Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850 — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
We have already shown pretty clearly, how high is the opinion we
entertain of the value of our able contributor Mr. Peter Cunningham's
amusing _Handbook for London_, by the insertion of numerous Notes _upon_
his first edition. We will now give our readers an opportunity of
judging how much the second edition, which is just published, has been
improved through the further researches of that gentleman, by giving
them a few Notes _from_ it, consisting entirely of new matter, and very
curious withal. When we add that the work is now enriched by a very
copious Index of Names, it will readily be seen how much the value and
utility of the book has been increased.
_Hanover Square._--"The statue of William Pitt, by Sir Francis Chantrey,
set up in the year 1831, is of bronze, and cost 7000l. I was present at
its erection with Sir Francis Chantrey and my father, who was Chantrey's
assistant. The statue was placed on its pedestal between seven and eight
in the morning, and while the workmen were away at their breakfasts, a
rope was thrown round the neck of the figure, and a vigorous attempt
made by several sturdy Reformers to pull it down. When word of what they
were about was brought to my father, he exclaimed, with a smile {436}
upon his face, 'The cramps are leaded, and they may pull to doomsday.'
The cramps are the iron bolts fastening the statue to the pedestal. The
attempt was soon abandoned."
_Hyde Park Corner._--"There were cottages here in 1655; and the middle
of the reign of George II. till the erection of Apsely House, the small
entrance gateway was flanked on its east site by a poor tenement known
as 'Allen's stall.' Allen, whose wife kept a moveable apple-stall at the
park entrance, was recognised by George II. as an old soldier at the
battle of Dettingen, and asked (so pleased was the King at meeting the
veteran) 'what he could do for him.' Allen, after some hesitation, asked
for a piece of ground for a permanent apple-stall at Hyde Park Corner,
and a grant was made to him of a piece of ground which his children
afterwards sold to Apsley, Lord Bathurst. Mr. Crace has a careful
drawing of the Hyde Park Corner, showing Allen's stall and the Hercules'
Pillars."
_Pall Mall._--"Mr. Fox told Mr. Rogers, that Sydenham was sitting at his
window looking on the Mall, with his pipe in his mouth and a silver
tankard before him, when a fellow made a snatch at the tankard, and ran
off with it. Nor was he overtaken, said Fox, before he got among the
bushes in Bond Street, and there they lost him."
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