NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY e, 1907.
for* electric lines laid in deep subways. Th
first use of " tube " as signifying an under
ground railway, however, was far earlie
than June, 1900, when " Twopenny Tube '
was flashed on a receptive world, for i
is to be found more than once in an essay
entitled ' Air Traction,' included in a volum
of such, brought together under the title o:
' Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers,' by
Dr. Andrew Wynter, published in London
in 1863. Describing a proposed atmospheric
underground line from Euston to the Genera
Post Office, by way of Holborn and Smith-
field, it was stated that passengers were
" to ride in a dark tube " ; that " it would
be so arranged that between station and
station only one group of carriages could
be in the tube at the same time " ; that
" as the atmosphere in these railway tubes
would be circulating every moment, there
would be perfect ventilation " ; and that
" this great city will henceforth have its
lighter traffic and parcels and letters carried
on by a circulation of air ramifying in a
network of tubes through soil." But the
project thus glowingly described failed, and
the name was so completely lost sight of
that, although the City and South London
Railway, the pioneer of all the present
" tubes," was opened for traffic in the
winter of 1890, the now familiar title was
never again heard until " the Twopenny
Tube " commenced operations in the summer
of 1900. A. F. R.
Miss CHTJDLEIGH. On looking over Mr. E. H. Coleridge's beautiful edition of J Christabel,' which has recently been pub- lished under the auspices of the Royal Society of Literature, I see (p. 14) that Coleridge in a letter to Wordsworth dated Tuesday (23 Jan.), 1798, says that he resembles " the Duchess of Kingston, who masqueraded in the character of ' Eve before the Fall ' in flesh-coloured silk." Although the costume seems to have resembled that of Eve in her most innocent days, the cha- racter assumed by Miss Chudleigh, as she styled herself at the time, at the famous fancy-dress ball which was commemorated by Horace Walpole, was that of Iphigenia. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
HAMLET AS A CHRISTIAN NAME. In a very interesting article in The Cornhill Magazine for June, entitled ' Wanted, More Knowledge,' which treats of the Quarter Sessions records of the seventeenth century for Sussex, the writer remarks : " The name Hamlett as a Christian name is surely .a rare find. I know of no other but Shake-
speare's son " (p. 826). The surname of
this person was Layman : he lived at
Horsham, and got into trouble in 1653
for assaulting Richard Slark.
The name Hamlet is without doubt exceedingly uncommon. I remember but two other examples, both of which occur in the eighth volume of the Transactions
of the Leicestershire
Archaeological Society.
Architectural and
They are Hamlet
Tarrington, 1515 (p. 97) ; and Hamlett
Dove, 1605 (p. 232). EDWARD PEACOCK.
Kirton-in-Lindsey.
[F. J. F. supplied at 8 S. iv. 326 an instance of the name in 1562/3.]
THE REGENT'S CANAL. From a number of papers and letters in my possession I have ascertained that before the Regent's Canal Act (52 George III.) was promoted, the occupiers and owners of property on or adjacent to the land to be acquired were
- anvassed to ascertain their views on two
schemes the construction of a canal, or of a canal and railway combined. Their votes are classified as follows : for the
- anal, " Assent," " Dissent," " Nuter " (sic),
' Speciel " (sic) ; and for the canal and railway, "Assent," " Dissent," "Nuter" (sic), ' Speciel " (sic). The results are remarkable. "n " the return of John Stevens to Monday vening, 17 January, 1803," at Jew's Harp Gardens, three occupiers and one owner assent to both. In Lisson Grove three occupiers dissent from both. In the Hamp- stead Road (i.e., Chalk Farm Road) two owners vote " Speciel " for each. From another return I note that " Thomas Lord, sccupier of the Cricket Ground," dissents rom both schemes.
One of the most interesting points thus evealed is that the promoters suggested , railway (i.e., a horse-drawn tramway), in onnexion with the canal, at almost the same [ate that a company had commenced the urrey Iron Railway from Croydon to ,Vandsworth (see Home Counties' Magazine, 7oL ix., Nos. 33 and 34, ' The Old Croydon "ram Road ' ). Apart from the papers eferred to above I have not seen any map r prospectus of the undertaking, and Mogg's nap ' London in Miniature ' (published May, 1806), in which the " Improvements oth present and intended " are shown, contains no indication of it. In direction it evidently proposed to follow, with some modifications, the plans detailed by Robert Whitworth in his * Report and Survey of
Level from Waltham Abbey to Moorfields.
