Alas! no more is heard of Robin Baron. Langbaine first wrote of him in 1680, when, if the poet had been alive, he would still have been only 50. Yet Langbaine has nothing to tell of him beyond what he gathered from two of his books ::

"This Author was a young Gentleman, bred first at Cambridge, and afterwards brought up in the worthy Society of Gray's Inn."

Had he married and retired to Norfolk ? had he died before the restoration of his King? It is curious that even in that case the Jonson of his age should have passed away so silently. I have searched the Registers of Somerset House for thirty years after 1655 without finding any record of Robert Baron's will, or of letters of administration granted to his heirs.

Was he the "Henry Howard alias Robert Baron" who was a prisoner of the MarshalGeneral of the Army on 1 April, 1658 ?* or the "Robert Baron" whose name appears in a petition of prisoners of the Fleet dated 11 March, 1677/8 ?† Bold's lines imply that he was short of money in 1655.

or

One might at first sight wish to identify him with a Baron who was an active agent for Charles II. just before the Restoration. But this man was certainly Hartgill Baron, Captain Baron," who became after the Restoration a Clerk of the Privy Seal, and received a grant of the office of "Rainger & Bayliff of Battleswalke alias Battles Bayly within the fforest of Windsor for the terme of 21 years," which he resigned before 17 June, 1670, to oblige Prince Rupert.¶

The fate of Robert Baron after 1655 remains, therefore, a mystery. G. C. MOORE SMITH.

Sheffield.

A JUSTIFICATION OF KING JOHN. IN a former note (11 S. vii. 43) I endeavoured to show that King John was not the mur: derer of his nephew Arthur, Duke of Brittany; and the late MR. H. MURRAY LANE, Chester Herald, clearly proved, at 11 S. iv. 464, that the 100l. paid to John Fitz Geoffrey, the Constable of Bristol

*State Papers, Domestic,' clxxx. 134, 25.

+ Hist. MSS. Comm., App. to Ninth Report, House of Lords' MSS.

State Papers, Domestic, May-July, 1657,' vol. clv. p. 66.

State Pap., Dom., Charles II.,' vol. liv., 1662

[May 13].

Patent Roll 14 Car. II, 25 Nov.

'State Pap., Dom., Charles II.,' vol. xcv. p. 282.

Castle, was not paid to him as the executioner of Arthur's sister Eleanor, called the "Maid of Brittany," but as her executor; and since she died in the year 1241, at the age of about 60, she could not have been starved to death by her uncle King John, as is stated in some accounts concerning her. The history of King John has been compiled from records made by his enemiesthe opponents of the policy he endeavoured to carry out. This policy was the upholding of the civil power as against the ecclesiastical, and the amelioration of the condition of his subjects of Saxon descent, most of whom were the serfs or slaves of the barons, the descendants of the Norman conquerors of England.

King John was of Angevin, not of Norman descent, and the Normans and the Angevins had never been friends.

Above all, his policy was to help his brother-in-law, Raymond, Count of Toulouse, in his struggle with the invading Crusaders, who, inspired by Pope Innocent III., and commanded by Simon de Montfort (lately deprived by King John of his Earldom of Leicester), were waging a war for the extertics who were probably the remnants of mination of the Albigenses-Christian herethe Arian Christian Visigoths in the Kingdom of Toulouse, which was destroyed by the Orthodox Frank King Clovis in the year 507.

This Visigoth Kingdom of Toulouse was almost identical with the inheritDuchess of Aquitaine, and the Albigenses ance of King John's mother, Eleanor, were the subjects of Raymond, Count of Toulouse.

The chroniclers were chiefly monks, all of them ecclesiastics, one of them a poeteulogist of King John's enemy, Philip Augustus, King of France, and their accounts have been accepted, almost without alteration, by the historians who have followed them, notwithstanding that some of them circulated History of England published in were not even John's subjects. In a widely 1905, giving the account of the death of John, we read that at "his desire he was buried in Worcester Cathedral and in the habit of a monk."

Now it is true that King John was buried in Worcester Cathedral, but not "in the habit of a monk."

Sylvester, Bishop of Worcester (probably of Saxon descent), carried out the King's wish to be buried in his cathedral, and it may have been to show his appreciation of the protection given by King John to the Saxons that the Bishop had the body of the King

laid between the bodies of those most beloved of all the Saxon saints, St. Oswald and St. Wulstan, whose names were known and revered by all their countrymen.

"King John died at Newark on the 19th October, 1216, when his body was conveyed to Worcester and buried before the high Altar in the Sacrarium.

"The high Tomb on which the King's effigy now rests is a work of the sixteenth century. On this Tomb rests the thirteenth-century effigy of King John, the earliest effigy of an English monarch remaining in this country. It was originally the cover of the stone coffin in which the body of the King was interred. The effigy was evidently sculptured soon after the interment of the King, and represents him in the regal habiliments. On either side of the head is the figure of a bishop, perhaps intended to represent St. Oswald and St. Wulstan.

'He was literally buried between these two saints, St. Wulstan's and St. Oswald's shrine being on either side of his tomb.

"It was long supposed that the Tomb was only a Cenotaph, and that the remains of the King were interred before the Altar of the Lady Chapel and as the removal of the Tomb from its present position was in many ways thought to be desirable, it was determined, during some repairs in 1797, to open the Tomb and see if it contained the remains of the King; and, if not, to remove it to its original site. On the Tomb being opened the stone coffin containing the body of the King was discovered at the bottom of the Tomb, lying on the pavement, covered with only two elm boar ds the space in the Tomb being filled up with rubble."- Handbook to Worcester Cathedral,' 1891.

"On the 17 July, 1797, the body of the King and a half. The dress in which the body of the King was found appears to have been similar to that in which the figure is represented on the Tomb, excepting the gloves on its hands, and the crown on its head, which on the skull in the coffin was found to be the celebrated monk's cowl in which he is recorded to be buried, as a passport through the regions of purgatory. This sacred envelope appeared to have fitted the head very closely, and had been tied or buckled under the chin by straps, parts of which remained. The body was covered with a robe reaching from the neck nearly to the feet; it had some of its embroidery still remaining near the right knee; it was apparently of crimson damask and of strong texture."-From An Account of the Discovery of the Body of King John,' by Valentine Green, F.S.A., 1797.

was exhumed; it measured five feet six inches

King John may be said to have died in harness, having caught cold when crossing the Wash during his war with the traitor barons. The fever which ensued was the cause of his death, and will account for the covering on his head remaining upon him during his illness and at his death.

King John's antagonist, Prince Louis, afterwards King Louis VIII. of France, died from a somewhat similar cause, but on an expedition more fortunate to him. He was returning from his successful campaign against the Albigenses, after which everything had been arranged to the advantage of the King and the Church. He was passing by Auvergne in October, 1226, when an illness originally contracted at the siege of Avignon (which had been fatal to so many of the Crusaders) seized him with greater force, and was further aggravated by the journey, as well as complicated by dysentery. He died at Montpensier the following month. His body was taken to Paris, and buried with his ancestors in the abbey church of St. Denis.

whom the irregularly elected and papally Thus died the son of King Philip Augustus, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, the leader of the barons against King John, desired to make King of England; and, strangely enough, his body also was exhumed, though not with so much respect as that of King John. It was taken from its tomb when, by order of the National Convention, the monuments of the abbey were demolished. The tombs were plundered by order of the Municipality of Paris in October, 1793, and the following is a description of the scene by M. Petit Dutaillis :

"When the tomb of the son of Philip Augustus was opened at St. Denis in 1793, therein were found the rotten remains of a wooden sceptre, a skeleton enveloped in a grey-coloured shroud ornamented with gold lace, and on the head a white skull-cap surrounded with a band of wool and gold tissue.'

The skull-cap found on his remains seems to be of the same character as the one found on the skull of King John, and as the death of each of them appears to have arisen under similar circumstances, the cap worn underneath the helmet not having been removed during the illness or at the death

of either of them, we may conclude from the foregoing facts that King John was not buried either in a monk's cowl or a monk's habit, and hope that the mistake may not be reproduced in any future publication. R. C. BOSTOCK.

STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

(See 10 S. xi. 441; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401; 11 S. i. 282; ii. 42, 381; iii. 22, 222, 421; iv. 181, 361; v. 62, 143, 481; vi. 4, 284, 343; vii. 64, 144, 175, 263, 343, 442; viii. 4, 82, 183, 285, 382, 444.)

RELIGIOUS LEADERS: PREACHERS,
THEOLOGIANS, &c. (continued).

HOOKER.

Exeter. On 25 Oct., 1907, Dr. Robertson, Bishop of Exeter, unveiled a statue of Richard Hooker. It is placed on the Cathedral Green, and was the gift of Mr. Richard Hooker of Weston-super-Mare, a native of Exeter, and a descendant of Hooker's uncle, first Chamberlain of Exeter. The statue is of white marble, the work of Mr. Alfred Drury, R.A. It is 7 ft. high, and represents the Judicious" Hooker in a sitting position. The pedestal is of grey granite, and on the front is inscribed :

66

Broadwindsor, Dorset.-On 23 Sept., 1910, Mrs. Hutchings, wife of the Vicar of Broadwindsor, unveiled a cross which had been erected in the churchyard in memory of Thomas Fuller, who for over a quarter of a century was vicar of that parish. Subsequently a memorial brass was unveiled in the church. It has been placed on the south wall, near the fine old Jacobean pulpit trom which Fuller used to preach. It confains the following inscription :

In memory of Thomas Fuller, B.D. Born England. Prebendary of Sarum 1631-1661; 1608; died 1661. Author of 'Worthies of

Vicar of Broadwindsor 1634-1660, whose learning, wisdom and wit are deservedly held in high esteem on both sides of the Atlantic.

Erected by a few British and American admirers, September 23, 1910-the 250th anniversary of the sojourn of King Charles II. at Broadwindsor during his flight from Worcester.

Cranford, Middlesex.-Fuller died in London on 15 Aug., 1661, and was buried in the chancel of Cranford Church, of which he had been appointed Vicar in 1658. On the north wall of the chancel a tablet is placed to his memory, consisting of an inscribed slate slab framed in an oval emblematic border of white marble. The inscription is as follows:Hic jacet Thomas Fuller

è Collegio Sydneiano in Acad. Cantab.
S.S.T.D.

Hujus Ecclesiæ Rector

Ingenij acumine, Memoriæ fælicitate,
Morum probitate, Omnigena doctrina,

(Historicâ præsertim)