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Chapter I: Part 1

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{401} NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 55.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16. 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:--
Authorship of "Henry VIII." by Samuel Hickson 401
On Authors and Books, No. IX., by Bolton Corney 403
Notes on the Second Edition of Mr. Cunningham's
Handbook of London, by E.F. Rimbault 404
Folk-lore:--Laying a Ghost--A Test of Witchcraft 404
Minor Notes:--Quin's incoherent Story--Touchstone's
Dial--America and Tartary--A Deck of Cards--Time
when Herodotus wrote--"Dat veniuam corvis."
&c. 405

QUERIES:--
Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel" 406
Minor Queries:--The Widow of the Wood--Edward
the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain--Cardinal
Erskine--Thomas Regiolapidensis--"Her Brow was
fair"--Hoods worn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen--Irish
Brigade--Doctrine of immaculate Conception--Gospel
Oak Tree at Kentish Town--Arminian
Nunnery in Huntingdonshire--Ruding's
annotated Langbaine--Mrs. Tempest--Sitting
cross-legged--Twickenham:
Did Elizabeth visit Bacon
there?--Burial towards the West--Medal struck by
Charles XII.--National Debt--Midwives licensed 406

REPLIES:--
The Black Rood of Scotland 409
Replies to Minor Queries:--Haemony--Byron's Birthplace--Modena
Family--Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks--Gaudentio
di Lucca--Weights for weighing
Coins--Mrs. Partington--The East-Anglican Word
"Mauther"--Cheshire Cat--"Thompson of Esholt"--Minar's
Book of Antiquities--Croziers and Pastoral
Staves--Socinian Boast--MSS. of Locke--Sir Wm.
Grant--Tristan d'Acunha--Arabic Numerals--Luther's
Hymns--Bolton's Ace--Hopkins the
Witchfinder--Sir Richard Steel--Ale-draper--George
Herbert--Notaries Public--Tobacconists--Vineyards 410

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 414
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 415
Notices to Correspondents 415
Advertisements 415

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NOTES.

AUTHORSHIP OF "HENRY VIII."

In returning to the question of the authorship of _Henry VIII._, I am anxious to remove a misconception under which MR. SPEDDING appears to labour relative to the purport of a remark I made in my last communication to you (Vol. ii., p. 198.) on this subject. As we appear to be perfectly agreed as to the reasons for assigning a considerable portion of this play to Fletcher, and as upon this basis we have each worked out a result that so exactly coincides with the other, I conclude that MR. SPEDDING, as well as myself, has rested his theory solely on positive grounds; that is, that he imagines there is strong internal evidence in favour of all that he ascribes to this writer. It follows, therefore that the "third hand" which he thought he detected must be sought rather in what remained to Shakspeare, than in that which had been already taken from him. I never for an instant doubted that this was MR. SPEDDING's view; but the inequality which I supposed he had observed and accounted for in this way, I was disposed to refer to a mode of composition that must needs have been troublesome to Shakspeare. The fact is, that, with one or two exceptions, the scenes contributed by the latter are more _tamely_ written than any but the earliest among his works; and these, different as they are, they recalled to my mind. But I have no doubt whatever that these scenes were all written about the same time; my feeling being, that after the opening Shakspeare ceased to feel any great interest in the work. Fletcher, on the other hand, would appear to have made a very great effort; and though some portions of the work I ascribe to him are tedious and overlaboured, no censure would weigh very strongly against the fact, that for more than two centuries they have been _applauded_ as the work of Shakspeare.

As to the circumstances under which _Henry VIII._ was composed, it is an exceedingly difficult question; and if I venture, on the present occasion, to give the impression upon my mind, I do so, reserving to myself the full right to change my opinion whenever I shall have acquired more knowledge of the subject, or, from any other motive, shall see fit to do it. I consider this case, then, as one of joint authorship; in point of time not much later than the _Two Noble Kinsmen_, and in other respects similar to that play. If the conclusions of the article in the _Westminster Review_, to which MR. SPEDDING alludes, be accepted, the writer of the introductory notice to _Henry VIII._ in the _Illustrated Shakspeare_, published by Tyas, will recognise the "reverent disciple" whom he hints at, but does not name. In short, I think that {402} Fletcher was the pupil of Shakspeare; and this view, it appears to me, demands the serious attention of the biographer who next may study or speculate upon the great poet's life.

I don't know that I can add anything to MR. SPEDDING'S able analysis of _Henry VIII._ There are certain _tricks_ of expression he, no doubt, has observed that characterise Fletcher's style, and which abound in the play. It might be useful to make notes of these; and, at some future time, I may send you a selection. I now beg to send you the following extracts, made some time ago, showing the doubts entertained by previous writers on the subject:--

"Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine
or spurious, yet I cannot restrain myself from expressing my suspicion
that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of
Shakspeare. It appears to me very likely that they were supplied by the
friendship or officiousness of Jonson, whose manner they will be
_perhaps found exactly_ to resemble."--_Johnson._

"Play revived in 1613." "Prologue and epilogue added by Jonson or some
other person."--_Malone._

"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson, that Ben Jonson wrote the prologue
and epilogue to this play. Shakspeare had a little before assisted him
in his _Sejanus_.... I think I now and then perceive his hand in the
dialogue."--_Farmer._

"That Jonson was the author of the prologue and epilogue to this play
has been controverted by Mr. Gifford. That they were not the
composition of Shakspeare himself is, I think, clear from internal
evidence."--_Boswell._

"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson with respect to the time when these
additional lines were inserted.... I suspect they were added in 1613,
after Shakspeare had quitted the stage, by that hand which tampered
with the other parts of the play so much as to have rendered the
versification of it of a different colour from all the other plays of
Shakspeare."--_Malone._

"If the reviver of this play (or tamperer with it, as he is called by
Mr. Malone) had so much influence over its numbers as to have entirely
changed their texture, he must be supposed to have new-woven the
substance of the whole piece; a fact almost incredible."--_Steevens._

The double character of Wolsey drawn by Queen Katherine and her
attendant, is a piece of vigorous writing of which any other author but
Shakspeare might have been proud; and the celebrated farewell of the
Cardinal, with his exhortation to Cromwell, only wants that quickening,
that vital something which the poet could have breathed into it, to be
truly and almost incomparably great.

"Our own conviction is that Shakspeare wrote a portion only of this
play.

"It cannot for a moment be supposed that any alteration of Shakspeare's
text would be necessary, or would be allowed; as little is it to be
supposed that Shakspeare would commence a play in his old-accustomed,
various, and unequalled verse, and finish it in the easy, but somewhat
lax and familiar, though not inharmonious numbers of a reverent
disciple."--_Tyas's Shakspeare_, vol. iii. p. 441.

At the same time I made the following notes from Coleridge:--

"Classification, 1802.
3rd Epoch. Henry VIII. Gelegenheitsgedicht.

Classification, 1819.
3rd Epoch. Henry VIII., a sort of historical masque, or show-play."

"It (the historical drama) must likewise be poetical; that only, I
mean, must be taken which is the permanent in our nature, which is
common, and therefore deeply interesting to all ages."--_Lit. Rem._,
vol. ii. p.160.

What is said in this last extract might be applied (as Coleridge, I feel no doubt, had he gone one step farther into the subject, would have applied it) to the Shakspearian drama generally; and tried by this test _Henry VIII._ must certainly be found wanting.

Before I conclude I am anxious to make an observation with regard to the extract from Mr. Emerson's _Representative Men_ (vol. ii. p. 307.). The essay from which this is taken, I presume to be the same, in a printed form, as a lecture which I heard that gentleman deliver. With abundant powers to form a judgment for himself, I should say that his mind had never been directed to questions of this nature. Accident, perhaps, had drawn his attention to the style of _Henry VIII._; but, with reference to the general subject, he had received implicitly and unquestioned the conclusions of authorities who have represented Shakspeare as the greatest borrower, plagiarist, and imitator that all time has brought forth. This, however, did not shake his faith in the poet's greatness; and to reconcile what to some would appear contradictory positions, he proposes the fact, I might say the truism, that the greatest man is not the most original, but the "most indebted" man. This, in the sense in which it is true, is saying no more than that the educated man is better than the savage; but, in the apologetic sense intended, it is equivalent to affirming that the greatest thief is the most respectable man. Confident in this morality, he assumes a previous play to Shakspeare's; but it appears to me that he relies too much upon the "cadence" of the lines: otherwise I could not account for his _selecting_ as an "autograph" a scene that, to my mind, bears "unmistakeable traits" of Fletcher's hand, and that, by whomsoever written, is about the weakest in the whole play.

It is a branch of the subject which I have not yet fully considered; but MR. SPEDDING will observe that the view I take does not interfere with the supposition that Fletcher revised the play, {403} with additions for its revival in 1613; a task for the performance of which he would probably have the consent of his early master.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

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ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. IX.

_Eustache Deschamps._ Except in the two centuries next after the conquest, contemporaneous French notices of early English writers seem to be of rather infrequent occurrence.

On this account, and on other accounts, the ballad addressed to Geoffrey Chaucer by Eustache Deschamps deserves repetition. Its text requires to be established, in order that we may be aware of its real obscurities--for no future memoir of Chaucer can be considered as complete, without some reference to it.

The best authorities on Eustache Deschamps are MM. Crapelet, Raynouard, and Paulin Paris. To M. Crapelet we are indebted for the publication of _Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps_; to M. Raynouard, for an able review of the volume in the _Journal des Savants_; and to M. Paulin Paris, for an account of the manuscript in which the numerous productions of the author are preserved. Of the author himself, the learned M. Paris thus writes:--

"On pourroit surnommer Eustache Deschamps le Rutebeuf du XIVe
siecle.--Ses oeuvres comprennent des epitres, des discours en prose,
des jeux dramatiques, des ouvrages latins, des apologues, un grand
poeme moral, et un infinite de ballades et rondeaux pieux, bouffons,
satiriques," &c.

Two impressions of the ballad in question are before me; one, in the _Life of Geoffrey Chaucer by sir Harris Nicholas_, dated 1843--and the other in a volume entitled _Geoffrey Chaucer, poete anglais du XIVe siecle. Analyses et Fragments par H. Gomont_, Paris, 1847.--I transcribe the ballad from the latter volume, as less accessible to English students:--

"BALLADE INEDITE ADRESSEE A GEOFFREY
CHAUCER PAR EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS.

O Socrates, plains de philosophie,
Seneque en meurs et _Anglais_ en pratique,
_Oui des grans_ en ta poeterie,
Bries en parler, saiges en rethorique,
_Virgiles_ tres haulz qui, par ta theorique,
Enlumines le regne d'Eneas,
Lisle aux geans, ceuls du Bruth, et qui as
Seme les fleurs et plante le rosier,
Aux ignorants, de la langue pandras
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.

Tu es d'amours mondains Dieux en Albie,
Et de la rose en la terre angelique,
Qui _d'Angela_ Saxonne et (est) puis flourie
Angleterre (d'elle ce nom s'applique).

Le derrenier en l'ethimologique
En bon angles le livre translatas;
Et un Vergier, ou du plant demandas
De ceuls qui _sont_ pour eulx auctorisier,
_A ja_ long teams que tu edifias,
Grant tranlslateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.

A toy, pour ce, de la fontaine Helye
Requier avoir un _buvraige_ autentique
Dont la doys est du tout en ta baillie,
Pour _rafrener_ d'elle ma _soif_ ethique
_Qui men_ gaule seray paralitique
Jusques a ce que tu m'abuveras.
Eustaces sui qui de mon plant aras;
Mais pran en gre les euvres d'escolier
Que par Clifford de moy Bavoir pourras,
Grant translateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.

L'ENVOY.

Poete hauls loenge destynie
_En_ ton jardin ne seroie qu'ortie
Considere ce que j'ai dit premier
Ton noble plant, ta douce melodie
Mais pour savoir de rescripre te prie,
Grant translateur noble Geoffroy Chaucier."

The new readings are in Italics, and I shall now repeat them with the corresponding words as printed by sir Harris Nicolas:--

"Anglais=angles; Oui des grans=Ovides grans; Virgiles=Aigles;
d'Angela=dangels; sont=font; A ja=N'a pas; buvraige=ouvrage;
rafrener=rafrecir; soif=soix; Qui men=Qu'en ma; En=Et."

After such an exhibition of various readings, arising out of only two copies of the same manuscript, it is evident that a re-collation of it is very desirable, and I am sure the result would be thankfully received by the numerous admirers of Chaucer.

BOLTON CORNEY.

_Eustache Deschamps_ (Vol. ii., p. 376.).--J.M.B. is desirous of learning some particulars of this French poet, contemporaneous with Chaucer. He will find a brief notice of him in the _Recueil de Chants Historiques Francais, depuis le XIIeme jusqu'au XVIIIeme Siecle_, by Le Roux de Lincy (2 vols. Paris, 1841, Libraire de Charles Espelin). He is there described as,

"Ecuyer et huissier d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., qui
resta toujours fidele a la maison de France;"

And the editor adds:

"Les oeuvres d'Eustache Deschamps contiennent pour l'histoire du XIVeme
siecle des renseignemens precieux; on peut y recueillir des faits
politiques qui ne sont pas sans importance, mais on y trouve en plus
grand nombre des details precieux sur les moeurs, les usages, et les
coutumes de cette epoque."

His poems were published for the first time in one vol. 8vo., in 1832, by M. Crapelet, with this title: {404}

"Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps, ecuyer, huissier
d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., chatelain de Fismes et
bailli de Senlis."

As regards the "_genuineness_" of the poem cited, I am inclined, with J.M.B., to think that it admits of question, the orthography savouring more of the end of the fifteenth than of the close of the fourteenth century. I am sorry not to be able to explain the meaning of "_la langue Pandras_."

D.C.

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NOTES ON THE SECOND EDITION OF MR. CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON.

21. _New Tunbridge Wells, at Islington._--This fashionable morning lounge of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century, is omitted by Mr. Cunningham. There is a capital view of it in Bickham's _Musical Entertainer_, 1737:

"These once beautiful tea-gardens (we remember them as such) were
formerly in high repute. In 1733 their Royal Highnesses the Princesses
Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time for the purpose
of drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets,
poems, plays, songs, and medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman
the older, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but
the original chalybeate spring, which is still preserved in an obscure
nook, amidst a poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and
vice."--George Daniel's _Merrie England in the Olden Time_, vol. i. p.
31.

22. _London Spa_ (from which Spa Fields derives its name) dates as far back as 1206. In the eighteenth century, it was a celebrated place of amusement. There is a curious view of "London Spaw" in a rare pamphlet entitled _May-Day, or, The Original of Garlands_. Printed for J. Roberts, 1720, 8vo.

23. _Spring Gardens._--Cox's Museum is described in the printed catalogue of 1774, as being in "Spring Gardens." In the same year a small volume was published containing _A Collection of various Extracts in Prose and Verse relative to Cox's Museum_.

24. _The Pantheon in Spa Fields._--This place of amusement was opened in 1770 for the sale of tea, coffee, wine, punch, &c. It had an organ, and a spacious promenade and galleries. In 1780 it was converted into a lay-chapel by the Countess of Huntingdon, and is now known as _Northampton_ or _Spa Fields Chapel_. Mr. Cunningham speaks of the burying-ground (originally the garden), but singularly enough omits to notice the chapel.

25. _Baldwin's Gardens_, running between Leather Lane and Gray's Inn Lane, were, according to a stone which till lately was to have been seen against a corner house, bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, named after _Richard Baldwin_, one of the royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589.

26. _Rathbone Place._--In an old print (now before me) dated 1722, this street is called "_Rawbone Place_." The Percy coffee-house is still in existence.

27. _Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road._--This building was originally erected, and for some years appropriated to the _Leverian Museum_. This magnificent museum of natural history was founded by Sir Ashton Lever, who died in 1788. It was afterwards disposed of by way of lottery, and won by Mr. James Parkinson, who transferred it from Leicester Place to the Surrey side of Blackfriars bridge.

28. _Schomberg House, Pall Mall_, (now, I believe, about to be pulled down), was once the residence of that celebrated "quack" Dr. Graham. Here, in 1783, he erected his _Temple of Health_. He afterwards removed to Panton Street, Haymarket, where he first exhibited his _Earth Bath_. I do not find any mention of Graham in Mr. Cunningham's book.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

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FOLK LORE.

_Laying a Ghost._--Frequent mention is made of the laying of ghosts, and in many localities the tradition of such an event is extant. At Cumnor, Lady Dudley (Amy Robsart's) ghost is said to have been laid by nine Oxford parsons, and the tradition is still preserved by the villagers; but nowhere have I been able to ascertain what was the ceremony on such an occasion.

Is anything known on the subject?

A.D.B.

Abingdon, Nov. 1850.

_A Test of Witchcraft._--Among the many tests applied for the discovery of witchcraft was the following. It is, I believe, a singular instance, and but little known to the public. It was resorted to as recently as 1759, and may be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of that year.

"One _Susannah Hannokes_, an elderly woman of Wingrove, near
Ayleshbury, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her
spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to
make oath of it before a majistrate; on which the husband, to justify
his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the Church Bible, and that
the accuser should be present: accordingly she was conducted to the
parish church, where she was stript of all her cloathes to her shift
and undercoat, and weighed against the Bible; when, to the no small
mortification of her accuser, she outweighed it, and was honorably
acquitted of the charge."

A.D.N.

Abingdon, Nov. 1850.

* * * * * {405}

MINOR NOTES.

_Quin's incoherent Story._--The comic story of Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii., p. 280.) reminds me of an anecdote related of Quin, who is said to have betted Foote a wager that he would speak some nonsense which Foote could not repeat off-hand after him. Quin then produced the following string of incoherences:--

"So she went into the garden to pick a cabbage leaf, to make an
apple-pie of; and a she-bear, coming up the street, put her head into
the shop, and said 'Do you sell any soap?' So she died, and he very
imprudently married the barber; and the powder fell out of the
counsellor's wig, and poor Mrs. Mackay's puddings were quite entirely
spoilt; and there were present the Garnelies, and the Goblilies, and
the Picninnies, and the Great Pangendrum himself, with the little round
button at top, and they played at the ancient game of 'Catch who catch
can,' till the gunpowder ran out of the heels of their boots."

L.

_Touchstone's Dial._--Mr. Knight, in a note on _As You Like It_, gives us the description of a dial presented to him by a friend who had picked it "out of a deal of old iron," and which he supposes to be such a one as the "fool i' the forest" drew from his poke, and looked on with lacklustre eye. It is very probable that this species of chronometer is still in common use in the sister kingdom; for my brother mentions to me that, when at school in Ireland some fifteen or sixteen years since, he had seen one of those "_ring-dials_" in the possession of one of his schoolfellows: and Mr. Carleton, in his amusing _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, thus describes them:--

"The ring-dial was the hedge-schoolmaster's next best substitute for a
watch. As it is possible that a great number of our readers may never
have heard of--much less seen one, we shall in a word or two describe
it--nothing indeed could be more simple. It was a bright brass ring,
about three quarters of an inch broad, and two inches and a half in
diameter. There was a small hole in it, which, when held opposite the
sun, admitted the light against the inside of the ring behind. On this
were marked the hours and the quarters, and the time was known by
observing the hour or the quarter on which the slender ray, that came
in from the hole in front, fell."

J.M.B.

_America and Tartary._--

"Un jesuite rencontra en Tartarie une femme huronne qu'il avoit connue
au Canada: il conclut de cette etrange aventure, que le continent de
l'Amerique se rapproche au nord-ouest du continent de l'Asie, et il
devina ainsi l'existence du detroit qui, longtemps apres, a fait la
gloire de Bering et de Cook."--Chateaubriand, _Genie du Christianisme_,
Partie 4., Livre 4., Chap. 1.

Yet, with all deference to the edifying letters of this missionary jesuit, it is difficult to make such distant ends meet. It almost requires a copula like that of the fool, who, to reconcile his lord's assertion that he had with a single bullet shot a deer in the ear and the hind foot, explained that the deer was scratching his ear at the time with his foot.

Subjoined is one more _proof_ of the communication which once existed between America and the Old World:

Colomb disoit meme avoir vu les restes des fourneaux de Salomon dans
les mines de Cibao."--Chateaubriand, _Genie, Notes, &c_.

MANLEIUS.

_Deck of Cards._--

"The king was slily finger'd from the _deck_."
_Henry VI._, pt. iii. Act v. Sc. 1.

It is well known, and properly noted, that a pack of cards was formerly called a _deck_; but it should be added that the term is still commonly used in Ireland, and from being made use of in the famed song of "De Night before Larry was stretched,"

"De deck being called for dey play'd,
Till Larry found one of dem cheated,"

it seems likely to be preserved. I may add, that many words and many forms of expression which have gone out of vogue in England, or have become provincial, are still in daily use in Ireland.

J.M.B.

_Time when Herodotus wrote._--The following passage appears to me to afford strong evidence, not only that Herodotus did not complete his history till an advanced age, but that he did not _begin_ it. For in lib. i. 5. he writes: "[Greek: ta de ep' emou en megala, proteron en smikra]," "those cities, which in my time _were_ great, were of old small." This is certainly such an expression as none but a man advanced in years could have used. It is perhaps worth observing, that this passage occurring in the Introduction does not diminish its weight, as the events recorded in it, leading naturally into the history, could not well have been written afterwards. As I have never seen this passage noticed with this view. I shall be glad to see whether the argument which I have deduced from it appears a reasonable one to your classical readers.

A.W.H.

"_Dat veniam corvis," &c._--There were two headmasters of the school of Merchant Taylors, of the respective names of Du Guard and Stevens: the former having printed Salmasius' _Defensio Regia_, was ejected by Lord President Bradshaw; and the latter held the vacant post in the interim, from February to September, 1650. He wrote during his tenure of office in the School Probation Book."-- {406}

"Res DEUS nostras celeri citatas
Turbine versat."
"_Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas_,
Pejus merenti melior, et pejor bono."

On his restoration Du Gard pleasantly retorted,--

"Du Gardum sequitur Stephanus, Stephanumque vicissim,
Du Gardus: sortes versat utrinque DEUS."

M.W.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

DRYDEN'S "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL."

In my small library I have neither Malone's _Life of Dryden_, nor that of more recent date by Sir Walter Scott; and, possibly, either of those works would render my present Query needless. It relates to a copy of _Absalom and Achitophel_ now lying before me, which is a mere chap-book, printed on bad paper, in the most economical manner, and obviously intended to be sold at a very reasonable rate: indeed, at the bottom of the title-page, which is dated "1708," we are told that it was "Printed and sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, _for the Benefit of the Poor_." It consists of twenty-four pages, small 8vo., and, in order that the poem should not occupy too much space, one of the pages (p. 22.) is in a smaller type, and in double columns. At the end is the following singular

"ADVERTISEMENT.

"To prevent the publicks being impos'd on, this is to give notice that
the book lately published in 4to. is very imperfect and uncorrect, in
so much that above thirty lines are omitted in several places, and many
gross errors committed, which pervert the sense."

The above is in Italic type, and the body of the tract consists of only the first part of _Absalom and Achitophel_, as ordinarily printed: allowing for misprints (which are tolerably numerous), the poem stands very much the same as in several common editions I have at hand. My Query is, Is the work known to have been so published "for the benefit of the poor," and in order to give it greater circulation, and what is the explanation of the "Advertisement?"

THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.

N.B. A short "Key" follows the usual address "To the Reader."

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_Edward the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain._--In 1688 Ch. Taylour published _A Narrative of the Finding St. Edward the King and Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain in the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster_. Are the circumstances attending this discovery well known? And where now is the crucifix and chain?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_The Widow of the Wood._--Benjamin Victor published in 1755 a "narrative" entitled _The Widow of the Wood_. It is said to be very rare, having been "bought up" by the Wolseleys of Staffordshire. What is the history of the publication?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Cardinal Erskine._--I am anxious to obtain some information respecting Cardinal Erskine, a Scotchman, as his name would impart, but called Cardinal of England? I suppose he was elevated to the sacred college between Cardinal Howard, the last mentioned by Dodd in his _Church History_, and the Cardinal of York, the last scion of the house of Stuart.

And is the following a correct list of English Cardinals since Wolsey, who died in 1530?

Elevated in John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester 1535 Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury 1536 William Peyto, Bishop of Salisbury 1557 William Allen 1587 Philip Howard 1675 ---- Erskine ---- Henry Stuart of York 1747 Thomas Weld 1830 Charles Acton 1839 or 1842 Nicolas Wiseman, who is the 53rd 1850 on the list of English Cardinals

Both the latter were born abroad, the former at Naples, the latter at Seville; but they were born of British subjects, and were brought to England at an early age to be educated. The Cardinal of York was born in Rome; but being of the royal family of England, was always styled the Cardinal of England.

G.W.

October 26. 1850.

_Thomas Regiolapidensis._--Where can I find any information as to the saint who figures in the following curious story? _Regiolapidensis_ may probably mean _of Koenigstein_, in Saxony; but Albon Butler takes no notice of this Thomas.

"Incipit narratiuncula e libro vingto, cui titular _Vita atq. Gesta B.
Thomae Regiolapidensis, ex ordine FF. Praedicatorum_, excerpta.

"Quum vero praedicator indefensus, missionum ecclesiasticarum causa, in
borealibus versaretur partibus, miraculum ibi stupendum sane patravit.
Conspexit enim taurum ingentem, vaccarum (sicut poeta quidam ex
ethnicis ait) 'magna comitante caterva,' in prato quodam graminoso
ferocientem, maceria tantum bassa inter se et belluam istam horrendam
interposita. Constitit Thomas, constitit et bos, horribiliter rugiens,
cauda erecta, cornibus immaniter saeviens, ore spumam, naribus vaporem,
oculis fulgur emittens, maceriam transsilire, in virum sanctum irruere,
corpusque ejus venerabile in aera jactitare, visibiliter nimis paratus.
{407} Thomas autem, eapta occasione, oculos in monstrum obfirmat,
signumque crucis magneticum in modum indesinenter ducere aggreditur, En
portentum inauditum! geminis belluae luminibus illico palpebrae
obducuntur, titubat taurus, cadit, ac, signo magnetico sopitus, primo
raucum stertens, mox infantiliter placidum trahens halitum, humi pronus
recumbit. Nec moratus donec hostis iste cornutus somnum excuteret, viv
sanctus ad hospitium se propinquum laetus inde incolumisque recepit."

RUSTICUS.

"_Her Brow was fair._"--Can any of your many readers inform me of the author of the following lines, which I copy as I found them quoted in Dr. Armstrong's _Lectures_:

"Her brow was fair, but very pale,
And looked like stainless marble; a touch methought would soil
Its whiteness. On her temple, one blue vein
Ran like a tendril; one through her shadowy hand
Branched like the fibre of a leaf away."

J.M.B.

_Hoods warn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen._--Will you allow me to inquire, through the pages of your publication, of what _colour_ and _material_ the _exterior_ and _lining_ of hoods were composed which Doctors in Divinity, who had graduated at Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, prior to the Reformation, were accustomed to wear? I imagine, the same as those worn by Doctors who had graduated at Paris: but what hoods they wore I know not. I trust that some of your correspondents will enlighten me upon this subject.

LL.D.

_Irish Brigade._--Where can I find any account of the institution and history of the Irish brigade, a part of the army of France under the Bourbons?

J.D.

Bath.

_Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception._--In the charge delivered by the Bishop of London to his clergy, on the 2nd instant, the following passage occurs:

"It is not easy to say what the members of that Church [the Church of
Rome] are required to believe now; it is impossible for men to foresee
what they may be called upon to admit as an article of faith next year,
or in any future year: for instance, till of late it was open to a
Roman Catholic to believe or not, as he might see reason, the fanciful
notion of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin; but the
present Bishop of Rome has seen fit to make it an article of their
faith; and no member of his church can henceforth question it without
denying the infallibility of his spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding,
as it is asserted, his own salvation."

Can any of your correspondents inform me where the papal decision on this point is to be found?

L.

_Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town._--Can you inform me why an ancient oak tree, in a field at Kentish Town, is called the "Gospel Oak Tree." It is situated and grows in the field called the "Gospel Oak Field," Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex. Tradition says Saint Augustine, or one of the ancient Fathers of the Church, preached under its branches.

STEPHEN.

_Arminian Nunnery in Huntingdonshire._--Where can I find an account of a religious academy called the _Arminian Nunnery_, founded by the family of the FERRARS, at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire? I have seen some MS. collections of Francis Peck on the subject, but they are formed in a bad spirit. Has not Thomas Hearne left us something about this institution?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Ruding's Annotated Langbaine._--Can any of your readers inform me who possesses the copy of Langbaine's _Account of the English Dramatic Poets_ with MS. additions, and copious continuations, by the REV. ROGERS RUDING? In one of his notes, speaking of the Garrick collection of old plays, that industrious antiquary observes:

"This noble collection has lately (1784) been mutilated by tearing out
such single plays as were duplicates to others in the Sloane Library.
The folio editions of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jonson,
have likewise been taken from it for the same reason."

This is a sad complaint against the Museum authorities of former times.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Mrs. Tempest._--Can any of your correspondents give me any account of Mrs. (or, in our present style, Miss) Tempest, a young lady who died the day of the great storm in Nov., 1703, in honour of whom Pope's early friend Walshe wrote an elegiac pastoral, and invited Pope to give his "winter" pastoral "a turn to her memory." In the note on Pope's pastoral it is said that "she was of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and admired by Walshe." I have elsewhere read of her as "the celebrated Mrs. Tempest;" but I know of no other celebrity than that conferred by Walshe's pastoral; for Pope's has no special allusion to her.

C.

_Sitting cross-legged._--In an alliterative poem on Fortune (_Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. p. 9.), written early in the fifteenth century, are the following lines:--

"Sitte, I say, and sethe on a semeli sete,
Rygth on the rounde, on the rennyng ryng;
_Caste kne over kne, as a kynge kete_,
Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng."

The third line seems to illustrate those early illuminations in which kings and great personages are represented as sitting cross-legged. There are numerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it {408} merely assumption of dignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which might affect the king whilst sitting, in his state? That this was a consideration of weight we learn from the passage in Bede, in which Ethelbert is described as receiving Augustine in the open air:

"Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo jussit
Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem adveire colloquium; caverat enim
ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne
superventu suo, si quid maleficae artis habuissent, eum superando
deciperent."--_Hist. Eccles._, l. i. c. 25.

It was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting before the floor of Alemena when she was deceived by Galanthes. In Devonshire there is still a saying which recommends "sitting cross-legged to help persons on a journey;" and it is employed as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punishment. (Ellis's _Brand_, iii. 258.) Were not the cross-legged effigies, formerly considered to be those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of the mysterious virtue of the position?

RICHARD J. KING.

_Twickenham--Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there?_--I believe all the authors who within the last sixty years have written on the history of Twickenham, Middlesex (and among the most known of these I may mention Lysons, Ironside, and John Norris Brewer), have, when mentioning Twickenham Park, formerly the seat of Lord Bacon, stated that he there entertained Queen Elizabeth. Of this circumstance I find no account in the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His lordship entertained her at Gorhambury in one of her progresses; and I would ask if it be possible that Twickenham may have been mistaken for his other seat of Gorhambury? It is well known Queen Elizabeth passed much of the latter part of her life at Richmond, and ended her days there; and in Mr. Nares' _Memoirs of Lord Burghley_ there is an account of her visit to Barn-Elms; and there is also a curious description of her visit to Kew (in that neighbourhood) in the _Sydney Papers_, published by Arthur Collins, in two vols. folio, vol. i. p. 376., in a letter from Rowland Whyte, Esq. Had Lord Bacon received her majesty, it must most probably have been in 1595. But perhaps some of your readers may be able to supply me with information on this subject.

D.N.

_Burial towards the West._--The usual posture of the dead is with the feet eastward, and the head towards the west: the fitting attitude of men who look for their Lord, "whose name is The East," and who will come to judgement in the regions of the dawn suddenly. But it was the ancient usage of the Church that the martyr, the bishop, the saint, and even the priest, should occupy in their sepulture a position the reverse of the secular dead, and lie down with their feet westward, and their heads to the rising sun. The position of the crozier and the cross on ancient sepulchres of the clergy record and reveal this fact. The doctrine suggested by such a burial was, that these mighty men which were of old would be honoured with a first resurrection, and as their Master came on from the east, they were to arise and to follow the Lamb as He went; insomuch that they, with Him, would advance to the Judgement of the general multitudes,--the ancients and the saints which were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my purpose in this statement is to elicit, if I may, from your learned readers illustrations of this distinctive interment.

R.S. HAWKER.

Morwenstow.

_Medal struck by Charles II._--Voltaire, in his _Histoire de Charles XII._, liv. 4., states that a medal was struck in commemoration of a victory which Charles XII. gained over the Russians, at a place named Hollosin, near the Boresthenes, in the year 1708. He adds that on one side of this medal was the epigraph, "Sylvae, paludes, aggeres, hostes victi;" on the other the verse of Lucan:--

"Victrices _copias_ alium laturus in orbem."

The verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. l.238.:

"Victrices _aquilas_ alium laturus in orbem."

Query, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire known to exist? and if so, is the substitution of the unmetrical and prosaic word _copias_ due to the author of the medal, or to Voltaire himself?

L.

_National Debt._--What volumes, pamphlets, or paragraphs can be pointed out to the writer, in poetry or prose, alluding to the bribery, corruption, and abuses connected with the formation of the National Debt from 1698 to 1815?

F.H.B.

_Midwives licensed._--In the articles to be inquired into in the province of Canterbury, anno 1571 (_Grindal Rem._, Park. Soc. 174-58), inquiry to be made

"Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or invocations, in Latin
or otherwise, and _namely, midwives in the time of women's travail of
child_."

In the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being licensed by the Archbishop to be a midwife a similar clause occurs; the words, "Also, I will not use any kind of sorcery or incantations in the time of the travail of any woman." Can any of your readers inform me what charms or prayers are here referred to, and at what period midwives ceased to be licensed by the Archbishop, or if any traces of such license are still found in Roman Catholic countries?

S.P.H.T.

* * * * * {409}

REPLIES.

THE BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND.

(Vol. ii., p. 308.)

I am not aware of any record in which mention of this relique occurs before the time of St. Margaret. It seems very probable that the venerated crucifix which was so termed was one of the treasures which descended with the crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings. When the princess Margaret, with her brother Edgar, the lawful heir to the throne of St. Edward the Confessor, fled into Scotland, after the victory of William, she carried this cross with her amongst her other treasures. Aelred of Rievaulx (ap. Twysd. 350.) gives a reason why it was so highly valued, and some description of the rood itself:

"Est autem crux illa longitudinem habens palmae de auro purissimo
mirabili opere fabricats, quae in modum techae clauditur et aperitur.
Cernitur in ea quaedarn Dominicae crucis portio, (sicut saepe multorum
miraculorum argumento probatum est). Salvatoris nostri ymaginem habens
de ebore densissime sculptam et aureis distinctionibus mirabiliter
decoratam."

St. Margaret appears to have destined it for the abbey which she and her royal husband, Malcolm III., founded at Dunfermline in honour of the Holy Trinity: and this cross seems to have engaged her last thoughts for her confessor relates that, when dying, she caused it to be brought to her, and that she embraced, and gazed steadfastly upon it, until her soul passed from time to eternity. Upon her death (16th Nov., 1093), the Black Rood was deposited upon the altar of Dunfermline Abbey, where St. Margaret was interred.

The next mention of it that I have been enabled to make note of, occurs in 1292, in the Catalogue of Scottish Muniments which were received within the Castle of Edinburgh, in the presence of the Abbots of Dunfermline and Holy Rood, and the Commissioners of Edward I., on the 23rd August in that year, and were conveyed to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Under the head

"Omnia ista inventa fuerunt in quadam cista in Dormitorio S. Crucis, et
ibidem reposita praedictos Abbates et altos, sub ecrum sigillis."

we find

"Unum scrinium argenteum deauratum, in quo reponitur crux quo vocatur
_la blake rode_."--Robertson's _Index_, Introd. xiii.

It does not appear that any such fatality was ascribed to this relique as that which the Scots attributed to the possession of the famous stone on which their kings were crowned, or it might be conjectured that when Edward I. brought "the fatal seat" from Scone to Westminster, he brought the Black Rood of Scotland too. That amiable and pleasing historian, Miss Strickland, has stated that the English viewed the possession of this relique by the Scottish kings with jealousy; that it was seized upon by Edward I., but restored on the treaty of peace in 1327. This statement is erroneous; the rood having been mistaken for the stone, which, by the way, as your readers know, was never restored.

We next find it in the possession of King David Bruce, who lost this treasured relique, with his own liberty, at the battle of Durham (18th Oct., 1346), and from that time the monks of Durham became its possessors. In the _Description of the Ancient Monuments, Rites, and Customs of the Abbey Church of Durham_, as they existed at the dissolution, which was written in 1593, and was published by Davies in 1672, and subsequently by the Surtees Society, we find it described as

"A most faire roode or picture of our Saviour, in silver, called the
Black Roode of Scotland, brought out of Holy Rood House, by King David
Bruce ... with the picture of Our Lady on the one side of our Saviour,
and St. John's on the other side, very richly wrought in silver, all
three having crownes of pure beaten gold of goldsmith's work, with a
device or rest to take them off or on."

The writer then describes the "fine wainscote work" to which this costly "rood and pictures" were fastened on a pillar at the east end of the southern aisle of the quire. And in a subsequent chapter (p. 21. of Surtees Soc. volume) we have an account of the cross miraculously received by David I. (whom the writer confounds with the King David Bruce captured at the battle of Durham, notwithstanding that his _Auntient Memorial_ professes to be "collected forthe of the best antiquaries"), and in honour of which he founded Holy Rood Abbey in 1128 from which account it clearly appears that this cross was distinct from the Black Rood of Scotland. For the writer, after stating that this miraculous cross had been brought from Holy Rood House by the king, as a "most fortunate relique," says:

"He lost _the said crosse_, which was taiken upon him, and many other
most wourthie and excellent jewells ... which all weare offred up at
the shryne of Saint Cuthbert, _together with the Blacke Rude of
Scotland_ (so termed), with Mary and John, maid of silver, being, as yt
were, smoked all over, which was placed and sett up most exactlie in
the pillar next St. Cuthbert's shrine," &c.

In the description written in 1593, as printed, the size of the Black Rood is not mentioned; but in Sanderson's _Antiquities of Durham_, in which he follows that description, but with many variations and omissions, he says (p. 22.), in mentioning the Black Rood of Scotland, with the images, as above described,--

"Which rood and pictures were all three very richly wrought in silver,
and were all smoked blacke over, {410} being large pictures of a yard
or five quarters long, and on every one of their leads a crown of pure
beaten gold," &c.

I have one more (too brief) notice of this famous rood. It occurs in the list of reliques preserved in the Feretory of St. Cuthhert, under the care of the shrine-keeper, which was drawn up in 1383 by Richard de Sedbrok, and is as follows:

"A black crosse, called the _Black Rode of Scotland_."--MS. Dunelm., B.
ii. 35.

Strange to say, Mr. Raine, in his _St. Cuthbert_, p. 108., appears to confound the cross brought from Holy Rood House, and in honour of which it was founded, with the Black Rood of Scotland. He was misled, no doubt, by the statement in the passage above extracted from the _Ancient Monuments_, that this cross was brought out of Holy Rood House.

I fear that the fact that it was formed of silver and gold, gives little reason to hope that this historical relique escaped destruction when it came into the hands of King Henry's church robbers. Its sanctity may, indeed, have induced the monks to send it with some other reliques to a place of refuge on the Continent, until the tyranny should be overpast; but there is not any tradition at Durham, that I am aware of, to throw light on the concluding Query of your correspondent P.A.F., as to "what became of the 'Holy Cross,' or 'Black Rood,' at the dissolution of Durham Priory?"

That the Black Rood of Scotland, and the Cross of Holy Rood House were distinct, there can, I think, be no doubt. The cross mentioned by Aelred is not mentioned as the "Black Rood:" probably it acquired this designation after his time. But Fordoun, in the _Scoti-Chronicon_, Lord Hailes in his _Annals_, and other historians, have taken Aelred's account as referring to the Black Rood of Scotland. Whether it had been brought from Dunfermline to Edinburgh before Edward's campaign, and remained thenceforth deposited in Holy Rood Abbey, does not appear: but it is probable that a relique to which the sovereigns of Scotland attached so much veneration was kept at the latter place.

W.S.G.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nov. 2. 1850.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Haemony_ (Vol. ii., p. 88.).--MR. BASHAM will find some account of this plant under the slightly different type of "Hemionion" in Pliny, xxv. 20., xvi. 25., xxvii. 17.:

"Invenit et Teucer eadem aetate Teucrion, quam quidam 'Hemionion'
vocant, spargentem juncos tenues, folia parva, asperis locis nascentem,
austero sapore, nunquam florentem: neque semen gignit. Medetur lienibus
... Narrantque sues qui radicem ejus ederint sine splene inveniri.

"Singultus hemionium sedat.

"'Asplenon' sunt qui _hemionion_ vocant foliis trientalibus multis,
radice limosa, cavernosa, sicut filicis, candida, hirsuta: nec caulem,
nec florem, nec semen habet. Nascitur in petris parietibusque opacis,
humidis."

According to Hardouin's note, p. 3777., it is the _Ceterach_ of the shops, or rather _Citrach_; a great favourite of the mules, [Greek: hemionoi], witness Theophrastus, _Hist._, ix. 19.

Ray found it "on the walls about Bristol, and the stones at St. Vincent's rock." He calls it "Spleenwort" and "Miltwaste." _Catalog. Plant._ p. 31. Lond. 1677.

I have a copy of Henri du Puy's "original" _Comus_, but do not recollect his noticing the plant.

G.M.

Guernsey.

_Byron's Birthplace._--Can any of your correspondents give any information relative to the house in which Lord Byron was born? His biographers state that it was in Holles Street, but do not mention the number.

C.B.W.

Edgbaston.

[Our correspondent will find, on referring to Mr. Cunningham's
_Handbook of London_, that "Byron was born at No. 24. Holles Street,
and christened in the small parish church of St. Marylebone."]

_Ancient Tiles_ (Vol. i., p. 173.).--The device of two birds perched back to back on the twigs of a branch that rises between them, is found, not on tiles only, but in wood carving; as at Exeter Cathedral, on two of the Misereres in the choir, and on the gates which separate the choir from the aisles, and these again from the nave.

J.W.H.

_Modena Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 266.).--Victor Amadeus III., King of Sardinia, died in October, 1796. Mary Beatrice, Duchess of Modena, mother of the present Duke of Modena, was the daughter of Victor Emmanuel V., King of Sardinia, who abdicated his throne in 1821, and died 10th January, 1824. The present Duke of Modena is the direct heir of the house of Stuart in the following line:--

All the legitimate issue of Charles II. and James II. being extinct, we fall back upon Henrietta Maria, youngest child of Charles I. She married her cousin Philip, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., and by him had three children. Two died without issue: the youngest, Anna Maria, b. Aug. 1669, mar. Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy, and had by him three children, one son and two daughters.

The son, Charles Emmanuel III., Duke of {411} Savoy, married and had Victor Amadeus III., who married Maria Antoinette of Spain, and had:--1. Charles Emmanuel IV., who died without issue, and 2. Victor Emmanuel V., who married an Austrian Archduchess; his eldest daughter married Francis IV. Duke of Modena. She died between A.D. 1841-1846, I believe, and left four children:--1. Francis V., Duke of Modena. 2. The wife of Henri, Comte de Chambord. 3. Ferdinand. 4. Marie, wife of Don Juan, brother of the present de jure King of Spain, Carlos VI.

J.K.

_Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks_ (Vol. ii., p. 375.).--In reply to the second Bibliographical Query of J. MT., Edinburgh, respecting Nicholas Breton's _Fantasticks_, I beg to inform him that my copy is perfect, and contains twenty-two leaves. The title is _Fantasticks: seruing for a perpetuall Prognostication_, with the subjects of the twenty-four _Descants_, as they are called, in prose, contained in the volume. 4to. bl. lett. London: Printed for Francis Williams, 1626. After this is a dedication "To the worshipfull and worthy knight Sir Marke Ive, of Rivers Hall, in Essex;" and a short address "To the Reader," one leaf. It is an entertaining work, and contains some curious and useful remarks on our ancient manners, customs, and habits. My copy had successively belonged to Garrick, Fillingham, and Heber; the latter of whom has written in it, "Who has ever seen another copy?"

T.C.

Strand.

_Gaudentio di Lucca_ (Vol. ii., pp. 247. 298. 327.).--The Rev. Simon Berington, the author of _The Memoirs of Gaudentio di Lucca_, "of whom" MR. CROSSLEY (Vol. ii., p. 328.) "regrets that so little is known," was the fourth son of John Berington, of Winesley, co. Hereford, Esquire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wolrich, of Dudmaston, co. Salop, Bart. He was born 1679. He studied and took holy orders at Douay College.

W.L.

Nov. 3. 1850.

_Weights for weighing Coins_(Vol. ii., p. 326.).--I am able to supply H.E. with a reference to this subject of an earlier date than those he quotes. In the MS. _Compotus_ or _Accounts of Sibton Abbey, in Suffolk_, in my possession, occurs the following item, under the year 1363-4:

"Et de ix d. pro ij paribus Balaunces pro aure ponderand'."

The following extract, although of later date than H.E. requires, may yet be not without its use to him in illustration of the subject. It occurs in the _Compotus_ of a collegiate establishment at Mettingam, Suffolk, from an earlier volume of which some extracts were furnished to the _Archaeological Journal_ (vol. vi. p. 62.). It is as follows, under the year 1464:--

"Item in ponderibus pro novo aura ponderant' s' nobili _xs._ di. nobyl
et quadrant' ejusdem cunagii et pro nobili de _vj_s. _viij_d. di. nobil
et quadrant' et minoribus ponderibus utriusque cunagii cum le Scolys et
Cophino pro eisdem. _ij_s. _j_d."

The new gold is of course the reduced coinage of Edward IV. I conclude that the nobles of 6s. 8d. were the same as the angels.

C.R.M.

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Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850Chapter I: Part 1

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