: shire All the site and ambit of the mansionhouse and dwelling commonly called "Cheynygats" in Westminster, wherein William, late Abbot of the late Abbey of Westminster, dwelt; together with all edifices, houses, land, and ground within the said site, with the gardens and orchards thereto adjoining; in which said site or ambit is a certain tower situate and being at the entrance of the said dwelling, which said tower contains in length on the east side abutting on the cloister of the said late monastery, and on the west side abutting on the "Elmes," by estimation, 67 feet, and in breadth, at the west end, from north to south, by estimation, 24 feet 2 inches; and another edifice and house, with a garden and ground adjoining, containing, by estimation, from the aforesaid tower as far as the church of the said late monastery, in breadth, at the east end on the aforesaid cloister of the said late monastery, 124 feet, and in breadth at the west side, abutting against the house of the poor, called "The Kyng's Almoshouse," 170 feet, and in length on the north part, abutting on the church of the said late monastery, and upon the king's highway, called "The Brode Sentwarye," 258 feet; and on the south part, abutting on "The Elmes," 239 feet. And also the fourth part of all the Great Cloister of the said late monastery, with the buildings situate and being on the same, which said fourth part is contiguous and adjacent to the same mansion-house and dwelling in Westminster aforesaid; and also all those edifices and houses called "The Calbege" and "The Blackestole" there, which contain in length, from the north end, abutting on the aforesaid tower, to the south end, abutting on the tower called "The Blackestole Tower," by estimation, 88 feet; and all buildings, land and ground being within the aforesaid edifices, called "The Calbege" and "The Blackestole " on the west part, and the edifices and houses called "The Frayter misericorde," and the great conventual kitchen, called the "Great Convent Kitchen," on the east part; and also all that other great stone tower in Westminster aforesaid, situate and being in a certain place commonly called "The Oxehall," and also a great barn, situate and being in the said place called the Oxehall, and the house and buildings there, situate and being between the great ditch "The Milldam," on the south part, and the aforesaid barn on the north part; and all other edifices, houses, gardens, land, and ground there situate, lying, and being between the said barn, and between the said houses and edifices on the west part, and the great tower called "The Long Granarye" on the east part; and between the buildings and houses called "The Bruehouse and "The Backehouse" of the said late monastery on the north part, and the aforesaid great ditch called the Milldam on the south part. This description seems to comprise all the north side of Dean's Yard (which appears to have been called "The Elms "); and the abbot's house, and buildings belonging to it, occupied the space from Dean's Yard to the nave of the abbey church, and extended from the cloisters to the Broad Sanctuary. Thomas Thirleby was the first and only Bishop of Westminster. He filled the newly created see until the year 1550, when he was removed to Norwich, and the See of Westminster was abolished. The bishop's house was afterwards given to Lord Wentworth. Probably some of your correspondents may be able to refer me to a plan or survey of the monastic buildings as they stood before or soon after the Dissolution, and to give some information as to the meanings of the names of the buildings mentioned, as The Cheynygates," "The Calbege," "The Blackestole," and "The Oxehall." GEO. R. CORner. Minor Notes. LEOMINSTER BURIALS IN 1587 AND '97. - On looking over my Parish Registers of Burial for the years 1560-1598, I find the average of funerals to be 60. But in the year 1587, the amount is 218; and in 1597, 180. The Query I wish to put is, Can any of your numerous correspondents give me the cause of this very large excess in these two years, 1587 and 1597 ? Is there any record of an extraordinary plague or sickness? In the month of October, 1587, the number is 41: as large a number as is reported in one or two of the years in the period named. If any of your correspondents can explain the circumstance here stated, I should be greatly obliged. THE VICAR OF Leominster. THE MOTHER OF HORACE WALPOLE.-A writer of an article in the May number of the Cornhill Magazine, entitled "Ups and Downs in the House of Peers," has a fling at the parentage of Mrs. Katherine Shorter after this fashion. Speaking of the pertinacity with which he says that Walpole disparaged the family of Bertie, Dukes of Ancaster, the author of the article in question goes on as follows: "With what a sneer he (Horace Walpole) alludes to the second wife of the fifth and last duke (of Ancaster)! This person,' he says, with malicious circumstantiality, 'was some lady's woman or young lady's governess.' The duchess was neither. She was a daughter of the gallant Major Layard, and of better blood than either Horace's mother or step-mother: for the property of the first, Catherine Shorter, was acquired by London trading; and the family of the second, Maria Skerret, was of lower origin still." I cannot understand how blood can be determined by the manner in which property has been acquired, nor do I know much of the pedigree of the Shorter family; but Elizabeth Shorter, the mother of Lady Walpole, was a daughter of Sir Erasmus Philipps, third baronet of Picton Castle, by his second wife Katherine, daughter and coheiress of Edward D'Arcy, Esq., of New Hall, in the county of Derby, by Lady Elizabeth Stanhope, daughter of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield. The Philipps family springs from a stock which held princely rank before the period of the Norman Conquest; and Norman D'Areci came to England with the Conqueror, who gave him Nocton, and thirty-two lordships in Lincolnshire. On her mother's side, therefore, Katherine Shorter was of unquestionably "pur sang." Her maternal grandfather, Sir Erasmus Philipps, and John Dryden, were cousins german. Haverfordwest. JOHN PAVIN PHILLIPS. ANOTHER PORTRAIT OF SHAKSPEARE. interesting discoveries of the portrait of Shakspeare at Stratford, and that in the possession of MR. LANCY (2nd S. xi. 306.), remind me that I saw some ten years past a reputed portrait of the great dramatist, said to be original. It is probably worth noting in the pages of "N. & Q.;" which will, I hope, be the means of eliciting the history, present whereabouts, and authenticity or otherwise of this possibly highly interesting picture. At the time I refer to, it was the property of Mr. C. R. Coke, formerly an official of the British Museum; but was in the custody of Messrs. Saunders and Otley, the publishers. It was, I think, on panel (a small quarto), in a frame apparently contemporaneous; and had, on a plain oblong Surface on the top of the frame, some verses ascribed to Ben Jonson. S. T. JOHN OLDEN BARNEVELDT. The following notice of the demise of a descendant of this illustrious person has been extracted from the Berwick Warder, an excellent and ably conducted provincial paper. The gentleman, whose death is thus chronicled was the youngest son of the late Richard Woolley, Esq., Sen., by his wife Rebecca Lane,only surviving daughter of Robert Barneveldt, Esq., an eminent London citizen; and who when he died was, it is said, the Father of the Common Council of London being the oldest member at the time of his demise. Mr. Barneveldt's mother was a daughter of Dr. Anthony Horneck, a well known and popular preacher of the time of William III.; and who, as his biographer, Bishop Kidder, tells us, refused a seat on the Episcopal Bench. After the death of her first husband, Mrs. Barneveldt married secondly Capt. Warre of Isleworth, but had no family by him; she survived him many years. Of the first marriage, there were three sons; of whom Robert, the youngest, was the only one who outlived his mother. The elder brother died without issue. The Barneveldts came from Holland about the time of the revolution. So far as can be traced, they recovered very little of the property which had belonged to their great ancestor. Mrs. Barneveldt, or Warre, left a large fortune to her son. "At Spittal, on the 13th April, aged seventy-eight, Richard Woolley, Esq., formerly of Whitehouse, near Edinburgh, and a J. P. for the county of Mid-Lothian. He was descended in the female line from John Olden Barneveldt, the celebrated Dutch patriot, who was beheaded at the instigation of Maurice, Prince of Orange, in 1619. Throughout his long life, Mr. Woolley bore the most exemplary character, and was in every respect a true Christian and a thorough gentleman, bearing with meekness the sad reverse of fortune brought on him in his latter days by the exercise of a too generous disposition in the earlier part of his life. He was, prior to his purchasing the estate of Whitehouse, an officer in the Stirlingshire Militia, under the Colonelcy of the Duke of Montrose. For twelve years previous to his death he officiated as librarian to the Subscription Library here. He is much and deservedly regretted by very many friends in Berwick and its vicinity." J. M. REALISATION OF A PROPHECY.-L'Abbé Millot, in his E'lémens de l'Histoire de France, depuis Clovis jusqu'à Louis XV., has, under Louis XIII., the following observation on the very frequent occurrence of duels at that period in France: "La séverité de Louis XIII., ou plutôt de Richelieu, semblait nécessaire pour extirper cet abus. Ils n'en purent cependant venir à bout; l'humanité et la raison ont plus de force que les lois contre un préjugé barbare; ce n'est qu'en adoucissant les mœurs, et en civilisant les point d'honneur, qui les rend injustes et meurtriers." hommes, qu'on peut leur faire sentir l'absurdité d'un All this is very much to the purpose; but under the reign of Louis XIV., he may be said to have foretold what has actually occurred, at least in England; and it is to be hoped will be universally followed in other countries. His words are so prophetic, as to be worthy quoting: "La séverité du Roi réprima en grande partie la fureur des duels; la raison avec le temps achevera, peutêtre, de l'éteindre." Σ. Σ. LAUD UPON THE DRESS OF THE CLERGY. - In a report of proceedings in the Star Chamber* is the following anecdote of Laud (then Bishop of London): — "Dr. Slater submitted himself by his petition to the Court, and thereby professed he was heartily sorry for his offence, and tendered his submission to this effect following. Whereas I lately took upon me to translate some of David's Psalms, and added thereunto a scandalous table to the disgrace of religion, and to the encou ragement of the contemners thereof, although I have heretofore declared my intention in so doing, yet I am heartily sorry for my offence herein, and do humbly ask forgiveness for the same of Almighty God, and of the *In the Court of High Commission, Thursday, 20 Octobris, 1631. people of God the whole Church, promising never to offend again in the like for the tyme to come. To this he subscribed his name, William Slater. Hereupon he was dismissed and freed of his imprisonment. The Archbishop [Abbot] giving him A VERY SHARP reproof for being ever busy about bables (sic). And the Bishop of London called him back, and told him he must there give him admonition of that which from the King he was commissioned, in all his visitations, to make known to all ministers, that they be more careful in their habits; not to go like rufflers, as if they were ashamed of their ministry. And this is so common a fault (he said) that ministers can hardly be known from other men by their habit; and therefore, Doctor Slater, said the Bishop, that band is not fit for a minister, nor those cuffs, up to your elbows almost.* Dr. S. excused himself, saying that he was now in his riding clothes. The Bishop replied, that if he saw him in the like hereafter, he would look out some canon or other to take hold of him." Dr. Slater, or Slatyer, as it is sometimes written (of whom a memoir occurs in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary), was presented to the rectory of Otterden, co. Kent, and died Feb. 14, 1646-7. I have seen three editions of these Psalms of David, which is a very carefully got up performance, one bearing date 1643, another 1652, the last without date, and entitled: "Psalms or Songs of Sion, turned into the Language and set to the Tunes of a Strange Land, by W. S. Intended for Christmas Carols, and fitted to divers of the most noted and common but solemne tunes every where in this land familiarly used and known. London, printed by Robert Young." (No year, but in MS. is added the date of 1642.) The typography of this work is very beautiful and curious, the Psalms being printed in four languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English; and what is still more curious, in each language the stanzas are adapted to rhyme, the English version being Sternhold slightly touched." As, how 66 ever, I can discover no "scandalous table," as noted in the above Star Chamber report, I am inclined to think that the original edition must have been suppressed, unless, indeed, the book therein alluded to were a totally different work. Can afford any you better elucidation? ITHURIEL. BOUGHTON REGISTERS. Please permit me to make permanent record of the fact, that on Friday, April 19, a portion of the parish register of Boughton, Kent, was sold at Messrs. S. Leigh Sotheby and John Wilkinson's sale rooms. I append a quotation from the Catalogue: "570 Kent. Note of such Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials as have been in the Parish of Boughton, from the 25th March, 1641, to 25th March, 1642, in a hand of the period, signed.Official Abstract of Expences for Ship wrights, &c., for a quarter of a year at Chatham, Oct. 1611; and others; some curious." There are two Boughtons in Kent-BoughtonMalherbe and Boughton-Monchelsea. If this do * In the margin is this note: "He had on a careless ruff and deep sleeves." cument belong to the former parish, it is probably the only evidence now remaining as to the baptisms, marriages, and burials of the period to which it relates. The register-books now preserved in that parish begin with the year 1671. GRIME. Queries. PURGATORY. I trust this heading will not startle the usually abstemious (from politics, religion, and sectary matters) correspondents and readers of "N. & Q." These "mixed questions" being properly excluded from its instructive pages, I am not to infringe on the seigneurial rights of the Editor, who so properly exercises the power of exclusion. Although perhaps approximating closely to the line of demarcation, I think the following will come within the pale of insertion; as I am of opinion its curiosity will divest it of anything bearing on religious tenets. On looking over some matters "Cuttleised" some years since, I found the following: which I think possesses as much poetry-on such a subject as can well be imagined. The AngloNorman race of people, who inhabit the baronies of Forth and Bargy, county Wexford, are a very peculiar class about whom much has been said and written. - The aborigines of the people (I mean the Anglo-Normans) of these baronies, accompanied Strongbow, Raymond, &c., to Ireland in 1170; and subsequently more came with Henry II. These were the immediate descendants of the Normans, who accompanied the Conqueror to England over a hundred years before. I may here mention a few interesting facts connected with this people, for which I can partly vouch myself. They still retain the Norman patronymics (surnames) exactly as I found them in Normandy at this day-spelled and pronounced the same in both countries. They speak the original language amongst themselves. Seldom intermarrying with other people, possess peculiar features and complexions, and are generally superior in physical appearance to their neighbours. Their mode of cultivating the land, too, is different from those about them; but very like the husbandry of Normandy of this day. Their farm-yards, carts, horses, harness (or tackling), are all so like the French province, that when in a market-town in the latter, I for a moment imagined I was transported by magic power into one of Forth, or Bargy, county Wexford. On this people there was a highly interesting and elaborate paper read at the last meeting of the British Association in Dublin; and Mr. E. Hore, the learned and able editor of that highly respectable newspaper, the Wexford Independent, has from time to time enriched its pages and delighted the public with important information on the subject. I once met a beautiful girl (of course all girls are beautiful) of this race of AngloHibernian Normans, and here commences my Note. In a conversation (she was highly educated and accomplished by art and nature) on various subjects, at last religion came on incidentally. She told me there was a tradition-if indeed I can call it such-amongst her people, that spirits doomed to purgatory were not condemned to material fire, but ordered to wander about the world until they could pick up all the hairs that were cut, or otherwise separated from their heads, from the time of birth to death; and that when this task was accomplished, the purgatory ceased, and the spirit then entered into rest! I make no comment on this, but give it just as I had it. I think I remember reading, but cannot tell where, something like this relative to a similar belief in India: or rather, that certain spirits were doomed to wander about before entering into the Elysian fields. Will some correspondent corroborate this, if anything of the like is known? S. REDMOND. ANONYMOUS. Who are the authors of the following works: 1. Essays on Various Subjects of Taste and Criticism (Poetical Composition, Pastoral Poetry, and on Paradise Lost), 8vo., Lond. C. Dilly, 1780? The author's name is not given by Watt in his Bib. Brit.; 2. Remarks on Mr. Mason's Elfrida, in Letters to a Friend, 8vo., Lond. Tonson, 1752 ? Not mentioned in Watt's Bib. Brit. SENNOKE. ANTS LAYING UP CORN.-I remember that in an account of the famine in India, it was stated in one of the papers, either of March or April (possibly the Illustrated News), that in some places in India the scarcity of food had been so great, that the people had had recourse to robbing the nests of the white ants, and had taken from them and eaten the corn which they had stored up. Can one of your readers oblige me by giving the account in full in "N. & Q.," as I unfortunately forgot to note it down at the time? I should also be very glad of references to any arguments or statements of facts by natural historians, as to the fact of the ant storing up corn or provision of any kind. I believe it has been long a moot point among naturalists, and I am not aware if yet the question is satisfactorily decided. If the account from India be correct, of course it must be decided in the affirmative-that certain species of ants do lay by a store of provisions. But which species do, and which do not? WILLIAM FRASER, D.C.L. Alton Vicarage, Staffordshire. BRACKLEY.-The following doggrel verses were lately found, amongst some old papers, written in a very copper-plate hand. Though they are caviare to myself, they may interest some of your readers, and possibly obtain elucidation from some local antiquary. "The Singularities in Brackley. A College without e'er a Fellow, And a Crier so old he can't bellow." C. W. BINGHAM. BRICKS IN THEIR PRESENT FORM. Can any of your readers afford information as to the origin of making bricks as at present? Those manufac tured in Roman times were in fact large tiles. It is not likely the art was lost, especially as roofing tiles seem to have been made in their present form from very early times. Mr. Hudson Turner (Domestic Architecture, p. 125.), cites Little Wenham Hall, in Suffolk, as the earliest example in There is a tradition in Norfolk, that England. Caistor Castle is the first building erected with bricks in their modern shape, and that these bricks were brought across from Holland. Any information would much oblige Poets' Corner. A. A. "A new invented vessel, named the 'Constellation,' intended to sail against wind and tide, has arrived above Blackfriars' Bridge from Bristol. The vessel is about fifty feet in length, with only one mast, made of iron, and an upright windlass affixed to it; there are twelve horizontal sails, similar in shape to window-shutters, which are extended or shortened in an instant; on any occasion, the mast, with all its appendages, is also as quickly struck. She has neither blocks, nor any running rigging, except a fore and aft stay and cable; her guns, which are of curious mechanism, will keep their own elevation." The above is a remarkably curious fact in the history of ship building. It is extracted from The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, &c., published by R. Ackermann, for Feb. 1812, vol. vii. p. 104. Is there anything known of its success, or its ultimate fate? It appears to give a very early instance of the use of an iron mast. of the first Marquis of Exeter. This excellent lady, whose romantic history is so well known, died before her husband was raised to a Marquisate. A pencil memorandum states, that it was an unfinished engraving from a private plate. Very recently I acquired a painting which was described in the Catalogue as "The Flower of the Forest"; but which was neither more nor less than the original of the before-mentioned engraving. There was this variation between the print and the painting, that in the latter the Countess has a cloak thrown over her shoulders, and the ribbon of her rustic bonnet tied round her neck: otherwise there is no difference. It would be obliging if any information, either as to the engraving or painting, could be given -the latter, a very beautiful specimen of art. In the Catalogue of the paintings at Burleigh House, there is one of her Ladyship by Lawrence; and it would be interesting to know if she was painted in a peasant's dress, as occurs in the one in my possession. J. M. 1 JOHN FRITH, THE MARTYR.-I shall be obliged to any correspondent who would favour me with particulars of the early life of this martyr. C. J. R. M. HARVEY. Can any of your readers give me any account of M. Harvey (Qy. Margaret Harvey), author of The Lay of the Minstrel's Daughter, a poem in six cantos, with notes, 8vo. Newcastle, 1814? There was a Margaret Harvey, author of Raymond di Percy, a tragedy, acted at Sunderland, 1822. A. Z. PRESIDENT LINCOLN. - Possibly some of the American readers of "N. & Q." can inform me whether the President of the United States is descended from a family named Lincoln, long resident in Lincolnshire? James Torre, the Yorkshire antiquary, married a lady of this race: Elizabeth Lincolne, daughter and co-heiress of William Lincolne, D.D., of Bottesford. Benjamin Lincoln, who became a Major-General in the United States army in 1777, and died in 1816, was almost certainly not of this family. His ancestors came from the neighbourhood of Hingham, in Norfolk. (See "N. & Q." 1st S. vi. 495.) EDWARD PEACOCK. Bottesford Manor. Long Pack was printed in a popular form at NewHogg was born in 1792, and died in 1835. The castle, in 1817, by Angus; who threw off some and again been reprinted for popular use. half-a-dozen copies on fine paper. It has again there seems no impossibility in his having been As Hogg was twenty-five years old in 1817, author of The Long Pack; but I question much if, even at that age, he could have written an English tale so free from Scoticisms. From what source did Angus print the story? Probably some literary correspondent, connected with Newcastle, could throw light on the subject. J. M. MOTTOES OF THE STATIONERS' COMPANY.-The present motto of the Stationers is "VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN ETERNUM": in allusion to the three Bibles which form some of the charges of their shield of arms, - for there is no doubt they were from the first intended for Bibles, with the diffusion of which the Company have had so much to do; although in the grant made by the College of Arms, in 3 & 4 Philip and Mary (1557), they were blasoned only as "iij bookes clasped gold." I find this motto under the Stationers' arms as early as the year 1677, in the magnificent volume entitled London's Armory, published by Richard Wallis, Citizen and Arms-painter: but on a cup, given to the Company by the widow of Mr. Andrew Crook, who died in 1674 (three years earlier), the arms of the Company are surmounted by this motto: "PER BENE NATIS MALE VIVRE." This seems neither good Latin nor good French, and I was disposed to regard it as the blundering of an ignorant engraver, and its occurrence perhaps only the temporary whim of the designer of that particular cup; when I found the same motto, tioners' arms in the Harleian MS. 1464, which is spelt in the same way, placed under the Stafessional herald, and bound up with Cooke's Visia collection of London armory, made by a protation of Middlesex. My curiosity, therefore, is again excited to seek for an explanation of this enigmatical motto, and for its relation to the functions of the Company. JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS. |