Dec. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



printer to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and 

 Elizabeth, the printer of the Year-Books, and, in 

 misceUaneous literature, of the translation of Ban- 

 dello's Tragicall Historye of Homeus and Juliet, 

 from which source Shakspeare derived his tragedy. 

 No. 7. was subsequently occupied by Jaggard 

 and Joel Stephens, both eminent law printers, 

 te7tip. James I., Geo. I.-III. ; and at the present 

 day (I may perhaps be permitted a word for my 

 neighbours, and remark) it is very legitimately 

 occupied by Messrs. Butterworth, law publishers 

 to Queen Victoria. But I am warned I must have 

 done, — long silence has made me garrulous ; but 

 there are times Avheii " even the very stones would 

 speak." My grim neighbour, Temple Bar, armed 

 with a long line of gloomy memories, treasures as 

 its brightest moment its connecting link with 

 Johnson and Goldsmith, in the conversation be- 

 tween them beneath its arches, which has been 

 traditionally handed down. Surely, then, as I 

 have met this aggression on my presumed literary 

 claims to regard, with no fretful grating of a rusty 

 hinge, " to fright the souls of fearful adversaries," 

 but rather, by a well-tempered presentment of 

 the testimonies in my favour, leaving you and 

 such of your readers as feel an interest in the 

 literary reminiscences of the locality to judge be- 

 tween us, I pray, therefore, with you at all events, 

 I , may stand excused. The literary history of 

 Fleet Street and its neighbourhood (perhaps the 

 most fertile field existent in London) remains to 

 be written. There are those who are well com- 

 petent for the task ; it would be an interesting 

 and instructive book. Why does not Mr. Cun- 

 ningham attempt it ? — his Hand Book of London 

 tells us he has a store of material ; I will even 

 venture to presume he has the inclination. Has 

 he the opportunity ? I hope that by whomsoever 

 the task is undertaken, my humble claims to note 

 may therein be remembered. 



MiDPLE Tempi-e Gate. 



CHRISTMAS IN CHESHIRE. 



The streets of Chester, and the villages around, 

 are paraded on Christmas Eve by numerous 

 parties of singers ; for whom, at many private 

 houses, entertainment is provided in the good old- 

 fashioned style of Cheshire hospitality. The 

 houses of rich and poor are decked for fourteen 

 days with the sacred holly, and its attendant mistle- 

 toe ; and, under the shade of the latter, many a 

 sly kiss is given or stolen at this privileged season, 

 which would at other times be deemed to be 

 " forbidden fruit." The farmers of Cheshire pass 

 Christmas more gloomily, perhaps, than any other 

 class : for, by an ancient custom, which almost 

 universally prevails, agricultural servants engage 

 themselves from New Year's Eve to Christmas 



No. 321.] I 



Day ; by virtue of which agreement, they leave 

 the families of their employers to shift for them- 

 selves for some five or six days, while they resort 

 to the principal towns and keep holiday. On the 

 morning after Christmas Day, hundreds of these 

 farm -servants, male and female (every Jack with 

 his Gill), crowd the streets of Chester, dressed 

 out in their holiday clothes ; which, by the way, 

 are sometimes of the most grotesque character, 

 and varied in colours as the brightest rainbow. 

 It is amusing to mix in the throng on such occa- 

 sions, and to watch these children of " nature 

 unadorned" — their straggling gait, their fanciful 

 apparel — to hear their quaint exclamations, and 

 their outlandish dialects, which few, even educated 

 natives, could understand without a glossary. 

 They have just received their year's wages ; and 

 speedily invest great part of it in smock frocks 

 or cotton dresses, plush waistcoats, or woollen 

 shawls, all of the gayest and most showy colours 

 and patterns. It is high carnival then with the 

 small shop and tavern keepers ; and to the latter 

 numbers of both sexes resort, and " trip the heavy 

 fantastic toe" to the tune of "Haste to the Wed- 

 ding," and other similarly invigorating strains. 

 An habitue of modern ball-rooms, were he to look 

 in upon our country cousins at such moments as 

 these, would be paralysed with astonishment at 

 their spirit-stirring movements : none of your stiff 

 formal quadrille steps for them, theirs are enjoy- 

 ments of a far livelier turn ! 



The afternoon service at Chester Cathedral is 

 crowded to excess on Christmas Day by persons 

 anxious to hear its admirable ohoir, in " For unto 

 us a Child is born," or some other sublime portion 

 of Handel's glorious " Messiah." T. Hughes, 



Chester. 



A very extraordinary Phase of Matter. ■ — In 

 Mr. Kemp's Phasis of Matter, 1 read the following 

 surprising announcement : 



"The solid part of almost all vegetable oils, and of 

 man, the goose, and other animals, is a white, hard, 

 brittle substance, that melts at 118°. It is called Mar- 

 garine." 



Of course Mr. Kemp knows what he means, and 

 says what he says. It is therefore evident " that 

 the solid part of myself and of every goose " is 

 what he describes. L-ndl-t M-rr-t. 



Descendants of John Bunyan. — The following 

 paragraph, under the heading of " Lincoln," is 

 extracted from The Lincolnshire Chronicle of 

 November 30, 1855 : 



" The Death of Robert Bunyan, Esq. — Our obituary this 

 day records the death of Mr. Itobert Bunyan, a gentle- 

 man who, for many years, held the office of coroner for 

 this division of the county, as well as for the city of 



