Chapter L: Evans

_Richard Candishe, M.P._--Pennant (_Tour in Wales_, vol. ii. p. 48.) prints the epitaph of "Richard Candishe, Esq., of a good family in Suffolk," who was M.P. for Denbigh in 1572, as it appears on his monument in Hornsey Church. Who was this Richard Candishe? The epitaph says he was "derived from noble parentage;" but the arms on the monument are not those of the noble House of Cavendish, which sprung from the parish of that name in Suffolk. The arms of Richard Candishe are given as "three piles wavy gules in a field argent; the crest, a fox's head erased azure."

BURIENSIS.

_Alphabetical Arrangement._--Can any one favour me with a reference to any work treating of the date of the collection and arrangement in the present form of the alphabet, either English, Latin, Greek, or Hebrew? or what is the earliest instance of their being used to represent numerals?

A. H. C.

_Saying of Pascal._--In which of his works is Pascal's saying, "I have not time to write more briefly," to be found; and what are the words in the original?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Irish Characters on the Stage._--Would any of the contributors to "N. & Q." oblige me with this information? Who, or how many, of the old English dramatists introduced Irishmen into their _dramatis personae_? Did Ben Jonson? Shadwell did. What others?

PHILOBIBLION.

_Family of Milton's Widow._--Your correspondent CRANMORE, in his article on the "Rev. John Paget" ("N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 327.), writes thus: "Dr. Nathan Paget was an intimate friend of Milton and cousin to the poet's fourth (no doubt meaning his third) wife, Elizabeth Minshall, of whose family descent, which appears to be rather obscure, I may at another time communicate some particulars."

Now, as more than a year has elapsed since the article referred to appeared in your valuable columns, without the subject of Elizabeth Minshall's descent having been farther noticed, I hope your correspondent will pardon my soliciting him to supply the information he possesses relative thereto, which cannot fail proving interesting to every admirer of our great poet.

V. M.

_Table-moving._--Was not Bacon acquainted with this phenomenon? I find in his _Sylva Sylvarum_, art. MOTION:

"Whenever a solid is pressed, there is an inward tumult of the parts
thereof, tending to deliver themselves from the compression: and this
is the _cause_ of all violent motion. It is very strange that this
motion has never been observed and inquired into; as being the most
common and chief origin of all mechanical operations.

"This motion operates first in a round by way of proof and trial, which
way to deliver itself, and then in progression where it finds the
deliverance easiest."

C. K. P.

Newport, Essex.

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Minor Queries with Answers.

_Form of Petition, &c._--May I request the insertion of a Query, requesting some of your readers to supply the _ellipsis_ in the form with which petitions to Parliament are required to be closed, viz.: "And your petitioners will ever pray, &c." To me, I confess, there appears to be something like impiety in its use in its present unmeaning state. Would a petition be rendered informal by any addition which would make it more comprehensible?