366
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* B. m. MAY is, IQQB.
The person whose bid is unchallenged when the
4ast boy returns to the bridge is declared to be the
tenant of the land for the ensuing year. Mr. F. G.
Shilcock, on Friday of last week, let the land by
this method, when a tenant was found at a slight
increase on last year's rent. From the income
arising from the rent of the field a cheese and
onion supper is provided at the house to which the
boys run. Two trustees are elected after the supper
to receive the rent and distribute the surplus in
white bread. Every house in that part of the town
Jtnown as Eastgate receives a 4 Ib. loaf of white
bread."
It would be interesting to learn more of this
- 'old survival."
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Baltimore House, Bradford.
[Reference was made to it by MR. E. H. COLEMAN at 9 th S. vii.447.]
LYLY'S 'EUPHUES AND ins ENGLAND.' In Prof. Arber's reprint of this book, issued in 1868, the following passage occurs at p. 248 :
" In fayth Euphues thou hast told a long tale, the beginning I haue forgotten, ye middle I vnder- stand not, and the end hangeth not together,"
which is apparently an adaptation of the following :
" I remembre nat, what thou sayddest in the begynnyng of thy tale, and therefore I vnder- stand nat the myddis ; and thy conclusion pleaseth me nat." 'Mery Tales and Quicke Answers,' 1567, d. Hazlitt, 18G4, Tale xxxiiii. p. 47."
See 9 th S. viii. 297, 380 : ix. 324 ; xi. 84.
F. MARCIIAM.
THE "OLD BELL" INN, HOLBORN HILL. In The Builder of 7 January is a drawing of the tablet which used to be embedded in the front wall of the "Old Bell" Inn, Holborn Hill, and which is now in the Guildhall Museum. In the accompanying note the coat of arms carved on the tablet is stated to be the arms of Gregge. All the other writers that I have been able to consult agree in stating that they were the arms of the Fowlers of Islington. Among others, John Timbs, in his ' Curiosities of London ' (1850), and Mr. Philip Norman, F.S.A., in his 'Lon- don Signs and Inscriptions' (1897), p. 142, -say that this is so. The latter author gives ^.n account of this family, and adds in a note : "" I have not been able to find proof positive that a Fowler owned this property. The house, though of respectable antiquity, is much more modern than the arms."
The odd thing is that Messrs. Timbs and Norman both describe them as "Azure, on a chevron argent between three herons as many crosses fprmee gules," and it is obvious that this description does not tally with the
arms on the tablet in question in any one
particular.
My own heraldic knowledge is only ele- mentary, but I should describe it as Quar- terly, 1 and 4, between two chevronels, or rather couples-close, three trefoils slipped ; 2 and 3, a plain shield charged with a bird which may be meant for a heron, but which looks more like a cross between a dodo and a pelican.
And yet this seems to be the same tablet that Mr. Norman refers to, for he continues : "They [the arms] are surmounted by an esquire's helmet with a crest which seems to be an eagle's head with a sprig of some sort in its beak." Surely, the "sprig of some sort " is plainly a trefoil, as in the arms.
It would be interesting to learn on autho- rity whose arms those on the tablet really were, and how the discrepancy which I have pointed out can be accounted for.
ALAN STEWART.
7, New Square, Lincoln's Inn.
GREAT QUEEN STREET, Nos. 74, 75. These premises, which were situate on the south side of the street, nearly at the rear of New- castle House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and were recently demolished for the forma- tion of the new street from Holborn to the Strand, although not so ancient as other premises in the neighbourhood, are yet of sufficient interest to deserve a passing notice. The front was modern, having been erected some twenty-five years ago, but the rest of the building dated back to the com- mencement of the eighteenth century, and was probably the oldest printing-office in London.
The two houses Nos. 74, 75, Great Queen Street, were for many years in the occupation of Messrs. Cox & Wyman, printers to the East India Company, and all the printing in connexion with the Company, both English and vernacular, was executed on the pre- mises until the transference of the Company to the Government in 1874. Col. Shake- speare's ' Hindustani Dictionary,' a work necessitating great labour and accuracy in printing, was also produced here.
The Belle Assemllee, a fashionable magazine, of which Douglas Jerrold is said to have been the editor about 1825, was printed here, and here Laman Blanchard is said to have filled the office of printer's reader.
The Builder journal was printed by Messrs. Cox &, Wyman almost from its commence- ment, the paper having been, and I believe still is, the property of the Cox family.
Benjamin Franklin is stated by some writers to have worked at Nos. 74, 75, Great
