Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/34

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NOTES AND QUERIES. uis.xi. JA*. 9,1910.


the first edition, because Thomason has dated it " 9 June." Its title-page runs as follows :

" A Collection of several passages concerning his late highness Oliver Cromwell in the time of his sickness. Wherein is related many of his ex- pressions upon his deathbed. Together with his Prayer within two or three dayes before his death. Written by one that was then Groom of his bed- chamber. Entred according to Order. London. Printed for Robert Ibbitson, dwelling in Smith- field neer Hosier Lane end. 1659."

The word " then " implies that the writer had not always been "Groom of the bed-chamber," and is peculiarly applic- able to Walker, whose journalistic career ceased in 1655, and whose clerical career terminated early in 1658, as I proved at US. iv. 263. It is very probable that Walker really was one of the grooms of Cromwell's bed-chamber at the time of his death. J. B. WILLIAMS.

(To IP, continued.}


413 AND 414, STRAND.

THERE is so much to describe and illustrate in the newspapers to -day that many changes in London have not been noticed, and among them the demolition of these seventeenth- century houses . Some excellent drawings and very many photographs will preserve a record of their appearance. They were included in the excellent lithographed post cards drawn and published by the late Mr. T. R. Way, and I believe Mr. Frank Emanuel made them the subject of one of his excellent illustrations in The Studio.

Obviously the two houses formed one building, with a large entrance gate or doorway, and the passage or road leading to the outbuildings and stables ultimately opened into Maiden Lane. The fine eave cornice was common to both buildings ; but, although the triangular and circular pediments above the windows remained on No. 413, they had been removed from No. 414, and the sashes entirely replaced. Another difference was the removal from the latter of two pilasters running the whole height of the building.

The principal feature illustrating the position of the main entrance was a handsome shell canopy supporting a heathcock, which stood above the entrance of the court or passage-way until July, 1844 (Wheatley and Cunningham, ii. 201).

This sign gave its name to the court, "which was known as Heathcock Alley


c. 1675, when Robert Johnson advertises from there offering a reward for the recovery of plate stolen from " Mrs. Gwin's [Nell Gwynne] in Pell Mell " (Price, ' The Signs of the Strand,' p. 20). We may assume that the " Heathcock, deprived of its courtyard, was then only a tavern or a tradesman's warehouse and residence, occupied by those who sought the custom of the frequenters of the New Exchange opposite.

From October, 1655, to September, 1657, Menassah ben Israel stayed here, probably as a guest of De Oliveyra, a Portuguese and crypto -Jew. Mr. Lucien Wolf (Transactions of the Anglo -Jewish Historical Society) points out that Menassah dates his ' Declara- tion ' from " over against the New Ex- change " ; but research in the rate-books, while identifying De Oliveyra, leaves the location of his house undefined between Nos. 413 and 418. Mr. Wolf seems to incline to No. 413, but leaves the matter open.

The style of the buildings recently de- molished belonged to the commencement, not the middle, of the seventeenth century, We may suppose, therefore, that on their erection the sign previously described was provided or re-erected as a place identifica- tion.

There is every probability that the inn was of much earlier date, possibly the early fifteenth century, and there was occasion for it amidst the palaces of the Strand much "The Red Lion Inn" in Fleet Street served as a supplementary place of enter- tainment to the palaces of the bishops.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.


STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

(See 10 S. xi. 441 ; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401 ; 11 S. i. 282 ; ii. 42, 381 ; iii. 22, 222, 421 ; iv. 181, 361 ; v. 62, 143, 481 ; vi. 4, 284, 343 ; vii. 64, 144, 175, 263, 343, 442 ; viii. 4, 82, 183, 285, 382, 444 ; ix. 65, 164, 384, 464; x. 103, 226, 303, 405.)

MABTYBS (continued). PEKE, KERBY, &c.

Ipswich. On 16 Dec., 1903, the Dean of 'anterbury (Dr. Wace) unveiled a memorial to the Ipswich martyrs which had been erected in Christchurch Park. It consists of a cube-shaped pedestal from which rises a graceful shaft surmounted by a pinnacle.