46 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. No 107., Jan. 16. '58. 



the carpenters finding the wood too hard for their tools, 

 they were laid aside as useless. Soon after, Mrs. Gibbons 

 wanting a candle-box, the Doctor called on his cabinet- 

 maker, Woollaston, in Long Acre, to make him one of 

 some wood that lay in his garden. Woollaston also com- 

 plained that it was too hard. The Doctor said he must 

 get stronger tools. The candle-box was made, and ap- 

 proved; insomuch that the Doctor then insisted on 

 having a bureau made of the same wood, which was ac- 

 cordingly done ; and the fine colour, with the polish, were 

 so pleasing, that he invited all his friends to come and 

 see it; among them, the Duchess of Buckingham. Her 

 Grace begged some of the same ^yood of Dr. Gibbons, and 

 employed Woollaston to make her a bureau also; on 

 which the fame of mahogany, and of Mr. Woollaston, 

 was much raised, and the wood came into general use." 

 — Monthly Museum, 1802.* 



w. w. 



Names of American Cities. — -The following cut- 

 ting is from an old number of The Rural Nevj 

 Yorker (Oct. 11, 1856). It contains information 

 that I know not where to find elsewhere : — 



" CITIES EXTRAORDINAKY. 



" Baltimore is the ' Monumental City,' from the great 

 battle monument, and several others of note, within its 

 limits. 



" Boston is the * Classic City,' or Athens of America, 

 from its acknowledged preeminence in the literary and 

 fine-art pursuits. 



" Cincinnati is the ' Queen City,' so christened when it 

 was the undisputed commercial metropolis of the West ; 

 but I believe Chicago now sets up rival claims to that 

 distinction. 



" Cleveland, , is the * Forest City,' from the peculiar 

 rural aspect of its streets, squares, and private grounds, 

 which makes it one of the most delightful cities in the 

 United States. 



« Hartford, Ct., ;is the ' Charter Oak City,' from the 

 famous Charter Oak of colonial history. 



" Louisville, Ky., is the ' Falls City,' from the falls of 

 the Ohio at that point. 



" Montpelier, Vt., is the ' Green Mountain City,' being 

 the capital of the Green Mountain State. 



" New Haven, Ct., is the ' Elm City,' I believe, from 

 the profusion of elm-tree ornaments in its streets. 



" New Orleans is the • Crescent City,' from the half- 

 moon shape which the river once presented at that point. 

 But the filling out from the city has materially changed 

 the crescent. 



" New York is the ' Empire Citj',' or the great com- 

 mercial emporium of the New World. 



" Philadelphia is the ' Quaker City,' from its broad- 

 brimmed founders. 



" Pittsburg, Pa., is the * Iron City,' from the immense 

 iron trade and manufactories. It is also emphatically the 

 ♦ Smoky City.' 



" Rochester is called the ' Flour City,' owing to the 

 number of its flour-mills — some of which are said to be 

 the largest in the world." 



K. P. D. E. 



Brading, Isle of Wight. — There are one or 

 two vestiges of a past social condition which are 

 noteworthy as being found together in one place, 

 though separately they may not unfrequently be 

 seen. Outside the churchyard, for instance, stands 



[* Copied from the Gentleman's Magazine of Sept. 1784, 

 p. 659. — Ed.] 



the old " Town Hall," so called, a one-storied, one- 

 roomed building, the ground story of which is 

 composed of open round-headed arches. Inside, 

 the grim old stocks are still to be seen, a terror 

 to evil-doers ki times past ; disused now, probably, 

 though not because their services would not, in 

 many cases, be helpful to the public weal. On 

 the wall of this same building a small notice- 

 board is fixed, containing sundry fierce threats 

 " To Beggars, Ballad Singers," &c. Farther up 

 the main street, in an open space, a strong iron 

 ring remains, whereto, on Brading holidays, the 

 unfortunate bull selected for baiting was tied. In 

 entering the village, on Christmas Day, we were 

 accosted by a ragged crew of " munyners " in gay 

 dresses of shreds of coloured paper, and skilfully-cut 

 pages of copy-books. Their performance seemed 

 to resemble that which one reads of as usual in 

 other countries, with the addition of a black-faced 

 actor in a ragged smock, and carrying a stout 

 cudgel with a bell at one end, a supernumerary, 

 may be, for the special performance of Brading 

 village. He acted the part of prompter, stage 

 director, and master of ceremonies. Is he to be 

 met with elsewhere ? T. H. P. 



Remarkable Instances of Heroism in India, and 

 Cause of the recent Revolt. — The Rev. Mr. Scud- 

 der, an American missionary In India, in a recent 

 letter to the editor of The Christian Intelligencer, 

 thus remarks : — 



" Let Americans never be ashamed that Englishmen 

 are their forefathers. England is a noble country'. Her 

 sons are heroes and her daughters are heroines. This 

 rebellion has brought out deeds that deserve to be 

 associated with those valorous actions which we, with 

 throbbing pulses, read in history. In one place, a lady 

 and her husband fled in their carriage. He stood upright. 

 She took the reins. She lashed the horses through a 

 band of mutineers, while he, with cool aim, shot dead one 

 who seized the horses' heads, and another who climbed 

 upon the carriage behind to cut him down. On they fled, 

 till again they found themselves among foes, and a rope 

 stretched across the road made further progress appear 

 impossible. True to herself, she dashed the horses at full 

 speed against the rope, and as they, bearing it down, 

 stumbled, she, by rein and whip, raised them, while her 

 husband's weapons again freed them from those who suc- 

 ceeded in leaping upon them. He was wounded, but 

 both escaped with their lives. In another place, a j'oung 

 lady, the daughter of an otHcer, shot seven mutineers be- 

 fore they killed her. A captain, pressed by his sepoys, 

 with his good sword slew twenty-six of them before he 

 fell!" 



The Kev. Dr. Duff, who is also a distinguished 

 American missionary, has thus expressed himself, 

 with reference to the cause of the recent revolt : — 



" I have no hesitation in saying, with the utmost em- 

 phasis, that the whole is the result of a long-concocted 

 Mohammedan conspiracy against the British power, with 

 a view to the reestablishment of a Mohammedan dynasty 

 instead. 



" For the last hundred years they have been sighing 

 and longing and praying, not only in private, but in their 

 public mosques, for the prosperity of the House of Ti- 



