at that time was the freeholder. In it he states:—
"I am to settle the sale of some property I disposed of some time in the spring. A curious tale for me to be the principal actor, and an illustration of what we sometimes see in the papers—'Value of City Property.' The house is situated up a close leading from the main street and used as, and known as, 'Baker's Coffee-House,' an occupation which did not suit any of my boys, so I tried to sell (about ten years ago), but the highest offer I got was 11,000l., my reserve being 16,000l. I continued the tenant at 500l. a year. My health now induced me to try again and the first offer I got was 24,000l.,and the same party who offered me the 11,000l. bid me 26,000l. I closed, and I think foolishly, as 30,000l. might have been got, but I ought to have been satisfied.
"It is a small dark hole, the greater part being always lighted with gas, and the frontage is only 27 ft. The house is very old, and I observe by the former conveyance cost 1,010l. What a change in the value of property!"
An interesting article on Baker's Chop-House, initialed G. A. H., appeared in The Christian World of Dec. 9, from which I venture to extract the following paragraph
"No tablet marks the walls of Baker's to show that within its walls was born the London Missionary Society. But on November 4, 1794, as recorded in the pages of the late Mr. Silvester Horne's history, eight men met in the little room on the second floor to found the great society which has done and dared so much. The little room is still there, though few of the hurried diners have seen it. On the walls hang portraits of Spurgeon and Parker, mighty men of a later century than Haweis and Bogue."
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
Rats et Crapauds (11 S. xii. 482).—It is not unlikely that rats do detest toads. These amphibians, like newts—and, if I remember rightly, salamanders—secrete a poisonous fluid in certain glands on their upper surface, which fluid they eject when molested. A little animal like a rat might find it deadly. English country people sometimes complain of being "venomed" by toads and newts—we have no salamanders—but probably the fluid does not cause trouble unless it penetrates a slight wound. It might, however, affect the mucous membrane, and the eyes, if it came in contact with them. The head of a dog will sometimes swell when it has been foolish enough to take a toad into its mouth. I have been told, also, of a flock of turkeys which were blinded for a time by the swelling of the delicate skin on their heads, because they had pecked a toad. Consult Hans F. Gadow's,'Amphibia and Reptiles.'
"Fat, fair, and forty" (12 S. i. 10).—I am afraid I cannot quite see what bearing the stanza of 'Don Juan' cited by Sir Harry Poland has on the alliteration of "Fat, fair, and forty."
In the early sixties Sam Cowell used to sing a song entitled 'The One-Hoss Shay,' which described the vicissitudes of an elderly couple who "took a trip to Brighton" in that conveyance, and had their garments "pinched" by some shrimping urchins while bathing in an adjacent bay. It commenced:—
Mistress Bubb was gay and free,
Fair and fat and forty-three,
And as blooming as a peony in buxom May,
The toast she long had been
Of the Farringdon within,
And she filled the better half of a one-hoss shay.
H. T. Wake (11 S. xi. 397, 501; xii. 72, 511).—Mr. Wake must have moved to Fritchley, Derby, as early as Dec. 25, 1885, for I have his Monthly Catalogue 110 with that address and date. It is printed on one side of a double folio sheet, and not an 8vo catalogue as are No. 1, New Series, April, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, &c., all printed by Bemrose & Sons, Derby. I shall be glad to send it for inspection. Thomas Jesson.
Cambridge.
'The Ladies of Castellmarch' (11 S. xii. 260, 407, 487). While thanking your two correspondents for correcting my topography, I must still keep to it, as I lived twenty-two years quite near Castellmarch. This is on Hell's Mouth, Porth Neigwl, or Port Nigel, which are all one and the same, as a glance at any good map, e.g., Stieler's (Gotha, Perthes, 1911), will at once convince the most sceptical. H. H. Johnson.}}
103 Abbey Road, Torquay.
"Popinjay," "Papagei" (11 S. xii. 440, 09).—Further consideration had led me to the same conclusion as D. O. even before his letter appeared. It seems probable from a MS. of Schlenker's that apal and apampakai are not the same species; it was on the supposition of the duplication of name for a single species that I suggested the derivation of apal from English. Parrots generally seem to be rare, and I have seen only one species.
It is, of course, improbable, prima facie, that an animal or bird would get a European name. But Timne, and probably adjacent languages, have shown extra-ordinary powers, compared with other negro languages, of incorporating foreign.
