Before all traces be lost of Kennington Common, so soon to be distinguished by the euphonious epithet of Park, let me put a Query to some of your antiquarian readers in relation thereunto; and suffer me to make the Query a peg, whereon to hang sundry and divers little notes. And pray let no one ridicule the idea that Kennington has its antiquities; albeit that wherever you look, new buildings, new bricks and mortar, plaster and cement, will meet your eye; yet, does not the manor figure in Domesday Book? Is it not dignified by the stately name of Chenintune? Was it not held by Theodoric of King Edward the Confessor? And did it not, in times gone by, possess a royal residence?

Here, at a Danish marriage, died Hardi Knute in 1041. Here, Harold, son of Earl Godwin, who seized the crown after the death of the Confessor, is said to have placed it on his own head. Here, in 1231, King Henry III. held his court, and passed a solemn and a stately Christmas. And here, says Matthew Paris, was held a Parliament in the succeeding year. Hither, says good old Stow, anno 1376, came the Duke of Lancaster to escape the fury of the populace of London, on Friday, February 20, the day following that on which Wicliffe had been brought before the bishops at St. Paul's. The Duke was dining "with one John of Ipres" when the news arrived, borne by a breathless messenger, that the people sought his life. When the Duke "leapt so hastily from his oysters, that he hurt both his legges against the foarme: wine was offered to his oysters, but hee would not drinke for haste; he fledde with his fellowe Syr Henry Percy, no man following them; and entring the Thamis, neuer stinted rowing vntill they came to a house neere the manor of Kenington (besides Lambeth), where at that time the Princesse was, with the young Prince, before whom hee made his complaint." Doubtless, Lambeth Marsh was then what its name imports. Hither also came a deputation of the chiefest citizens to Richard II., June 21, 1377, "before the old King was departed," "to accept him for their true and lawfull King and Gouernor." But the royal residence was destroyed before 1607. "The last of the long succession of royal tenants who inhabited the ancient site," says a writer in the Illustrated London News not long since (I have the cutting, but neglected to note the date of the paper), "was Charles I., when Prince of Wales: his lodging, a house built upon a part of the site of the old palace, is the only existing vestige, as represented in the accompanying engraving (in the Illus. Lond. News), unless earlier remains are to be found in the lower parts of the interior." But I believe that the identity of the site of this ancient mansion (which is situated on the western side of Lower Kennington Lane), with part of the site of the old palace, is not quite so certain as the writer appears to intimate. In 1720, however, the manor gave the title of Earl to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, second son to George II.

Kennington Common acquired an unenviable notoriety from being the place of execution for malefactors tried in this part of the county. "After the suppression of the rebellion in Scotland in 1745, many of the insurgents having been convicted of treason at Southwark, here suffered the sentence of the law" (Dugdale's England and Wales, p. 1015.). "Seventeen officers of the rebel army were hanged, drawn, and quartered" on this spot. (Goldsmith's History, continued by Morell, 4to., 1807, vol. ii. p. 165.)

"One of the last executions which took place on Kennington Common was that of seven men; three of whom belonged to a notorious gang of housebreakers, eighteen in number. These men kept shops, and lived in credit: of the three who were executed, one made over a sum of 2000l. to a friend, previous to his trial. They confessed that the profits of their practices, for the five years past, had been upwards of 1500l. a year to each. This was in the year 1765."—From a cutting, sent me by a friend, from the Sunday Times' "Answers to Correspondents," March 13, 1853.

Here too occurred the Chartist meeting, on the memorable 10th of April, 1848.

Now comes my Query. Was there ever a theatre on Kennington Common? In the Biographia Dramatica of David Erskine Baker (edit. 1782, vol. ii. p. 239.), we are told, that the "satyrical comical allegorical farce," The Mock Preacher, published in 8vo. in 1739, was "Acted to a crowded audience at Kennington Common, and many other theatres, with the humours of the mob." Was it acted in a booth, or in a permanent theatre? The words, "many other theatres," almost give one the impression that the latter is indicated.

Many more notes might be added, but I fear lest this paper should already be too local to interest general readers. Suffice it to say, that Clayton Street, close to the Common, takes its name from the Clayton family; one member of which, Sir Robert Clayton, was sometime Master of the Drapers' Company, in whose Hall a fine portrait of him is preserved. Bowling Green Street derives its name from a bowling green which existed not very many years since. And White Hart Street from a field, which was so called certainly as early as 1785. On the Common was "a bridge called Merton Bridge, which formerly was repaired by the Canons of Merton Abbey, who had lands for that purpose." (Lysons' Environs, edit. 4to., 1792, vol. i. p. 327.)

It is due to your readers to state, that the authorities for the statements made in the former part of this paper are these: Lysons' Environs, ut supra, vol. i. pp. 325. 327.; Manning and Bray's Surrey, Lond., 1809, fol., vol. iii. pp. 484-488.; Stow, Annales, edit. 4to., 1601, pp. 432, 433.; and Bibl. Top. Brit., 4to., 1790, vol. ii. "History and Antiq. of Lambeth," p. 89.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

Kennington.

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LIFE AND DEATH.

I have thrown together a few parallel passages for your pages, which may prove acceptable.

1. "To die is better than to live."

"I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun."—Eccles. iv. 2, 3.

"Great travail is created for every man, and a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things."—Ecclus. xl. 1.: cf. 2 Esdr. vii. 12, 13.

In the affecting story of Cleobis and Biton, as related by Herodotus, we read,—

"The best end of life happened to them, and the Deity showed in their case that it is better for a man to die than to live."

"???de?? te ?? t??t??s? ? Te?? ?? ?e???? e?? ?????p? te???a? ????? ? ??e??."—Herod., ????O. i. 32.

"As for all other living creatures, there is not one but, by a secret instinct of nature, knoweth his owne good and whereto he is made able.... Man onely knoweth nothing unlesse hee be taught. He can neither speake nor goe, nor eat, otherwise than he is trained to it: and, to be short, apt and good at nothing he is naturally, but to pule and crie. And hereupon it is that some have been of this opinion, that better it had been, and simply best, for a man never to have been born, or else speedily to die."—Pliny's Nat. Hist. by Holland, Intr. to b. vii.

The proverbs, "God takes those soonest whom He loveth best," and, "Whom the gods love die young," have been already illustrated in "N. & Q." (Vol. iii., pp. 302. 377.). "I have learned from religion, that an early death has often been the reward of piety," said the Emperor Julian on his death-bed. (See Gibbon, ch. xxiv.)

2. "Judge none blessed before his death."^[1]

"Ante mortem ne laudes hominem," saith the son of Sirach, xi. 28.

Of this sentiment St. Chrysostom expresses his admiration, Hom. li. in. S. Eustath.; and heathen writers afford very close parallels:

"???? d' ?? te?e?t?s? ?p?s??e?? ?d? ?a??e?? ?? ????? ???' e?t???a," says Solon to Croesus (Herod., ????O. i. 32.): cf. Aristot., Eth. Nic. ch. x., for a comment on this passage.

Sophocles, in the last few lines of the Œdipus Tyrannus, thus draws the moral of his fearful tragedy:

Elmsley, on this passage, gives the following references: Trach. I. Soph. Tereo, fr. 10.; ibid. Tyndar. fr. 1.; Agam., 937.; Androm., 100.; Troad., 509.; Heracl., 865.; Dionys. ap. Stob., ciii. p. 560.; Gesn., cv. p. 431.; Grot. To which I may add the oft-quoted lines,—

In farther illustration of this passage from Ecclus., let us consider the Death of the Righteous.

"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his," exclaims the truth-compelled and reluctant prophet, Numb. xxiii. 10.

The royal Psalmist, after reflecting on the prosperity of the wicked in this world, adds:

And again:

The prophet Isaiah declares:

A holy life is the only preparation to a happy death, says Bishop Taylor. And we have seen how much importance even heathen minds attached to peace at the last. Truly, as Kettlewell said while expiring, "There is no life like a happy death."

"Consider," says that excellent writer, Norris of Bemerton, "that this life is wholly in order to another, and that time is that sole opportunity that God has given us for transacting the great business of eternity: that our work is great, and our day of working short; much of which also is lost and rendered useless through the cloudiness and darkness of the morning, and the thick vapours and unwholesome fogs of the evening; the ignorance and inadvertency of youth, and the disease and infirmities of old age: that our portion of time is not only short as to its duration, but also uncertain in the possession: that the loss of it is irreparable to the loser, and profitable to nobody else: that it shall be severely accounted for at the great judgment, and lamented in a sad eternity."—"Of the Care and Improvement of Time," Miscel., 6th edit., p. 118.

Eirionnach.

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BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR AND DEATH OF NELSON.

The following unpublished letter, as a historical document, is worth preserving in the pages of "N. & Q." It relates to the important national events of the battle of Trafalgar and death of Nelson. The writer was, at the time, a signal midshipman in the service, and only about thirteen years of age. He was a native of Glasgow, and died many years since, much respected.

H.M.S. Defence,
At anchor off Cadiz, 28 Oct. 1805.

My dear Betty [the writer's sister],

I have now the pleasure of writing you, after a noble victory over the French and Spanish fleets, on the 21st October, off Cape Spartel. We have taken, burnt and sunk, gone on shore, &c., twenty-one sail of the line. The names I will let [you] know after. On the 19[th] our frigates made the signal; the Combined Fleets were coming out; so as we were stationed between the frigate and our fleet, we repeated ditto to Lord Nelson. It being calm we could not make much way, but in the course of the night we got a strong breeze, and next morning our frigate made the signal for them, being all at sea. So on the afternoon of the 20[th] we saw them to leeward; but it was blowing fresh and very hazy, so Lord Nelson made our signal for a captain; so our captain went on board, and Lord Nelson told Captain Hope he expected he would keep sight of them all night. So on the morning of the 21st we observed them to leeward about two miles, so we made the signal to Lord Nelson how many the bearings, and everything; so brave Nelson bore down immediately; and at twelve o'clock Lord Nelson broke the south^d line, and brave Admiral Collin[g]wood the north; and at two o'clock we were all in action. We were the last station'd ship; so when we went down we had two Frenchmen and one Spaniard on us at one time. We engag'd them forty-six minutes, when the "Achille" and "Polyphemus" came up to our assistance. The Spaniard ran away; we gave him chase, and fought him one hour and forty-six minutes, when he struck, and we boarded him, and have him safe at anchor, as we have not had a good wind. I am sorry to say poor Lord Nelson was wounded the second broadside. He went down and got his wounds dress'd, and he was wound'd a second time, and he just lived to hear of the victory. The ship we took, her name is the "San Ildifonzo," eighty-two guns, and a very fine ship, new. I don't think we will save more than twelve sail of them: but we have sunk, burnt, drove on shore, twenty-one sail of the line in all; and if we had not had a gale of wind next day we would have taken every one of them. We were riding close in shore with two anchors a-head, three cables on each bower, and all our sails were shot to pieces, ditto our rudder and stern, and mainmast, and everything; but, thank good, I am here safe, though there was more shot at my quarters than any other part of the ship. We are now at anchor, but expect to go to Gibraltar every day. I hope in good you are all in health: I was never better in all my life. My comp^ts to all friends [&c. ...] and my dear father and mother.

I am
Your affectionate brother,
(Signed) Charles Reid.

You must excuse this letter, as half our hands are on board our prize, and have had no time. I have been two days writing this; five minutes one time and ten minutes another time, and so on. We are just getting under way for Gibraltar.

Now for the French and Spanish ships taken, burnt, run on shore, &c. &c.:

Bucentaure, 80, taken. French.

Santiss' Trinidada, 130, sunk. Spanish.

Santa, taken, but afterwards got into Cadiz.

Rayo, 110, sunk. French.

Bahama, 74, taken. French.

Argonauta, 80, sunk and burnt.

Neptuna, 90, on shore.

San Ildifonzo, 80, taken by the Defence.

Algazeras, 74, on shore; Swiftsure, 74, Gib.; Berwick, 74, Gib. All English ships taken by the French last war.

Intrepid, 74, burnt.

Aigle, 80, on shore.

Tonguer, 80, on shore [MS. uncertain].

De ..., 74, Gibraltar [ditto].

Argonauta, 74, Gib.

Redoubtable, 74, sunk.

Achell, 74, burnt.

Manareo, 74, on shore.

San Augustino, 74, Gibraltar.

There is not one English ship lost, but a number lost their masts. (Signed) C.R.

The writer had a brother, Andrew Reid, who bore a commission in the ships of Captain Parry in the first Arctic expedition.

G. N.

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HERALDIC ANOMALY.

I beg to call the attention of the heraldic readers of "N. & Q." to a singular custom of displaying their coats of arms, peculiar to the Knights of St. John, of the venerable Language of England.

It is well known that the members of this valiant brotherhood, throughout Europe, bear their paternal shield alone, surmounted, as the badge of their profession, with the particular device of the order, that is, On a chief, gules, a cross argent. The English knights, with their paternal coat, bore also, party-per-pale, that of their mothers, with the chief of the order over both, a strange heraldic anomaly!

I have somewhere read, but where, for lack of a "note," I cannot recollect, that in making their proofs of nobility previous to their admission into the order, unlike the other Languages, the cavalier of England gave in only the names of their father and mother, but at the same time it was requisite that these two names should be able to prove a nobility of two hundred years each.

Perhaps the custom of bearing the paternal shield impaled with the maternal sprung from these proofs.

In the British Museum, Harl. MSS. 1386., may be seen three examples of this custom, in a paper entitled, A Note of certain Knights of Rhodes, "in prioratÛ Sancti Johannis Jerusalem."

1. Sir Thomas Docwra, Grand Prior of England, A.D. 1504, a knight not more renowned as a valiant man-at-arms, "preux et hardi," than as a skilful diplomatist; and who, on the death of Fabricio Caretto, A.D. 1520-1, was thought worthy to be put in competition for the Grand Mastership with the celebrated Villiers de L'Isle Adam, and, as Vertot tells us, only lost that dignity by a very trifling majority. His paternal coat—Sable, a cheveron engrailed argent, between three plates, on each a pale, gules—is impaled with that of his mother, Alice, daughter of Thomas Green, of Gressingham, in Yorkshire; Argent, a bugle-horn sable, stringed gules, between three griffins' heads, erased, of the second; over all, the chief of the order.

2. Sir Lancelot Docwra, near kinsman to Sir Thomas, and son of Robert Docwra, of Docwra-Hall, in Cumberland. His arms are impaled with—Or, a cross flory sable—the coat armour of his mother, Jane, daughter of Sir John Lamplugh, of Lamplugh, in the same county; one "of a race," as Denton says, "of valorous gentlemen, successively for their worthiness knighted in the field, all, or most part of them." The chief of the order also surmounts his shield.

3. The third is the shield of Sir John Randon; Gules, a bend checquy or and azure, impaling Argent, a frette, and on a chief, gules, three escallops of the field; over all, the chief of the order.

If any readers of "N. & Q." could furnish me with more examples, I should be much obliged.

John o' the Ford.

Malta.

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FOLK LORE.

Three Maids.—There is a spot on the road from Winchester to Andover called the "Three Maids." They are I believe nameless. Tradition says that they poisoned their father, and were for that crime buried alive up to their necks. Travellers passing by were ordered not to feed them; but one compassionate horseman as he rode along threw the core of an apple to one, on which she subsisted for three days. Wonderful is it to state that three groups of firs sprung up miraculously from the graves of the three maids. Thus their memories have been perpetuated. The peasantry of Winchester and its neighbourhood for the most part accredit the story, and I see no reason for disbelieving the first part of it myself. Does any one know of a like punishment being awarded in olden times, when the tender mercies of the law were cruel and arbitrary?

Mother Russel's Post.—Whilst I am on the subject of folk lore I may as well add, that on the road to Kings Sombourn, of educational renown, there is a spot where four roads meet. Report says that a certain Mother Russel, who committed suicide, was buried there. A little girl in this village was afraid to pass the spot at night on account of the ghosts, which are supposed to haunt it in the hours of darkness. The rightful name of the place is "Mother Russel's Post."

Eustace W. Jacob.

Crawley.

Shrove Tuesday Custom (Vol. ix., p. 65.).—The Shrove Tuesday custom mentioned by Mr. Elliott as existing at Leicester, and an account of which he quotes from Hone's Year-Book, has been abolished within the last few years. There is, I believe, still a curious custom on that day at Ludlow, the origin and meaning of which has never, so far as I am aware, been discovered and stated.

"The corporation," I quote from a history of the town, "provide a rope, three inches in thickness, and in length thirty-six yards, which is given out at one of the windows of the Market House as the clock strikes four, when a large body of the inhabitants, divided into two parties, commence an arduous struggle, and as soon as either party gains the victory by pulling the rope beyond the prescribed limits, the pulling ceases, &c.

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"Without doubt this singular custom is symbolical of some remarkable event, and a remnant of that ancient language of visible signs, which, says a celebrated writer, 'imperfectly supplies the want of letters to perpetuate the remembrance of public or private transactions.' The sign in this instance has survived the remembrance of the occurrence it was designed to represent, and remains a profound mystery. It has been insinuated that the real occasion of this custom is known to the corporation, but that, for some reason or other, they are tenacious of the secret."

The local historian then mentions an "obscure tradition," but as it is not in agreement with my own opinion, I omit it.

S. P. Q.

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STORNELLO.

Verses, the rhymes of which return after the fashion of those printed in "N. & Q." (Vol. vi., p. 603., and Vol. vii., p. 174.), are commonly current among the peasants of Tuscany, and in many instances form the materials of their popular songs. It is probable that this description of rhyme originated in the "bel paese la dove 'l si suona." They usually turn on a combination of three words, as in those quoted in Vol vii. of "N. & Q." And the name stornello, as will be readily perceived, is derived from tornare, to return. I send you a specimen of one of them, which has a certain degree of historical interest attached to it, from its connexion with the movement of 1848. It was difficult to walk through the streets of Florence in those days without hearing it carolled forth by more than one Florentine TyrtÆus. Now, I need hardly say, "we never mention it—its name is never heard." The patriot-flag was a tricolor of white, red, and green, a nosegay of which colours a youth has brought to his mistress. She sings as follows:

"E gli dirÒ che il verde, il rosso, il bianco

Gli stanno ben con una spada al fianco.

E gli dirÒ che il bianco, il verde, il rosso,

Vuol dir che Italia il duro giogo ha scosso.

E gli dirÒ che il rosso, il bianco, il verde

E un terno che si giuoca e non si perde."