Chapter C: Forbes

Temple.

* * * * *

HOVEDEN'S ANNALS--BOHN'S "ANTIQUARIAN LIBRARY."

Considering the cheap issue of all standard works of reference a great boon to the general student, I was predisposed to welcome heartily Mr. Bohn's _Antiquarian Library_. If, however, _cheapness_ be accompanied by _incorrectness_, the promised boon I conceive to be worthless; even one or two glaring errors rendering the student distrustful of the entire series. I was led to form the first of these conclusions on receiving vol. i. of a translation of the _Annals of Roger de Hoveden_, by Henry T. Riley, Esq., barrister-at-law; who introduces the work by a flourish of trumpets in the Preface, on the multifarious errors of the London and Frankfort editions, and the labour taken to correct _his own_; to the second by observing, whilst cutting the leaves, the following glaring errors, put forward too as _corrections_:--Vol. i. p. 350., Henry II. is stated by the _Annalist_ to have landed in Ireland, A.D. 1172, "at a place which is called _Croch_, distant _eight miles_ from the city of Waterford." Here Mr. Riley, with perfect gravity, suggests _Cork_[1] as the true reading!! Can it be, that a barrister-at-law, with an ominously Irish-sounding name, is ignorant that the city of Cork is somewhat more distant than _eight miles_ from the _urbs intacta_, as Waterford loves to call herself? The fact is, however, that Hoveden and his former editors were nearly correct: on {496} old maps of the harbour of Waterford, Crook Castle is laid down inside Creden Head, on the Waterford side of the harbour; and Crook is still the name of a place at the point indicated, somewhat more however than eight miles from Waterford.

Again, at p. 351. occurs Hoveden's well-known and valuable enumeration of the Irish episcopal sees at the same period, of which Mr. Riley observes: "Nearly all these are mis-spelt ... they are in a state of almost hopeless confusion." And then, to make confusion worse confounded, his note on the Bishop of Ossory (p. 352.) says "In the text, 'Erupolensis' is perhaps a mistake for 'Ossoriensis.'" Now, _Erupolensis_ happens to be a correct _alias_ of Ossoriensis: the former characterising the diocese from Kilkenny, the cathedral city, which being seated on the Nore, or Neor--Hibernicè _Eoir_, Latinè _Erus_, was sometimes called Erupolis--the latter from the territory with which the see was and is co-extensive, the ancient kingdom of Ossory.

How many more errors there may be in the first volume of the work, I cannot say: but, at all events, what the reader has to complain of is, _not_ that the translator was unable to tell all about "Croch" and "Erupolis," but that, not knowing, he has made matters worse by his hardy elucidations. Truly, at this rate, it were better that no cheap edition of Hoveden were vouchsafed to the public.

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny.

[Footnote 1: This geographical _morceau_ was nearly equalled by a scribe in the _Illustrated London News_, who stated that her Gracious Majesty's steam-yacht, with its royal freight and attendant squadron, when coasting round from Cork to Dublin in the year 1849, had entered Tramore Bay, and thence steamed up to Passage in the Waterford Harbour! A truly _royal road_ to safety; and one that, did it exist, would have saved many a gallant crew and ship, which have met their fate within the landlocked, but ironbound and shelterless, jaws of Tramore Bay.]

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_Raven Superstition._--On a recent occasion, at an ordinary meeting of the guardians of the poor, an application was made by the relieving officer on behalf of a single woman residing in the church village at Altarnun. The cause of seeking relief was stated to be "grief," and on asking for an explanation, the officer stated that the applicant's inability to work was owing to depressed spirits, produced by the flight of a croaking raven over her dwelling on the morning of his visit to the village. The pauper was by this circumstance, in connexion with its well-known ominous character, actually frightened into a state of wretched nervous depression, which induced physical want.

S. R. P.

_African Folk Lore._--The following curious piece of folk lore is quoted from an extract in _The Critic_ (of April 1, 1853, p. 172.), in the course of a review of Richardson's _Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa, &c._:

"To avert the evil eye from the gardens, the people (of Mourzak) put up
the head of an ass, or some portion of the bones of that animal. The
same superstition prevails in all the oases that stud the north of
Africa, from Egypt to the Atlantic, but the people are unwilling to
explain what especial virtue there exists in an ass's skull."

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

_Funeral Custom._--In some parts (I believe) of Yorkshire, and perhaps elsewhere, it is customary to send, immediately after a death, a paper bag of biscuits, and a card with the name, &c. of the deceased, to his friends, be they many or few. Can any of your readers explain the matter? I have more than once seen the card, but not the biscuits.

ABHBA.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE READINGS, NO. VII.

"What are 'Aristotle's checks?'"

This is the question that MR. COLLIER proposed in support of the alteration of _checks_ into _ethics_, at p. 144. of his _Notes and Emendations_. He terms _checks_ "an absurd blunder," and in the preface he again introduces it, passing upon it the same unqualified sentence of excommunication, as upon "bosom multiplied," viz. "it can never be repeated." In this opinion he is backed by most of the public scribes of the day, especially by the critic of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, who declares "we should be very sorry to have to discover what the editors have understood by the _checks_ of Aristotle." Furthermore, this critic thinks that "it is extremely singular that the mistake should have remained so long uncorrected;" and he intimates that they who have found any meaning in _checks_, have done so only because, through ignorance, they could find no meaning in _ethics_.

Hence it becomes necessary for those who do find a meaning in _checks_, to defend that meaning; and hence I undertake to answer MR. COLLIER'S question.

Aristotle's _checks_ are those _moral adjustments_ that form the distinguishing feature of his philosophy.

They are _the eyes of reason_, whereby he would teach man to avoid divergence from the straight path of happiness.

They are his moderators, his mediocrities, his metriopathics.

They are his philosophical steering-marks, his moral guiding-lines, whereby the passions are to be kept in the _via media_; as much removed from total abnegation on the one hand, as from immoderate indulgence on the other.

Virtue, according to Aristotle, consists in checked or _adjusted_ propensities. Our passions are not in themselves evil, except when unchecked by reason. And inasmuch as we may overeat, or underfeed ourselves (the check being temperance), so may we suffer our other propensities to deviate from the _juste milieu_, either in the direction of indulgence or of privation. {497}

The art of adjusting the passions requires an apprenticeship to virtue. The end to be attained is the establishment of good habits. These good habits, like any other skill, can only be attained by practice. Therefore the practice of virtue is the education of the passions.

_Ethics_ is the doctrine of _habits_; but habits may be good or bad. When good, they constitute virtue; when bad, licentiousness.

The doctrine of _checks_ is that branch of _ethics_ which teaches moral adjustment and restraint.

Therefore _checks_ and _licentiousness_ are in better antithesis to each other, than _ethics_ can be to either, because ethics includes both.

The Aristotelian idea of _adjustment_, rather than _denial_, of the passions, is well illustrated in the following passage from Plutarch's _Morall Vertue_, by Philemon Holland, a contemporary of Shakspeare:

"For neither do they shed and spill the wine upon the floure who are
afraide to be drunke, but delay the same with water: nor those who
feare the violence of a passion, do take it quite away, but rather
temper and qualifie the same: like as folke use to breake horses and
oxen from their flinging out with their heeles, their stiffenes and
curstnes of the head, and stubburnes in receiving the bridle or the
yoke, but do not restraine them of other motions of going about their
worke and doing their deede. And even so, verily, reason maketh good
use of these passions, when they be well tamed, and, as it were,
brought to hand: without overweakening or rooting out cleane that parte
of the soule which is made for to second reason and do it good
service.... Whereas let passions be rid cleane away (if that were
possible to be done), our reason will be found in many things more dull
and idle: like as the pilot and master of a ship hath little to do if
the winde be laid and no gale at all stirring ... as if to _the
discourse of reason_ the gods had adjoined passion as a pricke to
incite, and a chariot to set it forward."

Again, in describing the "Meanes," he says--

"Now to begin with Fortitude, they say it is the meane between
Cowardise and rash Audacitie; of which twaine the one is a defect, the
other an excesse of the yrefull passion: Liberalitie, betweene
Nigardise and Prodigalitie: Clemencie and Mildnesse, betweene
senselesse Indolence and Crueltie: Justice, the meane of giving more or
lesse than due: Temperance, a mediocritie betweene the blockish
stupiditie of the minde, moved with _no touch of pleasure_, and all
unbrideled loosenes, whereby it is abandoned to all sensualitie."--
_The Philosophie of Plutarch_, fol. 1603.

It really does appear to me that there could not be a happier or more appropriate designation, for a philosophy made up in this way of "meanes" and adjustments, so as to steer between the _plus_ and _minus_, than a system of _checks_--not fixed, or rigid rules, as they are sometimes interpreted to be, but nice allowances of excess or defect, to be discovered, weighed, and determined by individual reason, in the audit of each man's conscience, according to the strength or weakness of the passions he may have to regulate.

I therefore oppose the substitution of _ethics_--

1. Because we have the _primâ facie_ evidence of the text itself, that _checks_ was Shakspeare's word.

2. Because we have internal evidence, in the significance and excellence of the phrase, that it was Shakspeare's word.

_Ethics_ was the patent title by which Aristotle's moral philosophy was universally known; therefore any ignoramus, who never dipped beyond the title, might, _and would_, have used it. But no person, except one well read in the philosophy itself, would think of giving it such a designation as _checks_; which word, nevertheless, is most happily characteristic of it.

3. Because, as before stated, Aristotle's _checks_, being the restrictive and regulating portion of Aristotle's _Ethics_, is necessarily a more diametrical antithesis to Ovid (and his _laxities_).

4. Because I look upon the use of this phrase as one of those nice and scarcely perceptible touches by which Shakspeare was content rather to hint at, than to disclose his knowledge,--one of those effects whereby he makes a single word supply the place of a treatise.

With these opinions, I cannot but look upon this threatened change of _checks_ into _ethics_, as wholly unwarrantable, and I now protest against it as earnestly as, upon a former occasion, I did against the alteration of _sickles_ into _shekels_, or, still worse, into _cycles_ or into _circles_. It is with great satisfaction I compare four different views taken of this word by MR. COLLIER, viz.--in the note to the text of his octavo edition of Shakspeare;--in an additional note in vol. i., page cclxxxiv. of that edition;--in the first announcement of his annotated folio in the _Athenæum_ newspaper, Jan. 31st, 1852,--and finally (after my remarks upon the word in "N. & Q."), his virtual reinstatement of the original _sickle_ (till then supposed a palpable and undeniable misprint) at page 46. of _Notes and Emendations_, together with the production, _suo motu_, of an independent reference in support of my position.

To return to this present substitution of _ethics_ for _checks_, a very singular circumstance connected with it is the ignoring, by both MR. COLLIER and by the critic in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, of Sir William Blackstone's original claim to the suggestion, by prior publication of upwards of half a century. At that time, notwithstanding the great learning and acuteness of the proposer, the alteration was rejected! And shall we now be less wise than our fathers? Shall we--misled by the prestige of a few drops of rusty ink fashioned into letters of formal cut--place implicit credence in emendations whose only claim to faith, like that of the Mormon scriptures, is that nobody knows whence they came? {498}

In the passage I have quoted from Philemon Holland, there may be observed two peculiarities which are generally supposed to be exclusively Shakspearian: one is the beautiful application of the word "touch"--the other the phrase "discourse of reason." Where this last expression occurs in _Hamlet_, it narrowly escaped _emendation_ at the hands of Gifford! (See Mr. Knight's note, in his illustrated edition of _Shakspeare_.) It is the true Aristotelian [Greek: dianoia].

There is also a third peculiarity of expression in the same quotation, in the use of the word _delay_ in the sense of _diluere_, to dilute, temper, allay. There are at least two passages in Shakspeare's plays where the word is used in this sense, but which appear to have been overlooked by his glossarists. The first is in _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act IV. Sc. 3., where the French locals are moralising upon Bertram's profligate pursuit of Diana:

"Now God _delay_ our rebellion--as we are ourselves, what are we?"

The second is in _Cymbeline_, Act V. Sc. 4., where Jupiter tempers his love with crosses, in order to make his gifts--

"The more _delayed_, delighted."

A. E. B.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Portrait of Luther._--A portrait of Luther, perhaps original, certainly nearly cotemporary with the Reformer, possessing many excellent qualities, was some time since shown me. It is in the possession of Mr. Horne, of Morton in Marsh, Gloucestershire: it was received by him from an elderly gentleman still living in London, who purchased it many years since at a sale of pictures. The picture is very dark, on canvass, with a black frame having a narrow gilt moulding. As the existence of this portrait is perhaps not known, mention of the fact might interest some of your readers. The picture, including frame, is perhaps in size thirty inches by twenty-four; and the age of the sitter, whose features are delineated with remarkable effects is probably under fifty years.

B. H. C.

_Randle Wilbraham._--Randle Wilbraham, Esq., the grandfather of Lord Skelmersdale, who died upon the 3rd of April last, was a lawyer of great eminence, and held the office of treasurer of Lincoln's Inn. The university of Oxford conferred, by diploma, the degree of D.C.L. upon him in these notable terms:

"Placuit nobis in Convocatione die 14 mensis Aprilis 1761, solenniter
convocatis spectatissimum Ranulphum Wilbraham, Arm. Coll. Ænæi Nasi
quondam commensalem, in agendis causis pro diversis Tribunalibus per
multos retro annos hodieque versatissimum, Subsenescallum nostrum et
Consiliarium fidissimum, Gradu Doctoris in Jure Civili insignire. Cujus
quidem hæc præcipua ac prope singularis et est, et semper fuit, quod
propriis ingenii et industriæ suæ viribus innixus Aulici favoris nec
appetens, nec particeps, sine ullo magnatum patrocinio, sine turpi
Adulantium aucupio, ad summam tamen in Foro, in Academia, in Senatu,
tum gloriam, tum etiam authoritatem facilem sibi et stabilem munivit
viam, Fortunæ suæ si quis alius Deo Favente vere Faber", &c.

The above is copied from the original diploma, which Mr. Randle Wilbraham gave to his nephew, the late Dr. William Falconer of Bath. On the death of Mr. R. Wilbraham, Chief Justice Wilmot wrote "I have lost my old friend Mr. Wilbraham: he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and has not left a better lawyer, or an honester man behind him."

ANON.

_Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott._--

"Earth walks on Earth,
Glittering in gold:
Earth goes to Earth,
Sooner than it wold:
Earth builds on Earth,
Palaces and towers:
Earth says to Earth:
Soon, all shall be ours."

The above, by Sir W. Scott, I _believe_, has never appeared in print to my knowledge. It was recited to me by a friend of Sir W. Scott.

R. VINCENT.

_Crassus' Saying._--I find in the Diary of the poet Moore (in Lord John Russell's edition), vol. ii. p. 148., a conversation recorded with Dr. Parr, in which the Doctor quotes "the witticism that made Crassus laugh (the only time in his life): 'Similes habent labra lactucas.'"

It appears (see the quotations in Facciolati) that this sage and laughter-moving remark of Crassus was made on seeing an ass eating a thistle; whereon he exclaimed, "Similes habent labra lactucas."

In Bailey's edition of Facciolati it is said, "Proverbium habet locum ubi similia similibus contingunt,... quo sensu Angli dicimus, 'Like lips like lettuce: like priest like people.'"

Out of this explanation it is difficult to elicit any sense, much less any "witticism."

I suggest that Crassus' saying meant, "His (the ass's) lips hold thistles and lettuces to be both alike;" wanting the discrimination to distinguish between them. Or, if I may put it into a doggerel rhyme:

"About a donkeys taste why need we fret us?
To lips like his a thistle is a lettuce."

WM. EWART.

University Club.

* * * * * {499}

Queries.

BEES AND THE SPHYNX ATROPOS.

Huber, in his _Observations on the Natural History of Bees_, avers that the moth called the _Sphynx atropos_ invades and plunders with impunity a hive containing thousands of bees, notwithstanding the watchfulness, pugnacity, and formidable weapons of those insects. To account for this phenomenon, he states that the queen bee has the faculty of emitting a certain sound which instantly strikes the bees motionless; and he conjectures that this burglarious moth, being endowed with the same property, uses it to produce a similar effect, first on the sentinels at the entrance of the hive, and then on the bees within.

In another part of his book (2nd edit. 1808, p. 202.) he relates what he himself witnessed on introducing a strange queen into a hive. The bees, greatly irritated, pulled her, bit her, and chased her away; but on her emitting the sound and assuming an extraordinary attitude, "the bees all hung down their heads and remained motionless." On the following day he repeated the experiment, and the intrusive queen was similarly maltreated; but when she emitted her sound, and assumed the attitude, from that moment the bees again became motionless.

Have more modern observers verified this curious fact? Is it not a case of mesmerism?

SYDNEY SMIRKE.

* * * * *

"THE CRAFTSMAN'S APOLOGY."

When Bolingbroke published his _Final Answer to the Remarks on the Craftsman's Vindication, and to all the Libels which have come, or may come from the same quarter against the Person last mentioned in the Craftsman of the 22nd May, 1731_, he was answered in five Poetical Letters to the King, which in keenness of wit, polished satire, and flowing ease of versification, have not been since surpassed. The title of the tract in which they are contained is _The Craftsman's Apology, being a Vindication of his Conduct and Writings in several Letters to the King_, printed for T. Cooper, 1732, 8vo. pages 32. By whom were these very clever and amusing letters written? Lord Hervey or Sir Charles Hanbury Williams are the parties one would think most likely to have written them; but they do not appear in the list of Lord Hervey's works given by Walpole, or amongst those noticed by Mr. Croker, or in Sir C. H. Williams's _Collected Works_, in three volumes. Independently of which, I question whether the versification is not, in point of harmony, too equal for either of them. If they be included in the collected works of any other writer of the time, which I have no immediate recollection of, some of your correspondents will no doubt be able to point him out. Should it appear that they have not been reprinted, I shall be disposed to recur again to the subject, and to give an extract from them, as, of all the attacks ever made upon Bolingbroke, they seem to me the most pleasant, witty, and effective.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

PALISSY AND CARDINAL WISEMAN.

On April 28, Cardinal Wiseman, at the Manchester Corn Exchange, delivered a lecture "On the Relation of the Arts of Design to the Arts of Production." It occupies thirteen columns of _The Tablet_ of May 7, which professes to give it "from _The Manchester Examiner_, with corrections and additions." I have read it with pleasure, and shall preserve it as one of the best discourses on Art ever delivered; but there is a matter of fact, on which I am not so well satisfied. In noticing Bernard Palissy, the cardinal is reported to have said:

"For sixteen years he persevered in this way; and then was crowned with
success, and produced the first specimens of coloured and beautiful
pottery, such as are to this day sought by the curious; and _he
received a situation in the king's household, and ended his days in
comfort and respectability_."

In the review of "Morley's Life of Palissy the Potter," _Spectator_, Oct. 9, 1852, it is said:

"The period of the great potter's birth is uncertain. Mr. Morley fixes
it, on probable data, at 1509; but with a latitude of six years on
either side. _Palissy died in 1589 in the Bastile, where he had been
confined four years as a Hugenot; the king and his other friends could
defer his trial, but dared not grant him liberty._"

All the accounts which I have read agree with Mr. Morley and the _Spectator_. Are they or the cardinal right, supposing him to be correctly reported?

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Polidus._--Can you tell me where the scene of the following play is laid, and the names of the _dramatis personæ_?--_Polidus, a Tragedy_, by Moses Browne, 8vo. 1723. The author of this play, who was born in 1703, and died in 1787, was for some time the curate of the Rev. James Harvey, author of _Meditations_, and other works. Mr. Browne was afterwards presented to the vicarage of Olney, in Bucks, where the Rev. John Newton was his curate for several years.

A. Z.

Glasgow.

[Moses Browne was subsequently Chaplain of Morden College. The
piscatory brotherhood are indebted to him for having revived Walton's
_Complete Angler_, after it had lain dormant for upwards of eighty
years; and this task, he tells us, was undertaken at the request of Dr.
Samuel Johnson.--ED.]

{500}

_St. Paul's Epistles to Seneca._--It has frequently been affirmed that Seneca became, in the last year of his life, a convert to Christianity--his canonisation by St. Jerome is undoubted and there was stated to be a MS. of the above epistle in Merton College. May I ask any of your contributors whether this MS. has ever been printed?

J. M. S.

Hull.

_Meaning of "folowed."_--Inside the cover of an old Bible and Prayer-Book, bound in one quarto, Robert Barker, 1611, is the following inscription:

"July eight I was much folowed when I lay in bed alone att Mistris
Whitmore's house, wee haveing agreed too bee married nextt daye.

"God, even our own God, shal bless us. This incouriged mee too hope for
God's favour and blessing through Christ.

"Christopher Curwen and Hannah Whitmore was married att Lambe's Chapel,
near Criplegate, July ninth, 1712."

An entry of his marriage with his first wife, Elizabeth Sutton, 1704, is on the cover at the beginning of the book.

Can any one of your correspondents enlighten me as to the meaning of the word _folowed_? The letters are legibly written, and there can be no mistake about any of them. Is it an expression derived from the Puritans?

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

_Roman Catholic Registers._--Can any of your correspondents inform me where I can find the registers of births, marriages, and burials of Roman Catholic families living in Berks and Oxon in the reigns of Charles I. and II.?

A. PT.

_St. Alban's Day._--At p. 340. of the _Chronicles of London Bridge_, it is stated that Cardinal Fisher was executed on St. Alban's day, June 22, 1535. How is it that in our present calendar St. Alban's day is not June 22, but June 17? On looking back I see SIR W. C. TREVELYAN, in our first volume, inquired the reason of this change, but I do not find any reply to his Query.

E. H. A.

_Meigham, the London Printer._--J. A. S. is desirous of obtaining information regarding a printer in London, of the name of Meigham, about 1745-8, or to be directed where to search for such. Meigham conversed, or corresponded, about Catholicity with Dr. Hay, the then vicar-apostolic of the Eastern District of Scotland.

_Adamsoniana._--Is anything known of the family of Michel Adamson, or Michael Adamson, the eminent naturalist and voyager to Senegal, who, though born in France, is said to have been of Scottish extraction?

Where is the following poem to be met with?

"Ode in Collegium Bengalense, præmio dignata quod alumnis collegiorum
Aberdonensium proposuit vir reverendus C. Buchanan, Coll. Bengalensis
Præfectus Vicarius. Auctore Alexandro Adamson, A.M., Coll. Marisch.
Aberd. alumno."

Allow me to repeat a Query which was inserted in Vol. ii., p. 297., asking for any information respecting J. Adamson, the author of a rare tract on Edward II.'s reign, published in 1732, in defence of the Walpole administration from the attacks of the _Craftsman_.

Who was John Adamson, author of _Fanny of Caernarvon, or the War of the Roses_, an historical romance, of which a French translation was published in 1809 at Paris, in 2 vols. 12mo.?

E. H. A.

_Canker or Brier Rose._--Can any of your correspondents tell me why the brier or dog-rose was anciently called the _canker_? The brier is particularly free from the disease so called, and the name does not appear to have been used in disparagement. In Shakspeare's beautiful Sonnet LIV. are the lines:

"The _canker-blooms_ have full as deep a dye,
As the perfumed tincture of the roses."

In _King Henry IV._, Act I. Sc. 3., Hotspur says:

"Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in times to come,
That men of your nobility and power,
Did 'gage them both in an unjust behalf,
(As both of you, God pardon it! have done)
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose
And plant this thorn, this _canker_ Bolingbroke."

And again, Don John, in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act I. Sc. 3.:

"I had rather be a _canker_ in a hedge, than a rose in the grave."

ANON.

"_Short red, god red._"--In Roger of Wendover's _Chronicle_, Bohn's edition, vol. i. p. 345., is a story how Walchere, Bishop of Durham, was slain in his county court, A.D. 1075, by the suitors on the instigation of one who cried out in his native tongue "Schort red, god red, slea ye the bischop."

Sir Walter Scott, in his _Tales of a Grandfather_ (vol. i. p. 85.), tells the same story of a Bishop of Caithness who was burned for enforcing tithes in the reign of Alexander II. of Scotland (about 1220).

What authority is there for the latter story? Did Sir Walter confound the two bishops, or did he add the circumstance for the amusement of Hugh Littlejohn? Was this the formula usually adopted on such occasions? How came the Caithness people to speak such good Saxon?

G.

_Overseers of Wills._--I have copies of several wills of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in {501} which one set of persons are appointed _executors_ and another _overseers_. What were the rights and duties of these latter?

J. K.

_Lepel's Regiment._--Can your correspondent MR. ARTHUR HAMILTON inform me what is the regiment known in 1707 as _Lepel's Regiment_? It was a cavalry regiment, I believe.

J. K.

_Vincent Family._--Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting the descendants of Francis Vincent, grandson of Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant at Arms. His sister Elizabeth has, or had very lately, a representative in the person of Francis Offley Edmunds of Worsborough, Yorkshire; but nowhere have I been able to obtain any information respecting himself. If you could give any information on this subject, you would much oblige