In Lord Bacon's life, by William Rawley, it is stated that his lordship was born in a house "infra plateam dictum Le Strand juxta Londinum."
Query, Was the Strand ever known as Le Strand, similarly to Adwick-le-street in Yorkshire?
A. E. B.
Replies to Minor Queries.
Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii., pp 89. 280.).—The story related by S. G. is the same that I inquired after, and I admire the accuracy of his memory, for his version is, for the greater part, literally the same that I heard in Ireland sixty years ago. A few passages, as that about hipper switches, I do not recollect; and one or two that I remember are wanting—the one, that the narrator was received in "a little oak parlour" of, I forget what, different character; the other, that Sir Gammer's "mother," or "aunt, was a justice of peace, and his sister a captain of horse." I find that Goldsmith's allusion is to this last passage, with some variation. Tony Lumpkin tells Marlow that Hardcastle will endeavour to persuade him that "his mother was an alderman and his aunt a justice of peace." (She Stoops to Conquer, A. i. sub fine.) I have not been able to find the allusion in Swift; nor can I see how it could have been a political satire. It seems rather to be a mere tissue of incongruities and contradictions—of Irish bulls, in short, woven into a narrative to make folks laugh; and it is much of the same character as many other pieces of ingenious nonsense with which Swift and Sheridan used to amuse each other.
C.
Sir Gammer Vans.—This worthy is mentioned in that curious little chap-book, A Strange and Wonderful Relation of the Old Woman that was drowned at Ratcliff Highway, in two parts. I now quote the passage from a copy of the genuine Aldermary churchyard edition:—
"At last I arrived at Sir John Vang's house. 'Tis a little house entirely alone, encompassed about with forty or fifty houses, having a brick wall made of flint stone round about it. So knocking at the door, Gammer Vangs, said I, is Sir John Vangs within? Walk in, said she, and you shall see him in the little, great, round, three square parlour. This Gammer Vangs had a little old woman her son. Her mother was a churchwarden of a large troop of horse, and her grandmother was a Justice of the Peace; but when I came into the said great, little, square, round, three corner'd parlour, I could not see Sir John Vangs, for he was a giant. But I espied abundance of nice wicker bottles. And just as I was going out he called to me and asked me what I would have? So looking back I espied him just creeping out of a wicker bottle. It seems by his profession he was a wicker bottle maker. And after he had made them, he crept out at the stopper holes."
There are two notes worth recording with respect to this curious medley, which is obviously a modern version of a much older composition. Query, is any older edition known?