Mar.. 20. 1852.] 



.NOTES AND QUERIES. 



271 



en a crutch; who wore an apron, and carried 

 miniature bedsteads for sale. Of this man it was 

 generally reported, that he was imi)licated in the 

 Cato Street conspiracy, and turned king's evidence. 



Charles Lamb describes a character, whom it is 

 also impossible to forget : 



" A well-known figure, or part of the figure of a 

 man, who used to guide his upper half over the pave- 

 ments of London, wheeling along with most ingenious 

 celerity upon a machine of wood . . . He was of a 

 robust make, with a florid sailor-like complexion, and 

 his head was bare to the storm and sunshine . . . The 

 accident which brought him low, took place during 

 the riots of 1780." 



Is this all that is known of this half-giant ? 



When the old Houses of Parliament were stand- 

 ing, there used to be at one of the entrances a 

 dwarf, long past middle age, who persisted in 

 offering his services as a guide. His countenance 

 was full of grave wisdom, quite Socratic in ex- 

 pression ; but, I believe, he was an idiot. Does 

 anything of interest attach to the remembrance of 

 him ? 



And, lastly, not to " stretch the line out to the 

 crack of doom," what became of Billy Waters ? 

 Do these street heroes die the death of common 

 men — in bed, and with friends near them; or 

 do they genei-ally find their fate at last in the 

 workhouse or the gaol ; and get buried no one 

 knows when, or by whom, or where ? 



I cannot agree with Mr. Dickens, that " no one 

 knows for certain" about such persons, '•'■because 

 rio one cares." Lideed, Mr. D.'s philosophy and" 

 practice are at variance in this matter. He makes 

 his own sketch of " the little mad old woman," be- 

 cause he feels that it will interest. How much 

 more would the original, could we get at it ! But 

 the truth is, these people are as mysterious as the 

 fireman's dog. They " come like shadows, so 

 depart:" leaving behind them on many minds 

 ineffacealJe impressions. Indeed, some of us could 

 confess with shame, that the feathered cocked hat 

 and fiddle of Billy Waters had survived the 

 memory of a thousand things of real importance : 

 which could hardly be, were there not some psy- 

 chological force in these street characters — an 

 inexplicable interest and attraction. 



Alfred Gattt. 



Dean Swift on Herbert's Travels. — In a copy, 

 now in my library, of Herbert's Travels in Africa, 

 Asia, Sfc, folio, 1634, there is a very characteristic 

 note in the autograph of Dean Swift, to whom the 

 book, formerly belonged. Thinking that it may 

 not be uninteresting to some of the readers of 

 " N. & Q.," I send a copy of it : 



" If this book were stript of its impertinence, con- 

 fceitedness, and tedious digressions, it would be almost 



worth reading, and would then be two-thirds smaller 

 than it is. " 1720. J. Swift." 



" The author published a new edition in his older 

 days, with many additions, upon the whole more in. 

 surterable than this. He lived several years after the 

 Restoration, and some friends of mine knew him in 

 Ireland. He seems to have been a coxcomb both 

 ajvi vitio et sui.' 



W. Sneyd. 

 Denton, 



Joe Miller. — Tlie remains of this patriarch of 

 puns and jokes, hitherto peaceably resting in the 

 burial-ground in Portugal Street, will now be dis- 

 turbed to make way for the. new buildings of 

 King's College Hospital. Surely " Old Joe" ought 

 not to be carted away, and shot as rubbish. Some 

 plain memorial of him might soon be raised, if an 

 appeal were made to the public ; and if every one 

 Avliose conscience told him he had ever been in- 

 debted to Miller, would subscribe only a penny 

 to the memorial fund, the requisite sum would 

 soon be collected. Jaydee. 



Hints to Book-buyers. — Inquirers buy books on 

 subjects which they have, at tlie time, no particu- 

 lar intention of closely investigating : when such 

 intention afterwards arises, they begin to collect 

 more extensively. But it often happens, I suspect, 

 that it does not come into their heads to examine 

 what they have already got, as to which their 

 memory is not good, because their acquisitions 

 were not made under any strong purpose of using 

 them. The warning which suggests itself is as 

 follows : Always remember to examine the old 

 library as if it were that of a stranger, when you 

 begin any new subject, and before you buy any 

 new books. 



Here is another warning, not wholly uncon- 

 nected with the former : Never judge of a book, 

 that is, of all which comes between tiie two boards, 

 by the title-page, which may be only tho. first title- 

 page, in spite of the lettering at the back. Per- 

 sons who bind their books will not always be 

 bound themselves, either by law of congruity or 

 convenience. I once hunted shop and stall lor a 

 speech delivered in parliament a century ago, not 

 knowing that I had long possessed it bound up at 

 the end of a Latin summary of Leibnitzian philo- 

 sophy. At the risk of posthumously revealing my 

 real name, I will add that I wrote on the fly-leaf 

 that I was not the blockhead who bound the book. 



M. 



Birmingham Antiquities. — I wish to put on re- 

 cord in your journal a fact concerning the anti- 

 quities of Birmingham. There is a street in this 

 borough, called Camden Street, which after cross- 

 ing Worstone Lane, acquires the name of Lowel* 

 Camden Street. On the right-hand side of Lower 

 Camden Street (as you go from Camden Street), 

 is some pasture ground, bounded on one side by a 



