Sept. 13. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



195 



from the French " curie," a ward or district, which 

 certainly possesses this advantage over the three 

 former ones, that the word is exactly the same as 

 that of the street. The arguments in its favour are 

 these: — In referring to a map of Cambi'idge dated 

 A.D. 1574, 1 find the town divided into waixls, with 

 different names attached to them. These wards 

 are all larger than "Petty Cury:" in the same 

 map the name is spelt " Peti Curie" {i.e. small 

 ward), both words being French or Norman ones, 

 and the word "peti" being applied to it from its 

 being smaller than any of the other wards. In 

 former times it was not unusual to give French 

 names to the wards and streets of a town, as may 

 be seen any day in London, or even in Liverpool, 

 which is comparatively a modern place. Thus 

 the word from which I propose to derive the name 

 " Cury" being the very same, and not requiring 

 us to form any vague suppositions either about 

 cook-shops, stables, or court-houses, I conclude, 

 may be consiilered preferable to the three before 

 mentioned. W. F. R. 



Trinity College, Sept. 1. 1851. 



THE DAUPHIN. 



(Vol. iv., p. 149.) 



The communication of your correspondent 

 JEgrotus respecting the claims of an individual 

 to be the Dauphin of France and Duke of jSI^or- 

 mandy, brought to my recollection pretensions of a 

 similar nature made by a person who, about twenty 

 years ago, was resident in London ; and was a 

 teacher of music, as I was informed. This person 

 introduced himself to me, in a French house of 

 business, as the genuine Dauphin of France, the 

 second son of Louis XVI. In justice to the soi- 

 disant Dauphin, I should state that he did not 

 bring forward his claims abruptly, but in the 

 course of a conversation held in his presence, re- 

 lating to the claims of another pretender to the 

 same honou''s. The communicator of this impor- 

 tant intelligence of a new rival to the contested 

 diadem, urged his claims with so much plausibility, 

 and pressed me so earnestly to pay him a visit — 

 seeing that I listened to his impassioned statement 

 with decorous patience and real interest — in 

 order that he might explain the matter more fully 

 and at leisure — that I went to his house in the 

 New Road, where I saw him more than once. He 

 told me that the woman, who had all her life 

 passed as his mother, informed him on her death- 

 bed that he was the Duke of Normandy, and had 

 been confided to her charge and care ; and that 

 she was told to make her esca[)e with him by his 

 true mother, Marie Antoinette, when that unfor- 

 tunate queen eluded the murderous pursuit of 

 lier assailants in the furious attack made on the 

 Tuileries on the 10th of August, 1792. So im- 



pressed was I by the earnestness of the narrator, 

 and the air of truth thrown around his story — 

 knowing also that some doubts had been started 

 as to the death of the Dauphin in the Temple — • 

 that I ofiered, being then about to visit Edinburgh, 

 which was at that time the residence of the exiled 

 monarch Chai'les X. and his ill-starred family, to 

 be the bearer to them of any memorial or other 

 document, which the claimant to the rights of 

 Dauphin might wish to submit to that illustrious 

 body. A statement was accordingly drawn up, 

 and sent by me when in Edinburgh, not to 

 Charles X., but to her royal highness the Duchess 

 of Angouleme ; who immediately replied, request- 

 ing an interview on my part with one of the 

 noblemen or gentlemen of her household, whom I 

 met ; and was informed by him from her royal 

 highness, that such communications exceedingly 

 distressed her, in recalling a past dreadful period 

 of her life ; for that there was no truth in them, 

 and that her brother, the Duke of Normandy, 

 died in the Temple. With deep and sincere pro- 

 testations of regret at having been the cause of 

 pain to her royal highness, and made the uncon- 

 scious dupe of either a knave or a fool, instead of 

 bringing forward an illustrious unknown to his 

 due place in history, I took my leave ; and think 

 this account ought to scatter for ever to the winds 

 all tales, in esse or posse, of pretended Dauphins 

 of France and Dukes of Normandy. 



I should mention, that in my interview with the 

 soi-disnnt Dauphin, he showed me various por- 

 traits of Louis XVI., and then bade me look at 

 his own features, in every attitude and form, and 

 say if the likeness was not most striking and re- 

 markable. I could not deny it ; and in truth was 

 so impressed with his whole account, that I began 

 to look upon the humble individual before me 

 with something of the reverence due to majesty, 

 shorn of its glories. J. M. 



P. S. — I now recollect that the name of this 

 pretended Dauphin was Mevis, and that he was 

 said to have been seen in Regent Street by a 

 friend of mine about five years ago; and may, for 

 aught I know, be still living. 



Oxford, Sept. 2. 



licplica to iHtnar caucrfCiS. 



Visiting Cards (Vol. iv., p. 133.). — In answer 

 to your 87th Query, it may serve in part to help 

 to show " when visiting cards first came into 

 use," by informing you that about six or eight 

 years ago a house in Dean Street, Solio, was re- 

 jiaired (I think No. 79.), where Allison and Co., 

 the pianoforte makers, now of the Quadrant, for- 

 merly resided; and, on removing a marble chim- 

 ney-piece in the front drawing-room, four or five 

 visiting cards were found, one with the name of 



