12 s. vii. OCT. 16, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
309
JR THE CBYSTAL PALACE BAZAAB. The
demolition! of premises at the north-east
corner of Oxford Circus has brought to
sight this once familiar bazaar now, alas !
to be lost for ever. My own recollections
suggest it existed as a bazaar until the late
seventies, when it was absorbed by a
neighbouring drapery establishment.
In its earliest years it had some vogue as fe place of exhibition of panoramas, but in tae sixties was, I believe, the scene of a disastrous fire. Unfortunately, I cannot gi/e date and the only reference at hand indicates its prospective opening :
- The Soho Bazaar and the Pantheon are
likely to loose the monopoly they have hitherto enjayed. A new Bazaar, built of iron and glass
on Paxtonian principles and situated in Oxford
Street just by Regent Circus, with entrances
fron Oxford and Regent Streets, will, it is said
sooi be opened to the public " (The Illustrate
Tines, July 24, 1858). ALECK ABBAHAMS .
POBIN HOOD BIBLIOGRAPHY. (See re fereices at 12 S. i. 427). The following maj be idded : Five Ballads about Robin |Hood, 210 copies, 8
Vhcent Press, Birmingham, 1899. GuttQ ( J. M.) On the veritable existence of Robin
H-od, Brit. Arch. Assoc., viii. 208-222. Plan<he (J. R.) A ramble with Robin Hood
Asoc. Archit. Socs., vii. 15, 174.
J. AUDAGH.
WLLIAM WATSON (? 1559-1603). The 'DJ.B.' does not notice ^that William Wafeon, a boy, arrived at the English College at Rheims from Rouen on Feb. 7, 1581, and was admitted as a student of infeior rank (Knox, 'Douay Diaries, p. 1'5). If, then, he was 16 years of age whei he came to Rheims, and if he was born on ^pr. 23, as he himself states, the year of his lirth must have been 1564 and not 1559. The article on ' William Watson ' in the 'D.\ T .B.' says that he and William Clark wer- executed on Dec. 9, 1603 ; while that on ; William Clark ' says that the priests Wason and Clark and the layman George Brc3ke were all executed on, Nov. 29, The truh of the matter seems to be that the pri<sts Watson and Clark were hanged and quartered in the Market Place at ^Winchester on Nov. 29, and George Brooke, the only laxman executed for the alleged plots (the Miin and the Bye) was beheaded in the Cestle Yard at Winchester on Dec. 5. The e\idence for these plots must have been very scinty : and the priests probably suffered irainly for their priesthood.
JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.
COLUMBUS AND THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. A
correspondent of a London daily journal
possibly a rummager among obscure or
hidden Sephardic records in the Spanish
Peninsula announces that he has alighted
upon some confirmation of the once prevalent
suspicion that the so-named Christopher
Columbus was born one of the Chosen People,
arid that he drew inspiration and material
assistance in comrades and in cash from the
crypto -Jews who permeated the whole realm,
of Ferdinand and Isabella and the Kingdom
of Portugal. More recently the claim has
been advanced in Jewish newspapers that
"most of Spain's Colonial possessions in
the days of her National prowess not least
her American were gained by Jewish
influence and effort in one way and another. ' '
The Spanish historian, Celso Garcia de la
Riega, asserts definitely that Columbus the
reputed " discoverer " of America was of
Jewish parentage settled in Pontevedra.
Christopher, feeling that he would stand
little chance at the Court of Ferdinand and
Isabella, transferred his domicile to Genoa,
and he was baptised there. All the friends
ot Christopher Columbus were Jews of sorts,
and chief among them were Abraham Mendez.
de Castro, the Court physician. De Castro
assisted the " Genoese " adventurer to
engage the interest of their Most Catholic
Majesties and gave him as a talisman an
ancient Mezzuzah to which the legend
attached was that once it held place on the
door-post of King Solomon's Temple.
Whether the new discovery will emphasise the claims of dubious lost tribes of the Chosen People that America is theirs "by right of discovery " does not yet appear, but, meantime, it may be noted that the Jewish Encyclopaedists expressly point out that Christopher Columbus had personal relations with Joseph Vecinho, physician - in-ordinary to John II. of Portugal, and with other learned Jews or " Moors " (who were probably really of The People). At Salamanca Columbus became personally acquainted with Zacuto, the famous Jewish mathematician, whose astronomical tables Columbus always carried with him and found most serviceable. At Malaga he met the Marano farmer-in-chief of taxes, Abraham Senior, and also the distinguished Isaac Abravanel, who assisted him financially. In hort, the Rabbis of the Jewish Encyclopedia lave no difficulty in showing that Columbus was deeply indebted to Jews for aid of all
orts
and some sailed under his pennon.
Me.
