present known, in the presumed unique copy of the "Select Epistillis of Cicero." Robert Charteris printed that singular dramatic production, called Philotus, in 1603; of which a beautiful reprint in black-letter was presented to the Members of the Bannatyne Club by J. Whitefoord Mackenzie, Esq. At the end of this "delectable Treatise," Charteris intimates to the public that he has "prentit sondrie vther delectabell discourses undernamit, sic as are Sir David Lyndesayis play, the Preistis of Pebles with merie Tailes, the Freiris of Berwick, and Bilbo." The first three works, though extremely rare, have come down to us. But what has become of "Bilbo"? Has any person ever seen it? J. M. place wher it may most steed hyme: for hardinge, I will send vnto you mony by exchange wth all possible spead, az well to pay hyme (if he suffer the recoverye) as all others; and till then I pray if my builders want, supply them. I look for you here this springe, and if possible may I will return with you. The Queen thinkes yt George Carew longes to see her; and therefore see her for once, noble George, my frinde and kinsman, from whom nor tyme nor fortune nor adversety shall ever sever mee. "the xxviij (?) of Decembr." "To my lovinge Cussen, Sr "W. RALEAGH. (Indorsed) "Raleghe, the 28th of December, 1589." JOHN MACLEAN. SIR WALTER RALEGH: INEDITED LETTER. Much correspondence has recently taken place in the pages of "N. & Q." on the subject of Sir Walter Ralegh's arms. The following highly characteristic letter of this famous though arrogant man-which is preserved among the Lambeth MSS. (No. 605, 140), and has, I believe, never before been printed-will, doubtless, be interesting. It will be remembered that Sir Walter Ralegh received an extensive grant of lands in Ireland; parcel of the forfeited estates of the unfortunate Gerald, Earl of Desmond. The grant consisted, I believe, of some 40,000 acres, lying chiefly in the valley of the Blackwater. At the time this letter was written, Sir Walter was engaged in building a house, I think, at Lismore. The letter was addressed to his kinsman, Sir George Carew, then Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, afterwards Baron Carew and Earl of Totnes. "CUSSEN GEORGE,-for my retrait from the court, it was uppon good cause to take order for my prize; if in Irlande they thinke yt I am not worth the respectinge, they shall much deceve them sealvs. I am in place to be beleved not inferior to any man to pleasure or displeasure the greatest, and my oppinion is so receved and beleved as I can anger the best of them; and, therefore, if the deputy be not as reddy to stead mee as I have bynn to defend hyme, be it as it may; when Sr William fittz Williams shalbe in ingland, I take my sealfe furr his better by the honourable offices I hold, as also by that nereness to her Maiestye wch still I inioy and never more. I am willinge to contineu towards hyme all frendly offices, and I doubt not of the like from hyme, as well towards mee as my frinds; this mich I desere he should vnderstand, and for my pt there shalbe nothinge wantinge yt becometh a frinde; nether can I but hold my sealf most kindly dealt withall by hym heatherto, of weh I desere the continuance. I have deserved all his curteses in the hiest degree. For the sutes of Lesmore, I will shortly send over order from the Queen for a dismis of their cavelacions; and so I pray deale as the matter may be respeted for a tyme, and commd mee to Mr Sollicitor, wth many thancks for his frindly deling therin, and I assure you on myne honor I have deserved it att his hande in ARCHBISHOP HARSNET AND BISHOP KEN. The investigator after remarkable coincidences will be struck with the resemblance of a clause in the wills of Archbishop Harsnet and Bishop Ken, who, like Ridley, Hooker, and Jeremy Taylor, so unflinchingly advocated and ably defended the One Catholic and Apostolic Faith. Samuel Harsnet, a native of Colchester, was of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, a little after Spenser and Harvey. In 1609 he became Bishop of Chichester; in 1619 of Norwich; and in 1628 Archbishop of York. Echard says of him, that he was "a learned and judicious divine, and the first perhaps who used the noted expression of Conformable Puritans, such as conformed out of policy, and dissented in their judgments." The following passage was written, as it were, with the Archbishop's dying hand, the will being dated February 13, 1631, and he departed this life on May 25, of the same year: : "I die in the ancient faith of the true Catholick and Apostolick Church, called the Primitive Church, that faith as it was professed by the ancient Holy Fathers next after the Blessed Apostles, the great renowned pillars of the same, and signed and sealed with their blood; renouncing from my heart all modern Popish superstitions, and all novelties of Geneva, not accordant with the maxims of the Primitive renowned Church, relying and resting my sinful soul upon the alone merits of Christ Jesus, mine only Saviour and most Blessed Redeemer, to Whom be all praise, honour, and glory, world without end." Thomas Ken was born at Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire in July, 1637, and educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford. On Jan. 25, 1685-6, he was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells. Although for his fidelity to the Church he was incarcerated in the Tower of London by his lawful sovereign, James II., he nevertheless, to keep his conscience void of offence edition of Ames, was supposed for a long time to have perished; some years since, it unexpectedly reappeared. Before the alterations upon the Advocates' Library were made, in one of the middle rooms below, where the receipts for books borrowed were kept, there was a flight of stairs leading upwards to a large closet in which coals, fuel, and waste paper were deposited. In it also a quantity of old books were heaped; usually when paper was wanted, it was obtained there. Once, upon a day when that commodity was required, an under-librarian ascended the stairs, and brought back an old quarto play. This led to a conjecture that there might be other articles worth preservation in the same place. Several volumes were then disinterred: some of value, some valueless. But amongst these, was a thick dirty looking book, in small quarto. Upon looking over it, my astonishment may be conceived, when the first thing that attracted notice was the uncommonly rare Informacion for Pylgrymes unto the Holy Lande, printed by Wynken de Worde; and subsequently reprinted for the Roxburghe Club. This led to a further investigation of the contents, when the following singularly rare works were also discovered: 1. "The Abbay of the holy Ghost." With a fine impression of a woodcut of the Crucifixion on the back of the title. It is "Emprynted at Westmynster, by Wynken de Worde." N.D. 2. "Here begynneth a lytell treatyse named the bowge of Courte." In verse, with a curious woodcut on title. "Thus endeth the bowge of Courte. Emprynted at Westmynstre by me, Wynken the (sic) Worde." 3. "Here begynnyth ye temple of Glas." Title wanting. It has Caxton's device at end; but was evidently printed by Wynken de Worde. 4. "The moost excellent treatise of the Thre Kynges of Coleyne." On the title-page is a very excellent woodcut of the Virgin and Child, receiving offerings from the Kings; and on the back, the same woodcut of the Crucifixion as occurs in the first article described. It is defec tive of the last leaf; but is undoubtedly a production of Wynken de Worde's press. 5. "Mons Perfectionis; otherwyse, in Englysshe, 'the hylle of perfeccyon.'" Woodcut of a bishop, probably Alcock, Bishop of Ely, the author, on front, and the preceding cut of the Crucifixion on the reverse of title. "Emprynted at Westmynstre, by Wynken de Worde, the yere of our lorde M.CCCCLXXXXVII; and in the yere of ye reygne of the moost vyctorious Prynce, our moost naturall souerayne lorde Henry the seventh, at the instaunce of the reuerende fader Thomas Pryour of the house of Saynt Anne, ye ordre of the chartrouse, and fynyshed the xxii day of the moneth of Maye in the yere aboue sayd." Then follows a rude woodcut of the Ascension. This, with the Informacyon, is a list of the six singularly rare English articles in the volume. The seventh was the long lost poem of Rauf Corlzear, in perfect condition and admirable preservation: "Heire beginnis the taill of Rauf Coilzear, how he harbreit King Charlis." Then follows two heads coarsely cut in wood, and having no apparent connexion with the work itself. Imprentit at Sanct Androis by Robert Lekpreuik, anno 1572." - The discovery was immediately communicated to the late Dr. Irving, the learned librarian of the Faculty of Advocates, who had been recently elected to that office. The coal-hole, as it may properly be termed, was thereupon searched, and some other articles turned up; but none of extraordinary rarity. The volume was immediately taken down, and each article bound separately in red morocco by Mr. Abraham Thomson - the best bookbinder at that time in Scotland; and they are now carefully preserved in the Faculty Library. To prevent the chance of the disappearance of Rauf Coilzear again, a reprint was made under the editorial care of David Laing, Esq., and forms a portion of that valuable collection of early Scotch poetry which that gentleman gave to the world, and to which the reader is referred. A great many of the productions of our Scotch printers have almost entirely disappeared. Thus, Robert Smyth ("Librar. Burgess of Edinburgh," who died on the 1st of May, 1602), from his will, which has been printed in the Bannatyne Miscellany (vol. ii. p. 233), is proved to have published numerous works. Yet no single volume of his was known to exist until within these few years, when a volume was discovered, consisting of a four Books of the Epistles, wanting the title, but fraction of Cicero's works. Amongst these were with the printer's device at the end: an odd one sure enough, being a coarse delineation of a porpoise, mounted upon a salmon, in a river (perhaps the Forth), and a building upon a hill in the background. The imprint is: "Edenburgi apud Robertum Smythium, anno Do. 1583," 12mo. The other contents were the treatise "De officiis," printed by "Johannes Kyngstonus, 1574;" and lancthon, and Latomus. a separate appendix of notes by Erasmus, Me At the period of Smyth's demise, his will instructs that there was in his stock 1275 copies of the "Select Epistillis of Cicero ;" and having been both printer and publisher, he must have sold numerous copies before his demise. Nevertheless but one copy, and that defective of the title, has as yet been found. This has undoubtedly arisen from its being a school-book; and meeting with the usual fate that befalls productions of that class. But Smyth was not merely the publisher of school-books: for we find, in the enumeration of his stock, 232 "Gray Steillis," not one of which is now supposed to be in existence. Indeed, until the discovery of a more modern edition, the poem was supposed to have been lost. What has become of his 1034 “Dundee Psalms," his 743 "Fabillis of Isope," and various other works? They seem to have perished entirely; and his device exists only, so far as is at present known, in the presumed unique copy of the "Select Epistillis of Cicero." Robert Charteris printed that singular dramatic production, called Philotus, in 1603; of which a beautiful reprint in black-letter was presented to the Members of the Bannatyne Club by J. Whitefoord Mackenzie, Esq. At the end of this "delectable Treatise," Charteris intimates to the public that he has "prentit sondrie vther delectabell discourses undernamit, sic as are Sir David Lyndesayis play, the Preistis of Pebles with merie Tailes, the Freiris of Berwick, and Bilbo." The first three works, though extremely rare, have come down to us. But what has become of "Bilbo"? Has any person ever seen it? J. M. place wher it may most steed hyme: for hardinge, I will send vnto you mony by exchange wth all possible spead, az well to pay hyme (if he suffer the recoverye) as all others; and till then I pray if my builders want, supply them. I look for you here this springe, and if possible I may I will return wth you. The Queen thinkes yt George Carew longes to see her; and therefore see her for once, noble George, my frinde and kinsman, from whom nor tyme nor fortune nor adversety shall ever sever mee. "the xxviij (?) of Decembr." (Superscribed) "To my lovinge Cussen, Sr "W. RALEAGH. (Indorsed) "Raleghe, the 28th of December, 1589." JOHN MACLEAN. SIR WALTER RALEGH: INEDITED LETTER. Much correspondence has recently taken place in the pages of "N. & Q." on the subject of Sir Walter Ralegh's arms. The following highly characteristic letter of this famous though arro gant man—which is preserved among the Lambeth MSS. (No. 605, 140), and has, I believe, never before been printed-will, doubtless, be interesting. It will be remembered that Sir Walter Ralegh received an extensive grant of lands in Ireland; parcel of the forfeited estates of the unfortunate Gerald, Earl of Desmond. The grant consisted, I believe, of some 40,000 acres, lying chiefly in the valley of the Blackwater. At the time this letter was written, Sir Walter was engaged in building a house, I think, at Lismore. The letter was addressed to his kinsman, Sir George Carew, then Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, afterwards Baron Carew and Earl of Totnes. "CUSSEN GEORGE,- for my retrait from the court, it was uppon good cause to take order for my prize; if in Irlande they thinke yt I am not worth the respectinge, they shall much deceve them sealvs. I am in place to be beleved not inferior to any man to pleasure or displeasure the greatest, and my oppinion is so receved and beleved as I can anger the best of them; and, therefore, if the deputy be not as reddy to stead mee as I have bynn to defend hyme, be it as it may; when Sr William fittz Williams shalbe in ingland, I take my sealfe furr his better by the honourable offices I hold, as also by that nereness to her Maiestye wch still I inioy and never more. I am willinge to continen towards hyme all frendly offices, and I doubt not of the like from hyme, as well towards mee as my frinds; this mich I desere he should vnderstand, and for my pt there shalbe nothinge wantinge yt becometh a frinde; nether can I but hold my sealf most kindly dealt withall by hym heatherto, of weh I desere the continuance. I have deserved all his curteses in the hiest degree. For the sutes of Lesmore, I will shortly send over order from the Queen for a dismis of their cavelacions; and so I pray deale as the matter may be respeted for a tyme, and commd mee to Mr Sollicitor, with many thancks for his frindly deling therin, and I assure you on myne honor I have deserved it att his hande in ARCHBISHOP HARSNET AND BISHOP KEN. The investigator after remarkable coincidences will be struck with the resemblance of a clause in the wills of Archbishop Harsnet and Bishop Ken, who, like Ridley, Hooker, and Jeremy Taylor, so unflinchingly advocated and ably defended the One Catholic and Apostolic Faith. Samuel Harsnet, a native of Colchester, was of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, a little after Spenser and Harvey. In 1609 he became Bishop of Chichester; in 1619 of Norwich; and in 1628 Archbishop of York. Echard says of him, that he was "a learned and judicious divine, and the first perhaps who used the noted expression of Conformable Puritans, such as conformed out of policy, and dissented in their judgments." The following passage was written, as it were, with the Archbishop's dying hand, the will being dated February 13, 1631, and he departed this life on May 25, of the same year: "I die in the ancient faith of the true Catholick and Apostolick Church, called the Primitive Church, that faith as it was professed by the ancient Holy Fathers next after the Blessed Apostles, the great renowned pillars of the same, and signed and sealed with their blood; renouncing from my heart all modern Popish superstitions, and all novelties of Geneva, not accordant with the maxims of the Primitive renowned Church, relying and resting my sinful soul upon the alone merits of Christ Jesus, mine only Saviour and most Blessed Redeemer, to Whom be all praise, honour, and glory, world without end." Thomas Ken was born at Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire in July, 1637, and educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford. On Jan. 25, 1685-6, he was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells. Although for his fidelity to the Church he was incarcerated in the Tower of London by his lawful sovereign, James II., he nevertheless, to keep his conscience void of offence towards God and man, refused the oaths of allegiance to the Prince of Orange, commonly called William the Third, and was accordingly deprived by the State of his episcopal throne on Feb. 1, 1691-2. He died at Long-Leate on March 19, 1711-12, and was buried at FroomeSelwood, in the churchyard under the east window of the chancel, just at sun-rising *, without any manner of pomp or ceremony. In his will are these memorable words : "As for my religion, I die in the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Faith, professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West: more particularly I die in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross." Precious indeed is the death of God's saints, and rich the reminiscences of their last sayings. J. Y. Barnsbury. Minor Notes. MISS VANE: DISAPPOINted Love.· "The teeming mother, anxious for her race, Miss Vane was mistress to Frederic Prince of Wales, and afterwards to Lord Hervey. From the following lines, written by her, it be inmay ferred that her unfortunate course was owing to a disappointment in love. Lord Lincoln, of whom she seems to have been deeply enamoured, married Miss Pelham: 1 "I once was blessed with all that Heaven could give, My wish arrived, and just when happy made, The thoughtful reader need scarcely to be reminded of the concluding lines which Dr. Donne requested to be placed on his monument as an epitaph: "Hic, licet in occiduo cinere, aspicit eum cujus nomen est Oriens: " And here, though set in dust, he beholdeth Him whose name is the Rising. Alluding, says Dr. Zouch, to the position of Dr. Donne looking eastward, and to the famous passage in Zechariah vi. 12, "Behold the Man whose name is the Branch," which the Septuagint Greek and Vulgate Latin render "whose name is the East," or "the Rising." As swift as Maia's feather'd son he moved, In notes more sweet than Philomela sings, Oh, aid me Murray! call my wandering swain, To plead the sweetest cause, the cause of love; "Oct. 5, 1744."-Scots Mag. vol. xxxix. p. 212. W. D. BURNING ALIVE.-Our ancestors were not perfect, neither are we, but I am sometimes, as a good antiquarian, at a loss to understand the passion which so many of us exhibit for painting our fathers in the blackest colours, and ourselves in the brightest. Mr. Phillimore, in the declamatory lecture which he addresses us respecting the barbarism of the reign of George III., tells us, among other horrid things, how "women were burnt alive by the deliberate sentence of the law." (History of the Reign of George the Third, book 1. p. 50.) Women were no more burnt alive under George III. than they are under his granddaughter. This subject has been repeatedly discussed in your columns. The mode of execution of women for "petit treason" was by strangulation; the body only was burnt. Strangely enough, Mr. Phillimore cites three instances. One from the Annual Register for 1777, p. 168, which is not there, neither can I find it. One from the Annual Register for 1773 (quoted at p. 68 of his work): "Elizabeth Herring was burnt alive. All the details are given, Ann. Reg. p. 131." This reference is as incorrect as the other. But at p. 461 of that volume I find it stated, that the method of executing Mrs. Herring this day for the murder of her husband was as follows: "She was placed on a stool, with a rope round her neck fastened to a stake; the stool was taken from under her, and she was soon strangled." The body was then burnt. The third from the Annual Register for 1786 — "Phoebe Harris was burnt for counterfeiting shillings." This case of Phoebe Harris has been mentioned already in your publication, but I have not the reference. She "stood on a low stool which was taken away, and she hung suspended by her neck Soon after the signs of life had SWIFT: TALE OF A TUB.-The following remarkable passage from St. Optatus must have sug gested, one would apprehend, the leading idea upon which the Tale of a Tub was founded. I have not had an opportunity of verifying it, but it is cited by an accurate author. It is to be premised that Optatus is speaking of the rule of faith: "Arbitrators are wanted. If Christians, they cannot be given on either side, because truth is hindered by party spirit. A judge is to be sought for abroad. If a Pagan, he cannot know Christian secrets. If a Jew, he is an enemy of Christian baptism; therefore on earth no judgment can be found touching this matter; a judge is to be sought for from Heaven. But why beat we at Heaven when we have His Testament here in the Gospel? Since in this place earthly things may rightly be compared with heavenly, it is just as the case of a man having numerous sons. These their father himself, as long as he is present, orders one and all; a testament is not yet necessary. So Christ, as long as He was present on earth (though he be not even now wanting) enjoined on the Apostles whatever was necessary for the time. But like as an earthly father, when he perceives himself to be on the confines of death, fearing lest after his death the brothers should break the peace and go to law, having taken witnesses, transfers his will from his dying breast into tablets that shall endure a long while, and if contention shall have arisen among the brothers, they do not make an uproar, but the will is sought for, and he who rests in the tomb silently speaks from the tablets, so He, the Living One, whose the Testament is, is in Heaven, therefore His will may be sought in the Gospel so as in a testament." J. R. ANNIVERSARY OF DRUMCLOG.I do not think it is generally known that the anniversary of the Battle of Drumclog is celebrated annually by a The sermon on Loudon Hill, the battlefield. representatives of the "Cameronians" at their last "synod" split into two parties on the questions of taking the oath of allegiance, voting for M.P., &c. The party who stuck to the principle in its entirety, and would not "allow" the queen and all her men, was a glorious minority of three members of synod; and they have set up as a separate "body"-the genuine Covenanters alone in a degenerate generation. J. D. CAMPBELL. FULKE GREVILLE, ESQ., AND FRANCES HIS WIFE.-Fulke Greville, son of the Hon. Algernon Greville (son of Fulke Greville, fifth Lord Brooke), was educated at Winchester; and in 1765 was Envoy Extraordinary to the Elector of Bavaria, and minister to the Diet of Ratisbon. By his wife, hereafter mentioned, he had six sons and a daughter, Frances Anne, who, in 1768, married John Crewe, Esq., afterwards Lord Crewe. Mr. Greville published anonymously, in 1756, Maxims, Characters, and Reflections; Critical, Satyrical, and Moral: and editions of 1757 and 1768 are mentioned. This work excited the scorn of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Horace Walpole; but Boswell thought it entitled to much more praise than it had received. He resided at Wilbury, in Wilts; and is mentioned, but in a somewhat hazy manner, in Hoare's Modern Wilts ("Amesbury Hundred," 103). His portrait, by Humphry, was engraved by J. Condé in 1791. When did he die? His wife Frances, the daughter of James Macartney, Esq., died in 1789. She was author of "A Prayer for Indifference," which is given in Campbell's Specimens of British Poets; but neither Mr. Campbell, nor his editor Mr. Peter Cunningham, give her Christian name or the date of her death. C. H. & THOMPSON COOPER. Cambridge. Queries. ST. MARY MATFELON: VIRGINI PARITURÆ. Many readers of “ N. & Q.” are doubtless acquainted with the strange legend connected with the Cathedral of Chartres. In a crypt of that cathedral was formerly deposited and venerated an image of the B. V. M., said to be possessed of miraculous powers, and called "our Lady of Chartres." This crypt is also said to have been formed from a cave-temple constructed before the Christian era, in which this image was placed with the inscription "Virgini Parituræ," to the Virgin who will bring forth" (a son). It is said that one of the sybils predicted to the Gallic Druids the future birth of Christ, and that they in consequence erected an altar in the cave, placed an image before it, and offered anticipatory adoration to the mother, from whom the Deliverer was destined to spring. I find that Pennant, in his History of London, when describing the parish of chapel, relates that the above title of Matfelon is St. Mary Matfelon, commonly called Whitesaid to signify in Hebrew, the Virgin who will bring forth, Virgo Paritura. In endeavouring to verify this derivation, I find the root walad or valad (nearly in sound to falad) in Hebrew, signifying the act of bringing forth (a child); but I do not find its conjugational developments. In the cognate Arabic, however, this root is found in the fifth conjugation, which very nearly expresses the sense of the future in rus. In the = |