Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/262

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. SEPT. n, 1020.


rficholar ; but little doubt remains in my mind that the references quoted are to pages, or in some instances to paragraphs, in the work above-mentioned. The volume con- stains two separate sets of pagination, pre- liminary chapters and Books i.-iii., com- prising 502 pp., and book iv., 518 pp. "There are in addition 46 pp. of preface and .summary, and 32 pp. of index and corrig- enda.

If your correspondent would like to <examine the book, I shall be very glad to give him the opportunity, if he will com- rmunicate with me.. FRED. R. GALE.

Crooksbury, Fitzjohn Avenue, High Barnet.

WIDEAWAKE HATS (12 S. vii. 28, 157, 171, 198). When I was sent to school in the 'late seventies, a wideawake hat was specified .-among the garments with which new boys were directed to provide themselves. At that date "wideawake" was the polite mame for the hat, though my impression is that amongst ourselves we called it a " pot " hat. The word " bowler " is of later intro- duction, I think. I have often wondered -what the real official name of the headgear was.

In those days a massier, square -crowned fhat was often seen on the brows of the elder farmers and village notabilities ; and I -remember one of them telling me that it was a " Muller " hat. Someone else ex- plained that it was so named after a foreigner -who had committed a murder. This was evidently Muller, the famous murderer of the Underground Railway But I do not 'know whether that was the common name of the hat. Nor do I know the derivation of ^either " pot " hat or " bowler."

ISATIS.

The booklet is called 'The Hats of Hu- manity, historically, humorously and aestheti- cally considered, A Homily,' by George Augustus Sala : published by James Gee, Hatter, 13 Market Street, Manchester, price Is.

A newspaper cutting pasted in my copy states :

" The greater part of the memoranda used in the compilation of this interesting little work was collected by James Gee. . . .who sent it together, with a cheque for fifty pounds, to the late Mr. Sala, with a requisition to make a book of it. Mr. Sala did not acknowledge receipt of either memoranda or cheque for over six months, so at the expiration of that time Mr. Gee wrote asking when he might -expect to receive the manuscript of the book. Mr. Sala immediately replied, and stated that


he had entirely forgotten the matter, but would put it in hand at once. Within twenty-four hours the manuscript arrived, and, leaving twelve hours for transmission through the post, it only left twelve hours for the writing of it, even if Mr. Sala had no other work occupying his time."

The sixty pages of the booklet are full of curious facts about hats, but I see little about wideawakes. On p. 16 Mr. Sala says he only recognizes in a modified degree as hats, the modern "wide .awakes," "Jim Crows," "pork pies," and other varieties of what the Americans call " soft " hats ; things you can sit upon, or double up, and put in your pocket. On p. 48 he refers to a grey " wide awake " or "jim crow " as the ordinary Confederate wear in the Civil War in the United States, 1861-7, which, he says, was the means of introducing an extraordinary number of new hats to notice.

I believe J. Woodrow & Sons, the hatters of Manchester and Liverpool, are the successors of Mr. Gee, and might have copies of this curious little book. R. S. B.

ORIENTATION OF CHURCHES (12 S. vii. 169). The precise date of building the first orientated church is not known, but in the Apostolic Constitutions (circa 260 A.D.) it is enjoined that "the building be long, with its head to the east, with its vestries on both sides at the east end, and so it will be like a ship."

Notable exceptions to the rule, however, have existed, as that of the Church of Antioch, and still exist. Strangely enough St. Peter's at Rome is one, where the Pope, celebrating Mass from the back of the altar, faces the people. The ancient Celtic Church was more rigid than the rest of Western Europe in observing the rule, and its tradi- tion still remains in these islands.

G. J. TOTTENHAM.

Diocesan Library, Liverpool.

It is well known that the orientation of churches and temples long anti-dated Christianity.

The practice was by no means general in the early days of Christianity. Rome built its churches regardless of that position. St. Peter's and the earlier church on the same site had their altars placed at the west end.

Orientation was a tradition from heathen times, and many early Christian Churches were built on the ruins of heathen temples. It has been shown by Sir Norman Lockyer and others, that the orientation of the ancient temples and the stone circles of neolithic times had partly a utilitarian object