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Вомв. - Can any of your readers furnish information upon the first use of the iron ball named a bomb?

The work entitled English Military Discipline, 8vo. Lond. 1680, p. 88., says. the bomb was not used in France before the year 1635, at the siege of Dole. Wraxall points out an earlier use of the bomb: he says it is described by Cayet, as thrown into Nimeguen by Maurice, Prince of Orange, in 1590. FUSEE. CHEQUERS. The fruit of the service, or sorbapple tree, are so called, not only popularly, but by John Evelyn in the Sylva (sub voce). Whence is the word derived? A. A. Poets' Corner.

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HARVEY COMBE. In 1714, Sir John Pakington, Sir William Wyndham, Harvey Combe, and others were committed to the Tower for high treason. Can any of your readers tell me who the said Harvey Combe was, and what became of him? W. H. C. THE LATE RT. HON. WILLIAM ELLIOT, OF WELLS, M.P. FOR PETERBOROUGH. This gentle man, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1807, was a leading politician, it is believed, during the greater part of his life. He was a frequent speaker in the House, and his opinions were much respected. The first Lord Minto, to whom he was related, and who became Governor-General of India, kept up a great intimacy with him. He died in 1818, having bequeathed his estate to Sir William Francis Eliott, the present possessor, who was his distant relative. Can any of your readers point out where any of the speeches or pamphlets, which he is believed to have published, can now be found? T.

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FREEBAIRNE'S TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE VATICAN. Thomas Hearne states in his Diary (July 28, 1723), that Mr. Freebairne, a Scottish printer, who had resided long at Rome with the exiled royal family, "had the use of the Vatican Library as he pleased, and transcrib'd a great many excellent papers from thence relating to the English Reformation, not taken notice of by our public writers." Is it known what has become of these papers? It is possible that a notice in " N. & Q" may bring them to light. K. P. D. E.

MR. S. GRAY.-Can any of your readers give me any information regarding Mr. S. Gray, author of a book called The Messiah, published about 1842? Mr. Gray was, I believe, a native of Scotland, and was at one time in the War Office. Is the author still living?

X. Y. HANDLEY AND PICKERING.-In a MS. heraldic painter's book, I found the following coat, &c., inscribed, "Handley and Pickering at Barns. March, 1738. Crest, a hand holding a bunch of

quills, ppr. Motto, Equity. Arms: Gules, a bend or between six mascles of the second imCan any of your correspondents assist me in idenpaling, ermine a lion rampant azure, crowned or." tifying the possessor of this coat? The arms attributed to Handley are totally unlike any given | in Burke's Armory. C. J. ROBINSON.

NEVISON, THE HIGHWAYMAN. Can your correspondent EBORACENSIS inform me where I can meet with a copy of one of the provincial ballads of "Nevison's famous ride to York," mentioned in "N. & Q.," 2nd S. ix. 433. A ballad on his capture is given in the Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire, beginning

"Did you ever hear tell of that hero,
Bold Nevison, that was his name?

He rode about like a bold hero,
And with that he gained great fame."
C. J. D. INGledew.

North Allerton.

NORDEN'S "SURVEY OF LINDSEY." In the Diary of Thomas Hearne, Nov. 5, 1726, mention is made of several manuscripts then about to be sold by auction. They belonged at that time to I am very anxious to trace: Sir Norton Knatchbull. Among them is one which

Soke of Lindsey in the County of Lincoln, with all the

"John Norden's Abstract of the General Survey of the

longing to the same: being a Parcel of the Dutchy of Mannors, Townships, Lands, and Tenements, within or beCornwall, 1616, fol."

If it be in private hands, the owner will confer a great favour if he will communicate with me. EDWARD PEACOCK. Bottesford Manor, Brigg. JOHANNES PERCY.-Was Johannes Percy, who Grimsby in the 36 Edward III. and other suca burgess in parliament for the town of ceeding years, a member of the noble House of Northumberland ? GRIME.

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works, for the same. Can any of your readers inform me in what part of Holborn this Richmond House stood? Y. S. SEVERE WINTERS. The records of these are of value both to the natural philosopher and the historian, but the accounts we ordinarily have do not appear to be practically satisfactory. Some take the average range of the thermometer, but this is no index of what is commonly called a hard winter. We may get cold drizzly weather early in autumn, which will continue till April; and yet we may have no frost at all. Nevertheless, with a low average for five months, it may be registered as a cold year. On the other hand, the minimum of the thermometer is also no guide. We may have warm weather up to Christmas, then an unusually sharp frost for a week or ten days, which may break up at once, and leave us comparatively warm weather till spring. In other words, a low minimum with a high average. It strikes me that a very good practical index would be a record of how many days in a year there is ice enough to allow of skating. I should think there must be some persons, connected with the different skating clubs about London, who have noted the number of days in each year the ice was practicable if so, I think it would be a very desirable thing if they would kindly send the results to "N. & Q."

Poets' Corner.

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A. A.

WELCH WHITSUNTIDE. In a little work of great rarity, the Autobiography of Arise Evans, 1653, p. 6., he records that in 1611, he being "about fourteene yeares of age, "hearing some say that whatsoever one did aske of God upon Whitsunday morning at the instant when the sun arose and plaid, God would grant it him. Having a cha ritable beliefe of the report, being willing to try all the wayes possible to obtaine my petition, I arose betimes on Whitsunday morning, and went up a hill at a place called Gole Ronnw to see the sun arise; and seeing the sun at its rising, Skip, Play, Dance, and turne about like a wheele, I fell downe upon my Knees, lifting up mine Eyes, Hands, and Heart unto God: I cried, saying, O Lord most high, that hast made all things for my glory, give me Grace, Wisdome, and Understanding, that I may glorifie thee, as this instrument doth now before all the World."

Evans does not say that this prayer was answered, but intimates as much when he states

(p. 7.), "God hath a purpose to make me like his Sonne in opening the mysteries of Scriptures." He, like Naylor, considered himself to be Jesus Christ, and was hunted by an enraged mob from Spital Square till he found refuge in Bishopsgate

Church.

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"Much fear'd and much flatter'd by people of note, With cash in his pockets for turning his coat, Surly Jn, as Crispin the Second, comes pat in, Talking Latin in English and English in Latin. Successor of S-e, but missing the wood, Where, pamper'd by Be, his prototype stood; Though with him neither M- nor C could cope, Dr. H. came up boldly with towel and soap; He started, he trembled, he made for the door; He had seen, but not taken, such physic before." "Why Crispin the Second?" and who was Crispin the First? I shall be glad if any of your correspondents can tell me, and also if they can fill up the other blanks. H.

[Not being able to get a sight of the pamphlet in question, we will not hazard a conjecture as to the immediate occasion of the satire on the "surly" Doctor. The principal allusion, however, in the above lines is to Johnson's well-known objection to teaching by lectures. "I know nothing," said he, "that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shown. You may teach chymistry by lectures: you might teach making of shoes by lectures." We presume his friend Richard Savage, the poet, who narrowly escaped the gallows, is ginally apprenticed to a shoemaker. Of the other inonly here associated with him because he had been oricluded names we are able only to recognise Be (Burke) and Dr. H (Dr. John Hall). The masquerade, of which amusement, by the way, Johnson entertained the lowest opinion,-appears to have been held at Carlisle House, Soho Square, the residence of Mrs. Teresa Cornelys, "the Heidegger of the age," who, from 1763 to 1772, gave a series of balls, concerts, and masquerades unparalleled in the annals of public fashion.]

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[The manors of St. Giles and Bloomsbury were originally divided by a great fosse or ditch, called Blemunde's Diche, which ran east and west at the back of the north side of Holborn. It was subsequently called Bloomsbury clearly shown in a map of St. Giles's in the Fields beGreat Ditch and Southampton Sewer. Its course is History of the latter parish, p. 63.] tween the years 1200 and 1300, engraved in Parton's

relating to the Rowley controversy is one entitled ROWLEY AND CHATTERTON. — Among the books Rowley and Chatterton in the Shades; or Nuga Antique et Nova, 1782. Is this work noticed in Mr. Gutch's Sale Catalogue, 1858? Who was the

author?

ZETA.

[This is one of the burlesque performances of George Hardinge, the Welsh judge, author of Chalmeriana, 8vo.,

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"FLIM-FLAMS," ETC. - Flim-Flams! or, the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt. Murray, 1805, 3 vols. Was this performance (a kind of novel, satirising many literary characters) really the production of the elder D'Israeli, to whom it is attributed? The style and manner of it are so extremely different from those of the Curiosities of Literature, and other acknowledged works of D'Israeli, that it seems hardly possible to believe that it proceeded from the same hand. The present Mr. D'Israeli, in his Memoir of his father, prefixed to Routledge's edition of his Works, makes no allusion to FlimFlams. May the novel have been a joint production of Isaac D'Israeli and some other person or persons? LESBY.

["The Rabelaisian romance of Flim-Flams and the novel of Vaurien, written in all the lurid blaze of French conventions and corresponding societies, have both, we believe, with authority, been attributed to Mr. D'Israeli."-The Times biographical sketch of Mr. Isaac D'Israeli, Jan. 21, 1848. Both editions of Flim-Flams are also attributed to Mr. Isaac D'Israeli in the Catalogue of the British Museum.]

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Now, in the first place, as we shall see presently, the words, by which Parry's power to treat is accompanied, are "quotiescumque utrique vestrum, et quoquo modo videbitur." Surely, this can only mean that he was to treat, as I have expressed it," at any time, and in any manner, be might choose."

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Secondly, the words " quoquo modo are in the Latin letter, which was to be shown to the Nuncio : but, in the letter of private instructions sent at the same time to Parry, we find the following passage:

"Now, Sir, for the conduct of your correspondency with the Pope's Nuncio, as it doth not appear that you have yet in person met him, so the King doth hold it very convenient that you should no ways give any such scandal, as such a meeting would breed. You must therefore choose some third person, by whom you may, at all times, impart your minds one to another." (Cecil to Parry, France, Nov. 6, 1603.)

Finally, if MR. GARDINER will reperuse the passage, to which he alludes in my Dodd, he will, I am sure, perceive, in common with every one conversant with the Latin language, that the word "illo" refers, and can only refer, to the Nuncio. The Pope had suggested the appointment, on the part of James, of an agent to confer with the Nuncio, on any matters that might arise between the two Courts. James, in his letter, professes to adopt the proposal. He has, he says, the greatest confidence in the character of the Nuncio: and therefore, he adds, addressing Parry, I reply at once to the suggestion, and give to you yourself (tibi ipsi) full power to communicate with him on our common affairs. I subjoin the passage:

"Deniquè quod propositum est de homine quodam constituendo, qui cum ipso Nuncio (ut occasio postulabit) consilia conferat, facit quidem illa opinio, quam de fide et integritate ipsius Nuncii concepimus, ut facilè assentiamur, impromptuque responsio sit; ob eamque causam tibi ipsi mandamus atque authoritatem concedimus, ut,

omnibus temporibus (quotiescumque utrique vestrum, et quoquo modo videbitur), cum illo de rebus nostris communices." (Dodd, iv. Append. lxviii.) M. A. TIERNEY.

Arundel.

FISHER (NOT FICHER): A COMMONWEALTH POET.

(2nd S. x. 487.)

His name was Payne Fisher, not Ficher (Paganus Piscator, he sometimes used to style himself), nor can he be very well termed a Commonwealth poet, except as far as regards his living in that era: for he was Presbyterian, Royalist, Cromwellian, all by turns; and, finally, wheeled round again to the dominant power at the Restoration. Four of Fisher's unprinted poems, relating to Ireland, extracted from a MS. volume of his own writing in the British Museum, with a short account of his life, and a few notes written by myself, were published in the last July number (vol. viii. pp. 153-167.) of the Ulster Journal of Archæology. Among those will be found "Newes from Lough Bagge"; and as the querist acknowledges he knows little of the history and locality, I beg to refer him to the above-mentioned work.

Notices of Fisher will be found in the Athena Oxonienses, and other biographical compilations. He wrote an immense number of all descriptions of poems, on all varieties of subjects, yet I very much doubt whether "A Contemplation on the Sight of a Tombe" were written by him. I have a vague recollection, however, of seeing it, or something very similar, in Latin, and Fisher was no mean proficient in Latin versification.

I must confess that I have a considerable curiosity to learn a little more of B.'s "small collection of inedited poems"; and, if he will gratify that curiosity, either by private communication or through "N. & Q.," I may probably, in return, be able to afford him some useful information.

In our own days of sudden acquirement of riches, when not pedigrees alone, but ancestorial portraits are made to order, a "dodge" of this very Fisher is worthy of being fished up out of the limbo of forgotten frauds, to show that men are pretty much the same at all periods. The great civil war, though it ruined numbers of the nobility and gentry, enabled many of the trading classes to acquire immense fortunes. These last were sadly in want of pedigrees, and Fisher undertook to supply them in a rather ingenious manner. St. Paul's, and many of the city churches, having been destroyed by the great fire, Fisher, styling himself Student of Antiquities, announced that, previous to the fire, he had copied all the monumental inscriptions in those churches, and intended to publish them by subscription. The reader will at once see the trick, which for a time

was successful. Fisher, according to the amount of subscription received, gave in his books (three of which, I think, were published,) marble monuments and grandiloquent inscriptions to persons never so recorded in city church, or elsewhere; but pseudo-grandfathers, great-grandfathers, &c., of his pedigree-desiring subscribers. I may add, that those inscriptions are curious studies to persons interested in that description of literature. They are in Latin; their similarity of style show they were all written by one person, while they also prove that Fisher had a most extraordinary facility in that kind of composition. To such deceptions, reduced by poverty, fell the unfortunate Fisher-the gallant scholar volunteer, who left his college to "trail a pike," under the Prince of Orange, at the siege of Breda; the Parliamentary lieutenant under Sir John Clotworthy, in Ireland; the Royalist captain, under Prince Rupert, at Marston Moor; the poet laureat of the Protector Cromwell. Probably he might have succeeded better in life by wielding the sword than the pen; for he himself acknowledges that he was a better pikeman than a poet." W. PINKERTON.

Hounslow.

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for P. Ficher? Payne Fisher, a poetical writer Should not your correspondent read P. Fisher of the period, is styled Laureat to Cromwell, and also figures in a volume of his poems as Sergeant Major P. F., which latter would account for the poet being with the army in Ireland. He would also appear to have been of a sepulchral cast of mind, having late in life (besides other congenial pieces) published The Tombes, Monuments, and Inscriptions lately visible in St. Paul's, which apparently identifies him as the writer of the Contemplation upon a Tomb, supplied by your correspondent. A long list of Fisher's works will be found in the new edition of Lowndes, with a reference to Wood's Athenæ Oxon., for an account

of the author.

J. O.

Oliver Cromwell's poet laureat, Payne Fisher, must surely be the person alluded to. As to him, see Wood's Athen. Oxon, ed. Bliss, iii. 108. 749. 1045. 1080. 1189.; Bibl. Anglo-Poetica, 229.; Censura Literaria, 1st ed., iii. 273., vi. 229.; Cowie's Cat. of MSS. in Library of St. John's Coll., Camb., 84, 85.; Elrington's Life of Ussher, 279.; Gent. Mag., lxvi. (1.) 367.; N. S. xlii. 147.; Gough's Anecd. of Brit. Topogr., i. 606, 607.; Granger's Biog. Dict. of England, 5th ed., iv. 37 n.; Moule's Bibl. Herald., 217.; Pepys's Diary, 3rd ed., i. 118. 121, 122.; Restituta, i. 366.; and Willmot's Lives of Sacred Poets, i. 348.

Cambridge.

C. H. COOPER.

PRAED'S VERSES ASCRIBED TO MOTHER SHIPTON.

(2nd S. x. 451.)

I heard Praed make his maiden speech at the Cambridge Union, and I also heard him on several other occasions, but I was absent on the night your correspondent E. J. P. refers to. I think, however, I can help him to the verses he alludes to, which were repeated to me the next morning; and which, though I did not make a note of them, I perfectly recollect. I am not quite sure about the first two lines of the last stanza; perhaps some other correspondent can supply a better version. To explain the allusions, I must premise that one of the leading topics of the day was the forthcoming sale of the Duke of York's estate at Oatlands; that the subject of the debate was the Corn Laws; and that the previous speaker, to whose "prophecies" Praed replied, was a Mr. Ryland, who had argued, that one consequence of the repeal of the Corn Laws would be, the ruin of those landowners whose heavy wheat-lands would be thrown out of cultivation. It was in reply to this argument, that Praed said that the speech of the Hon. Member brought to his recollection the following prophecy of Mother Shipton, which, of course, he had manufactured on the

moment:

"When Nobles get drunk on their arrack,

And the people grow thin without meat,
When soldiers look red in the barrack,
And beggars look blue in the street;
"When taxes, for places and pensions,
Are levied without any qualms,
By a King of the purest intentions,

Who reads in the Prophets and Psalms! "Then the weal and the wealth of these Islands Will be lost in that turbulent weather, And Oatlands, and Wheatlands, and Rylands Knocked down by the hammer together." And now permit me to inquire, through "N. & Q," when we may expect to see an English edition of the poems of one who was one of our most successful writers of vers de société? The American edition is full of the most stupid

blunders.

Leeds.

C. H.

The debate took place in the Præcutlean age, when we did not make notes. The verses were

talked of till the next Union night, and from that time till the Query appeared, nothing has occurred to revive them in my memory. I can only offer what is probably a very inaccurate recollection, and beg that it may not be inserted, if you receive a better.

We were not then allowed to discuss matters of later date than 1800. We observed the law with tolerable honesty, but sometimes evaded it by, "If at any future time a state of things should arise,

&c." I do not remember the subject of the debate, but Ryland of St. John's had made a very energetic tory speech, and in the discussion, the Holy Alliance, Madame Krudner, Agricultural Distress," the Six Acts," and the habits of George well answering others, and finishing with Ryland, the Fourth had been alluded to. Praed spoke, whose prophecies, he said, were borrowed from Dean of the Custom House." Nostradamus*, as done into English by Mr. John

"When princes get tipsy on arrack,

And farmers grow thin on cold meat;
When soldiers look red in their barrack,
And beggars look blue in the street;
"When monarchs, with purest intentions,
To settle all national qualms,
Assemble in holy conventions,

And study the prophets and psalms;
"Strange things upon wet land and dry land,
On wood land and waste land shall be,
And Oat-land, and Wheat-land, and Rye-land,
Together be sunk in the sea.'

"A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it."

Very likely what was then so clever to us who were ready and excited, may be flat to readers in 1860. It has called up so many pleasant recollections that I am not a competent judge.

ONE OF PEterhouse.

CLASSICAL SURVEYING OF ROMAN ROADS, ETC.

(2nd S. ix. 242.)

There is no doubt the Romans made careful surveys and levels, both of their roads and acqueducts, before they were made. In fact the latter could never have been constructed without complete plans and sections. Your correspondent, SMITH, will find an excellent article on the Agrimensores or land surveyors of antiquity in Smith's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, sub voce, and also much information in Goesius, Rei Agrariæ Scriptores. They seem to have used an instrument called a Groma, which is supposed to have been something like our cross-staff. One is figured in the Bolletino Napolitano, vol. i. plate 5. fig. 3., and there is a very good dissertation thereon at p. 68. It is taken from the tomb of a Mensor metal cross with plummets, and probably sights. buried at Ivrea, and seems to have been a sort of Delambre, who entered very deeply into the subject (Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne), is of opinion that the chief instrument used by Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and the astronomers of that period, was an armillary sphere. When we know the proficiency of the ancients in this science, and in mathematics, it seems easy to suppose that both *Not Mother Shipton,

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