Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/63

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10 s. vm. JULY 20, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


49


tained among the parish papers. Thus at p. 13 he says, writing of the church of St. Anne and St. Agnes as it existed prior to its destruction by fire in 1548 :

" It appears, from documents preserved in the vestry, that St. Anne's Church, before it was relmilt, contained two chapels, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Katherine, each having an altar and image of its respective saint, and that the various chantries in it maintained no less than six priests."

Again, at p. 16 he remarks :

" The famous early printer, John Day, who lived over Aldersgate, occurs in the parish books as churchwarden of St. Anne, under the date 1574."

The parish now possesses no pre-Refor- mation documents at all ; and the earliest parish book (a volume of churchwardens' accounts, deposited in the Guildhall Library) opens in the year 1636 only. I am wonder- ing whether the records to which Herbert alludes can have found their way, at any time since he wrote the above, into any second-hand bookseller's hands, as certain books of St. Antholin did half a century ago (see 1 S. L, ii.), and as isolated volumes pertaining to St. Mary Staining and St. Dunstan-in-the-West have done much more recently. Perhaps some one has an olc catalogue in which the items figure.

WILLIAM MCMTJRRAY.

" CESUMPSMAN " : " MOONSMAN." The subjoined extract from the police-court


intelligence of The Globe of 25 March suggests two queries :

"Three rough -looking men appeared at Marl- borough Street, accused of being suspects, attempt- ing to steal from persons entering omnibuses at Tottenham Court Road on Saturday evening. When taken in charge one of the men said his occupation was that of a ' crumpsman,' meaning a ' crook,' or dishonest person. He explained to the magistrate, Mr. Denman, that a ' crumpsman ' was a ' moonsman,' and a ' moonsman ' was a man who 'could not stop in one place, but imist go wherever told and do whatever told.' He must not say more about the matter, for fear of disclosing the secrets of the society to which a 'crumpsman' was attached (laughter). The prisoners were remanded."

As neither " crumpsman " nor " moons- man " is in Farmer and Henley's ' Diction- ary of Slang and Colloquial English ' though " moonman," as meaning a nocturnal


thief, is it may be asked have been heard of before.


whether they A. F. R. "


" SOL'S ARMS." I am seeking further information about a tavern of this name formerly at 31, Wych Street. Originally it was probably known as " The Queen of Bohemia's Head," derived from the history of Drury House ; and late in the eighteenth


century the Royal Grand Modern Order of Jerusalem Sols met a " the house of Brother Hudson, known by the name of ' The Jerusalem Sols and Bohemia Tavern,' in Wych Street, every Monday night." In 1827 No. 31, Wych Street, was "The Sol's Arms," kept by Benjamin Lewis ; but by 1838 the name had been changed by the same proprietor to " The Shakspeare's Head." The name of the owner after- wards became " Mark Lemon."

What is the significance of the name " Jerusalem Sols " ? " Sol's Arms " might be nothing more than the " Sign of the Sun " : but there is perhaps some historical con- nexion between this tavern sign in Wych Street and an identical one in Hampstead Road.

In the latter neighbourhood the name appears in another connexion. Sol's Row in Hampstead Road and Sol's Row in Totten- ham Court Road were small terraces of cottages presumably named after their builders or owners. ALECK ABRAHAMS. _ ; 39, Hillmarton Road, N.

FOTJCHE ON MARY STUART. A. J* C. Hare in ' The Story of my Life,' vol. iv. p. 76, has the following anecdote. Louis Philippe possessed one of the portraits of Mary known to have been painted from life. Fouche examined the portrait carefully, and asked Sir Henry Bulwer if he knew whom it represented. Bulwer answered, " I can tell you, but why do you ask ? " " Because," said Fouche, "it is the lowest type of criminal face known to us." Fouche left France soon after Waterloo, and died at Trieste in 1820. Did he and Bulwer ever meet in the palace of Louis Philippe ? Hare is sometimes inaccurate in detail, but correct as to the main point, so the critic of Mary may not have been Fouche, but Fouche's successor as head of the police. M. N. G.

BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES, DTTKE OF BIRON. In New Shakespeareana, April, 1907,1 have given reasons for believing that the person referred to in ' Hamlet ' (IV. vii. 93) as

Lamond " was Biron. The King calls lim " a gentleman of Normandy." But in no account of Biron's life that I have met with is his birth place given. I shall be ndebted for any information on the subject* H. PEMBERTON, Jun.

Philadelphia.

' THE POOR CAITIFF.' Who wrote ' The Poor Caitiff ' ? Is it a play, book, or poem ?

S. MEAD. Faversham.