LAMBETH'S "PEDLAR'S ACRE."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14359, 31 October 1908, Page 4

LAMBETH'S "PEDLAR'S ACRE."

AX T'XKXtiWX BEXIiF ACTOR. Municipal Lambeth derive?; £1800 :i year frcni ihe "l'cdiar's Acre" (slate, -toe proceeds of which are applied to reduction cf the nites. Mr «. Masters, a member of the licrough Council, has mcnlly made an exhaustive search amongst iho records of the I.amhrih l'arish Church in order to ascertain the origin of (he gifl. There has, lie states, always been a. mystery alwiit, this .pedlar. Tip acre, -however, i? not iiv dis|juie. it. beinj situa-lcd on tile river side of Jlelvedere road.

Tin- opiate is said In havp Vcm brrjiiPnthn:! iijHiti condition ilia: a picture of the ped'ar ami liia tjctf shotiUl be jK'rju'iually preserved iu glass in one rf the windows of (he clmr(\!. I'lirtlier, ir is suggested (haf. the la.iui was a <rift in ackjiowkdgmo.nt of ]:cnni,«iin granted the jjctlhir lo bury his (lii.S in i,ht> olmrchysid. At:nt-hor tradition, says .Mr Masters. is I hat, a. tired pcdia.ifoil asleep, niul tliat while .lie slept his dog scr.itcbcd upon the ground, and f,o donrovernd ttlii'vo gold had Wen concealed "Willi .this gold thepodlar was enriched and ."oilled in the noitjlihourliood. Hoon afterwards the tics dietl, and liy a little pious collusion was Imried in the churchyard. Before Ion? the pedlar died. 1oi), lmt not nnl.il li,-> had left an acre of ground in trust for the poor of the parish. A memorial window was, I hen-fore, raised ill llie i.lnircli. whereon the pedlar ami the dog' were depicted. Thai, window remains to this day.

Mr Ma-fier.-'s own conclusion is loss romantic. ]t is that the picture of the prdlar and the dos was inrended as u rebus on the name of some benefactor rather than descriptive of hi? trade or callins;. 'I'he donor may have keen Alderman ITcnry Smith, who in 16?6 pave £10 lo tlio poor of liainhoth. ami who was usually referred lo as "Do;:" Smith because at one period lie was a and always enl mated a hone for his dog. There is no moid in the mime of l'edlar at till.

—M. Paid Wolfskel, l'rofe-ser of Mathematics at Darmstadt, lias instituted a prize of JBSCOO ns an inducement to re-discover the famous Theorem of Format, which lie:, hcen lo't, for two contnrics. It was Format, who firs I applied algebra to gioni?try, and it was of him that Libri declared that he knew many tilings of which wo are ignorant; in fact, in many tliijigs lie wa; in advance of his succv^ors,