Chapter C: B. T

_Ruthven Family._--In a pedigree by Vincent in the College of Arms, two sons of Patrick Ruthven are to be found, the first called Cames de Gowrie, the second Robert Ruthven; they were alive in 1660. Can any of your correspondents tell me what became of them?

S. C.

"_The Man in the Almanack._"--Will some kind correspondent favour me with an elucidation of the phrase "Man in the Almanack," which occurs in the following quotation from the epilogue to Nat. Lee's _Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Cæsar_?

"The ladies, too, neglecting every grace,
Mob'd up in night cloaths, came with lace to face,
The Towre upon the forehead all turn'd back,
And stuck with pins like th' Man i' th' Almanack."

Has this any reference to the practice of "pricking for fortunes?"

HENRY CAMPKIN.

_Arkwright._--What is the origin of this name? It might have been the family name of the patriarch Noah, but I suppose it hardly goes so far back.

M.

_Burial, Law respecting._--Is there in existence any law rendering burial in consecrated ground compulsory? Most people have a strong desire to receive such interment; but some few might prefer to have their mortal remains deposited in some loved spot, far away from other graves,--in a scene where many happy hours had been passed. It would be a very unusual thing; but supposing such a desire to exist, could its execution be prevented? It is recorded that Manasseh, King of Judah, "slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the gardens of Uzza."--2 Kings xxi. 18.

SAMPSON ANRAMENII.

_Mr. Borrow's Muggletonians._--If this gentleman correctly states (in his _Lavengro_) that a minister of the Antinomians, with whom he was formerly acquainted, was otherwise called a Muggletonian, the inconceivable fact of that wretched maniac of the seventeenth century (whose portrait indicates the most hopeless fatuity) still having believers, must be a fact. But I marvel how Antinomianism should arise out of the teaching of an Unitarian, as Muggleton was. Can Mr. B. have confounded Muggleton with Huntington?

A. N.

_Puritan Antipathy to Custard._--Can any of your readers inform me why "custard" was held in such abomination by the Puritans?--See _Ken's Life_, by W. L. Bowles, vol. i. p. 143.

W. N.

_"Corruptio Optimi," &c._--To what source is the well-known saying, "Corruptio optimi fit pessima," to be traced?

Hs.

_Miss Fanshawe's Enigma._--The enigma of Miss Catherine Fanshawe on the letter "H" is so good, as to make me wish much to see the other by the same lady, to which E. H. Y. refers in your Number of Vol. v., p. 258. If E. H. Y. could procure a copy, and send it to you for publication, he would probably oblige many besides

E. S. S. W.

Winton.

_Mary Ambree._--Is there any good account (not scattered notices) of Mary Ambree?

"That _Mary Ambree_
Who marched so free
To the siege of Gaunt,
And death could not daunt,
As the ballad doth vaunt?"

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Sir W. Stanley._--I find in one of the usual history books in use that Sir William Stanley, who was beheaded for high treason, for saying "If Perkin Wabbeck is son of Edward IV., I will supply him with five hundred men," was executed in the third year of Henry VII. Now, in a memorandum of the time in a _Horæ B. Virg._ in my possession, it states:

"Memorandum: Quod die lune xvio die Februarii anno Regis Henrici
Septimi Decimo Willius Stanley, Miles, Camerarius regis prædicti
receptus fuit apud Turrim London, et ductus usque scaffold et
ibidem fuit decapitatus. Johannes Warner et Nicholas Allwyn tunc
vic. London."

Could you help me to the true account?

JOHN C. JACKSON.

Cross House, Ilminster, Somerset.

[The memorandum in the _Horæ_ agrees with the date given in
Fabyan's _Chronicle_, p. 685., edit. 1811, viz. February 16, 1495.
Fuller, in his _Worthies_, also states that Allwyn and Warner were
sheriffs of London in the tenth year of Henry VII.]

_Mires--Somerlayes._--In the appointment of a pinder for the town of Hunstanton, Norfolk, dated 1644, these two words occur: "No person shall feed any _mires_ with any beast," &c. _Mire_ is clearly the same as _meer_, i.e. the strip of unploughed ground bounding adjacent fields. "None shall tye any of their cattle upon anothers _somerlayes_ without leave of the owner," &c. I suppose _somerlaye_ to be the same as _somerland_, explained by Halliwell to mean, land lying fallow during summer. I find neither word in Forby's _Glossary_.

C. W. G.

[Grass laid down for summer pasture, is called in Kent, _lay
fields_; doubtless _somerlayes_ are such. Probably a corruption of
_lea_, the _lesura_ of Latin charters.]

_Wyned._--In an old precedent (seventeenth century) of a lease of a house, I find the words "divers parcels of _wyned_ waynescott windowes and other implements of household." What is _wyned_?