Chapter M: A. Lower

Lewes.

_Dutch Church in Norwich_ (Vol. iii., p. 209.).--Some interesting details connected with the establishment of the Dutch Church in Norwich, as well as the first settlement of the Walloons in that city, will be found in Blomefield's _History of Norfolk_, vol. iii. p. 282. et seq., edit. 1806.

J. Y.

_The Dutch Church, Norwich._--Some account of this church may be seen in Burn's _History of the Foreign Refugees_, 1846. It is to be regretted, however, that the registers and acts of vestry are missing. The _seal_ of the church has lately been discovered.

J. S. B.

_Lost Manuscripts_ (Vol. iii., pp. 161. 261.)--In pursuance of MR. MACKENZIE'S suggestions respecting the search for lost manuscripts, permit me to ask, if all hope must be considered as given up of decyphering any more of those discovered at Herculaneum, or of resuming the excavations there, that have been so long discontinued? Perhaps the improved chemical processes of recent days might be found more successful in facilitating the unrolling of the MSS., than the means resorted to so long ago by Sir H. Davy. Can any of your correspondents state whether anything has been done lately with the Herculaneum MSS.?

Eustace says that--

"As a very small part of Herculaneum has hitherto been explored, it is
highly probable that if a general excavation were made, ten times the
number of MSS. above mentioned (1800) might be discovered, and among
them, perhaps, or very probably, some of the first works of antiquity,
the loss of which has been so long lamented."--_Classical Tour_, vol.
i. 4to., p.585.

J. M.

Oxford.

_The Circulation of the Blood_ (Vol. iii., p.252.).--In a paraphrase on Ecclesiastes xii. 1-6., entitled, _King Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age_, by John Smith, M.D., London, 1676, 8vo., 1752, 12mo., the author attributes the discovery of the circulation of the blood to King Solomon. Mede also finds the same anticipation of science in "the pitcher broken at the fountain." Who was the first to suggest the transfusion of blood?

T. J.

_Alliteration_ (Vol. iii., p. 165.)--Your correspondent H. A. B., in quoting the seventh stanza from Phineas Fletcher's _Purple Island_, observes, that the second line,

"A life that lives by love, and loves by light,"

is "noticeable" for its _alliteration_. But the best specimen that I have met with in English--after having read much verse, and published a volume, which my partial friends call poetry--will be found in Quarles' _Divine Emblems_, book ii. emblem ii. Beyond all question, Quarles was a poet that needed not "apt alliteration's artful aid" to add to the vigour of his verse, or lend liquidity to his lines. Quarles is often queer, quaint, and querulous, but never prolix, prosey, or puling.

"We sack, we ransack to the utmost sands
Of native kingdoms, and of foreign lands:
_We travel sea and soil; we pry, we prowl,_
_We progress, and we prog from pole to pole_."

Verily, old Francis must have had a prophetic peep at the effects of _free trade_, and the growing greatness of Great Britain, in the gathering of the Nations under a huge GLASS CASE in Hyde Park, in the present year 1851!

C. G.

Edinburgh.

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_Vineyards in England_ (Vol. ii., p. 392.).--The Lincoln "Vine Closes" may as well be added to the rest. They were given to the church here by Henry I. See the charter, entitled _Carta Hen. I. de Vinea sua Linc._, in Dugdale (Caley's) vol. vi. p. 1272. Their site is a rather steep slope, facing the south, and immediately east of the city. The southern aspect of our hill was celebrated long ago by some poet, as quoted by H. Huntingdon:

"Urbs in colle sita est, et collis vergit ad austrum".

N.B. One of the Abbey fields at Bullington, a few miles east of Lincoln, is known as the Hopyard. The plant has never been cultivated in these parts within memory, or the range of the faintest tradition, but the character of the soil is clayey, and perhaps not unsuitable. Were hopyards often attached to monasteries? The house at Bullington was of the order of Sempringham.

B.

Lincoln.

_Countess of Desmond_ (Vol. iii., p. 250.).--If your correspondents on this subject should be wandering to the south-east of London, they may be interested in knowing that there are two very striking portraits of this lady in Kent, one at Knowle, near Seven Oaks; the other, which is the more remarkable picture of the two, at Bedgebury, near Cranbrook, the seat of Viscount Beresford.

E. H. Y.

_St. John's Bridge Fair_ (Vol. iii., pp. 88. 287.).--I cannot agree with the conjecture that this was Peterborough Bridge Fair. On the confines of Gloucestershire and Berkshire, at the distance of about 77 miles from London, near Lechlade, and on the road to Farringdon, is a St. John's Bridge, near which was a priory or hospital. It is at this place that the Thames first becomes navigable. (Leland's _Itinerary_, vol. ii. fo. 21, 22, 23; vol. iv. fo. 48; Bowles's _Post Chaise Companion_, 1782, pl. 28; Lysons' _Berkshire_, vol. i. p. 193., and map of county prefixed; _Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica_, vol. i. p. 320.; _Parliamentary Gazetteer_, art. "Lechlade.") Whether there is or ever was a fair at this place is more than I can state; but perhaps some of your correspondents dwelling in those parts can give information on this point.