Opis: Notes and Queries - Author Unknown

Excerpt from Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc;; January June 1886

Since the taking of the original Bastille, indeed, the word has passed into common use as a synonym alike for a prison and a workhouse. The other derivation is a little less obvious, but hardly less certain. "The Steel" is generally known as Coldbath Fields Prison, and the history of this particular cold bath is thus related: -"The most noted and first about London was that near Sir John Oldcastle's, where, in the year 1697; Mr. Bains undertook and still manages this business of Cold Bathing, which they say is good against Rheumatisms, Convulsions in the Nerves, &c., but of that those who have made the Experiments are the best judges. The Baths are 2s. 6d. if the Chair is used, and 2s. without it. Hours are from 5 in the Morning to 1 Afternoon."

Bagnigge Wells, which a hundred years later had altogether eclipsed the fame of Mr. Bains's establishment, are not mentioned, though they were almost within a stone's throw of "the Gold Bath," which I believe still exists. It is tolerably certain, therefore, that the name was given after 1708, when the 'New View of London' was published, and it seems highly probable that Bag-nigge Wells were originally a rival establishment, to which the enterprising proprietor gave the more ambitious name of "The Bagnios" - a word which, not being generally understanded of the people, gave rise to the later appellation, in which, by the way, the double g was always sounded soft. Battle Bridge lay a little to the north-west of "Black Mary's," but the only record of it left in modern topography is the Battle Bridge Road, which runs at the back of King's Cross and St. Pancras stations.

Whether the "River of Wells," the Fleet brook or river, and the Old Bourne were, as Pennant seems to think, three different streams which united about the bottom of Holborn Hill, or whether the Fleet brook is simply an alias of the Old Bourne, of which the River of Wells was a tributary, may perhaps form the subject of a future chapter on the buried affluents of the Thames. In the meanwhile, the particular gravel pit where the flint weapon was found "in the presence of the foresaid Mr. Conyers" may safely be localized within a few yards of the northern corner of the House of Correction, where Calthorpe Street joins Cross Street.

The date of the discovery is not so definitely determinable as the place. Prof. Boyd Dawkins assigns it to "about 1690," which may be correct, but requires confirmation. Bagford's letter is dated "Charter-House, 1714/15"; and that Conyers had then been dead for some time is evident from a passage on p. Ixviii. Until the date of Conyers's death is ascertained, which would give the latest limit, the nearest safe approximation to the date of the discovery is "about the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century."

I have entered into these details because this is by a whole century the earliest recorded discovery of any of those implements to which Sir John Lubbock has given the name of "palolithic," the rediscovery of which in our own time has vindicated for our race an antiquity beyond the dreams of Egyptian chronology.

This flint, in fact, though chipped instead of worn, is considerably older than the one on which the Ousel of Cilgwri sat when the Eagle of Gwernabwy came to consult him before marrying his second wife, the Owl of Cwmcawlwyd, as related in the tale of the 'Ancients of the World.' "The Eagle," says the story, "found the Ousel sitting on a small bit of hard flint, and he asked him the age and history of the Owl, and the Ousel answered him thus: 'See, here, how small this stone is under me; it is not more than a child of seven years would take up in his hand, and I have seen it a load for three hundred yoke of the largest oxen, and it never was worn at all excepting by my cleaning my beak upon i

Szczegóły: Notes and Queries - Author Unknown

Nazwa: Notes and Queries A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc;; January June 1886 (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Author Unknown
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331276258
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 558
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: Notes and Queries - Author Unknown