_Mrs. Cornelly's_ is stated, in vol. ii. p. 753., _to be_ "the corner of Sutton Street," Soho Square, "_now D'Almaines's_." Mrs. Cornelly's _was_ at the corner of Sutton Street, but has long been pulled down: the Catholic chapel _in_ Sutton Street was Mrs. Cornelly's concert, ball, and masquerade-room; and the arched entrance below the chapel, and now a wheelwright's, was the entrance for "chairs." D'Almaine's is two doors north of Sutton Street, and was built by Earl (?) Tilney, the builder of Wanstead House? The House in Soho Square has a very fine banqueting-room, the ceiling said to have been painted by Angelica Kauffmann. Tilney was fond of giving magnificent dinners, and here was always to be found "the flesh of beeves, with Turkie and other small Larks!"
_Cock Lane_.--The house in Cock Lane famous for its "Ghost" _is still_ standing, and the back room, where "scratching Fanny" lay surrounded by princes and peers, is converted into a gas meter manufactory.
_Easter Eggs_.--The custom of presenting eggs at Easter is too well known to need description; but perhaps few are aware that, like many other customs of the early Church, it had its origin in paganism.
Sir R.K. Porter (_Travels_, vol. i. p. 316.) mentions that at a period of the year corresponding to Easter, "the Feast of nooroose, or of the waters," is held, and seems to have had its origin prior to Mahometanism. It lasts for _six_ days, and is supposed to be kept in commemoration of the Creation and the Deluge--events constantly synchronised and confounded in pagan cosmogonies. At this feast eggs are presented to friends, in obvious allusion to the Mundane egg, for which Ormuzd and Ahriman were to contend till the consummation of all things.
When the many identities which existed between Druidism and Magianism are considered, we can hardly doubt that this Persian commemoration of the Creation originated our Easter-eggs.
_Buns_.--It has been suggested by Bryant, though, I believe, not noticed by any writer on popular customs, that the Good Friday cakes, called _Buns_, may have originated in the cakes used in idolatrous worship, and impressed with the figure of an ox, whence they were called [Greek: boun]. The cow or bull was likewise, as Coleridge (_Lit. Rem_. vol. ii. p. 252.) has justly remarked, the { 245} symbol of the _Cosmos_, the prolific or generative powers of nature.