326 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



['ind S. V. 120,, AruiL 17. '.58. 



" Hoio do Oysters make their Shells " (2"^ S. v. 

 267.) — I have certainly wondered at such a ques- 

 tion remaining so long unanswered, as I fancied 

 few could now-a-days be ignorant of the fact, 

 that shells of all molluscs are producegl by the 

 fish itself throwing out a fluid which rapidly har- 

 dens into the substance of the shell. In this man- 

 ner, if a shell have been injured and broken, the 

 new piece thus inserted is easily to be detected, 

 in a greater freshness or delicacy of colour, and 

 the rough edges of the shell around being still 

 visible : perhaps from the process of " raccom- 

 modage " not having been quite completed where 

 the shell was broken. E. E. Byng. 



Echo Song (2°« S. v. 234. 306.)— I would refer 

 your correspondent to Act I., Scenes 2. and 3. of 

 Cynthia's Revels by Ben Jonson, where the answers 

 of Echo, before and after the permission granted 

 by Mercury to have full use of her speech for a 

 time, are of the same nature as in the song quoted 

 by him. Thus : — 



" Merc. * Where 



May I direct thy speech that thou mayst hear ? ' 

 " Echo. ' Hear.' 

 " Merc. ' So nigh ? ' 

 « Echo. ' I.' " » 



And again at the commencement of Scene 3. 



Libya. 



Old English Verses on the Instruments of the 

 Passion (2°^ S. iv. 449.) — There are a few errors 

 of transcription and interpretation in these verses, 

 which it may be as well to rectify. In line 4, 

 " With hondis I handelyd," should be read " i-han- 

 delyd; in line 11, "upset by Eucheson" should 

 be "by encheson" i.e. for the purpose; and in line 

 20, "His blessed body albibled" explained by 

 J. C. J. " in white linen," should be printed " al 

 bi-bled" which means " covered with blood." 



"The open werre, with woundes al be-bledde." 



Cant. Tales, 2004. 



Mi4ctHanea\ig. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



The publication of the first volume of Mr. Brace's Ca- 

 lendar of the State Papers of Charles I. indicates the 

 accomplishment of another stage in the scheme of the 

 Master of the Eolls for throwing open these invaluable 

 papers. The brief period comprised within this volume 

 was one of great historical moment. It was a stirring 

 time, full of court ceremonies and events of high political 

 interest — but such things scarcely suit our columns. It 

 will be more germane to our pages to show, by string- 

 ing together a few extracts, in what waj' the contents of 

 this volume may be made to tell, ev^en without access to 

 the original papers, on points in local, personal, and 

 social history. We shall select a few examples almost at 

 random. 



At the accession of Charles I., the royal parish of St. 

 Martin's-in-the-Ficlds was the Bclgravia of the metro- 



polis. In a list of residents who " refused to pay towards 

 mending the highways," there occur " the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham, the Earls of Suffolk, Salisbury, Rutland, Den- 

 bigh, Holland, and Berkshire, the Countess of Derby, 

 Viscount Wallingford, Lords Grandison and Conway, 

 Lady St. Albans, Lady Raleigh, Sir Henry Vane, S'ir 

 Robert Naunton, Inigo Jones, Endymion Porter, and 

 many other well-known persons, all dwellers in St. Mar- 

 tin's parish." Why such notable people objected to their 

 highwaj'-rates does not appear. A noble earl, who we 

 presume had not been a defaulter, was much annoyed 

 and scandalised by the want of repair into which the 

 highways consequently fell, and wrote by deputy to 

 the parish authorities in a stj'le which "in our day 

 would rather excite astonishment. Sir John Danvers 

 intimates that he " is commanded by the Earl of Dorset 

 to express his just dislike that nothing is done towards 

 the repair of the highway between the west gate of St. 

 James's Park and the stone bridge on the edge of Chelsea 

 fields. If a satisfactory account be not given before 8 

 o'clock the next morning, the Earl will conceive it a con- 

 tinued contempt, which he will proceed to censure and 

 punish as in his wisdom shall seem meet." What ensued 

 from these high words does not appear. The inhabitants 

 were probably at that time rather bent upon getting a 

 little more church accommodation, a step towards mend- 

 ing their ways different from that contemplated by the 

 Earl of Dorset. A hundred years before Gibbs''s stately 

 structure was commenced, the parish had begun to com- 

 plain loudly of the insufficiency of their ancient church. 

 Listen to their appeal to the King in 1626. " Since the 

 beginning of King James's reign the inhabitants of this 

 parish have trebled, and that number is much increased 

 by the attendants upon the Court ; the church has been 

 enlarged, but cannot contain one-half of those who would 

 come to it; there is a hall in Durham House, now used 

 as a passage, which might be converted into a church, 

 which the petitioners are ready to do, as well as to pay 

 the minister ; they pray that as the late King bestowed 

 on them a burying-place, his Majesty would aid them in 

 procuring a church in the way suggested." 



Whilst St. Martin's was thus seriously occupied, Lin- 

 coln's-Inn-Fields was still more deeply agitated. Under 

 the genius of Inigo Jones what had been a dirty swamp 

 was in the process of conversion into a magnificent 

 square. Among the speculators who were desirous to 

 procure fortunes out of the growing and fashionable city 

 suburb were two of the serjeants-at-arms, John Williams 

 and Thomas Dixon. These worthies, knowing that vari- 

 ous country cities had procured permissions to erect 

 buildings for the use of the trained bands and the cul- 

 tivation of various martial sports, procured a licence to 

 purchase a piece of ground in Lincoln's-lnn-Fields, " in 

 order to build thereon an amphitheatre to exercise therein 

 martial discipline." To ensure the success of their spe- 

 culation, they farther obtained authority to close all the 

 theatres on Bankside, and stop " all plaj^s and interludes 

 one day in the week." We who remember how Prince's 

 Gate was fluttered by the erection of the Crystal Palace of 

 1851, may imagine how Lincoln's-Inn- Fields was startled 

 bj' the threatened invasion of drums and trumpets. The 

 courtly people — for there were then such persons living 

 in Lincoln's-lnn-Fields — applied to the Secretary of 

 State, and the lawyers, not to the Lord Chief Justice, but 

 to the Lord Keeper. The former stayed the grant to 

 Williams and Dixon at the Signet, and Lord Keeper 

 Coventry sent an ominous dictum that nothing was to be 

 done in the matter until he had looked into his " papers." 

 Like the accumulations of some other people, his lord- 

 ship's " papers " were probably not quite so well arranged 

 as they ought to have been, but he discovered what he 

 wanted, and found it fatal to Williams and Dixon. Their 



