Chapter M: A. Lower

Lewes.

_Edmund Prideaux, and the First Post-office._--Polwhele, in his _History of Cornwall_, says, p. 139.:

"To our countryman Edmund Prideaux we owe the regular establishment of
the Post-office."

{187}

He says again, p. 144.:

"Edmund Prideaux, Attorney-General to Oliver Cromwell, and _Inventor_ of the Post-office."

Now the Edmund spoken of as Attorney-General, was of Ford Abbey, in Devonshire, and second son of Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton, in the said county, therefore could not be one of the Cornish branch.

Query No. 1. Who was the Edmund Prideaux, his countryman, that regularly established the Post-office?

Query No. 2. How were letters circulated before his time?

Query No. 3. Was Edmund Prideaux the Attorney-General, the inventor of the Post-office, as he states; if not, who was?

Query No. 4. Has any life of Edmund Prideaux as Attorney-General been published, or is any account of him to be found in any work?

G. P. P.

_William Tell Legend._--Could any of your readers tell me the true origin of the William Tell apple story? I find the same story told of--

(1.) Egil, the father of the famous smith Wayland, who was instructed in the art of forging metals by two dwarfs of the mountain of Kallova. (Depping, _Mem. de la Societe des Antiquaires de France_, tom. v. pp. 223. 229.)

(2.) Saxo Grammaticus, who wrote nearly a century before Tell, tells nearly the same story of one Toko, who killed Harold.

(3.) "There was a souldier called Pumher, who, daily through witchcraft, killed three of his enemies. This was he who shot at a pennie on his son's head, and made ready another arrow to have slain the Duke Remgrave (? Rheingraf), who commanded it." (Reginald Scot, 1584.)

(4.) And Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslie.

G. H. R.

_Arms of Cottons buried in Landwade Church, &c._ (Vol. iii., p. 39.).--Will JONATHAN OLDBUCK, JUN., oblige me by describing the family coat-armour borne by the Cottons mentioned in his Note? It may facilitate his inquiry, in which, by the way, I am much interested.

R. W. C.

_Sir George Buc's Treatise on the Stage._--What has become of this MS.? Sir George Buc mentions it in _The Third University of England_, appended to Stowe's _Annals_, ed. 1631, p. 1082.--

"Of this art [the dramatic] have written largely _Petrus Victorius_,
&c.--as it were in vaine for me to say anything of the art; besides,
that _I have written thereof a particular treatise_."

If this manuscript could be discovered, it would doubtless throw considerable light upon the Elizabethan drama.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_A Cracowe Pike_ (Vol. iii., p. 118.).--Since I sent you the Query respecting a _Cracowe Pike_, I have found that I was wrong in supposing it to be a weapon or spear: for _Cracowe Pikes_ was the name given to the preposterous "piked shoes," which were fashionable in the reign of Richard II., and which were so long in the toes that it was necessary to tie them with chains to the knee, in order to render it possible for the wearer to walk. Stowe, in his _Chronicle_, tells us that this extravagant fashion was brought in by Anne of Bohemia, Queen of Richard II. But why were they called _Cracowe_ pikes?