Chapter C: W. G

162. _Matthew Paris's Historia Minor._--During the last few years I have made occasional, but unsuccessful, inquiries after the _Historia Minor_ of Matthew Paris. It is quoted at some length by Archbishop Parker (_Antiquit. Eccles. Brit._, ed. Hanov. 1605, p. 158.). It is also referred to, apparently upon Parker's authority, by several divines of the succeeding age; by one or more of whom (as well as by Watt) the MS. is spoken of as deposited in the Royal Library at St. James's. The words produced by Parker do not occur in Matthew Paris's _Major History_; though the editor of the second edition of the larger work would appear to have consulted the _Hist. Minor_, either in the _Biblioth. Reg._, or the Cottonian Library, or else in the Library of Corpus Coll., Cambridge. Can any one gratify my curiosity by saying whether this MS. is known to exist, and (if so) where?

J. SANSOM.

163. _Mother Bunche's Fairy Tales._--Who wrote _Mother Bunche's Fairy Tales_?

DALSTONIA.

164. _Monumental Symbolism._--In the south aisle of Tylehurst church, Berks, is a beautiful monument to the memory of Sir Peter Vanlore, Knight, and his lady, in recumbent positions, at whose feet is the statue of their eldest son in armour kneeling. In the front of the tomb are the figures of ten of their children in processional form--first, two daughters singly; the rest two and two, four of which have skulls in their right hands, and a book in their left, probably to denote their being deceased at the time the monument was erected. At the feet of one of the youngest children is represented a very small figure of a child lying in a shroud, the date 1627.

Query, What do the books symbolise?

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge.

165. _Meaning of "Stickle" and "Dray."_--In Wm. Browne's _Pastoral_, "The Squirrel Hunt," we read of--

"Patient anglers, standing all the day
Near to some shallow _stickle_, or deep bay."

The word _stickle_ appears to me to be used here for a pool. Is it ever so used now, or has that meaning become obsolete? I do not find it in Richardson's _Dictionary_.

In the Lake District, in the Langdales, is Harrison's Stickle or Stickle Tarn, which I think confirms my view of the meaning.

* * * * *

"Whilst he from tree to tree, from spray to spray,
Gets to the wood, and hides him in his _dray_."

Cowper uses the word _dray_ with reference to the same animal:

"Chined like a squirrel to his _dray_."

"A Fable," Southey's _Edit._ viii. 312.

What is the correct meaning of this word? Richardson, from Barrett, says, "a _dray_ or _sledde_, which goeth without wheels." And adds, "also applied to a carriage with low, heavy wheels, dragged heavily along, as a brewer's _dray_."

He then quotes the passage from Cowper, containing the above line.

F. B. RELTON.

166. _Son of the Morning._--

"Son of the morning, rise! approach you here!
Come--but molest not yon defenceless urn:
Look on this spot--a nation's sepulchre!
Abode of gods, whose shrines no longer burn.
Even gods must yield--religions take their turn:
'Twas Jove's--'tis Mahomet's--and other creeds
Will rise with other years, till man shall learn
Vainly his incense soars, his victim bleeds;
Poor child of Doubt and Death, whose hope is built on reeds."

How many read the above beautiful stanza from _Childe Harold_, Canto II. Stanza 3., without asking themselves who the "Son of the morning" is. Perhaps some of your literary correspondents and admirers of Byron may be able to tell us. I enclose my own solution for your information.

AN OLD BENGAL CIVILIAN.

167. _Gild Book._--The Gild-Book of the "Holy Trinity Brotherhood" of St. Botolph's without Aldersgate, London, once belonged to Mr. W. Hone, by whom it is quoted in his _Ancient Mysteries_, p. 79. If any of the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" would be so kind as to let me know where this MS. is to be found, I should be very thankful.