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seventeen inches in diameter; and has the appearance of having been suspended, but the ring is broken off. Can any of your readers give any information respecting it, whence it probably came, and what head it can be; as the gentleman in whose house it was found has only the :slight recollection of having seen it when quite young about fifty years ago? QUERO.

ANGELIC VISION OF THE DYING. - The Rev. David Brown, D.D., in his recently-published Commentary on the Gospels, Glasgow, 1863, in the course of his remarks on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and in connection with the fact that the latter "was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" (vide Luke xvi. 23), observes: "How beautiful is the view here given us of the ministration of angels, especially at the death-bed of the saints. Often do they tell us, they see them waiting for them and smiling on them. They are ready to stretch out their arms to them, to signify their readiness at that moment to be taken up by them; and they ask us, sometimes, if we do not see them too. Of course we don't, for we live in a world of sense. But they are then leaving it; it has all but closed upon them, and they are getting within the precincts of heaven. Who, then, shall say that they see not what is hidden from us; and since what they affirm they see is only what is here represented as a reality, who, with this parable before him, shall say that such sights are but the fruit of a distempered imagination, a picture of the fevered or languid brain?'

My object in sending you the above extract is, to solicit any of your numerous and learned correspondents who may be possessed of information on the subject, to oblige me with a reference to any published records of such cases, or, better still, an account, however brief, of any that have come within their own personal experience. The whole subject of what may be called the "clairvoyance of the dying" is most curious and interesting, and has more than once been touched upon in "N. & Q," but not, I believe, this particular aspect of it. W. MAUDE.

Birkenhead.

BAYLY OR BAYLEY FAMILY.-Wood, Athen. Oxon., ii. 530, says, "Nicholas Bayly was the bishop's younger son, a military man, and a major in Ireland. He died in May or June, 1689." I shall be very thankful to any one who will give me any further particulars of Nicholas Bayly, or his family. CPL.

CRAPAUD RING. Among some family jewels bequeathed about 180 years ago, I find one mentioned under this name, with special instructions for its preservation. Crapaud being French for a toad, one is reminded of the "precious jewel" which that animal was once supposed to wear in its head. Perhaps some of your readers may be able to explain more distinctly what these articles were and why so called.

J.

CAST OF A HEAD IN BELL METAL.-In the lumber closet of an old house in this town, was lately found, partially imbedded in the wall, the cast of a head in bell-metal: well executed, in bold relief, encircled with the garter and motto, thus written "Hony soy quy mal y pense"-in Old English characters, with a rose between each word, the head very much resembling the print of Henry VII., by Geo. Vertue. It is round, and

Thetford.

DANCING IN SLIPPERS.-In a MS. Diary of a maid of honour of the time of George III., the following passage occurs: "The evening concluded with a ball which the Prince and Princess began. She danced in slippers very well, and the Prince better than anybody." What is the meaning of dancing in slippers? L. S.

DEAN: DECANUS.-By a patent, 3 King James, the king granted the Impropriate Rectory of B- to L. B. and W. B. And the grantees agree, at their own expenses, to find and provide a curate or minister at the chapel of S- (which was chapel-of-ease to B, the mother church); and two deans ("duos decan.), viz. one at Band the other at S, to celebrate divine service there ("ad divina servic. ibidem celebrand."), and whatever else "ad divin, cultum pertinet ibidem peragend."

Will one of your correspondents inform me what was the office of the decanus, as above mentioned? P. H. F.

DE VERES, EArls of Oxford.—Will some of your readers inform me which of the De Veres first adopted the motto Vero nihil verius?* Also, where I can find a drawing of the coat of arms of the last earl of that family, John de Vere, who died in 1526? G. W. J.

THE EXEMPT JURISDICTION OF NEWRY AND MOURNE. In what publications may be found particulars of the history of the Exempt Jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne? The Earl of Kilmorey is the Lord Abbot; and the district is situate in the counties of Down and Armagh.

ABHBA.

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the following unprinted works of Chancellor Sir
John Fortescue (temp. Henry VI.) ? —
1. Defensio juris Domus Lancastriæ.

2. A Defence of the House of Lancaster.
3. Genealogy of the House of Lancaster.
4. Of the Title of the House of York.
5. Defence of the House of York.

6. Genealogia Regum Scotia.

7. A Dialogue between Understanding and Faith. 8. A Prayer Book "which saureth much of the times we live in."*

KAPPA.

GOLDEN CANDLESTICK OF THE TEMPLE AT

JERUSALEM.—What is the origin of the story that this candlestick, taken in the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, was thrown over the Pons Milvius on the retreat of Maxentius after his battle with Constantine? We may conclude from Procopius (De Bello Vandalico, ii. 9) that it was among the spoils transferred from Rome to Carthage by

Genseric.

GRINLING GIBBONS.

S.

Although the biographies of Grinling Gibbons, the sculptor, state that he died at his own house in Bow Street, Covent Garden, on August 3, 1721, yet they are silent as to whether he left any children.

There was a Joseph Gibbons, who died in July 1808, at Mount Row, South Lambeth. I should like to know where he was born, and whether he was a descendant of the sculptor?

MARTHA LAYCOCK.

IRVING'S GREEK TESTAMENT.-To what edition of the Greek Testament did Irving allude when he says-"I have got a noble New Testament, in Greek, with all the glosses and scholia of the Fathers, with which I delight myself." (Oliphant's Irving, vol. i. 241.) By-the-bye, I fear the plural scholie will hardly pass muster as good Greek, Latin, or English.

C. W. BINGHAM.

THE KAISER-Saal at FRANKFORT.—The walls of the Kaiser-Saal in the Roemer at Frankforton-the-Maine, are ornamented with the full-length portraits of all the Emperors of Germany. Accompanying each portrait is the Wahl-spruch, or motto, of the emperor represented. Has any list of these ever been printed? If so, where?

New Shoreham.

J. WOODWARD.

LIZARS: LIzures. Since my queries about these names (2nd S. xii. 434) were printed, I have [* There appears to be some uncertainty respecting the fate of a portion of the manuscripts of Sir John Fortescue. According to Casley's Catalogue of the King's Library, p. 321, the first six articles (with four others) were bound in one volume, and formerly marked Otho, B. I., and which, according to Casley, was burnt in 1734. In Smith's Catalogue, 1696, it is marked "Deest;" but in the MS. Report in 1703, this volume is noticed as one of the manuscripts restored to the library. No. 7, " A Dialogue between Understanding and Faith," is in Bibl. Cotton. Vitellius, E. X. 176.-ED.]

heard that the family of Lizars in Scotland allege that they are descended from a French family, which came into Scotland with Mary of Guise, or Mary Queen of Scots. This upsets my conjecture that Lizars was really the Norman Lizures. Can any one inform me if the name appears among the French attendants of either of the Marys? Mr. C. Innes, in his book Concerning some Scotch Surnames, says that Lizars or Lisours is a name derived from the name of a Scotch place. What place? Does Michel mention the name?

Σ. Θ.

French book, upon the history of the origin of the French law, that the "bannalités des fours, des moulins, des pressoirs," are traceable in Columella.

MANORIAL RIGHTS.-I find it stated in a little

The same writer, continuing the same idea, refor his coloni. marks that every Roman possessor had a mill, &c.,

Perhaps some of your readers, who are familiar with Columella, will say whether the Roman author bears out the assertions of the French author. C.

MAR FAMILY. I find in Douglas's Baronage of Scotland the following passage:

"William Leith married a daughter of Donald, twelfth Earl of Marr (omitted in the Peerage, p. 460), and in consequence had the cross-crosslets (being part of the arms of that noble family) added to his own armorial bearing.” [Circa 1350.]-Douglas, vol. i. p. 224.

there is no mention, as before stated in the BaOn referring to Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ronage, of a daughter married to William Leith. Donald, twelfth Earl, is there shown to have had only two children, viz., Thomas, thirteenth Earl, who died childless; and Margaret, who succeeded to the title. She married William Douglas, and had issue James, Earl of Douglas and Mar, who died childless, and Isabel, Countess of Mar on her brother's death, who married twice, without issue. The title, then, instead of devolving on the surviving daughter of Donald, twelfth Earl of Mar, and her descendants, the Leith family, reverted, singularly enough, to Eleyne, sister of Donald, twelfth Earl, and great aunt of Isabel, the preceding countess. It is through this Eleyne that the title was claimed by the Erskine family, who obtained it. I believe archives of the Mar family exist, which may most probably afford information about the daughter of Donald, twelfth Earl, married to William Leith. Could any of your readers be able to give assistance? TYRRELL DE LETH.

MELANCHTHON.-The following is from An Enquiry into the History of Demoniacks, London, 1749:

"Melanchthon relates that he saw at a village near Dresden, a young woman who could neither read nor write in her ordinary state, but who, when possessed of the devil, spoke both Latin and Greek correctly, and in the latter

tongue (the words of which he gives) predicted the com-
ing war, and the league of Smalkald,” p. 26.
No reference is given. I shall be obliged by
one, and especially by the Greek words.

A. A. R.

MONUMENTS AT HAMPTON, VIRGINIA. - Mr. Russell, LL.D. in his interesting Diary, North and South, vii. pp. 172-175, mentions a visit which he paid to the town of Hampton, Virginia:

"The church is rendered interesting by the fact, that it is almost the first church built by the English colonists in Virginia. On the tombstones are recorded the names of many subjects of his Majesty George III., and familiar names of many persons born in the early part of the last century in English villages, who passed to their rest before the great rebellion of the colonies had disturbed their notions of loyalty and respect to the crown."

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"Nouveau Dictionnaire Français: contenant les expressions de nouvelle Création du Peuple Français. Ouvrage additionel au Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française et à tout autre Vocabulaire. Par Leonard Snetlage, Docteur en Droite en l'Université de Gottingue. A Gottingue, chez Jean Chretien Dieterich, Libraire, 1795."

A preface of fifteen pages, and definitions of party names, &c., very full. Smail octavo, 250 pp. exclusive of preface. J. A. G.

SAINTS OF BRETAGNE. I have just been reading in the Christian Remembrancer for October, 1863, an interesting article on "French Ecclesi

Have these inscriptions been published; if so, where? The present posture of affairs renders their destruction probable. If they are not already in type, some wandering Englishman would do well to send them for preservation to "N. & Q."ology." At p. 439 occur the following names of A LORD OF A MANOR.

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Saints peculiar to Bretagne, viz., S. Bihi, S. Bili, S. Ignoroa, S. Gomla, S. Moulff, and S. Pazanne. work in French or English, which gives an account Can some of your correspondents refer me to any of these saints, whose names are as strange as many of our own Cornish saints.

Norwich.

JOHN DALTON.

LAURENCE STERNE.-As I am about going to press with a Life of this famous humorist, I am sure you will allow me to use a corner of your column to ask—as clergymen do in the case of deserving charities-for literary subscriptions to this subject. I think I have explored nearly every likely quarter, but I am convinced there are many unpublished letters of Sterne's among the papers of families in these kingdoms. There is a Mr. Watson, who is mentioned by Nichols as having such things. There is "the gentleman at Bath," who has Sterne's original Journal to Eliza, but whose name Mr. Thackeray has forgotten. Any information-but which, to be of practical use, must be speedily imparted—will be most welcome. A fair life of Sterne, not partial, but clearing from much slander and intentional misrepresentation, will I am sure appeal favourably to the sympathies of all who have interest in Shandean humour. P. F.

DISCOVERY OF THE TYRIAN PURPLE.

"Ces pauvres chiens! quels services n'ont ils pas rendus à l'humanité! Hercules, au moyen de son chien Murex, découvrit la pourpre. Il suivait la nymphe Tyro, dont il était amoureux; son chien, qui cherchait à manger, brise un coquillage, et sa gueule se teint en rouge. Tyro dit au Hercules: Faites moi cadeau d'une robe de cette couleur, et je suis à vous.' Aujourd'hui certaines dames disent: Donnez moi un cachemire.' La mode est toujours la même; on a varié seulement sur les expressions." Blaze, Histoire du Chien. Paris, 1843, p. 212.

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Queries with Answers. WEDDING SERMONS.· I have been requested by a "book collector under difficulties," a clergyman in one of our distant colonies, to procure a set of Wedding Sermons: "as many as possible, and the more curious and ancient the better." I have made out the following list to assist me in the research. Can any of your readers add to this?

Massie (Wm.), Sermon at the Marriage of a Daughter of Sir Edmund Trafforde. 1586.

Hackett (B.), Marriage Present, a Sermon. 1607. Whateley (Wm.), preacher of Banbury: The Carecloth, a Wedding Sermon. 1624.

Humphries (John), Wedding Sermon. 1742. Wedding Sermons, by various Authors, collected. 12mo. London, 1732.

Meggott (R.), Sermon on Gen. ii. 18. 1656.
Secker (Wm.), A Wedding Ring fit for ye Finger.

1707.

Shepherd (Thos.), A Wedding Sermon on Gen. ii. 18. 1713.

Ford (John), Two Sermons on Gen. ii. 18. 1735.
Shuttleworth (John), A Sermon. 1712.
Lewis (Ellis), A Wedding Sermon. 1716.
Fisher (Josh.), A Wedding Discourse. 1695.
Cockburn (J. D. D.), A Wedding Sermon. 1708.
Rogers (Danl.), Matrimonial Honour. 1642.

The above are all single Sermons. The fol

There is also a similar Sermon to these in Jerome's Works, i. 404; and in the Sermons published by the famous Dr. Samuel Johnson. JUXTA TURRIM.

[In Straker's Catalogue, 1850, appeared a very curious collection, bound in one vol. 4to, viz. :-"5295. Marriage Sermons, viz. Gataker's Marriage Duties briefly couched together:-Good Wife God's Gift.-Bradshaw's Marriage Feast.-Whateley's Bride Bush, or Directions for Married Persons.-Care Cloth, or a Treatise on the Cumbers and Troubles of Marriage. Thomas Taylor's Good Husband and Good Wife, published by John Sedgwick.Meggott's Rib Restored, or the Honor of Marriage, 16201656." We must not omit Jeremy Taylor's two excellent Sermons on "The Marriage Ring; or the Mysteriousness and Duties of Marriage," in his Works, by Bp. Heber, v. 248, and republished separately in 1851. Consult also Watt's Bibliotheca Britan., Index of Subjects, arts. Marriage and Wedding.]

NORWICH BISHOPS ALSO ABBOTS.-I wish to know whether it is a fact (as I have often heard asserted), that the Bishops of Norwich are mitred Abbats of St. Benet's at Holme, or Hulme, and entitled as such to a seat in the House of Peers, independently of their bishoprics? If this is the case, why was the abbacy retained when the abbey and its establishment were swept away?

F. D. H.

[It appears, according to Blomefield (Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 547, ed. 1806), that "William Rugg, Abbot of St. Benedict at Hulme, was one of those Cambridge divines that took abundance of pains to procure Henry VIII. such a judgment from the University, about his divorce from Queen Katharine, as he desired, which at last he effected; and thereby so pleased the king, that he determined to honour him with the title of this bishoprick, and at the same time make him contented with the revenues of his abbey only. Accordingly, Feb. 4, 1535, the see being void, he obtained an Act of Parliament to be then passed, whereby, under the specious pretence of advancing the see, he severed the ancient barony and revenues from it, and annexed the priory of Hickling, and the barony and revenues of the abbey of Hulme thereunto, in lieu thereof; in right of which barony the Bishop of Norwich sits now in the House of Lords as Abbot of Hulme, the barony of the bishoprick being in the king's hands, and the monastery being never dissolved, only transferred by the statute before the general dissolution; the Bishop of this see is the only abbot at this day in England."]

TROLLOP'S MONUMENT.-The Beauties of Eng

lowing will be found in volumes amongst other land, 1803 (v. 177), describe a monument (or discourses:

Dr. Donne's Sermon at a Marriage, vol. iv., Alford edit., p. 1.

Skelton (P.), Two Sermons on Gen. ii. 18, in vol. iv. of Lynam's edit.

Manton (Thos.), A Wedding Sermon, in a volume entitled, "Several Discourses." 1695.

Gataker (Thos.), Marriage Prayer, in vol. i. of his collected Works. 1637.

Sandys (Archbp.), in Parker's Society's edition of his "Sermons," p. 313.

Cosin (Bp.) on John ii. 1, 2: "Works," i. 44. Thompson (Edw.), in a volume of Sermons, published,

1838.

mausoleum), at Gateshead, with some curious verses upon it. Is anything more known of this Trollop, or of the way in which the present possessors of the burial-place acquired it?

Hobart Town,

J. M'C. B.

[Robert Trollop, architect of the town-hall at Newcastle, 1659, prepared his own tomb, a heavy square pile; the lower part brick, the upper stone, sometime ornamented with golden texts beneath the cornice. On the north side, according to tradition, stood the image of Robert Trollop, with his arm raised, pointing towards the town-hall of Newcastle, and underneath :

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CHARLES I.: MILTON. There is a very abusive little work, entitled The Life and Reigne of King Charls, or the Pseudo-Martyr discovered, printed at London in the year 1651, 12mo. It is a singularly curious, but most abusive production. The copy before me has been in possession of two red-hot Royalists-whose notes, on the foot and the margin of many of the pages, are sufficiently pithy. As for instance, one on the title, where the author is said to have been " a base villaine."

One of the strongest passages is as follows: "Quære, whether the cutting off of our bloody and blood-thirsty Prince, together with the exclusion of his whole posterity, can be a sufficient expiation in the eye of Heaven for the blood of a million of poor innocent souls slaughtered for the satiating of one Prince's lustfull will and pleasure," &c.-P. 48.

At the foot of the page, which concludes thus

"Iratus Deus dedit iis regem,"—

there is this note in an old hand : :

"The author of this was Miltone, who lost Paradise."

Is there any corroborative evidence of this assertion? The reference to this immortal poem indicates that the note must have been written after its appearance. J. M.

[This work is ascribed to Milton in the Bodleian Catalogue, ii. 749, from a manuscript note on the title of that copy. But on a copy in Dr. Bandinel's library being lent to Dr. Routh, who had never seen or heard of it before, the latter gave his opinion that the expressions were too low and the style too coarse for Milton. On the title of Dr. Bandinel's copy is written, in a contemporary hand," By a Rebellious Rogue."]

SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G.-Were any portraits of the above "standard bearer" to Henry VIII. saved from the fire at Cowdray in 1793 ? If so, in whose possession are they now?

Hobart Town, Tasmania.

J. M'C. B.

[It appears that all the portraits, from the rapid progress of the flames, were irretrievably lost when the noble building of Cowdray House was destroyed on September 24, 1793. See Dallaway's Western Sussex, ii. 246, for a Catalogue of the curious portraits; consult also Archeológia, iii. 239-272; and Gent. Mag. vol. lxiii. pt. ii. pp. 858, 951, 996. Dallaway states that at Lumley Castle, Durham, is a half-length portrait of Sir Anthony Browne, extremely curious and well-finished.]

KINDLIE TENANT. - What was the "Kindlie Tenant Right?" H. E. N.

[A man is said to have a kindlie to a farm, or possession, which his ancestors have held, and which he has himself long tenanted. Hence the designation kindlie tenants. Keith (Hist. p. 521) says: "Some people think that the easy leases granted by the kirk-men to the kindly tennants (i. e. such as possessed their rooms for an undetermined space of time, provided they still paid the rents) is the reason that the kirk-lands throughout the kingdom were generally the best grounds."-Jamieson's Dictionary, Supplement, ii. 17, 4to.]

"MATHEMATICAL RECREATION." Who was the "H. Van Etten," who wrote Mathematical Recreation? My copy wants the title-page, but I guess the date to be about 1660. The work is dedicated to "The Lord Lambert Verreyken, Lord of Hinden, Wolverthem," &c., by his "Nephew and Servant, H. Van Etten." D. BLAIR.

Melbourne.

[H. Van Etten is a pseudonym; the real author of this work was Jean Leurechon, a Jesuit, who was born about 1591 in the duchy of Bar, and afterwards Rector of the college there. Some account of him may be found in the new edition of the Biographie Universelle, xxiv. 383, Consult also "N. & Q." 1st S. xi. 504, 516; xii. 117.]

HALL FAMILY.-Where can I find any account of the family of Hall of Otterburn, co. Northumberland, their pedigree, arms, &c.? John Hall, who was executed for taking part in the rebellion W. HALL. of 1715, was one of this family.

Gibraltar.

[For the pedigree and notices of the Hall family, consult Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 113, 154; and vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 219, et seq.]

Replies.

THE POSTAL SYSTEM.

(3rd S. iv. 247.)

It appears difficult to assign any one date for the invention of postal intercommuication, or for its introduction into this country. A gradual improvement has taken place from the time of Esther, when "letters were sent by post on horseback," to the refined and almost perfect system of to-day. At first it was doubtless a private transaction. Each had his own set of postmen; but to Cyrus has been ascribed the establishment of systematic couriers and post houses throughout Persia and Augustus has the credit of introducing post-chaises at Rome, though we find Cicero (Ad Fam. ix. 15, 1), speaking of a letter 'quam attulerat Phileros tabellarius." In Edward IV.'s reign, successive post-horses took stages to communicate to the king the latest intelligence of the war with Scotland. In 1635, a running post was established between Edinburgh and London, "to run night and day, and to go thither and come back again in six days."

This

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