168 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 199. 



afterwards became a prelate in Scotland, that was con- 

 tinually running down that History for the errors dis- 

 covered in it, many of which are not very material, and 

 might in so large a work have been easily pardoned ; 

 and in order to obtain such a pardon, I acquainted his 

 Lordship with some more considerable errata to be 

 found in the first volume of Anglia Sacra, out of which 

 I had drawn up as many mistakes as I could possibly 

 meet with, and had descanted upon them, as far as I 

 ■was able, in the same method Ant. Harmer had drawn 

 up his, and without acquainting the Bishop who was 

 the author, sent them up to his Lordship with license, 

 if he thought fitting, to print them. But when the 

 collection was made, I had prefixed a letter to his 

 Lordship, and next an epistle to the reader. In the 

 former it was but fitting to compliment his Lordship, 

 but the latter was altogether as large a commendation 

 of Dr. Wharton's skill, diligence, and faithfulness in 

 viewing and examining the records of our English 

 church history. The disgust that this last gave his 

 Lordship obliged him to stifle the whole tract ; but yet 

 he was pleased to show part of it to many by way, as 

 I suppose, of excuse or answer for his own mistakes ; 

 but as I take it, after the Doctor's decease, he made it 

 an occasion of foully bespattering him as a man of no 

 credit, and all he had writ in that Specimen was fit to 

 go for nothing ; which practice of his lordship, after I 

 came to read both in the preface and introduction to 

 "his third volume, 1 was amazed at his injustice both to 

 the living and the dead. For I b.ad acquainted his 

 Lordship that the faults were none of Dr. Wharton's 

 own making, who had never seen the MS. itself, but 

 only some exscript of it, writ by some raw and illiterate 

 person employed by some of his Oxford friends to send 

 him a copy of it. I once threatened my Lord Bishop's 

 son that I had thoughts of publishing this and some 

 other facts the Bishop had used to avoid the discovery 

 of some other errata communicated to him by other 

 hands ; but I forbore doing so, lest I should seem mi- 

 grateful for kindnesses done and offered to me." 



E. H. A. 



EABLT PHILADELPHIA DIRECTORIES. 



The first Philadelphia Directories were published 

 in the year 1785, when two appeared : White's and 

 M'Pherson's. The latter is a duodecimo volume 

 of 164 pages, and contains some things worth 

 making a note of. 



Some persons do not seem to have compre- 

 hended the object of the inquiries made of the 

 inhabitants as to their names and occupations ; 

 supposing, perhaps, that they had some connexion 

 with taxation. The answers given by such are 

 put down in the Directory as the names of the 

 respondents. Thus : 



" ' I won't tell you,' 3. Maiden's Lane." 

 " ' I won't tell it,' 15. Sugar Alley." 

 " ' I won't tell you my name,' ] 60. New Market 

 Street." 



" ' I won't have it numbered,' 478, Green Street." 

 "' I won't tell my name,' 185. St. John's Street." 



" ' I shall not give vou my name,' 4;j. Stamper's 

 Alley." 



" What you please,' 49. Market Street." 



In the errata are the following : 



" For Cross Woman read Cross Widow." 

 " For Cox Cats read Cox Cato." 



The alphabetical arrangement of a Db'ectory is 

 as great a leveller as the grave. In the Directory 

 for 1798, after — 



" Dennis, Mr., Taylor, Pewter Platter Alley." 

 appears the following : 



" Dorleans, Messrs., Merchatits, near 100. South 

 Fourth Street." 



These were Louis Philippe and one of his brothers, 

 who liveil at the north-west corner of Fourth and 

 Princes Streets, in a house still standing, and now 

 numbered 110. 



Talleyrand and Volney lived for some time in 

 Philadelphia ; but, not being house -keepers, their 

 names do not appear in any of the Directories. 



Uneda. 



Philadelphia, 



SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE. 



Shakspeare Readings, No. X. — " Sheer" versus 

 " Warwick-sheer." — At page 143. of Notes and 

 Emendations, Mr. Collier indulges in the following 

 reverie : — 



" Malone did not know what to make of ' sheer 

 ale,' but supposed that it meant aheering or reaping ale, 

 for so reaping is called in Warwickshire. What does 

 it mean ? It is spelt sheere in the old copies ; and that 

 word begins one line, Wanvick having undoubtedly 

 dropped out at the end of the preceding line. 

 It was formerly not at all unusual to spell ' shire ' 

 sheere ; and Sly's ' sheer ale ' thus turns out to have 

 been Warwickshire ale, which Shakspeare celebrated, 

 and of which he had doubtless often partaken at Mrs. 

 Racket's. We almost wonder that, in his local parti- 

 cularity, he did not mention the sign of her house," &c. 



The meaning of sheer ale was strong ale — that 

 which we now call "entire" — ale unmixed, un- 

 reduced, unmitigated — the antithesis of that 

 " small ale," for a pot of which poor Sly begged 

 so hard, sinking his demand at last to " a pot o' the 

 smallest ale." If Christopher lived in our own 

 times, he might, on common occasions, indulge in 

 small; but for great treats he would have Barclay's 

 entire : and, instead of bullying Dame Hacket 

 about " sealed quarts," he would perhaps, in these 

 educated days, be writing to The Times under the 

 signature of " A Thirsty Soul." Sly evidently was 

 rather proud of underlying a score of fourteen- 

 pence for sheer ale. 



Let us hear in what sense old Phil, Holland, in 

 Precepts of Health, uses the Avord : 



" And verily water (not that onely wherewith wine 

 is mingled, but also which is drunke betweene whiles, 



