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London street-names which remind us A CORRESPONDENT asks for the text of Austin Dobson's Rondeau on Notes and Queries.' The lines are given in "A Bookman's Budget 1907, and as they are not included in the Collected Poems, our readers may be glad to have the lines as written in 1882: In N. & Q.' we meet to weigh We trace, thro' all its moss o'ergrown, The script upon Time's latest stone, Nor. scorn his latest waif and stray. Letters and Folk-lore, Art, the Play; Whate'er, in short, men think or say, We make our theme-we make our own, In N. & Q.' Stranger, whoe'er you be, who may Aghast, the waste of things unknown, DMIRAL Hope writes from Plaistow, Billingshurst, Sussex-It was decided at a recent meeting of the Society for Nautical Research to endeavour to raise of local history and link our modern effi- A ciency with a ruder past. The origin of the name is definite and direct. According - to Stow, the city ditch was a filthy place full of dead dogs.' And now the business firms whose headquarters are in Houndsditch are petitioning the City Corporation__to grant them some more attractive name. This is, in our judgment, a misguided effort. There are no dead dogs in Houndsditch to-day, and the old name is merely a reminder that the City sanitary service is more efficient than it used to be, and that ment. city firms are responsible for the improveMuch London history is suggested by street names Playhouse-yard, Of-alley, Hangingsword-lane, Cromwell-road and any obliteration of the old landmarks is to be regretted. Cannot the many most respectable firms now established in Houndsditch explain to their customers that, however humble the origin of their street-name, they have given it among wholesalers a like title to that of Bond-street among retailers further west? HAKLUYT is coming into his own at last, and we welcome Dent's edition of The Principall Navigations" in eight volumes at the modest price of 7s. 6d. each. It is good that the writings of so great an Englishman, perhaps the first statesmanlike founder of our Empire, should be brought within the reach of all. Among the commemoration articles we note especially that the funds to provide a memorial to the eminent Dutch artists William Van de Velde the Elder" and his son, William Younger." After working for many years in the Netherlands, they were invited to England by King Charles II, circa 1673, becoming marine painters to that Sovereign and to his successor, King James II. They were buried at St. James's Church, Picca dilly, but the stone placed there (to the memory of the father only) appears to have perished long since, and it seems hardly appropriate that these men, whose fame is so closely associated with the nautical history of two great maritime nations, should lack a word of memorial in the country where they found their final resting-place. It is proposed now to commemorate both names together on a stone in that church, the balance of the money subscribed being devoted to a suitable charity. It is thought that the high esteem in which these two great artists are held by art-lovers and archaeologists may find suitable expression in this belated tribute to their genius, and those who wish to be associated with the project are asked to be good enough to send their contributions to me at this address, or to the Hon. Treasurer of the Van de Velde Memorial Fund, at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, S.E. BEER is the traditional English drink, Two Hundred Years Ago. though some of us in recent years' have admitted the existence of Scottish and Irish alternatives. It is, therefore, worth recording that the consumption of beer (and its cousins such as ale and stout) has declined. from thirty million barrels twenty years ago. to twenty million barrels: to-day. In the. same period the demand for spirits and for cider has increased threefold Students of social habits must draw their own conclusions. MES " ESSRS. Macmillan will shortly publish The Gorgon's Head, and other Literary Pieces,' by Sir J. G. Frazer, with a portrait of the author from the bust of Antoine Bourdelle and a prefatory note by Anatole France. The preface was originally contributed to a French edition of Sir J. G. Frazer's essays.. Many of the essays are now collected for the first time. THERE is a distinct revival of interest in antiquarian cartography, to which probably Sir George Fordham's books and more recently the exhibition at the Mansard Gallery have contributed. At Sotheby's this week some remarkable prices were paid notably for Drake's West Indian Voyage of 1589 from Ortelius' (£510). DR. T. A. Walker is publishing shortly through the Cambridge University Press a supplement to his Admissions to Peterhouse 1615-1912,' which will cover the period from 1284 to 1574. !! From The British Journal. SATURDAY, June 3, 1727. Sunday being the King's Birth Day, (when his Majefty enter'd the 68th Year of his Age) the fame was celebrated at Court on Monday, with all poffible Splendor and Magnificence. And it being alfo the Anniverfary of the Happy Reftoration of the Royal Family, the Guns at the Tower and in the Park were fired; the Ld. Mayor went in State to the Cathedral of St. Paul's, preceded by Trumpets and the City Mufick, and the faid Festival was folemniz'd with all the ufual Demonstrations of Publick Joy, and at Night there was a Ball at Court, where the Appearance was prodigioufly gay and fplendid. an Laft Thurfday Evening about 8, M. Violante, defcended Italian, Head formost, by a Rope, his Legs and Arms extended, from the Top of the Steeple of St. Martin's Church, over the Houses in St. Martin's Lane, to the fartheft Side of the Meufe oppofite thereunto, in the Space of half a Minute's time: 'Tis computed to be about 300 Yards. There were prefent a great Number of Spectators; the young Princeffes, and feveral Perfons of Quality were in the Meuse; where a Feather Bed was laid at the Bottom of the Rope to receive him, but he leaped from off the Rope, within a few Yards of it. Epitaph on PETER, the Wild Youth: Literary and Historical Notes. THE LORDS OF BELLEME AND THE EARLY DESCENT. THE great house which held Bellême, Alençon and Domfront in the tenth and eleventh centuries is of direct interest to English genealogists; for the heiress of the family married Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and eventually the representation passsed, through the Counts of Ponthieu and Eleanor of Castile, to the royal family of England. The pedigree printed in the standard edition of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates,' although a great improvement on the version given by the earlier edition of 1770,* is not altogether satisfactory. However, it remained the leading authority until 1920, when the Vicomte du Motey published his learned and most work : interesting Origines de la Normandie et du Duché d'Alençon' (Auguste Picard, Paris). The first part of this book, which treats of the foundation and early history of Normandy, seems almost beyond criticism; but the second part, which deals with the great fief that subsequently became the duchy of Alençon, is not quite so satisfactory, for the author's critical judgment is frequently overwhelmed by his enthusiasm for his favourite heroes: the lords of Bellême and Alençon. However, in this paper I do not propose to deal with the historical side, but shall confine myself to genealogy. M. du Motey is an historian rather than a genealogist, and from the genealogical standpoint his treatment of 'les Bellême" is disappointing; for he makes no attempt to grapple with the chronological difficulties arising from the standard pedigree in 'L'Art de Vérifier les Dates.' Indeed, his researches have actually increased them. Thus the longevity of Yves de Bellême, already surprising when our latest date for him was 997, becomes even more remarkable when we learn that he was still living in 1005. At 11 S. xi. 126 I called attention to the version in this edition. Being then in the country, I was unable to refer to the later edition. In May 1923 I read to the Society of Genealogists a paper in which I discussed these difficulties, pointed out what seemed to me to be errors in the accepted pedigree, and suggested a revised descent which appeared to be more probable and in accordance with such evidence as there is. However, as the subject is very difficult, I put the paper aside without attempting to print it, in the hope of obtaining further light on the problem. Unfortunately I have failed to do so, and accordingly propose to offer my conclusions for what they are worth. The whole pedigree covers five generations, but the chronological difficulties are concentrated in the first three. The standard 'des cent, as giver by M. du Motey, summarised in the following table, omitting the two sisters of William de Bellême, who do not affect the argument.* Avesgaud. Bishop of Le Mans, born c. 966 (p. 166), died 1036 (p. 166). Ives, living c. 1000 (p. 117). : William de Bellême I (alias William Talvas I) born, c. 942 (p. 114), died c. 1031 (p. 160). In this table I have ventured to anglicise Guillaume into William, and to write Seinfroy and Godeheut instead of Sigefroy and God-hild. The date of William de Bellême's birth is deduced from M. du Motey's statement that he ne pouvait avoir moins de vingt et quelques années" when he went to Rome on Rome on a pilgrimage (p. 114), the latest possible date for which is early in 965 (p. 84); and that William's (1) Godeheut, married Albert de la Fertéen-Bauce. (2) Hildeburg, married Haimon du Château-du-Loir. brother Yves was living c. 1000 is deduced from the statements that Yves joined in a gift by his brother Avesgaud, Bishop of Le Mans (p. 117), and that Avesgaud succeeded Seinfroy as bishop about 1000 (p. 300). The other dates are given clearly on the pages cited. The first thing to strike one in this pedigree is the extraordinary longevity which persists through three successive generations. Thus-1st generation: (a) Bishop Seinfroy, if only 15 years older than his nephew Yves, would have been a centenarian in A.D. 1000. (b) His brother William would presumably have been at least 90 years old in 997, when he was still living. 2nd generation. (a) Yves would have been at least 90 years old in 1005, when he was still alive. (b) and (c) His sisters Billehend and Eremburg would both probably have been about 80 years old (more or less) in 997, when they were living and unmarried. 3rd generation: (a) William would have been almost (if not quite) 90 years of age at his death in 1031. (b) His brother Avesgaud might be presumed to be about the same age when he died in 1036; but M. du Motey, without citing his authority, states that he was then about 70, which would involve the improbability that he was about 20 years younger than his brother. Evidently the house of Bellême had anticipated Mr. Bernard Shaw and was already well on the way "back to Methuselah." Yves de Bellême even infected his wife with this "inveterate habit of living," for she was still alive when her husband died in or after 1005, although their eldest son was born not later than 942. We must now examine the evidence on which this pedigree is based. Fulcoin, who appears as the first known lord of Bellême, and his wife Rhotais, are known only from the foundation-charter of l'Abbayette, granted by their son Yves on 12 Oct. of a year which is uncertain, but cannot have been earlier than 997, as Robert was King of France. Long known from a transcript, the original charter was discovered by M. Bertrand de Broussillon, who printed it in extenso. By this charter Yves restored certain lands to the Abbey of Mont St. Michel and founded the Priory of l'Abbayette, for the salvation of his soul and the souls of his father Fulcoin and his of his mother Rhotais, with the consent relations, namely his two sisters, Billehend and Eremburg, his two uncles, Bishop Seinfroy and William, and his cousins: William the clerk, Robert, Suhard and William the layman ('Cartulaire de l'Abbayette,' pp. 9-12). The extraordinary care of the grantor in specifying his relations even to his cousins renders his omissions still more amazing. There is no reference to his wife, his sons or his daughters; and although Yves records the consent of his sisters, uncles and cousins, the consent of his children was apparently considered unnecessary. We are compelled to ask what proof there is that the Yves who granted this charter was identical with Yves de Bellême; and so far as I can discover, there is no proof at all. Even the lands concerned lie far away from the mass of the family estates. The alleged identity appears to be an assumption of Dom Piolin, and was rejected by Bertrand de Broussillon, who refers to the grantor as: "Un grand propriétaire, nommé Yves, que rien permet, comme l'a fait dom Piolin, de rattacher à la maison de Bellême." (p. 5). As M. du Motey does not supply any evidence for identifying the Yves of this charter with Yves de Bellême, I think that we may reject the identification definitively. Thus the alleged parents, uncles, sisters and cousins of Yves disappear, the first generation of the pedigree is eliminated and the second is reduced to Yves himself. ne Before leaving the l'Abbayette charter, there is a further point which should be noted. Du Motey speaks of the grantor's uncles as his "oncles paternels" (p. 113), but the word used is " avunculorum," not patruorum. It is true that avunculus," strictly the mother's brother, was used in medieval Latin either for a paternal or a maternal uncle (cf. Round, Peerage and Pedigree,' ii. 30); but there is nothing in the charter to indicate which meaning the word has here. II. |