236
NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. i. MA*. 19,
If it be objected that such origin and habit
are but absurd fancies, I beg to say that, since
we know that Irish teachers practised both
ways of writing, and that their " from left to
rignt" way still clings to us in writing on
broad surfaces, is it absurd to think that
perhaps their "upward" one does the same?
We do not realize it, but it may be, indeed, a
habit bred in our bone from the ogham-stones
of prehistoric times. C.
MANOR HOUSE, UPPER HOLLOWAY (9 th S. i. 81). The notes respectively written under this heading by MR. W. J. GADSDEN and MR. JOHN HEBB evidently refer to two different buildings one situated in Upper Holloway Koad, not far from the foot of Highgate Hill, and the other in Hornsey Road, near the junction with Seven Sisters' Road. The statement that the former house was reported to have been the home of the highwayman Claude Duval affords to the student of folk- lore a curious illustration of the growth of tradition. It is clear that after the house in Hornsey Road was pulled down popular imagination, unwilling to allow a legend to expire, transferred the story which attached to the building in question to another old house in the immediate neighbourhood. In all probability neither house had the remotest connexion with Duval. The old "Devil's House," at the corner of Heame Lane (now Seven Sisters' Road), was known, as MR. HEBB points out, by that name from a date long anterior to the time of Duval. In Henry Warner's official survey of Islington parish, 1735, of which a copy will be found in Tomkins's ' Perambulation of Islington,' the building is shown as " De Vol's House," and the present Hornsey Road is described in the ' Reference ' as Tallington Lane, alias De Vol's Lane. This is the earliest allusion I can find to the tradition, which seems to have taken literary shape in a letter addressed to the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1784, pp. 103, 104. In Rocque's map of the 'Environs of London' the house, surrounded by its moat, is called " The Devil's House." I think it doubtful if this house was the manor house of the manor of Tolentone (Tallington or Tollington). Lysons,* referring to Rocke Church's Survey of 1611, says that on the east side of Tallington Lane is Tallington House, a moated site, called in ancient writings "The Lower Place"; and he has been followed by Nelson, Cromwell, Lewis, and the usual obedient troop of topographers. Church's survey undoubtedly identifies " The
- 'Environs of London.' ed. 1811, vol. ii. part ii.
p. 478.
Lower Place" with " The Devil's House," but it
does not identify " The Devil's House " with
Tallington House ; and if Warner's Survey is
referred to it will be seen that Tallington
House, which is situated to the north of
Heame Lane, is quite a different building
from "The Devil's House." Mr. T. E. Tomkins,
who was probably the most accurate anti-
quary who ever devoted himself to the
elucidation of obscure points in London
topography, was of opinion that "The
Devil's House" was the messuage mentioned
in the Inquisition taken after the decease of
Richard Iden, of Islington, 27 January, 1570
(' Perambulation of Islington,' p. 202).
It is needless to say that the same authority rejected the Duval legend, and he expressly stated (ibid. p. 176) that neither the moated house in Tallington Lane nor the Manor House at Upper Holloway, also once surrounded with a moat, appeared to have been associated with any peculiar traditional attributes. The old Manor House of Barnsbury had fallen into ruins, and had left no vestiges beyond its moated site, long before topographers had begun to interest themselves in the locality ; and the " Manor House," of which the demoli- tion is recorded by MR. GADSDEN, was most likely the residence of the steward of the manor of Barnsbury, in which it is situated. In the time of Cromwell (' Walks through Islington,' 1835, p. 327) it was occupied as a boarding-school. This was probably before its tenancy by Mr. Sievier.
It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that a view of the so-called " Claude Duval's House," in Devil's Lane, will be found in the late Mr. Walford's 'Old and New London,' v. 378. The date of the sketch is 1825, but the authority from which it was drawn is not recorded. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
Kingsland, Shrewsbury.
"TIRLING-PIN " (8 th S. xii. 426, 478 ; 9 th S.I 18, 58, 117). I have been much interested in the notes which have been published in yc columns on the " tirling-pin " since my cc munication of 27 November last. I am grat ful to your correspondents because I have learnt much from their papers. But I have now to make a sort of apology to the memory of Dr. Brewer. Before I wrote to your paper about the "tirling-pin," I went to South Kensington to see if I could find one there, and looked in vain. Recently I have looked again, and now I find two, and both have attached to them a thumb latch, which was not the case with those I saw and described in my letter to you as being at Edinburgh and Brussels. Dr. Brewer, you will remember,
