Notes and Queries 1880-06-26: Vol 1 Iss 26

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6% 8, I, Jone 26, '80.) NOTES AND QUERIES. 509 LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 2%, 1880. CONTENTS.—N¢* 26, NOTES :—A Contribution to the Local History of Turnham Green and Chiswick, 509—Italian and West Highland Folk- tales, 510—The Fletcher Family, 511—Modern Spanish Literature—Errors of Authors—Abner's Retort to Ish- bosheth, 512—Berkhamsted, 513—Interments in Consecrated Ground—The Spires of English Cathedrals—Edge Inscrip- tions on Coins—The Oak and the Ash—An Old Distich, 514 QUERIES :—The Black Pear of Worcester—‘* Men of light and leading" — William of Wykeham : Winchester Cathedral, &c. —Medal of Queen Anne—Edward Godfrey, 1630, 516— Kestell= Wadge—Sawers of Stirling—The Colours of a Coat of Arms—“ Asinego "—‘‘ As” on a Book-plate—King's own Borderers — Abp. Whately —Shakspeares Grave—‘' Com- mune” and “ Communism"—Sir Lionel Smith, 516—St Thomas's Hospital at Rome—Murder and Perjury—Kdward Strudwick, 517. REPLIES :—Baines Family, 517—Sir Vincent Gookin—Judge Page and his Mansion—* Graphic ” Writing, 518—‘‘ Smelling the hat "—Fly-leaves—‘‘ Bocase Tree,” 519—*‘‘ Marked with Tau,” 520—Funeral Custom at Broughton—‘*The Bottle Imp ”"—Giants, 521— William Payne, Artist—Hone’s “‘ Every- Day Book” — Worcestershire Church Custom — “‘ Malacca Cane” — Worcestershire Wills —The ‘‘ Midge” System — “* awful "—Curious Inscription, 522—‘‘Old and New Lon- don”—“ The Borderland,” &¢c.— Heraldic— Poems and Ballads Wanted—Local Words, 523—‘* Not been born ”— “‘Conspicuous by his absence”"—‘‘Un Livre Unique” Bishop Peter Quivil—Queen Elizabeth and Dancing, 5: Trousers in England — Matthew Carey — Byron, “* Pamphlet "—Welsh Motto—“ The Apples of King Joh —Butter and Fggs—Books Published by Subscription — Naogeorgus’'s ‘‘Spirituall Husbandrie,” &c. — ‘‘ Chicken House Estate,” 526—‘‘London” v. ** Londres”—Authors Wanted, 527. NOTES UN BOOKS :—Tuckey's “Joan of Arc”—Painter’s “Science a Stronghold of Belief”—Bray's “‘ Ethical Defini- tions” — Poole’s ‘“*Hugonots of the Dispersion” —Cave- Browne's “‘ Detling in Days gone by,”’ &c. Hotes. A CONTRIBUTION TO THE LOCAL HISTORY OF TURNHAM GREEN AND CHISWICK. The changes that have taken place in this neigh- bourhood have caused the removal of several houses to which some interest is attached. Among these I may notice Linden House, the residence of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright in the earlier years of the present century. Wainewright was the grandson of Dr. Ralph Griffiths, of Turnham Green (famous for his connexion with the Monthly Re- view), and was born at Chiswick in 1794. He began life by serving in the army, but presently took to literature as a profession, and became a writer in the magazines of the day. His Essays and Criticisms, collected by W. Carew Hazlitt, were reviewed in the Athenewm of March 13. In 1824 we find him entering on that career of crime apart from which he would have been now forgotten. In that year he forged the signatures of his trustees, in order to obtain possession of a sum of 2,259/. In 1828 he persuaded his uncle, Mr. G. E. Griffiths, who lived at Linden House, to receive him as an inmate, and within a few months this uncle died suddenly, having been poisoned by nux vomica, and Wainewright became possessed of his property. In 1830 he persuaded Mrs, Aber- crombie, a widow lady, to come with her two young daughters and live with his wife and him- self at Linden House, where he soon found means to get rid of the widow by a dose of strychnine. Here his history ends, so far as Iam now concerned with it, for he found it impossible to meet the expense of living at Turnham Green, and removed to London. That he afterwards poisoned Miss Helen Abercrombie in Conduit Street, her last words being, “‘ My mother died in the same way ! Oh, my poor mother!”—that he carried poison about with him in a ring which he wore on his forefinger—for these and other details of his life I must refer the reader to the sources above men- tioned. Suffice it to say that, after all, he died a natural death, having only been convicted of forgery and sentenced to transportation. Linden House, which was, I believe, erected in the latter half of the last century, was a house of considerable size and importance, standing in its own grounds, The site is now covered with small houses, to which the local authorities have given the name of Linden Gardens. Adjoining Linden Gardens is Bolton House, where Sir John Chardin, the celebrated traveller, referred to by Cot. Pripkavx in 5" §. xii. 427, lived for some time, and where, I believe, he died. His death appears in the register of burials at Chiswick under Dec. 29, 1712. Of late this house has been occupied as a school, but its days are now numbered, the bricks which are to give a face to the houses, which, with the help of the old mate- rials, are to be “run up” on the site, being already stacked in front. Heathfield House, of which a view is given in Faulkner, was demolished some years ago. It stood at the south-western corner of Turnham Green, and was, as is well known, the residence of the defender of Gibraltar. It is also stated, though I scarcely know on what authority, that Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, who was executed for his share in the rebellion of ’45, lived in a house which stood on this site. I observe that Lysons gives 1747 as the date at which this property changed hands : 1747 is the year of Lord Lovat’s execution. Arlington House, which stood on ground west- ward of Turnham Green, was pulled down in the year 1877. The grounds were extensive, and, to judge from the size of the elms, there must have been a residence on that spot for at least two hundred years. But when I examined the house, I could find nothing to indicate a date earlier than the present century. Among the residents, how- ever, had been Sir Thomas Troubridge, who lost a leg in the Crimea, and Madame Grisi. The name is preserved in the streets which occupy the site. A house of the date of James II., at Little Sutton, was pulled down a year or two ago ; the site is now occupied by a good modern house. It may be well to take this opportunity of indi-