84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 109., Jan. 30. '58. 



"P.C. Balchon deposed The earth in Wolver- 



ley Street is being sifted and made into mortar to build 

 some new houses with. 



" John James Bradbury proved that the heaps of earth 

 referred to by the last witness were shot from Mr. Piper's 

 carts, the latter deposing, that large quantities of human 

 bones were picked and sifted from the earth, consisting of 

 leg-bones, arm-bones, and skulls. He saw one old Irish- 

 man pick out a bagful, which he said he intended to sell ; 

 but witness sold none himself. He agreed to give two- 

 pence a load for the earth, because the carman said it 

 was good stuff to make mortar of." — Evening Star, 

 Dec. 1, 1857, "Report of Inquiry touching the alleged 

 Exposure of the Dead in the Burial Ground of the Roman 

 Catholic Chapel, Moorfields." 



W. R. Arrowsmith, 



Kinsham Court. 



A Shdkspeare Note. — In the BeliquicE Hear- 

 niance, edited by the late Dr. Bliss, is the follow- 

 ing interesting entry relative to the bequest of 

 Sir John Falstaff to Magdalen College, Oxford : — 



" 1721, June 2. — The reason why they cannot give so 



food an account of the benefaction of sir John Falstolf to 

 lagd. coll. is, because he gave it to the founder, and left 

 it to his management, so that 'tis suppos'd 'twas swal- 

 low'd up in his own estate that he settled upon the col- 

 lege. However, the college knows this, that the Boar's 

 Head in Southwark, which was then an inn, and still 

 retains the name, tho' divided into several tenements, 

 (which bring the college 150 libs per ann.) was part of sir 

 John's gift." 



To the circumstantial accuracy of this entry I 

 can bear testimony. The property above men- 

 tioned, the " Boar's Head," in Southwark, was for 

 many years sub-let to my family, at the rent of 

 1501. per annum, and was by them principally 

 sub-let to weekly tenants. The premises were 

 named "Boar's Head Court," and consisted of two 

 rows of tenements, vis-d-vis, and two at the east 

 end, with a gallery to the first-floors, the entire 

 number of dwellings being eleven. They were 

 fronted with strong weather-board : the balusters 

 of the staircases were evidently of great age. The 

 "Court" entrance was between the houses Nos. 

 25. and 26. on the east side of the High Street, 

 and the above number of houses from London 

 Bridge ; and the property was cleared away in 

 making the approach to the new bridge. 



John Times, 

 Sloane Street. 



Passage in " Love's Labour's Lost" Act V. 

 Sc.2.: — 



" Kath. What, was your visor made without a tongue ? 



Long. I know the reason, ladj', why you ask. 



Kaih. O, for your reason ! quickly. Sir ; I long. 



Long. You have a double tongue within your mask, 

 And would afford my speechless visor half. 



Katli. Veal, quoth the Dutchman ; 

 Is not veal a calf? " 



What does this mean ? Singer's note refers to 

 a joke in which a Dutchman's pronunciation of 



the word "well" as "vele" is purposely misun- 

 derstood by his auditor for " veal," who says : 

 " What, do you make a calfe of me, Mr. Doctor? " 



But this does not explain Katharine's introduc- 

 tion of " veal." Does she not imply that Longo- 

 ville's assertion that she has a double tongue 

 within her mask, and could, consequently, afford 

 him half of her tongue, reminds her of a calf's 

 head split into two halves (as one sees it), which 

 has the effect of cleaving the tongue down the 

 middle, and so makes two tongues out of one ? 



Is there any better explanation of the passage ? 

 Neither Collier, Ayscough, nor Routledge's new 

 edition, has any note on the subject. X. X. X. 



MONTHLY FEDILLETON ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



The literary intercourse between England and 

 the Continent is now so firmly established, and 

 has taken such rapid strides, that notices of 

 French publications have become a necessary 

 feature in the principal organs of the periodical 

 press. Whilst we are glad to read a clever re- 

 sume of Dr. Livingstone's travels, or a carefully- 

 "^repared appreciation of the life of George Ste- 

 phenson, we feel equally interested in a critique 

 on M. de Tocqueville or M. Guizot. Bcranger 

 and Alfred de Musset have almost assumed with 

 us the position of household names, and we can 



^uote Barbier or Querard as glibly as we would 

 lowndes or Darling. Such being the case, the 

 monthly /eM?7Zeto« on French literature which we 

 propose offering to the readers of " N. & Q." will 

 not appear an unprecedented attempt, but be 

 received, we trust, as a real improvement. 



Whilst keeping within the range of the subjects ' 

 calculated to interest the majority of our friends, 

 we shall still feel that there is much to glean, much 

 to examine. In France as well as in England we 

 see learned societies at work, -publishers getting 

 up books worth reading, antiquaries sharp at con- 

 troversy on the genuineness of a medal or the 

 deternynation of a Roman camp. Alas ! why must 

 we add that, like the departed humorist Jona- 

 than Oldbuck, more than one French savant is 

 now cherishing as an authentic piece of Etrus- 

 can ironmongery what is really nothing else but 

 " Aiken Drum's long ladle I " 



Amongst the works issued during the last 

 month from the Galilean presses several would 

 deserve, did time and space permit, more than 

 a simple allusion. Though adding but little to 

 what we already know of the great chansonnier, 

 Reranger's autobiography * is an amusing volume, 

 well written, and confirming the opinion we had 

 ever formed of his character as a poet and a poli- 



* " Ma Biographic, par P. T. de Bcranger, avcc un ap- 

 pendice. Paris, Perrotin." 



