Chapter L: M. M. R

_Letter to a Brigadier-General._--If Thomas Lord Lyttelton wrote the _Letters of Junius_, who was the author of the _Letter to a Brigadier-General_, published in 1760? This letter is now very generally believed to have been written by Junius, when Thomas Lyttelton was about _fourteen_ years old!

W. C.

_Dr. Fell._--Can any one inform me who the author of the following lines is, and their original application:--

"I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know full rarely well,
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell."

J. N. C.

_Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln._--Dibdin, in his _Northern Tour_, vol. i. p. 97., says of this distinguished prelate:

"We may anticipate the portrait of this truly great man drawn to
the life in the intended biography of my friend Mr. Willson."

Dibdin published this in 1838. Has the memoir of Grostete ever appeared?

I may add, as a pendant to this Query, that two years back I saw a beautiful English MS. of Grostete's on vellum, at the library of the English College at Douay, out of which some British traveller, to whom it had been obligingly lent, had cut every one of the illuminations.

O. T. D.

_Almas-cliffe._--During a brief sojourn at Harrogate, Yorkshire, I have visited two remarkable groups of rock, locally known as _Great Almas-cliffe_ and _Little Almas-cliffe_: the former crowning a lofty ridge about five miles south-west of this place; and the latter standing upon a wild, heathery moorland, about three miles north of the other. Both command most extensive views; and, on the table-rock of each, I noticed circular basins, with channels by which superfluous fluid may be carried off. Tradition says, that in remote ages they were used as druidical altars; and, that in later days, after the introduction of Christianity into England, mass was occasionally celebrated upon them. In some of the local guide-books they are called _Almias_ Cliff. Whence is the name derived? Can it be a corruption of holy mass, or hallowmas?

G. H. of S.

Harrogate.

_Amyclæ._--What special ordinance of taciturnity had the burghers of Amyclæ?

MORTIMER COLLINS.

_Cynthia's Dragon Yoke._--

"While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,
Gently o'er the accustom'd oak."

Can any of your correspondents inform me to what classical writer, or to what source, Milton is indebted for Cynthia's "dragon yoke?"

H. T. P. Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A.

_London Genealogical Society._--Will you, or one of your correspondents, oblige a subscriber with information as to the above society? Is it in existence, and has it published any of its works, and how obtainable?

W. P. A.

_The Article "An."_--It is asserted that the article _an_ is prefixed before six words only that begin with the letter _h_. Is _hospital_ one of them? The others are, I believe, _heir_, _honest_, _honour_, _hotel_, _humble_.

NIL NEMINI.

Tunbridge Wells.

"_Black Gowns and Red Coats._"--Can any of your readers give me any information about a poem called "Black Gowns and Red Coats?" It is a satire on Oxford, which was published in 1834, at the time of the Duke of Wellington's installation as Chancellor; but the satire was so severe, that it was at once suppressed. The author is said to be dead; I should like to know something of the circumstances of its publication, for I had once seen it, and it bore the marks of very great genius. If any one has a copy to dispose of, I would gladly buy it.

S. F. C.

Oxford.

_Coleridge's "Friend."_--Who is the person alluded to in the following note in Coleridge's _Friend_, 1st edition, No. 8. Oct. 5, 1809, p. 124.?

"He is gone, my friend, my munificent co-patron, and not less the
benefactor of my intellect! he who, beyond all other men known to
me, added a fine and ever-wakeful sense of Beauty to the most
patient accuracy in Experimental Philosophy and the profounder
researches of Metaphysical Science," &c.

J. M.

_Wycherley's Verses on Plowden and Lady Sunderland._--In Phillips and Herbert's _History of Shrewsbury_, pages from 263 to 266, vol. ii. 4to. 1837, giving an account of the ancient family of the Plowdens, and their claim to the barony of Dudley, allusion is made to a passage in Baker's _History of Northamptonshire_ respecting some comic verses of the poet Wycherley on Plowden, of Plowden Hall, and the Countess of Sunderland. I cannot find these verses in Wycherley's _Works_ in the British Museum. Can any of your readers inform me where they are to be found? Baker seems to allude to them as being well known in his time.

ALBION.

Minor Queries Answered.

"_Salusbury Welsh Pedigree Book._"--Having sometimes occasion to investigate the lineage of Irish families derived from Wales, I am very anxious to learn, through your valuable oracle, where may now be that genealogical collection. According to the notes I have of it, it contained "the pedigrees of all the gentlemen in North Wales, and of some adjacent counties, with their arms finely illuminated;" and took its name from the compiler, John Salusbury, Esq., of Erbistock, who lived about the middle of the seventeenth century, and is reported as having executed the labour with great accuracy. Does its actual scope justify the above description, and where is it now? About the year 1780 it was in the possession of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the very surname on which I am at present engaged.

JOHN DALTON.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

[In all probability, the present Sir W. W. Wynn could give some
information upon the subject if applied to.]

_The Earl of Erroll._--I have somewhere seen it stated, that in virtue of his distinguished office as Great Constable of Scotland, which was granted to his ancestry by King Robert Bruce, in 1312, his lordship is by birth the first subject in Scotland; and in right of this privilege, on all state occasions, where the sovereign is present, appears at his or her right hand, and takes precedence of the entire peerage of Scotland. Is it so?

PETROPROMONTORIENSIS.

[His Lordship cannot be by _birth_ entitled to precede the whole
peerage of Scotland, though as Lord High Constable, when attending
the sovereign, he may have that precedence.]

_Heraldic._--A friend has sent me the following Note "from a local paper:"

"In the hall, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, is an escutcheon,
containing no less than 334 quarterings."

Can any of your correspondents verify this statement, or refer me to any other example of so full a blazonry?

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

[The shield is probably that of _Knightley_, whose quarterings are
very numerous. We do not know where to refer our querist to an
emblazoned shield, but there are other families whose quarterings
would be as numerous, viz. _Howard Percy_, and Brydges Chandos,
Duke of Buckingham, &c.]

_Family of Grey._--Thomas, second Marquess of Dorset, had four sons; Henry, Thomas, Leonard, and John. Henry was created Duke of Suffolk, and was with his two brothers, Thomas and Leonard, beheaded in 1555, for taking part in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion. John was ancestor of the Earl of Stamford. The Queries I wish to make are, were Thomas and Leonard, or either of them, married? If they were, what were the _names_ of their wives, and did they leave issue? And most particularly did Thomas?