110
NOTES AND QUERIES. en s. iv. AUG. 5, 1911.
" FIVES COUBT," ST. MABTIN'S LANE :
TENNIS COUBT, HAYMABKET. Will some
London archaeologist quote me the exact
site of " The Fives Court " of " Fancy "
fame in or about St. Martin's Lane ? I
fail to find it in the index to Mr. H. B.
Wheatley's ' Cunningham,' or in any of the
orthodox reference books, or in the Indexes
to ' N. & Q.' Mr. MacMichael's volume on
- Charing Cross ' has no mention of it ; and
one is thrown back upon casual references in * Pugilistica,' ' Boxiana/ &c. When did it finally disappear ?
Since I wrote the above, my brother, Mr. Herbert Sieveking, has ascertained from Mr. W. E. Milliken that in John Leckie's 'Topography of London,' 1810 and 1813, a Fives Court is mentioned in St. Martin's Street, Leicester Square. Was this a covered-in Fives Court, or an open court of houses? In 'Fistiana' (1859) Pearce ("the Game Chicken") is said to have beaten Bourke in Martin Street (1803). Is there reason for supposing the Fives Court was identical with the Carolean Tennis Court in James (now Orange) Street, Haymarket ? Blake and C. Turner's engraving of 1821, with Randall and Turner (or is it Martin?) sparring, lends colour to this, as the place is very like a tennis court, and very unlike an ordinary fives court. But if so, when did the change of name occur ? In 1865 (according to the ' P.O. Directory ') Edmund Tompkins, Tennis Court Keeper, lived at 16, James Street ; and tennis was played till 1867. Now and then "Tennis Court" and "Fives Court" seem to be used interchangeably as the site of a battle. And why is almost every allusion to the "Fives Court " in pugilistic records coupled with (in or about) St. Martin's Lane ? It is curious how little topographical echo the "Fives Court" has produced, beyond its mere name. Knight, Besant, Cunningham, Wheatley, Timbs, are all silent about it, so far as I have been able to glean.
A. FOBBES SIEVEKING.
12, Seymour Street, Portman Square, W.
JOHN DABBY = ELIZA REBECCA HABT. I want to trace the ancestors of John Darby, my grandfather, who married in 1835 Eliza Rebecca Hart at St. Luke's, Chelsea, and was buried in Old Battersea Churchyard in 1853. He possessed a copper- gilt Davidson Medal with " John Darby " cut on it. Please reply direct.
J. T. DABBY. 141, Culford Road, M.
MAIDA : REGIMENTS PBESENT. Can any
reader inform me why the Gloucestershire
regiment (28th and 61st) carries " Maida "
on its colours ? Neither of those regi-
ments is mentioned in any accounts that I
have read of that battle, but I think that I
have seen it stated that certain details
from other regiments stationed in Sicily
formed part of Sir John Stuart's force.
James Grant mentions also the regiment of Sir Louis de Wattville, but does not say of what it was composed. Was it a foreign battalion, like the Corsican Rangers or the Sicilian Volunteers ? and what was the regiment " de Rolle " ? E. L. H. TEW.
Upham Rectory, Southampton.
COMTE DE PONS. I shall be glad if any reader can give me information concerning the Comte de Pons, who was governor to Philippe " Egalite," Due d'Orleans, 1747-93. Was his Christian name Barthelemi, and was he of the family of De Pons de la Grange in Auvergne ? I am anxious to trace a Barthelemi de la Grange who was " Gouverneur des Princes du Sang " about this time, and who was probably of the family of Pons de la Grange.
(Mrs.) FBANCES HILL THOMAS.
SIR NICHOLAS ARNOLD:
JOHN ARNOLD.
(11 S. iv. 42.)
MR. PINK may be glad to know that John Arnold was living at Highnam, which was then in the parish of Churcham, long before 1542. Smyth in his 'Lives of the Berkeleys,' vol. ii. p. 222, says that Thomas, Lord Berkeley, the fifth of that name, on the death of his elder brother, the sixth Maurice, in 1523, "sojourned with his wife, children, and family with his brother in lawe Jno. Arnold at Hynam by Glouc., -the sooner to recover his estate." On p. 241, referring to the will of the same Thomas, who died in 1532, he says, " By this will and other his deeds, hee gives these pensions and Annuities for the lives of the parties, his kinsmen ....," giving as reference "Carta in castro de Berkeley, vol. 24 H. 8. in predict." ; and " To John Arnold, Esqr., his brother in lawe ; Ten pounds, whom hee made high Steward of all his Manors and lands in England," with the reference " Carta 4 Junii, 17 H. 8. in castro de
