Chapter C: Mansfield Ingleby

Birmingham.

_The Lisle Family_ (Vol. vii., pp. 236. 269.).--MR. GARLAND'S Query has induced me to inquire, through the same channel, whether anything is known about a family of this name, some of whom are buried at Thruxton in Hampshire. There are four monuments in the church, two of which are certainly, the others probably, erected to members of the family. The first is a very fine brass (described in the Oxford _Catalogue of Brasses_), inscribed to Sir John Lisle, Lord of Boddington in the Isle of Wight, who died A.D. 1407. The next in date, and I suppose of much the same period, is an altar-tomb under an arch, which seems to have led into a small chantry. On this there are no arms, and no inscription. The tomb is now surmounted by the figure of a Crusader, which once lay outside the church, and is thought to be one of the Lisles, and the founder of the original church. On the north side of the

chancel two arches looked into what was once a chantry chapel. In the eastern arch is an altar-tomb, once adorned with shields, which are now torn off. This chantry stood within the memory of "the oldest inhabitant;" but it was pulled down by the owner of the land appertaining to the chantry, and of its materials was built the church tower. One of its windows forms the tower window, and its battlements and pinnacles serve their old purpose in their new position. A modern vestry occupies part of the site of the chantry, and shows one side the altar-tomb I have last mentioned. This side has been refaced in Jacobian style, and the arms of Lisle and Courtenay, and one other coat (the same which occur on the brass), form part of the decoration. Two figures belonging to this later work lie now on the altar-tomb, and many more are remembered to have existed inside the chantry. The mixture of this late Jacobian work with the old work of the chantry is very curious, and can be traced all over what remains of it. The initials T. L. appear on shields under the tower battlements.

I should be glad to find that these Lisles would throw any light on the subject of MR. GARLAND'S inquiry; and if they do not, perhaps some of your readers can give some information about them.

The coat of arms of this family is--Or, on a chief gules, three lioncels rampant of the first.

R. H. C.

_The Dodo in Ceylon_ (Vol. vii., p. 188.).--The bird which SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT identifies with the dodo is common on Ceylonese sculpture. The natives say it is now extinct, and call it the _Hangsiya_, or sacred goose; but whether deemed sacred for the same reason as the Capitoline goose, or otherwise, I must leave the author of _Eleven Years in Ceylon_ to explain, he being the person in this country most conversant with Ceylonese mythology.

I now wish to call SIR EMERSON'S attention to a coincidence that may be worthy his notice in connexion with his forthcoming work on Ceylon.

If he will take the trouble to examine the model of the Parthenon, in the Elgin Marble room of the British Museum, he cannot fail, to be struck with its resemblance to the beautiful building he visited at Polonaroowa, called the Jaitoowanarama. The dimensions of the respective buildings I cannot at present ascertain; but the ground-plans are precisely similar, and each was roofless. But the most striking resemblance is in the position and altitude of the statues: that of the gigantic Bhoodho is precisely similar, even in the posture of the right arm and hand, to that of Minerva, the masterpiece of Phidias. On consulting his notes, he may find the height of the statues to correspond. That of Phidias was thirty-nine feet.

OL. MEM. JU.

Glen Tulchan.

_Thomas Watson, Bishop of St. David's, 1687-99_ (Vol. vii., p. 234.).--This harshly-treated prelate died at Great Wilbraham, near Cambridge, on June 3, 1717, æt. eighty years; and, from a private letter written at the time, seems to have been buried in haste in the chancel of that church, "but without any service," which may perhaps imply that there was not a funeral sermon, and the ordinary ceremony at a prelate's burial. It is, however, {366} intimated that he died excommunicated. In Paulson's _History of Holderness_ is a notice of Bishop Watson, and of his relatives the Medleys, who are connected with my family by marriage; but the statement that the bishop "died in the Tower" is incorrect (vol. i. Part II. p. 283.; vol. ii. Part I. p. 47.; Part II. p. 542., 4to., 1840-1).

F. R. R.

Milnrow Parsonage.

He died in retirement at Wilburgham, or Wilbraham, in the county of Cambridge, June 3, 1717, ætat. eighty.--See Gough's _Camden_, vol. ii. p. 140., and _Gentleman's Magazine_, vols. lix. and lx.

Bishop Gobat was born in 1799, at Cremine, in the perish of Grandval, in Switzerland. His name is not to be found in the list of graduates of either Oxford or Cambridge. His degree of D. D. was probably bestowed on him by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

TYRO.

Dublin.

_Etymology of Fuss_ (Vol. vii., p. 180.).--

"FUSS, _n. s._, a low, cant word, Dr. Johnson says. It is,
however, a regularly-descended northern word: Sax. >fus<,
prompt, eager; Su. Goth. and Cimbr. _f u s_, the same;
hence the Sax. >fysan<, to hasten, and the Su. Goth. _f
y s a_, the same."--Todd's _Johnson_.

Richardson gives the same etymology, referring to Somner. Webster says, "allied, perhaps, to Gr. ~physaô~, to blow or puff."

ZEUS.

A reference to the word in Todd's _Johnson's Dictionary_ will show, and I think satisfactorily, that its origin is _fus_ (Anglo-Saxon), prompt or eager; hence _fysan_, to hasten. The quotation given is from Swift.