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Fes. 2. 1850. | 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
_ Meaning of “ Emerod,” “ Caredon.” — In the | 
Lansd. MS., British Museum, No. 70., there is a | 
letter from Mr. Richard Champernowne to Sir | 
Robert Cecil, dated in 1592, referring to the dis- | 
covery of some articles pillaged from the Spanish | 
earrack, which had then recently been captured | 
and taken into Dartmouth harbour. Amongst 
these articles is one thus described : — “* An 
Emerod, made in the form of a cross, three inches 
in length at the least, and of great breadth.” 
In the same volume of MSS. (art. 61.) there is 
the description of a dagger “ with a hefte of white 
Caredon.” 
From the size of the cross described, “« Emerod” 
can scarcely be read “ Emerald,” as applied by 
us to one of the precious stones. 
Ts “ white Caredon” white cornelian ? 
Can any of your rumerous correspondents give | 
me a note in answer to the above queries ? 
46. Parliament Street, Westminster, Jan. 25. 1850. 
Microscope, and Treatise upon it.—I am about 
to commence the study of the microscope. I want 
to know where I can purchase the most perfect 
instrument, and also the best Treatise upon it; 
this information will indeed be valuable to me, as 
it would enable me to go at once to the best 
sources without loss of time. R. M. Jones. 
Chelsea, Jan. 2. 1850. 
Old Auster Tenements.—‘“ W. P. P.” wishes to 
know the meaning of the expression “ Old Auster 
Tenements,” by which certain lands in the parish 
of North Curry, Somerset, are described in Deeds 
and Court Rolls. 
REPLIES. 
THE FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS. 
The fields behind Montague House were, from 
about the year 1680, until towards the end of the 
last century, the scenes of robbery, murder, and 
every species of depravity and wickedness of which 
the heart can think. ‘They appear to have been 
originally called the Long Fields, and afterwards 
(about Strype’s time) the Southampton Fields, 
These fields remained waste and useless, with the 
exception of some nursery grounds near the New 
Road to the north, and a piece of ground enclosed 
for the Toxopholite Society, towards the north- 
west, near the back of Gower Street. The re- 
mainder was the resort of depraved wretches, 
whose amusements consisted chiefly in fighting 
pitched battles, and other disorderly sports, espe- 
cially on the Sabbath day. Such was their state 
in 1800, 
Tradition had given to the superstitious at that 
period a legendary story of the period of the Duke 
of Monmouth’s Rebellion, of two brothers who 
fought in this field so ferociously as to destroy 
| of St. Pancras. 
| the north-east of Bedford House, by Lord Balti- 
each other; since which, their footsteps, formed 
from the vengeful struggle, were said to remain, 
with the indentations produced by their advancing 
and receding; nor could any grass or vegetable 
ever be produced where these forty footsteps were 
thus displayed. This extraordinary arena was said 
to be at the extreme termination of the north-east 
endof Upper Montague Street; and, profiting by 
the fiction, Miss Porter and her sister produced an 
_ ingenious romance thereon, entitled, Coming Out, or 
the Forty Footsteps. The Messrs. Mayhew also, 
some twenty years back, brought out, at the Totten- 
| ham Street Theatre, an excellent melo-drama piece, 
founded upon the same story, entitled The Field 
of Forty Footsteps. 
In 1792, an ingenious and enterprising architect, 
James Burton, began to erect a number of houses 
on the Foundling Hospital estate, partly in St. 
Giles’s and Bloomsbury parishes, and partly in that 
Baltimore House, built, towards 
more, in 1763, appears to have been the only 
erection since Strype’s survey to this period, with 
the exception of a chimney-sweeper’s cottage still 
further north, and part of which is still to be seen in 
Rhodes’s Mews, Little Guildford Street. In 1800, 
Bedford House was demolished entirely; which, 
with its offices and gardens, had been the site 
where the noble family of the Southamptons, and 
the illustrious Russells, had resided during more 
than 200 years, almost isolated. Hence com- 
menced the formation of a fine uniform street, 
Bedford Place, consisting of forty houses, on the 
spot; also, the north side of Bloomsbury Square, 
Montague Street to the west, and one side of 
Southampton Row to the east. ‘Towards the 
north, the extensive piece of waste ground, de- 
nominated the Southampton Fields, was trans- 
formed into a magnificent square, with streets 
diverging therefrom in various directions. ‘Thus, 
as if by “touch of magic wand,” those scenes, 
which had been “ hideous” for centuries, became 
transformed into receptacles of civil life and po- 
lished society. 
The latest account of these footsteps, previous 
to their being built over, with which I am ac- 
quainted, is the following, extracted from one of 
Joseph Moser’s Common-place Books in my pos- 
session : — 
« June 16. 1800. — Went into the fields at the back 
of Montague House, and there saw, for the last time, 
the forty footsteps; the building materials are there 
ready to cover them from the sight of man. I counted 
more than forty, but they might be the foot-prints of 
the workmen.” 
This extract is valuable, as it establishes the 
period of the final demolition of the footsteps, and 
also confirms the legend that forty was the original 
number. Epwarp F. Rrusavrr. 
