392
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. v. MAY is, 1912.
entitled ' The Humours of Covent Garden.'
published in 1738 :
High in the midst of this most happy land A well-built marble pyramid does stand, By which spectators know the time o' th' day From beams reflecting of the solar ray ; Its basis with ascending steps is grac'd, Around whose area cleanly matrons plac'd Vend their most wholesome food, by Nature good, To cheer the spirits and enrich the blood.
According to the Catalogue (Part II., 1868) of the engravings, &c., in the posses- sion of the Corporation of London, there is in the Library a view of Mast House, Blackwall, 1814, Ovenden del., Cooke sculp.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
The pagoda in St. James's Park was almost certainly from the design of Sir William Chambers, in the reign of George II., when examples of foreign and in particular Oriental architecture were erected for public admiration in the royal parks. In Bird- cage Walk the armoury of the Brigade of Guards also was outwardly built after the Chinese fashion. The pagoda, which figures, if I mistake not, in a picture of Hogarth's, was probably removed to Kew Gardens, where was already a fairly cosmopolitan collection of architectural monstrosities an Alhambra, a mosque, a Gothic cathedral but the pagoda alone remains. The ' Picture of London ' for 1815 describes the Kew pagoda thus :
" In an open space in the middle of the Wilder- ness, stands a superb and very remarkable build- ing, called the Great Chinese Pagoda. The design is in imitation of the Chinese Taa. It is octagonal, and consists of ten stories, being 163 feet in height, and commanding a most enchanting prospect over the Paradise of England. The room on the lower story is 26 feet in diameter and 18 feet high ; and that on the tenth story is 17 feet in diameter and 17 feet high. Round each story is a gallery inclosed by a rail, with a series of projecting roofs, after the Chinese manner. The staircase is in the centre of the building."
R. A. H. UNTHANK.
27, Paulett Road, Camberwell.
Miss Buss AND Miss BEALE (US. v. 291). The little poem to which HYLLARA seems to me to refer was repeated to me by Mr. D. R. Fearon when he was Secretary to the Charity Commissioners, that is. between 1886 and 1900. The form in ' which it reached me was :
O Miss Buss and O Miss Beale, Never Cupid's darts you feel. Not like any one of us, O Miss Beale and O Miss Buss. In oral transmission it has been variously modified, but of the different versions none
seems to me to be superior to the one I have
given. I have never heard it extended to
more than four lines.
JOHN R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.
In reply to HYLLARA regarding a dialogue between Miss Buss (my sister) and Miss Beale, I may say that I do not know of it. Perhaps the following extract from Miss Buss's biography may be what HYLLARA seeks :
" Miss Buss and Miss Beale
Cupid's darts do not feel ;
They are not like us,
Miss Beale and Miss Buss.
" This has been attributed either to a master of Clifton or to a boy of Cheltenham College. They were not written by one of Miss Buss's pupils, nor were they ever (as reported) found on the blackboard of any class-room in the North London Collegiate School for Girls."
It was said, however, that Miss Beale, on reading the first two lines on a blackboard at Cheltenham, remarked : " We have not the time, my dears." OCTAVITJS Buss.
The following version is all that I have heard frequently quoted in Cheltenham. It takes its origin from the strict rule of Miss Beale that no young lady under her charge carry on a secret correspondence with one of the opposite sex. This rule was once disobeyed, and the offender expelled from the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, in con- sequence, whereupon some sympathetic schoolgirl or other composed these comments on the famous Dorothea Beale and her friend Miss Buss of North London :
Miss Buss and Miss Beale
Cupid's darts do not feel.
How different to us
Are Miss Beale and Miss Buss ! I doubt if any longer version could improve the pungency of this given above, or that it ever existed. WILLIAM MERCER.
The story is that the following lines were found in the desk of one of the Ladies' College pupils :
Miss Buss and Miss Beale Cupid's darts never feel. Unlike most of us Are Miss Beale and Miss Buss. The late Miss Beale was a noble-minded woman, above vanity, with a fine sense of humour, and most motherly in her love for her pupils. She is said to have enjoyed the joke, and often related it to her friends. SYDNEY HERBERT. Carlton Lodge, Cheltenham.
[W. H. PEET, H. W. H., H. K. ST. J. S., H. II. S., C. S. J., and several other correspondents, also thanked for replies.]
