404 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 55. 



" Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Des- 

 champs, ecuyer, huissier d'armes des rois diaries V. et 

 Charles VI„ chatelain de Fismes et bailli de Senlis." 



As regards the '■'■genuineness" of the poem cited, 

 I am inclined, with J. M, B., to think that it ad- 

 mits of question, the orthography savouring more 

 of the end of the fifteenth than of the close of the 

 fourteenth century. I am sorry not to be able 

 to explain the meaning of " la la7igue Pandras." 



D.C. 



NOTES ON THE SECOND EDITION OF MR. CUNNING- 

 HAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON. 



21. New Tunbridge Wells, at Islington. — This 

 fashionable morning lounge of the nobility and 

 gentry during the early part of the eighteenth 

 century, is omitted by Mr. Cunningham. There 

 is a capital view of it in Bickham's Musical En- 

 tertainer, 1737 : 



" These once beautiful tea-j^ardens (we remember 

 them as such) were formerly in high repute. In 1733 

 their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Amelia and 

 Caroline frequented them in the summer time for the 

 purpose of drinking the waters. They have furnished 

 a subject for pamphlets, poems, plays, songs, and 

 medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman the 

 older, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now 

 remains of them but the original chalybeate spring, 

 which is still preserved in an obscure nook, amidst a 

 poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and 

 vice." — George Daniel's Merrie E'ngland in the Olden 

 Time, vol. i. p. 31. 



22. London Spa (from which Spa Fields derives 

 its name) dates as far back as 1206. In the eigh- 

 teenth century, it was a celebrated place of amuse- 

 ment. There is a curious view of " London Spaw " 

 in a rare pamphlet entitled May-Day, or, The 

 Original of Garlands. Printed for J. Roberts, 

 1720, 8vo. 



23. Spring Gardeiis. — Cox's Museum is de- 

 scribed in the printed catalogue of 1774, as being 

 in " Spring Gardens." In the same year a small 

 volume was published containing A Collection of 

 various Extracts in Pro.ie and Verse relative to 

 Cox's Museum. 



24. The Pantheon in Spa Fields. — This place of 

 amusement was opened in 1770 for the sale of tea, 

 coffee, wine, punch, &c. It had an organ, and a 

 spacious promenade and galleries. In 1780 it was 

 converted into a lay-chapel by the Countess of 

 Huntingdon, and is now known as Northampton or 

 Spa Fields Chapel. Mr. Cunningham speaks of 

 the burying-ground (originally the garden), but 

 singularly enough omits to notice the chapel. 



25. Baldwin's Gardens, running between Leather 

 Lane and Gray's Inn Lane, were, according to a 

 stone which till lately was to have been seen 



against a corner house, bearing the arms of Queen 

 Elizabeth, named after Richard Baldwin, one of 

 the royal gardeners, who began building here in 

 1589. 



26. Rathhone Place. — In an old print (now 

 before me) dated 1722, this street is called "Raw- 

 bone Place." The Percy coffee-house is still in 

 existence. 



27. Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road. — This 

 building was originally erected, aixl for some 

 years ajipropriated to the Leverian Museum. This 

 magnificent m\iseum of natural history was 

 founded by Sir Asliton Lever, who died in 1788. 

 It was afterwards disposed of by way of lottery, 

 and won by Mr. James Parkinson, who trans- 

 ferred it from Leicester Place to the Surrey side 

 of Blackfriars bridge. 



28. Schomberg House, Pall Mall, (now, I be- 

 lieve, about to be pulled down), was once the 

 residence of that celebrated "quack" Dr. Graham. 

 Here, in 1783, he erected his Temple of Health. 

 He afterwards removed to Panton Street, Hay- 

 market, where he first exhibited his Earth Bath. 

 I do not find any mention of Graham in Mr. 

 Cunningham's book. Edward F. Kimbault. 



FOLK LORE. 



Laying a Ghost. — Frequent mention is made of 

 the laying of ghosts, and in many localities the 

 tradition of such an event is extant. At Cumnor, 

 Lady Dudley (Amy Robsart's) ghost is said to 

 have been laid by nine Oxford parsons, and the 

 tradition is still preserved by the villagers ; but 

 nowhere have I been able to ascertain what was 

 the ceremony on such an occasion. 



Is anything known on the subject ? A. D. B. 



Abingdon, Nov. 1850. 



A Test of Witchcraft. — Among the many tests 

 apjilied for the discovery of witchcraft was the 

 following. It is, I believe, a singular instance, and 

 but little known to the public. It was resorted 

 to as recently as 1759, and may be ibund in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine of that year. 



" One Susannah Haymokes, an elderly woman of 

 Wingrove, near Ayleshbury, was accused by a neighbour 

 for bewitching her spinning-wheel, so that she could not 

 make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before 

 a majistrate ; on which the husband, to justify his wife, 

 insisted upon her being tried by the Church Bible, and 

 that the accuser should be present : accordingly she 

 was conducted to the parish church, where she was 

 stript of all her cloathes to her shift and undercoat, and 

 weighed against the Bible ; when, to the no small 

 mortification of her accuser, she outweighed it, and 

 was honorably acquitted of the charge." 



A. D. N. 



Abingdon, Nov. 1850. 



