Wood-Paving Seventy Years Ago.—
Do you want to get at new ideas ?
Read old books. Do you want to find old ideas ?
Read new books.
.'So spake Edward, Lord Lytton ; and the saying was brought freshly to mind lately when, tQ while away the tedium of a railway journey, I carried with me a back volume of Blackwood's Magazine. It was more than seventy years old, yet I found therein evidence that the idea of wood-pavement had been carried into effect in London half a century before I, for one, considered it had been seriously thought of.
In the number of Maga for October, 1842, is a paper entitled ' The Stranger in London,' the writer whereof mentions foremost among the wonders of the metropolis the -existence of considerable tracts paved with wood. He describes the novelty at con- siderable length. The following extract may suffice to show that the system had been adopted somewhat extensively and with all the appearance of permanence. Why was it discontinued, not to be resumed till the eighties ?
" Decidedly the greatest improvement that has ^sprung up since our last visit [to London] three or four years ago is the introduction of the system of paving the streets with wood. A common cab. which, in ancient days, clattered and thundered along in a hurricane of noise and a deluge of mud, now glides peacefully on, till you feel that you are in a coroneted carriage, hung upon the most limber
of springs and lined with the softest of velvet
There is a long line of wooden pavement in Oxford
Street It is impossible to conceive that human
stupidity will be so immense as to adhere to stone- paving, with Regent Street, Oxford Street, and Holborn pointing out the superiority of wood."
HEBBEBT MAXWELL. Monreith.
PETEB THE WILD BOY. The following item (now sold) in Mr. P. M. Barnard's Catalogue of Manuscripts No. 68 is worthy of preservation in ' N. & Q.' :
" 185c Hertford. Northchurch [or Berkhamp- stead St. Mary]. Portion of a petition to the King of James Fenn requesting relief for a boy named Peter (? his lunatic son) whom he is unable to keep, and who wanders from home and runs away fre- quently into the woods. Early 18th century.
" Signed by James Fenn. The petition is attested a,s true by 13 of the 'Principall Inhabitants of the Parish of Northchurch,' who add their signatures, the first two being Tho : Duncombe and Richard Keene."
|c Itjrelates, not to the lunatic son of James Fenn, as is suggested, but to the strange creature known as Peter the Wild Boy, who|was placed in Fenn's care at a farm near Berkhamsted.
Fenn received a pension from Government
of 351. per annum for acting as keeper, and
from this petition which I have not seen
noted elsewhere evidently found the posi-
tion no sinecure.
For a full history and portrait of Peter see Home Counties Magazine, vol. viii. p. 232. P. D. MUNDY.
"OVER END " = STBAIGHT UP. I have heard this expression used in N. Lines, but it is not recorded in Peacock's ' Glossary ' nor in ' E.D.D.' Wheat-ears are " nicely ovver end " when not " laid " by rain. Any one sitting up in bed is " set, ovver end."
Winterton, Lines.
J. T. F.
FBEEMAN : DAY : PABBY : PYKE. A
report received by me from the Society of
Genealogists of London contains amongst
other items the following :
David Day married Ann Hills by licence, 26 Jan., 1726.
Sara Day mar. Rich d Copper, both of Brasted, 26 Apr., 1659. (Westerham, Kent.)
Mrs. Day, relict of Capt. Alex. Day, 7 Nov., 1790. Died at Chatham (Gent. Mag., 1056). [Mus- grave's * Obituary.']
John Day, 29 Apl., 1791 ; Dockyard, Deptford. Died aged 65 (Eng. Mag., 399; Gent. Mag., 869). [Musgrave's ' Obituary.']
Elizabeth Freeman alias Chapman mar. Antony Lawrence, 29 May, 1614, at Westerham, Kent.
Jas. Freeman, of Plaistow, Essex, died 7 Aug., 1777 (Gent. Mag., 404). [Musgrave's 'Obituary.']
The recently published ' Registers of St. Mildred, Bread Street, London ' (Harl. Soc., ' Registers,' vol. xlii., London, 1912), contain these baptismal entries :
P. 13. 1733,22 Nov., Mary, d. Wm. and Mary Freeman.
P. 14. 1745, 21 June, Sibella, d. John and Mary Parry.
In the same work are recorded these burials :
P. 94. 1814, 6 Nov., Cooper Freeman, Newgate Street, 2 yrs. 11 mo.
P. 95. 1821, 15 July, Thomas Parry, Bread Street, 48.
The very interesting volume of ' Parry W T ills,' by Lieut. -Col. G. S. Parry, does not contain this item, extracted by Mr. Geo. Sherwood from the Principal Probate Registry, London :
1776, 3 May, John Parry, of East Greenwich, Kent, gent., to my daughter Sarah Parry, 65/. ; to my son Bernard Wilson Parry, wearing apparel ; residue to my wife Ann Parry ; she and William Leighton of Threadneedle Street executors. Wit- nesses : Ann Loving, Eliz. Williams. Proved 28 March, 1781, by relict. (P.C.C. 161 Webster.)
I should like very much to obtain addi- tional facts concerning this John Parry,
