Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

_Cromwell Family._--Will some of your correspondents be so good as to inform me, to whom the children (sons and daughters) of Oliver Cromwell's daughter Bridget were married, those by her first marriage with Ireton as well as those by her second marriage with Fleetwood. I can learn but the marriage of one: Ireton's daughter Bridget married a Mr. Bendyshe.

M. A. C.

[Cromwell's daughter, Bridget, who was relict of Henry Ireton, married
Charles Fleetwood of Armingland Hall, Norfolk, and Stoke Newington,
Middlesex: she died, 1681, without any issue by Fleetwood. See
Fleetwood's pedigree in No. IX. of the _Bibl. Topog. Britannica_, pp.
28, 29. By her first husband, Henry Ireton, to whom she was married in
1646, she had one son and four daughters, of whom a full account will
be {243} found in Noble's _House of Cromwell_, vol. ii. pp. 319-329.,
in which volume will be found an account of the family of Fleetwood.]

_Daughters of the Sixth Earl of Lennox._--J. W. wishes for information as to who married, or what became of the daughters and granddaughters of Charles Stuart, the sixth Earl of Lennox, and brother of Darnley?

[The brother of Darnley (the husband of Mary Queen of Scots) was
Charles, fifth earl of Lennox, who left an only daughter, the
interesting and oppressed Lady Arabella Stuart, as every common Peerage
will state.]

_Wife of Joseph Nicholson._--Any information as to who was the wife of Joseph Nicholson, who resided in London the latter part of the seventeenth century, would much oblige one of his descendants.

He was second son of the Rev. Joseph Nicholson, rector of Plumland, Cumberland, who was married to Mary Miser, of Crofton.

His eldest brother was Dr. Wm. Nicholson, Bishop of Carlisle, afterwards Bishop of Derry, and died there 1727. The bishop's nephew, Rev. James Nicholson, son of the above Joseph, came to Ireland as chaplain to his uncle, and became rector of Ardrahan, co. Galway, and died there about 1776.

ANDREW NICHOLSON.

[If our correspondent will refer to the title-page of the Bishop's
celebrated work, _The English, Scotch, and Irish Historical Libraries_,
as well as to his correspondence with Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, he
will find his name spelt Nicolson, without the letter _h_. This
deserves to be noted, as there was another Dr. William Nicholson,
consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, A.D. 1660.]

_Six Abeiles._--In Mrs. Barrett Browning's beautiful poem, _Rhyme of the Duchess May_, the following lines occur:

"Six _abeiles_ i' the kirkyard grow,
On the northside in a row."

Will you or some of your readers kindly inform me what _abeiles_ are. From the context, they would seem to be some kind of tree, but what tree I cannot discover.

M. A. H.

Monkstown, co. Cork, Feb. 18. 1851.

[Bailey, in his _Dictionary_, says, "An abele-tree is a fine kind of
white poplar." See also Chambers' _Cyclopædia_.]

_Southey._--There is a _jeu d'esprit_ attributed to Southey, on the expedition of Napoleon into Russia, beginning,--

"Buonaparte must needs set out
On a summer's excursion to Moscow,"

and ending,--

"But there's a place which he must go to,
Where the fire is red, and the brimstone blue,
Sacre-bleu, ventre-bleu,
He'll find it hotter than Moscow."

I know this was printed, for I saw it when a boy. Where can it be found?

M.

[See "The March to Moscow," in Southey's _Poetical Works_, p. 464.,
edit. 1850.]

_Epigram against Burke._--Can any reader supply me with some lines of great asperity against Edmund Burke, excited (I believe) by the unrelenting hostility exhibited by Burke against Warren Hastings?

The sting of the epigram is contained in the last line, which, alluding to the exemption of Ireland from all poisonous reptiles, runs as follows:--

"And saved her venom to create a Burke."

And if the said lines shall be forthcoming, I should be glad also to be informed of their reputed author.

A BORDERER.

[The following epigram, thrown to Burke in court, and torn by him to
shreds, has been always attributed to Mr. Law (Lord Ellenborough), but
erroneously:--

"Oft have we wonder'd that on Irish ground
No poisonous reptile has e'er yet been found;
Reveal'd the secret stands of nature's work,
She saved her venom to create a Burke."

The real author was one Williams, notorious for his _nom de guerre_,
Anthony Pasquin.--Townsend's _History of Twelve Eminent Judges_.]

_Knights Hospitallers._--Where may a correct list be found of the names of the several persons who held the appointment of Master of the Knights Hospitallers in England, from the period of their first coming until the dissolution of their houses?

S. P. O. R.

[See Dugdale's _Monasticon Anglicanum_, new edition, vol. vi. pp.
796-798.]

* * * * *

Replies.

MESMERISM.

(Vol. iii., p. 220.)

I am much obliged to your correspondent A. L. R. for his kind notice of my pamphlet on Mesmerism, and equally so to yourself for inserting it; because it gives me an opportunity of explaining to him, and others to whom I am personally unknown, and who are therefore not aware of my circumstances and movements, why the work was not continued without delay. In doing this I will try to avoid trespassing on your goodness by one word of needless egotism. In my Preface I described my materials as a "number of fragments belonging to various ages and places," as "scattered facts and hints" which I had met with in books which were not suspected of containing such matter; and some of them books not likely to fall into the hands of anybody but a librarian, or at least a person having access to a public library. It may be easily understood that rough materials thus gathered were not fit for {244} publication; and that, without the books from which they had been "noted" and "queried," they could not be made so: and if I had anticipated the course of events (notwithstanding an inducement which I will mention presently), I should not have thought of publishing a Part I. But when I sent it to the press, I had no idea that I should ever return here, or be at an inconvenient distance from the libraries which were then within my reach, and open to my use. As it was, I regretted that I had done so, and felt obliged to hurry the pamphlet through the press, that I might pack up these papers, and many other things more likely to be hurt by carriage, for a residence an hundred miles off; and here they are _in statu quo_. I have not attempted to do any thing with them, not only because I have been very much occupied in other ways, but because I do not know that I could fit them for publication without referring to some books to which I have not access. At the same time I feel bound to add, that while I still think that some of the things to which I refer might be worth printing, yet I do not consider them so important as the matter which formed the subject of the Part already published. I did think (and that was the inducement to which I have already referred) that it was high time to call the attention of disinterested and reflecting persons to the _facts_ alleged by mesmerists, and to the _names_ by which they are attested. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have in some degree succeeded in this design. I may perhaps some day find a channel for publishing the fragments alluded to; but in the mean time, I shall be very glad if I can supply anything which your correspondent may think wanting, or explain anything unintelligible in what is published, if he will let me hear from him either with or without his name. I am sorry to ask for so much space, knowing how little you have to spare; but I cannot resist the temptation to offer an explanation, which will be so widely circulated, and among such readers as I know this will be, if you can find room for it.

J. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester, March 24.

* * * * *

LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM.

(Vol. iii., p. 185.)

The following observations, though slight in themselves, may tend to show that Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, was, or professed to be, a Protestant.

1st. On his embassy to Spain, Carte says (I quote from Collins's _Peerage_, vol. iv. p. 272.)--

"On Friday the last of this Month His Catholick Majesty ratified the
peace upon Oath in a great chamber of the palace.... It was pretended
that the Clergy would not suffer this to be done in a Church or Chapel
where the neglect of reverence of the Holy Sacrament would give
scandal."

I presume the "neglect of reverence" was apprehended in the case of the English ambassador.

2nd. In Fuller's _Worthies_ (Surrey), speaking of Lord Nottingham, it is said--

"He lived to be very aged, who wrote 'man,' (if not married) in the
first of Queen Elizabeth, being an invited guest at the solemn
consecration of Matthew Parker at Lambeth; and many years after, by his
testimony, confuted those lewd and loud lies which the papists tell of
the Nag's Head in Cheapside."

3rd. He was one of the commissioners on the trial of Garnet and others; and told him, as he stood in a box made like a pulpit--

"Sir, you have this day done more good in that pulpit wherein you now
stand, than you have done in any other pulpit all the days of your
life."--_Archæologia_, vol. xv.

His coffin-plate has been engraved somewhere, and, if his will exists, it might probably settle the question.

Q. D.

_Lord Howard of Effingham_ (Vol. iii., p. 185.).--There is some proof that he was a Protestant in the letter of instructions to him from King James (_Biog. Brit._, p. 2679.):

"Only we forewarn you, that in the performance of that ceremony, which
is likely to be done in the King's (of Spain) chapel, you have especial
care that it be not done in the forenoon, in the time of mass, to the
scandal of _our_ religion; but rather in the afternoon, at what time
their service is more free from note of superstition."

May Lord Effingham have changed his religion between the Armada and his mission to Spain?

C. B.

* * * * *

IOVANNI VOLPE.

(Vol. iii., p. 188.)

The Volpes were an ancient, noble Florentine family of the second class, some branches of which according to the usage of Florence, changed their name, and adopted that of Bigliotti. The object of the change was to remove the disqualification which attached to them, as nobles, of holding offices under the republic. In illustration of this singular practice, the following extracts may be cited:

"Le peuple nomma une commission pour corriger les statuts de la
république, et réprimer par les lois l'insolence des nobles. Une
ordonnance fameuse, connue sous le nom _d'Ordinamenti della Giustizia_,
fut l'ouvrage de cette commission. Pour le maintien de la liberté et de
la justice, elle sanctionna la jurisprudence la plus tyrannique, et la
plus injuste. Trente-sept familles, les plus nobles et les plus
respectables de Florence, furent exclus à jamais du priorat, sans qu'il
leur fùt permis de recouvrer les droits de cité, en se {245} faisant
matriculer dans quelque corps de métier, ou en exerçant quelque
profession.... Les membres de ces trente-sept familles furent désignés,
même dans les lois, par les noms de grands et de magnats; et pour la
première fois, on vit un titre d'honneur devenir nonseulement un
fardeau onéreux, mais une punition."--Sismondi, _Histoire des
Républiques Italiennes_, tom. iv. pp. 63-4.: Paris, 1826.

"The people, now sure of their triumph, relaxed the Ordinances of
Justice, and, to make some distinction in favour of merit or innocence,
effaced certain families from the list of the nobility. Five hundred
and thirty persons were thus elevated, as we may call it, to the rank
of commoners. As it was beyond the competence of the Republic of
Florence to change a man's ancestors, this nominal alteration left all
the real advantage of birth as they were, and was undoubtedly an
enhancenent of dignity, though, in appearance, a very singular one.
Conversely, several unpopular commoners were ennobled in order to
disfranchise them. Nothing was more usual, in subsequent times, than
such an arbitrary change of rank, as a penalty or a benefit. (Messer
Antonio de Baldinaccio degli Adimari, tutto che fosse de più grandi e
nobili, per grazia era misso tra 'l popolo.--_Villani_, xii. c. 108.)
Those nobles who were rendered plebeian by favour, were obliged to
change their name and arms."--Hallam's _Middle Ages_, vol. i. p.
435-6.: London, 1834.

"In the history of Florentine families, a singular feature presents
itself; by a practice peculiar to Italy, nay, it is believed to
Florence, families, under certain circumstances, were compelled to
change their arms and their surnames, the origin of which was as
follows. After having long suffered the insolent factions of the great
families to convulse the state, the middle classes, headed indeed by
one of the nobles, by a determined movement, obtained the mastery. To
organize their newly-acquired power, they instituted an office, the
chief at Florence during the republican era, that of Gonfalonier of
Justice; they formed a species of national guard from the whole body of
the citizens, who were again subdivided into companies, under the
command of other officers of inferior dignity, also styled Gonfaloniers
(Bannarets). As soon as any noble committed violence within the walls
of the city, likely to compromise the public peace, or disturb the
quiet of the state, the great bell at the Palazzo Vecchio raised its
alarum, the population flew to arms, and hastened to the spot, where
the Gonfalonier of Justice speedily found himself in a position, not
merely to put an end to the disturbance, but even to lay siege to the
stout massive fortresses which formed the city residences of the
insolent and refractory offenders to which they then withdrew. But the
reforming party did not stop there; by the new constitution, which was
then introduced, the ancient noble families, termed by cotemporary
historians 'i grandi,' and explained to include those only which had
ever been illustrated by the order of knighthood, were all placed under
a severe system of civil restrictions, and their names were entered
upon a roll called the Ordinances of Justice; the immediate effect was
that, losing all political rights, they were placed in a most
disadvantageous position before the law.

"By a remarkable species of democratic liberality, a man or a family
might be emancipated from this position and rendered fit for office,
born again as it were into a new political life, by renouncing their
connections (consorteria) and changing their arms and surnames. They
were then said to be made plebeian or popular (fatti di popolo).
Niebuhr has noticed the analogy of such voluntary resignation of
nobility to the 'transitio ad plebem' of the Romans.

"This practice of changing arms and surnames originated from the
Ordinances of Justice promulgated about that time, which expressly
requires this as a condition to the enjoyment by any of the old
families of popular rights. It gave rise to great varieties of surnames
and armorial bearings in different branches of the same house. But it
has nevertheless been noted that in all these mutations it was still
the endeavour of the parties to retain as much as possible of the
ancient ensigns and appellations, so that traces of descent and
connexion might not in the progress of years be altogether obliterated.
Thus the Cavalcanti took the name of Cavallereschi, the Tornaquinci
that of Tornabuoni. Sometimes they obtained the object by a play upon
the name itself thus; at other times by making a patronymic of the
Christian name of the first or some other favourite ancestor; thus a
branch of the Bardi assumed the name of Gualterotti, and a branch of
the Pazzi that of Accorri. Sometimes they took their new name from a
place or circumstance calculated to preserve the memory of their
origin; thus the Agolanti designated themselves Fiesolani, the Bostichi
from the antiquity of their stock, Buonantichi. In mutation of arms a
similar object was borne in mind. Thus the Buondelmonti simply added to
their ancient bearings a mountain az. and a cross gu. The Baccelli, who
were a branch of the Mazzinghi, replaced the three perpendicular clubs,
the ancient ensigns of the family, by two placed in the form of a
cross.

"As the object of these provisions was to discriminate for the future
those of the ancient families who had acceded to the principles of the
popular institutions from their more haughty kindred, who remained true
to the defence of their feudal and aristocratical pretensions, the
change either of arms or surname was not required if the whole family
became converts to the new doctrines; for then there was no need of
discrimination, and the law was not framed out of any dislike merely to
particular ensigns, but only to the principles and opinions which they
had up to a certain time been understood to represent."--_Mazzinghi._

The identity of the Volpes and Bigliottis is attested by ancient sepulchral monuments of the family in Santo Spirito at Florence. To mark the ancient origin, they retained or assumed the fox (_volpe_) as their arms. Borghini, in his _Discorsi_ (Florence, 1584-5), mentions the family as an instance of the name giving rise to the arms, and mentions Sandro Biglotti, 1339, as the first who assumed the fox as his ensigns. The distinction and influence enjoyed at Florence by the family is indicated by its having contributed ten Gonfaloniers of Justice to the republic; an office corresponding in rank with those of Doge of Venice {246} and Doge of Genoa. Details of several branches of the family will be found in _Saggi Istorici D'Antichità Toscane di Lorenzo Cantini_: Firenze, 1798.

Among the junta of twenty noblemen of Venice, chosen in 1355, on the discovery of the conspiracy of Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, we find the name of "Ser Niccolò Volpe":--

"Questi [que' del Consiglio de' Dieci] elessero tra loro una Giunta,
nella notte, ridotti quasi sul romper del giorno, di venti nobili di
Vinezia de' migliori, de' piu savii, e de' piu antichi, per consultare,
non pero che mettessero pallottola."--_Vitæ Ducum Venetorum_,--though
the title is in Latin, the work is in Italian,--published in Muratori's
_Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, tom. xii. p. 634.

The following particulars are extracted from the _Biographie Universelle_:--

"Ivo. Biliotti, d'une famille patricienne de Florence (qui avoit fourni
dix Gonfaloniers de Justice à cette république, et placé ses armes sur
les monnaies de l'état), fut un des derniers défenseurs de la liberté
de sa patrie, et un des meilleurs capitaines de son temps. En 1529, il
defendit le fort de Spello, en Toscane, contre les troupes liguées du
pape et de l'Empereur Charles Quint. Il obligea le prince d'Orange, qui
les commandait, à se retirer, et se distingua aussi au siége de
Florence. Il passa au service de Francois I^{er}, roi de France, avec
de Gondi et Pierre de Strozzi, ses parents, et fut tué au siége de
Dieppe. Une partie de la famille Biliotti, proscrite par les Médicis,
se refugia à Avignon et dans le comtat Venaissin, vers la fin du 15^e
siècle. Le 29 juillet, 1794, le chef de cette maison, Joseph Joachim,
Marquis de Biliotti, chevalier de St. Louis, âgé de soixante-dix ans,
aussi distingué par ses vertus que par sa naissance, fut la dernière
victime du tribunal révolutionnaire d'Orange, qui fut suspendu le
lendemain de sa mort."

The only particulars of Iovanni Volpe furnished by the Gwerclas MSS. are given in the annexed pedigree. The marriage of his daughter Frances with my ancestor, Richard Hughes of Gwerclas, arose from the latter (before his accession to the family estates and representation, consequent on the decease without issue--February 6, 18 James I., 1620-1--of his elder brother, Humffrey Hughes, Esq., of Gwerclas, Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion, High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1618) having been secretary of the princely Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland, to whom Iovanni Volpe had been physician. There can be little doubt that Iovanni was descended from a branch of the Italian Volpes which had retained the ancient name; a supposition confirmed by the tradition of my family, and by the fact of the fox being assigned to his daughter Frances as her arms, in an emblazoned genealogy of the house of Gwerclas compiled in 1650 by the most accurate and eminent of Welsh antiquaries, Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, Esq.

I may add, that among the Gwerclas pictures are portraits of Richard Hughes and Frances; the latter exhibiting in features an complexion the unmistakeable impress of Italian lineage.

WILLIAM HUGHES.

Twyford, Hants, March 18. 1851.

WILLIAM WOLPE. ===
Arms, Vert a fox |
courant, proper. |
|
+--------------+
|
JOHN WOLPE, _aliter_ VULP, "An Italian === ---- ----, "Descended
doctor; was ffamous in Queene Eliza- | of the ffamily of the
beth's tyme, went with George Erle | Monntaynes in Yorkshire,
of Cumberland most of his sea | who keepe the name this
voyages, and was with him at the | daye [1622.]."
takeing of Portorico, in the Indies." |
|
+--------------+
|
RICHARD EVERS (1st) === FRANCES, "Sole === (2nd) RICHARD HUGHES, Esq.,
"Of the ffamily of | daughter." Died | of Gwerclas, co. Merioneth,
Evers of Coventry." | 29 June, 1636, | Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion.
| circa æt. 50. | Married 2 Nov. 1601. Died 21
| | March, 1641, circa æt. 80.
| |
+------------+ +----------------+
| |
MARTHA, "Only daughter." === RICHARD LLOYD HUMFFREY HUGHES, Esq. of
Born 25 January, 1599. | of Vaerdre [in Gwerclas, Baron of Cymmer-
Married, 27 June, 1616. /|\ Edeirnion, co. yn-Edeirnion, son and heir.
Merioneth]. High Sheriff of Merioneth-
"Had issue sonnes and daughters, now [19 shire in 1670. Born 14
April, 1622] liveing." Aug. 1605. Buried at
Llangar in Edeirnion,
4 May, 1682. |
/|\

{247}

_Giovanni Volpe or Master Wolfe_ (Vol. iii., p. 188.).--This person was certainly never "physician to Queen Elizabeth," but he may have received from her Majesty the appointment of apothecary, as he did from her successor. On New-Year's day, 1605-6, John Vulp presented to the king "a box of Indian plums," receiving in return 7 oz. di. di. qr. of gilt plate; he is then named the last of five apothecaries who paid their votive offerings to royalty. (Nichols's _Progresses, &c. of King James I._, vol. i. p. 597.) In 1617 he had risen to be the king's principal apothecary, and by the name of John Wolfgango Rumlero received "for his fee by the year 40 _li._," as appears by the abstract of his Majesty's revenue attached to the pamphlet entitled _Time brought to Light by Time_. From the name here given him, it may be conjectured that he was rather from Germany than Italy. However, he also went by the plain English name of Master Wolfe.

He is thus alluded to in the epilogue to Ben Jonson's _Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies_, when it was performed at Windsor in September, 1621:--

"But, lest it prove like wonder to the sight
To see a gipsy, as an Æthiop, white,
Know that what dy'd our faces was an ointment
Made and laid on by Master Woolfe's appointment,
The Count Lycanthropos."

As he was a man of such prominence in his profession, probably many other notices of him might be collected if duly "noted" as they occur.

J. G. N.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Sir Andrew Chadwick_ (Vol. iii., p. 141.).--It was stated in evidence, in a trial at Lancaster assizes, Hilary Term, 1769, between Law and Taylor, plaintiffs, and Duckworth and Wilkinson, defendants, respecting the heirs at law of Sir Andrew Chadwick, and their claim to his estates, that "Ellis Chadwick married in Ireland a lady of fashion, who had some connexion with her late Majesty Queen Anne, and had issue by her the late Sir Andrew Chadwick. Ellis, the father, dying in his son's infancy, about the year 1693, his widow brought her son Andrew over to England, where he was very early introduced at court, and being contemporary with the young Duke of Gloucester, became a great favourite with him, was knighted, and had divers preferments."--From the Attorney-General's MS. Brief. The latter part of this statement does not appear to confirm the supposition recorded by MR. J.N. CHADWICK.

F. R. R.

_Manuscript of Bede_ (Vol. iii., p. 180.).--The volume in question is entered in the Catalogue of Thoresby's MSS., No. 10. in the _Ducatus Leodiensis_, p. 72. 2d ed. 1816. The greater part of these MSS. came into the hands of Ralph Thoresby, Jun., and, together with the coins, were disposed of by public auction in March, 1764, by Whiston Bristow, sworn broker. The MSS. were sold on the third day, but the volume containing Bede does not appear among them. The opinion formed by J. M. of the age of this MS. is certainly erroneous, and being on _paper_ it is more probably of the _fifteenth_ than the _twelfth_ century. The period of William Dadyngton, Vicar of Barton, might decide this.

[mu].

_MS. of Bede_ (Vol. iii., p. 180.).--Your correspondent will find a description of this MS. in the catalogue of Thoresby's Museum, at the end of his _Ducatus Leodiensis_, edit. 1715, fol., p. 515. He will also, in Thoresby's _Correspondence_, 1832, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 39., see a letter from Dr. John Smith, the editor of Bede's _History_, respecting this manuscript, the original of which letter is in my possession.

After many dismemberments, what remained of Thoresby's Museum, including his manuscripts, was sold in London in March, 1764, by auction. Mr. Lilly, the bookseller of Pall Mall, had a priced catalogue of this sale; and your correspondent, if anxious to trace the pedigree of his MS. further, can, I have no doubt, on application, get a reference made to that catalogue.

I take the present opportunity of mentioning that, as Mr. Upcott's sale, when I became the purchaser of the Thoresby papers, including his MS. diaries, his Album, and upwards of 1000 letters to him, a very small number of which were printed in the collection, in two volumes, edited by Mr. Hunter, one of the diaries, from May 14, 1712, to September 26, 1714, which was sold with the lot, was after the sale found to be missing. It subsequently came into the hands of a London dealer, by whom it was sold to a Yorkshire gentleman, as I understand, but whose name I have not yet been able to trace. Should this meet his eye, I will venture to appeal to his sense of justice, entirely ignorant as I am sure he has been of the "pedigree," to use your correspondent's expression, of his MS., whether he will allow it to be longer separated from the series to which it belongs, and which is incomplete without it. I need hardly say, I can only expect to receive it on the terms of repaying the price paid for it, and which I should embrace with many thanks.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

Manchester, March 8. 1851.

[The following advertisement of the missing MS. appeared in the
Catalogue (No. 33., 1848) of Mr. C. J. Hamilton, then of Castle Court,
Birchin Lane, now residing in the City Road, London:--"Thoresby's
(Ralph, antiquary of Leeds), _Diary_ from May 14, 1712, to September
23, 1714, an original unpublished MS., containing much highly
interesting literary information, with autograph on fly-leaf, thick
8vo., 436 {248} pages, vellum with tuck, closely written, price 2l.
12s. 6d." The purchaser was Mr. Wallbran, Fallcroft, Ripon, Yorkshire.]

_Closing of Rooms on account of Death_ (Vol. iii., p. 142.).--I am acquainted with a remarkable instance of this custom. A respectable farmer who resided in a parish in Bedfordshire, adjoining that in which I am writing, died in 1844; leaving to his daughter the fine old manor-house in which he had lived for many years, and in which he died, together with about 300 acres of land. The lady, with her husband, was then residing in a neighbouring village, where the latter rented a farm, which he has since given up, retaining the house; but she positively refused to remove to the manor-house, "because her father had died in it;" and as she still persists in her refusal, it is unoccupied to this day. For Mr. ---- is not even permitted to let it, except a part, now tenanted by a valued friend of mine, which for many years has been let separately. The rooms and the furniture in them remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occupant. The lady's husband, who farms the land attached to the house, is put to great inconvenience by living at a distance from it, but nothing will induce her to alter her determination. The facts I have related are notorious in the neighbourhood.

ARUN.

_Enigmatical Epitaph on Rev. John Mawer_ (Vol. iii., p. 184.).--On reading to a lady the article on this subject in a late Number, she immediately recollected, that about thirty years ago she had a governess of that name, the daughter of a clergyman in Nottinghamshire, who often mentioned that they were descended from the _Royal Family of Wales_, and that she had a brother who was named _Arthur Lewellyn Tudor Kaye Mawer_.

This anecdote will perhaps be of use in directing attention to Cambrian pedigrees, and leading it from Dr. Whitaker's "Old King Cole" to "the noble race of Shenkin."

J. T. A.

_Haybands in Seals_ (Vol. iii., p. 186.).--The practice mentioned by MR. LOWER, of inserting haybands, or rather slips of rush, in the seals of feoffments, was common in all counties; and it certainly was not confined to the humbler classes. Hundreds of feoffments of the fifteenth century, and earlier, have passed through my hands with the seals as described by MR. LOWER, relating to various counties, and executed by parties of all degrees. In these instances, a little blade of rush is generally neatly inserted round the inner rim of the impression, and evidently must have been so done while the wax was soft. In some instances, these blades of rush overlay the whole seal; in others, a slip of it is merely tied round the label. In delivering seisin under a feoffment, the grantor, or his attorney, handed over to the grantee, together with the deed, a piece of turf, or a twig, or something plucked from the soil, in token of his giving full and complete possession. I have generally supposed that these strips of rush were the tokens of possession so handed over, as part and parcel of the soil, by the grantor; and that they were attached to the seal, as it were, "in perpetuam rei memoriam." In default of better information, I venture to suggest this explanation, but will not presume to vouch for its correctness.

L. B. L.

_Notes on Newspapers_ (vol. iii., p. 164.).--John Houghton, the editor of the periodical noticed by your correspondent, _A Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade_, was one of those meritorious men who well deserve commemoration, though his name is not to be found in any biography that I am acquainted with. He was an apothecary, and became a dealer in tea, coffee, and chocolate. He was in politics a loyalist, or Tory, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1679-80. He began to publish his _Letters on Husbandry and Trade_ in 1681. No. 1. is dated Thursday, September 8, 1681. The first collection ended June, 1684, and consists of two vols. 4to. In November, 1691, Houghton determined to resume his old plan of publishing papers on Husbandry and Trade. His abilities and industry were warmly recommended by several members of the Royal Society: Sir Peter Pott, John Evelyn, Dr. Hugh Chamberlain, and others. The recommendation is prefixed to the first number of this second collection. The first paper is dated Wednesday, March 30, 1692; and the second Wednesday, April 6, 1692; they were continued every succeeding Wednesday. The concluding paper was published September 24, 1703. There were 583 numbers, in 19 vols., of the folio papers. The last number contains an "Epitome" of the 19 vols. and a "Farewell," which gives his reason for discontinuing the paper, and thanks to his assistants, "wishing that knowledge may cover the earth as the water covers the sea." A selection from these papers was published in 1727, by Richard Bradley, F.R.S., in three vols. 8vo., to which a fourth was afterwards added in 1728, 8vo.

Houghton also published _An Account of the Acres and Houses, with the proportional Tax, &c. of each County in England and Wales_. Lond. 1693, on a broadside. Also, _Book of Funds_, 1694, 4to. _Alteration of the Coin, with a feasible Method to it_ 1695. 4to.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

_Duncan Campbell_ (Vol. i., p. 186.).--There seems to be no doubt that Duncan Campbell, whose life was written by Defoe, was a real person. See _Tatler_, vol. i. p. 156. edit. 1786, 8vo.; _Spectator_, No. 560.; Wilson's _Life of Defoe_, vol. iii. p. 476. His house was "in Buckingham Court, over against Old Man's Coffee House, at Charing {249} Cross," and at another period of his life in Monmouth Court. He is reported to have amassed a large fortune from practising upon the credulity of the public, and was the grand answerer of "Queries" in his day. Defoe's entertaining pieces relating to him are evidently novels founded upon fact.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Christmas Day_ (Vol. iii., p. 167.).--Julian I. has the credit of transferring the celebration of Christ's birth from Jan. 6th to Dec. 25th; but Mosheim considers the report very questionable (vol. i. p. 370. Soames's edit.). Bingham, in his _Christian Antiq._, devotes ch. iv. of book xx. to the consideration of this festival, and that of the Epiphany; but does not notice the claim set up on behalf of Julian I.; neither Neander (vol. iii. pp. 415-22. Eng. Translation). It would appear that the Eastern Church kept Christmas on Jan. 6th, and the Western Church on Dec. 25th: at length, about the time of Chrysostom, the Oriental Christians sided with the Western Church. Bingham also cites Augustine as saying that it was the current tradition that Christ was born on the eighth of the kalends of January, that is, on the 25th of December. Had, therefore, Julian I. dogmatically fixed the 25th of December as the birthday of our Saviour, it is scarcely possible to suppose that Augustine, who flourished about half a century later, would allege current tradition as the reason, without any notice of Julian.

N. E. R. (A Subscriber).

[See Tillemont's _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, tome i., note 4., for a
full discussion of this question. Also Mosheim's _De Rebus
Christianorum ante Constantinum Commentarii_, sæculum primum, sec. 1.;
and Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, article Christmas-Day.]

_Christmas-day_ (Vol. iii, p. 167.).--St. John of Chrysostom, archbishop of Nice (died A.D. 407), in an epistle upon this subject, relates (tom. v. p. 45. edit. Montf. Paris, 1718-34) that, at the instance of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (died A.D. 385), St. Julius (Pope A.D. 337-352) procured a strict inquiry to be made into the day of our Saviour's nativity, which being found to be the 25th Dec., that day was thenceforth set apart for the celebration of this "Festorum omnium metropolis," as he styles it. St. Tilesphorus (Pope A.D. 128-139), however, is supposed by the generality of ancient authorities to be the first who appointed the 25th Dec. for that purpose. The point is involved in much uncertainty, but your correspondent may find all the information he seeks in _Baronii Apparatus ad Annales Ecclesiasticos_, fol., Lucæ, 1740, pp. 475. et seq.; and in a curious tract, entitled _The Feast of Feasts; or, the Celebration of the Sacred Nativity of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; grounded upon the Scriptures, and confirmed by the Practice of the Christian Church in all Ages_. 4to. Oxf. 1644. This tract is in the British Museum. J. C. makes a tremendous leap in chronology when he asks "Was it not either Julius I. or II.?" Why the one died exactly 1161 years after the other!

COWGILL.

_Christmas Day_ (Vol. iii., p. 167.).--In a note to one of Bishop Pearson's sermons (_Opera Minora_, ed. Churton) occurs the following passage from St. Chrysostom:--

"[Greek: Para tôn akribôs tauta eidotôn, kai tên polin ekeinên] (sc.
Romam) [Greek: oikountôn, PAREILÊPHAMEN TÊN HÊMERAN. Hoi gar ekei
diatribontes ANÔTHEN kai ek PALAIAS PARADOSEÔS tautên epitelountes],"
&c.--_Homil. Di. Nat._ ii. 354.

The remainder of the quotation my _note_ does not supply, but it may be easily found by the reference. The day, therefore, seems fixed by "tradition," and received both by the Eastern and Western Church, and not on any dogmatical decision of the popes.

R. W. F.

_MS. Sermons by Jeremy Taylor_ (Vol. i., p. 125.).--Coleridge's assertion, "that there is now extant in MS. a folio of unprinted sermons by Jeremy Taylor," must have proceeded from his wishes rather than his knowledge. No such MS. is known to exist; and such a discovery is, I believe, as little to be expected as a fresh play of Shakspeare's. Was it in the "Lands of Vision," and with "the damsel and the dulcimer," that the transcendental philosopher beheld it?

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Dryden's Absolom and Achitophel_ (Vol. ii., p. 406.).--The edition noticed by your correspondent, "printed and sold by H. Hills, in Blackfriars, near the Water Side, for the benefit of the Poor," 1708, 8vo., is a mere catch-penny. Hills, the printer, was a great sinner in this way. I have Roscommon's translation of Horace's _Art of Poetry_, 1709; his _Essay on translated Verse_, 1709; Mulgrave's _Essay on Poetry_, 1709; Denham's _Cooper's Hill_, 1709; and many other poems, all printed by Hills, on bad paper, and very incorrectly, from 1708 to 1710, for sale at a low price.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_The Rev. W. Adams_ (Vol. iii., p. 140.).--The age of Mr. Adams at his death was thirty-three. His tomb is in the churchyard of Bonchurch--a simple coped coffin; but the cross placed upon it is, in allusion to his own beautiful allegory, slightly raised, so that its shadow falls--

"Along the letters of his name,
And o'er the number of his years."

I have a pretty engraving of this tomb, purchased at Bonchurch in 1849, and your correspondent may perhaps be glad to adopt the idea for an illustration of the book he mentions.

E. J. M.

_Duchess of Buckingham_ (Vol. iii., p. 224.).--I am much surprised at this question; I thought {250} there were few ladies of the last century better known than Catherine, daughter of James II. (to whom he gave the name of Darnley) by Miss Ledley, created Countess of Dorchester. Lady Catherine Darnley was married first to Lord Anglesey, and secondly to Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, by whom she was mother of the second duke of that name, who died in his minority, and the title became extinct. All this, and many more curious particulars of that extraordinary lady, may be found in the _Peerages_, in _Pope_, in _Walpole's Reminiscences_, and in Park's edition of the _Noble Authors_.

C.

"_Go the whole Hog_" (Vol. iii., p. 224.).--We learn from _Men and Manners in America_, vol. i. pp. 18, 19., that _going the whole hog_ is the American popular phrase for radical reform, or democratical principle, and that it is derived from the phrase used by butchers in Virginia, who ask their customer whether he will go the whole hog, or deal only for joints or portions of it.

C. B.

_Lord Bexley's Descent from Cromwell_ (Vol. iii., p. 185.).--In answer to PURSUIVANT'S Query, How were the families of Morse and Ireton connected? it appears that Jane, only child of Richard Lloyd (of Norfolk?), Esq., by Jane, second daughter of Ireton, married, circa 1700, Nicholas or Henry Morse. But what appears to me most likely to have occasioned the report of Lord Bexley's connexion with the Cromwell family is, that the late Oliver Cromwell, Esq., of Cheshunt, married Miss Mary Morse in 1771, which must have been not far from the period when Lord Bexley's mother, also a Miss Morse, was married to Mr. Vansittart.

WAYLEN.

_Morse and Ireton Families._--I have a small original portrait of General Ireton by old Stone; on the back of it is a card, on which is the following:--

"Bequeathed by Jane Morse to her daughter Ann Roberts, this picture of
her grandfather Ireton. Will dated Jan. 15. 1732-33."

"Anne Roberts, wife of Gaylard Roberts, brother of Christ^r Roberts,
father of J. R."

In Noble's _Memoirs of the Cromwell Family_, vol. ii. p. 302., the name is printed _Moore_, evidently a mistake for _Morse_:--

"Jane, third daughter of General Ireton, having married Richard Lloyd,
Esq., the issue of this marriage was Jane, an only child, who married
Nicholas, or Henry _Moore_ [Morse], Esq., by whom she had four sons and
three daughters."

SPES.

_The Countess of Desmond_ (Vol. ii., pp. 153. 186. 219. 317.).--Touching this venerable lady, the following "Note" may not be unacceptable.

In the year 1829, when making a tour in Ireland, I saw an engraving at Lansdowne Lodge, in the county of Kerry, the residence of Mr. Hickson, on which the following record was inscribed:--

"Catherine Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond (from the original in the
possession of the Knight of Kerry on Panell).

"She was born in 1464; married in the reign of Edw. IV.; lived during
the reigns of Edw. V., Rich. III., Hen. VII., Hen. VIII., Edw. VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth; and died in the latter end of James' or the
beginning of Charles I.'s reign, at the great age of 162 years."

On my return home I was much surprised and gratified to find in my own house, framed and glazed, a very clever small-sized portrait in crayon, which at once struck me a a fac-simile (or nearly so) of the engraving I had seen at Lansdowne Lodge.

Your correspondent C. in p. 219. appears very sceptical about this female Methuselah! and speaks of a reputed portrait at Windsor "as a gross imposition, being really that of an old man"--

"Non nostrum tantus componere lites:"

but I would remind your correspondent C. that such longevity is not impossible, and the traditions of the Countess of Desmond are widely diffused. The portrait in my possession is not unlike an old man; but old ladies, like old hen pheasants, are apt to put on the semblance of the male.

A BORDERER.

_Aristophanes on the Modern Stage_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--In reply to a Query of our correspondent C. J. R., I beg leave to state, that, after having made inquiry on the subject, I cannot find that any of the Comedies of Aristophanes have ever been introduced upon the English stage, although I agree with him in thinking that some of them might be advantageously adapted to the modern theatre; and I am more confirmed in this opinion from having witnessed at the Odéon in Paris, some years since, a dramatic piece, entitled "Les Nuées d'Aristophane," which had a great run there. It was not a literal translation from the Greek author, but a kind of mélange, drawn from the Clouds and Plutus together. The characters of Socrates and his equestrian son were very well performed; but the scenic accessories I considered very meagre, particularly the choral part, which must have been so striking and beautiful in the original of the former drama. Upon my return to England I wrote to the then lessee of Drury Lane Theatre, recommending a similar experiment on our stage from the free version by Wheelwright, published some time before by the late D. A. Talboys, of Oxford. The answer I received was, that the manager had then too much on his hands to admit of his giving time to such an undertaking, which I still think might be a successful one (as is the case with the "Antigone" {251} of Sophocles, so often represented at Berlin), and such as to ensure the favourable attention of an English audience, particularly as the subject turns so much upon the danger and uselessness of the meteoric or visionary education, then so prevalent at Athens.

ARCHÆUS.

Dusseldorf, March 6.

_Denarius Philosophorum_ (Vol. iii., p. 168.).--Bishop Thornborough may have been thus styled from his attachment to alchemy and chemistry. One of his publications is thus entitled:

"Nihil, Aliquid, Omnia, in Gratiam eorum qui Artem Auriferam
Physico-chymicè et pie, profitentur." Oxon. 1621.

Another part of his monumental inscription is singular. On the north side are, or were, these words and figures--"In uno, 2^o 3^a 4^r 10--non spirans spero."

"He was," says Wood, "a great encourager of Bushall in his searches
after mines and minerals:"

and Richardson speaks of this prelate as--

"Rerum politicarum potius quam Theologicarum et artis Chemicæ peritia
Clarus."

J. H. M.

_On a Passage in the Tempest_ (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337. 429. 499.).--If you will allow me to offer a conjecture on a subject, which you may think has already been sufficiently discussed in your pages, I shall be glad to submit the following to the consideration of your readers.

The passage in the _Tempest_, Act III. Scene 1., as quoted from the first folio, stands thus:

"I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours
Most busie lest, when I do it."

This was altered in the second folio to

"Most busie least, when I do it."

Instead of which Theobald proposes,--

"Most busyless, when I do it."

But "busyless" is not English. All our words ending in _less_ (forming adjectives), are derived from Anglo-Saxon nouns; as love, joy, hope, &c., and never from adjectives.

My conjecture is that Shakespeare wrote--

"I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour's
Most business, when I do it."

"Most" being used in the sense of "greatest," as in _Henry VI._, Pt. I.,