, where, as local tradition tells, or told when I was a young man, the king used to spend his afternoons and evenings in summer. Over the front door were the royal arms and the sign of "The Charles's Head,' with the following inscription, which I have recovered, not without difficulty, from the late owner of the inn, who has recently gone to live in Reading, having, of course, taken away the sign and inscription with him. I copy it verbatim et literatim : Stop, Traveller, Stop; in yonder peacefull glade Ventnor, Isle of Wight. E. WALFORD. "RIGHT MARSH MUTTON."-In "The History and Survey of London, by a Society of Gentlemen, revised, corrected, and improved by Henry Chamberlain, 1770," the following passage, as to the Christmas supply of mutton to London, occurs on p. 649, col. 2, in the account of Tilbury, in Essex : "The principal part of the marshes which surround the town, are rented by the farmers, sales[men], and grazing butchers of London, who generally stock them with Lincolnshire and Leicestershire weathers, which they buy in Smithfield in September and October, when the graziers sell off their stocks, and feed here till Christmas or Candlemas (Feb. 12); and though they are not made much fatter here than when bought in, yet very considerable advantage accrues by the difference of the price of mutton between Michaelmas, when cheapest, and Candlemas, when dearest; and this is what the butchers call, by way of excellence, 'right marsh mutton."" F. J. F. ANDREA BIANCO'S CHART, 1436.-The original of this chart is in St. Mark's Library at Venice. A facsimile of it has been published by Ongania (in 1871), and a portion of it, showing the British Channel and adjacent seas, has been reproduced as a plate to vol. i. of the Calendar of Venetian State Papers' (in 1864). The chart bears the date 1436, but must have been compiled from very much older sources, as we find the name of "Rebansor (i. e., Ravenser) marked near the mouth of the Humber. We know from Burton's 'Chronicle' that Ravenser-Odd was destroyed by the sea in the time of the sixteenth abbot, Robert of Beverley (1356-1367), and that when Burton compiled his chronicle, at the end of the fourteenth century, not a vestige of the place remained, and of Ald Ravenser "nihil......præter unum solum manerium cum pertinentiis, sed et interius a mari et Humbria remotum." L. L. K. POINSETTIA.-The name of the American statesman from whom this plant (botanically called Euphorbia pulcherrima, and so much admired for its coloured bracts) derives its ordinary designation is frequently given incorrectly. In Paxton's 'Botanical Dictionary' (Hereman's edition), he is called Mr. Poinsette; and in the Encyclopædic Dictionary' the plant is said to be "named after M. Poinsette," giving the impression that he was French. His real full name was Joel Roberts Poinsett, and he was a native of South Carolina, having been born at Charleston in 1779. He completed his education at Edinburgh and Woolwich, but returned to Charleston in 1800. He became a member of Congress in 1821; in the following year visited Mexico (to which country he was afterwards appointed U.S. minister) in a semidiplomatic capacity; and in 1825 published an account of his journey in a work entitled 'Notes on Mexico.' He died in 1851, and the plant in question, which he introduced into cultivation, is commonly called after his name. Blackheath, W. T. LYNN. BERWICK-ON-TWEED.-I was lately staying at Berwick-on-Tweed, and noted several curious facts connected with it. The parish church, which is of the time of Cromwell, has no tower, the bells being at the town hall. Hard by the latter there is a pair of stocks, apparently in working order. The curfew is tolled at eight o'clock, and at four in the morning, winter and summer, a bell rings for opening the town gates, though in point of fact they have been open for hundreds of years. The barracks are, I believe, the oldest in the kingdom, having been begun in 1717 and finished in 1721. On the house, No. 82, Church Street, there is a tablet with the following inscription : FEAR TO 66 TS OFFEND, OR MARK THEND TS 1601." On another THOMAS NICHOLLS, the father of Sir Augustine house, No. 7, Coxon's Lane, there are the initials Nicholls (Justice of the C. P., 1612-16). What " and the date 1589. These inscriptions do evidence is there that he was a serjeant-at-law? not appear to be mentioned in any history of the He is thus styled by Burke ('Extinct Baronetcies'), town. The medieval and the Tudor fortifications and also in the 'Dict. Nat. Biog.,' but not by Foss. are of very great interest, and the Jacobean bridge | I do not find him included in any known list of the most beautiful of its kind in the kingdom. serjeants. W. D. PINK. Alas! I hear rumours that the Town Council has in contemptation a terrible scheme for widening it. PEILIP NORMAN. Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. DECAPITATION FOR HIGH TREASON.—I append a cutting from Berrows' Worcester Journal of Oct. 20, 1894, reprinting some items of news from the issue of Oct. 23, 1794. Can any reader of 'N. & Q.' inform me up to what date decapitation, after death by hanging, of criminals convicted of high treason continued? Was this ceremony in vogue in Scotland after it ceased to be employed in England? "Wednesday last, Robert Watt, who was lately conBARONETS.-Are baronets of the United King-victed of high treason, was brought down from the dom entitled to wear a badge? That such a Castle of Edinburgh on a hurdle with the executioner, privilege was granted to baronets of Nova drawn by a white horse. He was attended by the sheriffs, Scotia I am aware. I recently saw a badge of the two baillies, and two clergymen at the scaffold, which the following is a description. Argent, a where some time was spent in prayer, when he mounted the scaffold, and after praying alone for seven or eight hand sinister gules, within a tressure or, sur- minutes he made the signal, and was launched into mounted by an imperial crown; the whole en-eternity. After hanging upwards of half an hour, the circled by a ribbon bearing the motto, "Pro Rege rope was cut, and the body was laid with the breast et Patria," 1612. The badge had a neck ribbon uppermost, upon an oblong narrow table, painted black, which had a kind of block at one end of it; and a basket attached, and was evidently intended to be so worn. of a cylindrical form was prepared to receive the head. One puzzling point is the date 1612, baronets The executioner then came forward, and said something having been first created in 1611. J. A. C. that could not be distinctly heard, while he brandished [The red hand is borne as a badge by those of the uplifted his axe, as if in an attitude of striking. The a broad sharp axe. He then went to the body and United Kingdom.] effect of this was like a shock of electricity. Never was multitude with one voice roared out; the women witnessed a thing half so impressive. The immense screamed and fainted, and hundreds ran down the winds and closes in every direction. At two blows the head was severed from the body, and the executioner held it up streaming with blood, proclaiming, in the usual way, This is the head of a traitor.' The trunk, dressed as it was, was then laid in a coarse coffin, a parcel of sawdust thrown on it, the head thrown in, and the lid nailed. There probably never was so great a multitude assembled in Edinburgh. Not only the windows, but the tops of all the houses were occupied; and in every part of the street, from the Lukenbooths to the Castle Hill, the people were absolutely packed together like herrings in a barrel." COURT OF RUSSIA, TEMP. PAUL I.-Can any reader of N. & Q.'put me in the way of obtaining a list of the ladies and gentlemen in waiting at the court of the Emperor Paul I. and the Empress Marie of Russia? Chichester. M. DE M. JOHNSON'S LIFE OF DRYDEN.'-I shall be glad to have explanations and parallels for the following expressions, which I have noticed in Dr. Johnson's Life of Dryden,' viz., "Westminster White-broth," " Madge with a candle," and "Chancery-lane parcel." The first two are quoted from a pamphlet by Crowne, entitled 'Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco.' The third is from a pamphlet by Tom Brown, "of facetious memory," entitled 'The Reasons of Mr. Bayes' changing his Religion." "Madge with a candle" is obviously equivalent to Jack o' lantern. FREDERICK RYLAND. OLIVER ST. JOHN. (See 2nd S. vii. 27; viii. 386).-Can any reader refer me to any printed or other pedigree showing the children and grandchildren in full of Oliver St. John, through his first wife, Margaret Love, and his second wife "Mrs. St. John," who was buried at Marlborough April 3, 1608? HENRY W. ALDRED. 181, Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, S.E. W. H. QUARRELL. EMPEROR AND TSAR-In his address Nicholas II. styled himself Emperor and Autocrat of Russia, and Tsar of Poland. Is there any special meaning in this distinction? Surely the title tsar belongs to Russia as well as Poland. Besides, were not the rulers of Poland, before its dis memberment, always styled kings, and not tsars? E. LEATON-BLENKINSOPP. WM. DONNELLY, M.D.: ENDERBY AND GORDON FAMILIES.-Dr. Donnelly, a retired naval surgeon, established in 1844 a dispensary in Sandgate, and similar institutions in following years at Hythe and Folkestone, attending as physician each two days a week. He died in 1858. I am anxious to |