Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850 | Page 4

du XIV��me si��cle des renseignemens pr��cieux; on peut y recueillir des faits politiques qui ne sont pas sans importance, mais on y trouve en plus grand nombre des d��tails pr��cieux sur les moeurs, les usages, et les coutumes de cette ��poque."
His poems were published for the first time in one vol. 8vo., in 1832, by M. Crapelet, with this title: {404}
"Po��sies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps, ��cuyer, huissier d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., chatelain de Fismes et bailli de Senlis."
As regards the "_genuineness_" of the poem cited, I am inclined, with J.M.B., to think that it admits of question, the orthography savouring more of the end of the fifteenth than of the close of the fourteenth century. I am sorry not to be able to explain the meaning of "la langue Pandras."
D.C.
* * * * *
NOTES ON THE SECOND EDITION OF MR. CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON.
21. _New Tunbridge Wells, at Islington._--This fashionable morning lounge of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century, is omitted by Mr. Cunningham. There is a capital view of it in Bickham's _Musical Entertainer_, 1737:
"These once beautiful tea-gardens (we remember them as such) were formerly in high repute. In 1733 their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time for the purpose of drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets, poems, plays, songs, and medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman the older, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but the original chalybeate spring, which is still preserved in an obscure nook, amidst a poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and vice."--George Daniel's _Merrie England in the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 31.
22. London Spa (from which Spa Fields derives its name) dates as far back as 1206. In the eighteenth century, it was a celebrated place of amusement. There is a curious view of "London Spaw" in a rare pamphlet entitled _May-Day, or, The Original of Garlands_. Printed for J. Roberts, 1720, 8vo.
23. _Spring Gardens._--Cox's Museum is described in the printed catalogue of 1774, as being in "Spring Gardens." In the same year a small volume was published containing _A Collection of various Extracts in Prose and Verse relative to Cox's Museum_.
24. _The Pantheon in Spa Fields._--This place of amusement was opened in 1770 for the sale of tea, coffee, wine, punch, &c. It had an organ, and a spacious promenade and galleries. In 1780 it was converted into a lay-chapel by the Countess of Huntingdon, and is now known as Northampton or Spa Fields Chapel. Mr. Cunningham speaks of the burying-ground (originally the garden), but singularly enough omits to notice the chapel.
25. _Baldwin's Gardens_, running between Leather Lane and Gray's Inn Lane, were, according to a stone which till lately was to have been seen against a corner house, bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, named after _Richard Baldwin_, one of the royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589.
26. _Rathbone Place._--In an old print (now before me) dated 1722, this street is called "Rawbone Place." The Percy coffee-house is still in existence.
27. _Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road._--This building was originally erected, and for some years appropriated to the Leverian Museum. This magnificent museum of natural history was founded by Sir Ashton Lever, who died in 1788. It was afterwards disposed of by way of lottery, and won by Mr. James Parkinson, who transferred it from Leicester Place to the Surrey side of Blackfriars bridge.
28. _Schomberg House, Pall Mall_, (now, I believe, about to be pulled down), was once the residence of that celebrated "quack" Dr. Graham. Here, in 1783, he erected his Temple of Health. He afterwards removed to Panton Street, Haymarket, where he first exhibited his Earth Bath. I do not find any mention of Graham in Mr. Cunningham's book.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Laying a Ghost._--Frequent mention is made of the laying of ghosts, and in many localities the tradition of such an event is extant. At Cumnor, Lady Dudley (Amy Robsart's) ghost is said to have been laid by nine Oxford parsons, and the tradition is still preserved by the villagers; but nowhere have I been able to ascertain what was the ceremony on such an occasion.
Is anything known on the subject?
A.D.B.
Abingdon, Nov. 1850.
_A Test of Witchcraft._--Among the many tests applied for the discovery of witchcraft was the following. It is, I believe, a singular instance, and but little known to the public. It was resorted to as recently as 1759, and may be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of that year.
"One _Susannah Hannokes_, an elderly woman of Wingrove, near Ayleshbury, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a majistrate;