Cf. Ancient Mythology,' by Jacob Bryans,
Plate VI., vol. i., p. 410.

Now at some early period in European history the game of chess underwent great changes. The move (oblique) of the ship, whose home square on the board was originally in the corner, was transferred to the piece whose home square is next to the king and queen. This piece bore the new name of bishop, among many others, and supplanted the elephant. By a similar process the move of the elephant was transferred to the piece whose home is in the corner. This piece bore the new name of rook, i.e., castle, from the Italian, and supplanted the ship. Does not all this suggest a kind of mystic marriage? May not this be a faint clue to the Adam and Eve legend? Every Londoner knows, I suppose, that the Elephant and Castle is the name of a well-known tavern in Newington Causeway. How many of them know that this sign appears in an old psalter described as belonging to Queen Mary? Cf. a book called Queen Mary's Psalter,' printed for the trustees of the B.M., 1912, Plate 167 (a). The castle on the elephant's back is the round, castellated summit of an ordinary present-day rook. Four or five men are looking over its battlements. Early English chess, in common with other games were, it goes without saying, played by tho who frequented taverns. Is it not ver likely that one tavern at least would per tuate by name the memory of this revolution in the best of all games? JOHN W. BROWN.

THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD'S BIRTH PLACE (12 S. v. 204, 328). I strong y support the impression of your recent correspondent with regard to the birthplace of the late Earl of Beaconsfield.

No. 9 Trinity Row has been rebuilt. The present structure originally formed two shops, which, after undergoing structural alteration, became merged in Mr. Rackstraw's drapery establishment, and now form part of Messrs. T. R. Roberts' premises, being numbered 215 Upper Street. The interest attached to the property was not questioned until after the Earl of Beaconsfield's death. I can remember being shown a tree in a garden at the rear which was known as Disraeli's tree.

I was born in 1861. I was often taken to Dr. Jackson's surgery at the corner of Wilson's Yard, where I used to see a Dr. Jeaffreson, who used to be called "young Jenffreson." This is curious, having regard ime that had elapsed since Benjamin

Disraeli's birth. I believe the doctor I saw was the son. I am, however, quite clear in saying that it was either a Dr. Jackson, or a Dr. Jeaffreson, who introduced me to the world.

At the time of the Earl of Beaconsfield's death, one of the shops in question was occupied by a hatter, named Pratt, who draped the place with tokens of mourning, and displayed a notice informing the crowd who gathered before the window that "This was the birthplace of the late Earl of Beaconsfield."

The Dictionary of Naona Biography' (vol. xli. page 6) says that John Gough Nichols went to a "school kept by a Miss Roper at Islington, where in 1811, Benjamin Disraeli, his senior by eighteen months, was a schoolfellow." A house in Colebrooke Row, which, I believe, is still standing, facing Camden Street, was pointed out to me by my father as that school.

win at

The whole subject was dealt length in The Islington Daily Gazette of July 2, 7, and 21, 1914. A search amongst local records has revealed nothing. The Disraeli family made a short stay, but did not permanently reside in Islington.

13 Compton Terrace, N.1.

66

A. W. NORTON.

LITTLE GARDEN LITTLE JOWETT

MADE (12 S. V. 288; vi. 19). — The references to the above which have appeared in your recent issues have prompted me to look in an old newspaper-cutting book I have, wherein I found the following letter, which you may care to print. The date of its appearance in The Times I am unable to give. I may add that the late Dr. C. W. Stubbs, Bishop of Truro, gave me a version of the rmes identical with those in Lord Forester's letter:

THE LATE MASTER OF BALLIOL.

To the Editor of The Times. Sir,-Being in a position to make a correction to the letter of "N. B. in The Times of vesterday, headed "The Late Master of Balliol," I venture

to ask the insertion of the following:

He was

For several years I was very intimate with the Rev. Percival Mansel, of Meols Brace. Mr. Mansel's father was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. and also Bishop of Bristol. not a little fond of versifying incidents in Cambridge life. His son told me of more than one of them-amongst them was the rhyme-story on Dr. Jowett.

Dr. Jowett discontinued residing in college, and house was a space sufficiently ample for a bed of took a small house in Cambridge. In front of his flowers. He was, as your correspondent remarks, of a diminutive stature.

The Master of Trinity was unable to resist the shamming Abraham' still extant among sailors.' opportunity then presented of the bed of flowers-See 'Roderick Random.' and the protecting fence. and so he (not an under- The N.E.D.' gives "Abraham man (possigraduate) put forth these lines :bly in allusion to the parable of the beggar Little Dr. Jowett a little garden made, And fenced his little garden with a little palisade. Lazarus in Luke xvii.)" and then quotesNares's definition as above. It then gives When these rhymes had obtained sufficient circulation, poor Jowett was so annoyed that he had all (amongst others) the following quotation :the flowers removed and gravel rubsiituted. Dr. 1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacabondes,' 3.-" An Mansel could not even now let the little man alone. Abraham-man is he that walketh bare-armed and In a few days the following lines appeared :- bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad."

When this little garden

Became the town's talk.
He turned his little garden
Into a little gravel walk.

Dr. Lort Mansel was Master of Trinity when Lord Byron was an undergraduate, and was himself a subject of a squib by that noble poet, and perhaps more than one.

I am Sir, yours faithfully,

FORESTER.

Willey Park, Broseley. Shropshire, Oct. 13.

Liverpool.

this letter in The Times.]

G. T. S.

:

It then adds: Hence to sham Abraham is-
to feign sickness, a phrase in use among
sailors.
WM. SELF WEEKS.

Westwood, Clitheroe.

The statement that about a century ago the phrase "to sham Abraham" was then. slang for "to forge," seems to call for further elucidation.

66

According to the 'N.E.D.' an "Abrahamman, or Abram-man was one of a set of October 16, 1893, is the date of the publication of vagabonds who wandered about the country soon after the dissolution of the religious houses". Among the llustrative quotations is one from 'The Slang Dictionary' (J, C. Hotten, 1869). The definition in this work. is as follows:

GRAFTON. OXON (12 S. v. 320).—Grafton is a township and hamlet in the parish of Langford, W. Oxon, see the History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Oxford,' 1852, published by Robert Gardner. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

This place is given in Bartholomew's 'Gazetteer' as 44 miles north-east of Lechlade, has an acreage of 625, and a population

of 72.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

BANK NOTE SLANG (12 S. v. 309).-Your has omitted correspondent to notice flimsy and "flimsies," among his examples of bank note slang. These find a place in the N.E.D.' with the following illustrative quotations :—

1824. P. Egan, 'Boxiana,' iv., 443.-"Martin produced some flimsies, and said he would fight on Tuesday next."

·

1845. Alb. Smith, Fort. Scatterg Fam.' xxxii. (1887), 108. I'll stand a five pun' flimsy for the piece."

66

Your correspondent also appears to be 66 'to sham wrong in his suggestion that Abraham" was to forge," and was derived from the forgery of Bank of England notes which, in the slang of the day, took their popular name from Abraham Newland, the chief cashier of the Bank, whose signature they bore. Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary has :

Abraham-men.-A set of vagabonds who wandered about the country, soon after the dissolution of the religious houses; the provision for the poor in those places being cut off, and no other substituted....... Hence probably the phrase of

But you musn't sham Abraham Newland." Neither the N.E.D.' nor the Slang Dictionary' gives any explanation of how the word "plum' came to mean 100,000l. It seems, however, not unlikely that it was derived from the figurative use of that word to denote а good thing"-one of the prizes of life (see 'N.E.D.,' Plum, d. fig.); The earliest quotation for the use of "pony, meaning 251., in the N.E.D.' is 1797, "Monkey" (500l.) is used in 1832, but is explained in the quotation given as meaning T. F. D. 501., "probably erroneously."

66

The name Bradbury was of late attached the hawthorn and the rowan-tree, was a to a Treasury note for 1l., and not only to sacred tree from the earliest times, its bright the paper token of ten shillings, as MR. red berries must always have made it the MENMUIR implies. Sovereigns, perhaps gold most attractive evergreen for winter decoracoins generally, were often referred to as tions, and its popular name of "Christmas "yellow boys." We are in no yellow-bears witness to its long and close association peril" of seeing too many of them just now. with the revels and merriment of the ST. SWITHIN. Christmas season. It appears to me that this association is sufficient to account for the idea that the holly is the emblem of mirth. WM. SELF WEEKS

Will you permit me to say that while fiver is familiar slang in America, I never heard the expression "monkey" for a $500 bill, and I doubt very much if the word is in use in our country with this meaning. CHARLES E. STRATTON.

70 State Street, Boston, Mass. [MR. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT, who also replies, refers readers to 10 S. vii. 469; viii. 293, 395, 477; ix. 37, 417.]

DEAL AS A PLACE OF CALL (12 S. vi. 12).— The old East Indiamen used to call regularly at Deal, it being their custom to anchor in the Downs both when outward and homeward bound, often staying there for a number of days. The ships were taken down the Thames by the East India Company's own pilots, this Corporation having their own pilot-cutter. Passengers going to the East frequently joined their ship in the Downs, and were often well fleeced the Deal boatmen who put them on board. No doubt some of those returning from the East would be glad to land at Deal and coach or post to London, thereby avoiding the delay involved in the passage round to the Thames. See The Old East Indiamen,' by E. K. Chatterton, pp. 154, 219, &c. (T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., London, n.d.). T. F. D.

by

3. A misquotation. The opening lines of Early Rising,' by J. G. Saxe, runs thus:

God bless the man who first invented sleep.
C. S. C.
This appears to be an imperfect recollection of
the opening lines of Canto IV., Doctor Syntax's
Tour in search of the picturesque':

Bless'd be the man, said he of yore

Who Quixote's lance and target bore!
Bless'd be the man who first taught sleep
Throughout our wearied frames to creep,
And kindly gave to human woes

The oblivious mantle of repose!
For the original of which see Don Quixote,'
E. G. BAYFORD.
part II., chap. lxviii.

38 Eldon Street, Barnsley.

The lines occur in a set of humorous verses entitled Early Rising' written by John Godfrey Saxe, an American born in 1816, who died in 1887. Sancho Panza's words (in 'Don Quixote,' II., 68) began:

Bien haya el que inventó el sueño, capa que cubre todos los humanos pensamientos The saying also took the fancy of Sterne; see Tristram Shandy,' book IV., chap. xv. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. [DR. HENRY LEFFMANN also thanked for reply.] 4. Your correspondent misquotes Kingsley, who In Arzina caught, Perished with all his crew. Kingsley misquotes Thomson. The passage occurs in The Seasons,' near the end of Winter.'

wrote:

C. S. C.

Love

Mas

br.

About a dozen explanations have been suggested. The most probable one is that they were for ringing the sacring bell so that it might be heard by persons outside the church. They are found in chapels to which a cemetery has never been attached, and which are also on an upper floor. The comparatively late sanctus bell-cot appears to have superseded the earlier low side window arrangement where both are found in the same church. They are usually found in earlier work than bell-cots are. There is reason to think that they were sometimes utilized in the sixteenth century for hearing the confessions of all comers. There was an order for the walling up of places where friars heard such confessions, and before the days of "Restoration" low side windows were very commonly in a walled-up condition. See Handbook of English Ecclesiology,' 1847, 201; 'N. & Q.,' 4 S. i. 415, 488; The Reliquary,