Chapter C: Mansfield Ingleby

Birmingham.

_Family Caul--Child's Caul._--The will of Sir John Offley, Knight, of Madeley Manor, Staffordshire (grandson of Sir Thomas Offley, Lord Mayor of London temp. Eliz.), proved at Doctors' Commons 20th May, 1658, contains the following singular bequest:

"Item, I will and devise one Jewell done all in Gold enammelled,
wherein there is a Caul that covered my face and shoulders when I first
came into the world, the use thereof to my loving Daughter the Lady
{547} Elizabeth Jenny, so long as she shall live; and after her decease
the use likewise thereof to her Son, Offley Jenny, during his natural
life; and after his decease to my own right heirs male for ever; and so
from Heir to Heir, to be left so long as it shall please God of his
Goodness to continue any Heir Male of my name, desiring the same Jewell
be not concealed nor sold by any of them."

CESTRIENSIS.

_Numerous Progeny._--The _London Journal_ of Oct. 26, 1734, contains the following paragraph:

"Letters from Holderness, in Yorkshire, mention the following
remarkable inscription on a tombstone newly erected in the churchyard
of Heydon, viz. 'Here lieth the body of William Strutton, of
Padrington, buried the 18th of May, 1734, aged 97, who had by his first
wife 28 children, and by a second wife 17; own father to 45,
grandfather to 86, great-grandfather to 97, and great-great-grandfather
to 23; in all 251.'"

T. B. H.

* * * * *

Queries.

SMITH, YOUNG, AND SCRYMGEOUR MSS.

Thomas Smith, in his _Vitae Illustrium_, gives extracts from a so-called Ephemeris of Sir Peter Young, but which Sir Peter compiled during the latter years of his life. Thomas Hearne says, in a note to the Appendix to Leland's _Collectanea_, that he had had the use of some of Smith's MSS. This Ephemeris of Sir Peter Young may be worth the publishing if it can be found: can any of your readers say whether it is among Smith's or Hearne's MSS., or if it be preserved elsewhere? Peter Young, and his brother Alexander, were pupils of Theodore Beza, having been educated chiefly at the expense of their maternal uncle Henry Scrymgeour, to whose valuable library Peter succeeded. It was brought to Scotland by Alexander about the year 1573 or 1574, and was landed at Dundee. It was especially rich in Greek MSS.; and Dr. Irvine, in his "Dissertation on the Literary History of Scotland," prefixed to his _Lives of the Scottish Poets_, says of these MSS. and library, "and the man who is so fortunate as to redeem them from obscurity, shall assuredly be thought to have merited well from the republic of letters." It is much to be feared, however, that as to the MSS. this good fortune awaits no man; for Sir Peter Young seems to have given them to his fifth son, Patrick Young, the eminent Greek scholar, who was librarian to Prince Henry, and, after his death, to the king, and to Charles I. Patrick Young's house was unfortunately burned, and in it perished many MSS. belonging to himself and to others. If Scrymgeour's MSS. escaped the fire, they are to be sought for in the remnant of Patrick Young's collection, wherever that went, or in the King's Library, of which a considerable part was preserved. Young's house was burned in 1636, and he is supposed to have carried off a large number of MSS. from the royal library, after the king's death in 1649. If therefore Scrymgeour's MSS. were among these, it is possible that they may yet be traced, for they would be sold with Young's own, after his death in 1652. This occurred on the 7th of September, rather suddenly, and he left no will, and probably gave no directions about his MSS. and library, which were sold _sub hasta_, probably within a few months after his death, and with them any of the MSS. which he may have taken from the King's Library, or may have had in his possession belonging to others. Smith says that he had seen a large catalogue of MSS. written in Young's own hand. Is this catalogue extant? Patrick Young left two daughters, co-heiresses: the elder married to John Atwood, Esq.; the younger, to Sir Samuel Bowes, Kt. A daughter of the former gave to a church in Essex a Bible which had belonged to Charles I.; but she knew so little of her grandfather's history that she described him as Patrick Young, Esq., library keeper to the king, quite unconscious that he had been rector of two livings, and a canon and treasurer of St. Paul's. Perhaps, after all, the designation was not so incorrect, for though he held so many preferments, he never was in priest's orders, and sometimes was not altogether free from suspicion of not being a member of the Church of England at all, except as a recipient of its dues, and of course, a deacon in its orders.

But it may be worthy of note, as affording another clue by which, perchance, to trace some of Scrymgeour's MSS., that Sir Thomas Bowes, Kt., who was Sir Symonds D'Ewes's literary executor, employed Patrick Young to value a collection of coins, &c., among which he recognised a number that had belonged to the king's cabinet, and which Sir Symonds had purchased from Hugh Peters, by whom they had been purloined. Young taxed Peters with having taken books, and MSS. also, which the other denied, with the exception of two or three, but was not believed. I do not know what relation Sir Thomas Bowes was to Sir Samuel, who married Young's second daughter, nor to Paul Bowes, who edited D'Ewes's _Journals_ in 1682. It is quite possible that some of Scrymgeour's MSS. may have fallen into D'Ewes's hands, may have come down, and be recognisable by some mark.

As to Scrymgeour's books, it is probable that they were deposited in Peter Young's house of Easter Seatoun, near to Arbroath, of which he obtained possession about 1580, and which remained with his descendants for about ninety years, when his great-grandson sold it, and purchased the castle and part of the lands of Aldbar. That any very fine library was removed thither is not probable, especially any bearing Henry {548} Scrymgeour's name; and for this reason, that Thomas Ruddiman was tutor to David Young, and was resident at Aldbar, and would hardly have failed to notice, or to record, the existence of any so remarkable a library as Scrymgeour's, or even of Sir Peter Young's, who was himself an ardent collector of books, as appears from some of his letters to Sir Patrick Vans (_recte_ Vaux) which I have seen, and as might be inferred from his literary tastes and pursuits. There is perhaps reason to believe that Sir Peter's library did not descend in his family beyond his eldest son, Sir James Young, who made an attempt to deprive the sons of his first marriage (the elder of whom died in infancy) of their right of succession to their grandfather's estates, secured to them under their father's marriage contract, and which attempt was defeated by their uncle, Dr. John Young, Dean of Winchester (sixth son of Sir Peter), who acquired from Lord Ramsay, eldest son of the Earl of Dalhousie, part of the barony of Baledmouth in Fife. Dean Young founded a school at St. Andrew's, on the site of which is now built Dr. Bell's Madras College.

Sir Peter Young the elder, knighted in 1605, has been sometimes confounded with his third son, Peter, who received his knighthood at the hands of Gustavus Adolphus, on the occasion of that king being invested with the Order of the Garter.

Another fine library (Andrew Melville's) was brought into Scotland about the same time as Scrymgeour's; and it is creditable to the statesmen of James's reign that there was an order in the Scotch exchequer, that books imported into Scotland should be free from custom. A note of this order is preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum; but my reference to the number is not at hand.

DE CAMERA.

* * * * *

MORMON PUBLICATIONS.

Can any of your correspondents oblige me by supplying particulars of other editions of the following Mormon works? The particulars required are the size, place, date, and number of pages. The editions enumerated below are the only ones to which I have had access.

1. _The Book of Mormon_:

First American edition, 12mo.: Palmyra, 1830, pp. 588., printed by
E. B. Grandin for the author.

First European edition, small 8vo.: Liverpool, 1841, title, one leaf,
pp. 643., including index at the end.

Second European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1849. Query number of pages?

Third European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1852, pp. xii. 563.

2. _Book of Doctrine and Covenants_:

First (?) American edition, 18mo.: Kirkland, 1835, pp. 250.

Third European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1852, pp. xxiii, 336.

3. _Hymn Book for the "Saints" in Europe_:

Ninth edition, 16mo.: Liverpool, 1851, pp. vii. 379., containing 296
hymns.

As I am passing through the press two Lectures on the subject of Mormonism, and am anxious that the literary history and bibliography of this curious sect should be as complete as possible, I will venture to ask the favour of an immediate reply to this Query: and since the subject is hardly of general interest, as well as because the necessary delay of printing any communication may hereby be avoided, may I request that any reply be sent to me at the address given below. I shall also be glad to learn where, and at what price, a copy of the first _American_ edition of the _Book of Mormon_ can be procured.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

14. Grove Road,
North Brixton, Surrey.

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_Dimidiation._--Is the practice of _dimidiation_ approved of by modern heralds, and are examples of it common?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Early Christian Mothers._--Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the Christian mothers of the first four or five centuries were much in the habit of using the rod in correcting their children; and whether the influence acquired by the mother of St. Chrysostom, and others of the same stamp, was not greatly owing to their having seldom or never inflicted corporal punishment on them?

PATER.

_The Lion at Northumberland House._--One often hears the anecdote of a wag who, as alleged, stared at the lion on Northumberland House until he had collected a crowd of imitators around him, when he cried out, "By Heaven! it wags, it wags," and the rest agreed with him that the lion did wag its tail. If this farce really took place, I should be glad to know the date and details.

J. P.

Birmingham.

_The Cross in Mexico and Alexandria._--In _The Unseen World; Communications with it, real and imaginary, &c._, 1850, a work which is attributed to an eminent divine and ecclesiastical historian of the English Church, it is stated that--

"It was a tradition in Mexico, before the arrival of the Spaniards,
that when that form (the sign of the cross) should be victorious, the
old religion should disappear. The same sign is also said to have been
{549} discovered on the destruction of the temple of Serapis at
Alexandria, and the same tradition to have been attached to it."--P.
23.

The subject is very curious, and one in which I am much interested. I am anxious to refer to the original authorities for the tradition in both cases. It is known that the Mexicans worshipped the cross as the god of rain. We have the following curious account thereof in _The Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of West India, now called Newe Spayne_, translated out of the Spanish tongue by T. N., anno 1578:

"At the foote of this temple was a plotte like a churchyard, well
walled and garnished with proper pinnacles; in the midst whereof stoode
a crosse of ten foote long, the which they adored for god of the rayne;
for at all times whe they wanted rayne, they would go thither on
procession deuoutely, and offered to the crosse quayles sacrificed, for
to appease the wrath that the god seemed to have agaynste them: and
none was so acceptable a sacrifice, as the bloud of that little birde.
They used to burne certaine sweete gume, to perfume that god withall,
and to besprinkle it with water; and this done, they belieued assuredly
to haue rayne."--P. 41.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.

_Passage in St. James._--I hope you will not consider the following Query unsuited to your publication, and in that case I may confidently anticipate the removal of my difficulty.

In reading yesterday Jeremy Taylor's _Holy Living and Dying_, I came to this passage (p. 308. Bohn's edition):

"St. James, in his epistle, notes the folly of some men, his
contemporaries, who were so impatient of the event of to-morrow, or the
accidents of next year, or the good or evils of old age, that they
would consult astrologers and witches, oracles and devils, what should
befall them the next calends--what should be the event of such a
voyage--what God had written in his book concerning the success of
battles, the election of emperors, &c.... Against this he opposes his
counsel, that we should not search after forbidden records, much less
by uncertain significations," &c.

Now my Query is, To what epistle of St. James does the eloquent bishop refer? If to the canonical epistle, to what part? To the words (above quoted) "forbidden records" there is a foot-note, which contains only the well-known passage in Horace, lib. i. od. xi., and two others from Propertius and Catullus.

S. S. S.

_"The Temple of Truth."_--Who was the author of an admirable work entitled _The Temple of Truth_, published in 1806 by Mawman?

T. B. H.

_Santa Claus._--Reading _The Wide Wide World_ recalled to my mind this curious custom, which I had remarked when in America. I was then not a little surprised to find so strange a superstition lingering in puritanical New England, and which, it is needless to remark, was quite novel to me. _Santa Claus_ I believe to be a corruption of _Saint Nicholas_, the tutelary saint of sailors, and consequently a great favourite with the Dutch. Probably, therefore, the custom was introduced into the western world by the compatriots of the renowned Knickerbocker.

It is unnecessary to describe the nature of the festivity, as it is so graphically pourtrayed in Miss Wetherell's, or rather Warner's work, to which I would refer those desirous of further acquaintance with the subject; the object of this Query being to learn, through some of the American or other correspondents of "N. & Q.," the original legend, as well as the period and events connected with the immigration into "The States" of that beneficent friend of Young America, _Santa Claus_.

ROBERT WRIGHT.

_Donnybrook Fair._--This old-established fair, so well known in every quarter of the globe, and so very injurious to the morality of those who frequent it, is said to be held by patent: but is there any patent for it in existence? If there be, why is it not produced? I am anxious to obtain information upon the subject.

ABHBA.

_Saffron, when brought into England._--In a footnote to Beckmann's _History of Inventions, &c._, vol. i. p. 179. (Bohn's), is the following, purporting to be from Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164.:

"It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, proposing to do good
to his country, stole a head of saffron, and hid the same in his
palmer's staff, which he had made hollow before on purpose, and so he
brought this root into this realm, with venture of his life; for if he
had been taken, by the law of the country from whence it came, he had
died for the fact."

Can any of your readers throw any light upon this tradition?

W. T.

Saffron Walden.

_Isping Geil._--In a charter of Joanna Fossart, making a grant of lands and other possessions to the priory of Grosmont in Yorkshire, is the following passage as given in Dugdale's _Monasticon_ (I quote from Bohn's edition, 1846, vol. vi. p. 1025.):

"Dedi eis insuper domos meas in Eboraco; illas scilicet quae sunt inter
domos Laurentii clerici quae fuerunt Benedicti Judaei et _Isping Geil_,
cum tota curia et omnibus pertinentiis."

Can any of your readers, and in particular any of our York antiquaries, inform me whether the "Isping Geil" mentioned in this passage is the name of a person, or of some locality in that city now obsolete? In either case I should be glad of any information as to the etymology of so singular {550} a designation, which may possibly have undergone some change in copying.

[Greek: Th.]

_Humbug._--When was this word introduced into the English language? The earliest instance in which I have met with it is in one of Churchill's Poems, published about the year 1750.

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

_Franklyn Household Book._--Can any reader inform me in whose keeping, the Household Book of Sir John Franklyn _now_ is?[2] Extracts were published from it in the _Archaeologia_, vol. xv.

J. K.

[Footnote 2: [Sir John Franklyn's _Household Book_ was in the possession of Sir John Chardin Musgrave, of Eden Hall, co. Cumberland, who died in 1806. Some farther extracts, consisting of about thirty items, relating to archery (not given in the _Archaeologia_) will be found in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 6316. f. 30. Among other items is the following: "Oct. 20, 1642. Item, for a pound of tobacco for the Lady Glover, 12s." Sir John Franklyn, of Wilsden, co. Middlesex, was M.P. for that county in the beginning of the reign of Charles I., and during the Civil Wars.--ED.]]

_James Thomson's Will._--Did the author of the _Seasons_ make a will? If so, where is the original to be seen?

D.

Leamington.

_"Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners."_--Could you inquire through your columns who the author of a book entitled _The Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners_ is? It was printed for Benjamin Tooke, at the Ship, in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1680.

I have a singular copy of this book, and know at present of no other copy. The booksellers all seem at a loss as to who the author was; some say Jeremy Taylor, others George Herbert; but my date does not allow the latter,--at least it makes it very improbable, unless it was published after his death. The book itself is like George Herbert's style, very solid and homely; it is evidently by some masterly hand. Should you be able to give me information, or get it for me, I should be obliged. I think of reprinting the book.

GEO. NUGEE.

Senior Curate of St. Paul's, Wilton Place.

_Shakspeare--Blackstone._--In Moore's _Diary_, vol. iv. p. 130., he says,--

"Mr. Duncan mentioned, that Blackstone has preserved the name of the
judge to whom Shakspeare alludes in the grave-digger's argument?--

'If the water comes to the man,' &c."

Will one of your Shakspearian or legal correspondents have the kindness to name the judge so alluded to, and give a reference to the passage in Blackstone in which he conveys this information?

IGNORAMUS.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Turkey Cocks._--Why are Turkey cocks so called, seeing they were not imported from Turkey?

CAPE.

[This Query did not escape the notice of Dr. Samuel Pegge. He says;
"The cocks which Pancirollus (ii. tit. 1.) mentions as brought from
America, were Turkey cocks, as Salmuth there (p. 28.) rightly observes.
The French accordingly call this bird _Coq d'Inde_, and from _d'Inde_
comes the diminutive _Dindon_, the young Turkey; as if one should say,
'the young Indian fowl.' Fetching the Turkey from America accords well
with the common notion:

'Turkeys, carps, hops, pikarel, and beer,
Came into England all in a year;'

that is, in the reign of Henry VIII., after many voyages had been made
to North America, where this bird abounds in an extraordinary manner.
But Query how this bird came to be called Turkey? Johnson latinizes it
_Gallina Turcica_, and defines it, 'a large domestic fowl brought from
Turkey;' which does not agree with the above account from Pancirollus.
Brookes says (p. 144.), 'It was brought into Europe either from India
or Africa.' And if from the latter, it might be called _Turkey_, though
but improperly."--_Anonymiana_, cent. x. 79.]

_Bishop St. John._--The following passage occurs at vol. iv. p. 84. of the Second Series of Ellis's _Original Letters, Illustrative of English History_. It is taken from the letter numbered 326, dated London, Jan. 5, 1685-6, and addressed "for John Ellis, Esq., Secretary of his Majesty's Revenue in Ireland, Dublin:"

"The Bishop of London's fame runs high in the vogue of the people. The
London pulpits ring strong peals against Popery; and I have lately
heard there never were such eminently able men to serve in those cures.
The Lord Almoner Ely is thought to stand upon too narrow a base now in
his Majesty's favour, from a late violent sermon on the 5th of
November. I saw him yesterday at the King's Levy; and very little
notice taken of him, which the more confirms what I heard. Our old
friend the new Bishop St. John, gave a smart answer to a (very well
put) question of his M---- with respect to him, that shows he is not
altogether formed of court-clay; but neither you nor I shall withdraw
either of our friendship for him on such an account."

All who know this period of our history, know Compton and Turner; but who was Bishop St. John?

J. J. J.

[An error in the transcription. In the manuscript it reads thus:
"Bish^p S^r Jon^n," and clearly refers to Sir Jonathan Trelawney,
Bart., consecrated bishop of {551} Bristol, Nov. 8, 1685, translated to
Exeter in 1689, and to Winchester in 1707.]

_Ferdinand Mendez Pinto._--

"Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first
magnitude!"

Where is the original of the above to be found? Was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a real or imaginary character?

INQUIRENS.

[A famous Portuguese traveller, in no good odour for veracity. His
_Travels_ have been translated into most European languages, and twice
published in English. A notice of Pinto will be found in Rose's _Biog.
Dict._, s. v.]

_Satin._--What is the origin of the word _satin_?

CAPE.

[See Ogilvie and Webster. "Fr. _satin_; W. _sidan_, satin or silk; Gr.
and Lat. _sindon_; Ch. and Heb. _sedin_; Ar. _sidanah_."]

_Carrier Pigeons._--When were carrier pigeons first used in Europe?

CAPE.

[Our correspondent will find some interesting notices of the early use
of the carrier pigeon in Europe in the _Penny Cyclopaedia_, vol. vii. p.
372., art. "COLUMBIDAE;" and in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. vi.
p. 176., art. "CARRIER PIGEON."]

* * * * *

Replies.

"PYLADES AND CORRINA."--PSALMANAZAR AND DEFOE.

(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 305. 435. 479.)

I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to the Query as to _Pylades and Corinna_ before DR. MAITLAND'S communication was printed; but as it now appears more distinctly what was the object of the Query, I can address myself more directly to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, I cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do with _Pylades and Corinna_, or the _History of Formosa_. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least some trace of the master workman, but in neither of these works is there any putting forth of his power, or any similitude to his manner or style. When the _History of Formosa_ appeared (1704), he was ingrossed in politics, and was not, as far as any evidence has yet informed us, in the habit of translating or doing journeyman work for booksellers. Then the book itself is, in point of composition, far beneath Defoe, even in his most careless moods. As to _Pylades and Corinna_, Defoe died so soon after Mrs. Thomas--she died on the 3rd February, 1731, and he on the 24th April following, most probably worn out by illness--that time seems scarcely afforded for getting together and working up the materials of the two volumes published. The editor, who signs himself "Philalethes," dates his Dedication to the first volume, in which are contained the particulars about Psalmanazar, "St. John Baptist, 1731," which day would be after Defoe's death. Nor is there any ground for supposing that Defoe and Curll had much connexion as author and publisher. Curll only printed two works of Defoe, as far as I have been able to discover, the _Memoirs of Dr. Williams_ (1718, 8vo.), and the _Life of Duncan Campbell_ (1720, 8vo.), and for his doing so, in each case, a good reason may be given. As regards the genuineness of the correspondence in _Pylades and Corinna_, I do not see any reason to question it. Sir Edward Northey's certificate, and various little particulars in the letters themselves, entirely satisfy me that the correspondence is not a fictitious one. The anecdotes of Psalmanazar are quite in accordance with his own statements in his Life--(see particularly p. 183., _Memoirs_, 1765, 8vo.); and if they were pure fiction, is it not likely that, living in London at the time when they appeared, he would have contradicted them? In referring (Vol. vii., p. 436., "N. & Q.") to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for these anecdotes, I had not overlooked their having appeared in _Pylades and Corinna_, but had not then the latter book at hand to include it in the reference. DR. MAITLAND considers _Pylades and Corinna_ "a farrago of low rubbish, utterly beneath criticism." Is not this rather too severe and sweeping a character? Unquestionably the poetry is but so-so, and of the poem the greater part might have been dispensed with; but, like all Curll's collections, it contains some matter of interest and value to those who do not despise the minutiae of literary investigation. The Autobiography of the unfortunate authoress (Mrs. Thomas), who was only exalted by Dryden's praise to be ignominiously degraded by Pope, and "whose whole life was but one continued scene of the utmost variety of human misery," has always appeared to me an interesting and rather affecting narrative; and, besides a great many occasional notices in the correspondence, which are not without their use, there are interspersed letters from Lady Chudleigh, Norris of Bemerton, and others, which are not to be elsewhere met with, and which are worth preserving.

For Psalmanazar's character, notwithstanding his early peccadilloes, I can assure DR. MAITLAND that I have quite as high a respect as himself, even without the corroborative evidence of our great moralist, which on such a subject may be considered as perfectly conclusive.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

* * * * * {552}

ROBERT WAUCHOPE, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH.

(Vol. vii., p. 66.)

This prelate seems to have been a cadet of the family of Wauchope, of Niddry, or Niddry Marischall, in the county of Midlothian, to which family once belonged the lands of Wauchopedale in Roxburghshire. The exact date of his birth I have never been able to discover, nor which "laird of Niddrie" he was the son of. Robert was a favourite name in the family long before his time, as is evidenced by an inscription at the entry to a burial chapel belonging to the family to this effect: "This tome was Biggit Be Robert Vauchop of Niddrie Marchal, and interit heir 1387." I am at present out of reach of all books of reference, and have only a few manuscript memoranda to direct further research; and these memoranda, I am sorry to say, are not so precise in their reference to chapter and verse as they ought to be.

According to these notes, mention is made of Robert Wauchope, doctor of Sorbonne, by Leslie, bishop of Ross, in the 10th book of his _History_; by Labens, a Jesuit, in the 14th tome of his _Chronicles_; by Cardinal Pallavicino, in the 6th book of his _Hist. Conc. Trid._; by Fra Paolo Sarpi, in his _Hist. Conc. Trid._ Archbishop Spottiswood says that he died in Paris in the year 1551, "much lamented of all the university," on his return home from one of his missions to Rome.

One of my notes, taken from the _Memoirs of Sir James Melville_, I shall transcribe, as it is suggestive of other Queries more generally interesting. The date is 1545:

"Now the ambassador met in a secret part with Oneel(?) and his
associates, and heard their offers and overtures. And the patriarch of
Ireland did meet him there, who was a Scotsman born, called Wauchope,
and was blind of both his eyes, and yet had been divers times at Rome
by post. He did great honour to the ambassadour, and conveyed him to
see St. Patrick's Purgatory, which is like an old coal pit which had
taken fire, by reason of the smoke that came out of the hole."

Query 1. What was the secret object of the ambassador?

Query 2. Has St. Patrick's Purgatory any existence at the present time?