292
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. OCT. 12, 1907.
beyond Mentone on the Italian side, which
before the Corniche Road was made must
have been a precipice. Can the Italian
balzo, a cliff, be a variant of this Provengal
word ? and can it have any connexion with
our English word " balk " ?
SHERBORNE.
LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY : UNROOFED CARRIAGES (10 S. viii. 167, 234). Some time in the early sixties I remember inquiring the meaning of "Covered carriages," which I had observed to be invariably used on excursion bills of the period issued by the L. & N.W.R. The explanation was forthcoming, but no one could tell me why the term continued in vogue after unroofed carriages had ceased to be used. I know for a fact that it appeared on bills sent out by that Company for more than a decade afterwards.
My mother, born in 1829, used to tell me that her first journey to London from Northamptonshire was by coach, and that she returned by rail. This would be a year or two after the completion of the London and Birmingham Railway, which was effected in August, the railway being opened to the public on 17 Sept., 1838. She informed me that it rained all through the journey home, and as the carriages had no roofs, umbrellas were used as a pro- tection overhead. The water ran down on to the seats ; and as these sloped back- wards and the water had no outlet, it flopped about in a most uncomfortable manner. The passengers were fain to sit on the extreme edges of the seats, but even thus could by no means prevent themselves from being soaked to the skin from the waist downwards.
I possess a copy of ' Drake's Road Book of the London and Birmingham Railway,' the preface of which is dated 1839, in which the writer, after dilating upon the comfort of the first-class carriages, continues :
- ' The second - class carriages are, however, of
a very different character. These cushioiiless, windowless, curtainless, comfortless vehicles, seem to have been purposely constructed so that the sweeping wind, enraged at being outstripped in his rapid flight, might have an opportunity of wreaking his vengeance upon the shrinking forms of their ill-fated occupants. At night, however, the partnership of the railway with Messrs. Rheumatism & Co. is dissolved, and even second- class passengers are provided with shelter from the cold and chilling blast."
How this latter arrangement was effected does not transpire. No reference is made to the uncovered carriages, which I presume
were considered to be entirely beneath the
writer's notice.
I may mention that the houses used by the officials of Welton station on the L. & N.W.R. still bear iron labels on their walls displaying the letters " L. & B.R." (London and Birmingham Railway).
JOHN T. PAGE.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
MR. F. A. RUSSELL wants to know when open railway carriages were discontinued. As a boy I lived in the East End (1860-70), and I recollect the following, (a) On the Great Eastern Railway the third-class carriages were open at the sides in the upper part, the roof being fixed to uprights by ornamental iron scrollwork at each corner. (6) On one occasion we were taken on a school treat from Mile End to Broxbourn in trucks with low sides, in which our school forms were placed, (c) On the London and Blackwall Railway the third- class " smoking " compartments had no seats, and sides only shoulder high, the men inside leaning over them with their pipes in their mouths. S. D. CLIPPINGDALE.
The last form of the advertised "covered" carriage was virtually a railway truck, having wooden seats, a covering top, but open throughout its length on both sides. This was running on the London and Epsom branch of the Brighton Railway up to 1865. JAMES H. MITCHINER.
In 1875 or 1876 I travelled from Peter- borough to, I think, March or Ely in a third- class carriage which, though it had a cover, was open at the sides, the consequence being that I could not get away from the coal dust which blew into every part of the long carriage. R. B R.
South Shields.
GERARD LANGBAINE, PROVOST OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD (10 S. viii. 229). There is a short account of Barton School, near Penrith, to be seen in Carlisle's ' Endowed Grammar Schools' (1818), ii. 704. It was founded by Gerard Langbaine, D.D., a native of this parish, and Lancelot Dawes, D.D.. then vicar of Barton. Other bene- factors were Dr. Adam Airey, Principal of St. Edmund Hall in Oxford, and Dr. William Lancaster, Provost of Queen's College, a native also of the same parish. No date is given of the foundation of the school, but Gerard Langbaine was Provost of Queen's College from 1646 to 1658.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
