Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850 | Page 4

returned from the post office with the
announcement "Not found" upon it. I make this other attempt, if you
are pleased to admit it, through you; and immediate attention will be
paid to any claim which may appear in your pages.
J.R.
* * * * * {484}
QUERIES.
DR. RICHARD HOLSWORTH AND THOS. FULLER.
Can any of your readers inform me who was the author of _The Valley
of Vision_, published in 1651 as the work of Dr. Richard Holsworth,
the Master of Emmanuel College, and Dean of Worcester. In a preface
to the reader, Fuller laments "that so worthy a man should dye issulesse
without leaving any books behind him for the benefit of learning and
religion." He adds that the private notes which he had left behind him
were dark and obscure; his hand being legible only to himself, and
almost useless for any other. The sermon published as The Valley of
Vision appears to have been prepared for publication from the notes of
a short-hand writer. When Fuller published, about eleven years
afterwards, his _Worthies of England_, he wrote thus:--
"Pity it is so learned a person left no monuments (save a sermon) to
posterity; for _I behold that posthume work as none of his, named by
the transcriber The Valley of Vision_, a Scripture expression, but here
misplaced.... This I conceived myself in credit and conscience
concerned to observe, because I was surprised at the preface to the
book, and will take the blame rather than clear myself, when my
innocency is complicated with the accusing of others."
If, as is probable, Dr. Holsworth, in this instance, preached other men's
sermons, which the short-hand writer afterwards gave to the world as
his, it is a singular fact, that in the preface of this supposititious volume,
Fuller speaks of the abuse of printed sermons by some--

"Who lazily imp their wings with other men's plumes, wherewith they
soar high in common esteeme, yet have not the ingenuity with that son
of the Prophet to confesse, Alasse! it was borrowed."
A.B.R.
* * * * *
QUERIES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON.
We promised to make a few QUERIES on this amusing volume, and
thus redeem our promise.
Mr. Cunningham has been the first to point out the precise situation of
a spot often mentioned by our old dramatists, which had baffled the
ingenuity of Gifford, Dyce, and in fact of all the commentators,--the
notorious Picthatch. He thus describes it:--
"_Picthatch_, or Pickehatch.--A famous receptacle for prostitutes and
pickpockets, generally supposed to have been in _Turnmill Street_,
near Clerkenwell Green, but its position is determined by a grant of the
33rd of Queen Elizabeth, and a survey of 1649. What was Picthatch is a
street at the back of a narrow turning called Middle Row (formerly
Rotten Row) opposite the Charter-house wall in Goswell Street. The
name is still preserved in 'Pickax Yard' adjoining Middle Row."
Why then, among the curious illustrations which he has brought to bear
upon the subject, has Mr. Cunningham omitted that of the origin of the
name from the "picks upon the hatch?" which is clearly established
both by Malone and Steevens, in their notes upon "'twere not amiss to
keep our door hatch'd," in Pericles.
The following is an excellent suggestion as to the origin of the--
"_Goat and Compasses._--At Cologne, in the church of Santa Maria in
Capitolio, is a flat stone on the floor professing to be the Grabstein der
Brüder und Schwester eines ehrbaren Wein-und Fass-Ampts, Anno
1693; that is, as I suppose, a vault belonging to the Wine Coopers'

Company. The arms exhibit a shield with a pair of compasses, an axe,
and a dray, or truck, with goats for supporters. In a country like
England, dealing so much at one time in Rhenish wine, a more likely
origin for such a sign could hardly be imagined. For this information I
am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Edmund Head."
Can Mr. Cunningham, Sir E. Head, or any of our correspondents point
out any German "Randle Holme" whose work may be consulted for the
purpose of ascertaining the arms, &c. of the various professions, trades,
&c. of that country?
Why has not Mr. Cunningham, in his description of _St. James' Street_,
mentioned what certainly existed long after the commencement of the
present century, the occasional "steps" which there were in the
foot-path--making the street a succession of terraces. This fact renders
intelligible the passage quoted from Pope's letter to Mr. Pearse, in
which he speaks of "y'e second Terras in St. James' Street." Why, too,
omit that characteristic feature of the street, the rows of sedan chairs
with which it was formerly lined? The writer of this perfectly
remembers seeing Queen Charlotte in her sedan chair, going from the