within the levels, and that it will be attended with advantage to the country, by draining parts of the levels which are now subject to floods. "2. It is the opinion of this meeting that it be recommended to the several proprietors of lands within the levels to put the persons authorized by the Government into the immediate possession of the lands necessary for the purpose of the proposed canal and road, and to leave the amount of the compensation to be paid to the several owners and occupiers to be afterwards settled by a jury, to be summoned within six months from this day." Sir John Honywood was the chairman; and Mr. Pitt, Sir D. Dundas, Major-General Moore, and Col. Brown of the Quartermaster-General's Department were present. A further report in The Kentish Gazette of 30 October refers to the meeting on the 24th, when Mr. Pitt explained in the clearest manner the object of the meeting, stated how this great work would affect the lands in the Marsh, and cited Mr. Coleman, Expenditor of the Marsh, a person whose age and experience entitled his information to respect. The resolution being passed, the meeting adjourned, and Mr. Pitt returned to Walmer Castle. Sandgate. R. J. FYNMORE. BATTLE ON THE WEY: CARPENTER, CRESSINGHAM, AND ROWE FAMILIES. I HAVE temporarily in my possession two documents, which were found recently among the papers, &c., belonging to Francis Coryndon Carpenter Rowe, who died 1898, aged 38, son of the late Sir William Rowe of Trebursye, Launceston. or The older of the documents is endorsed Carpenter Arms.” Parts of it-e.g., the description of the arms and the proper names-are in red ink. It is a little worn and mutilated. Probably some one two lines have been cut from the foot. The other is apparently a later version, in which there are evident inaccuracies, e.g., Christa for Crista, and DCCLXXIV. appears for MCCLXXIV. This later document is endorsed : "A Copy of a Writing on Parchment in the Possession of Coryndon Rowe of Launceston in Cornwall, Surgeon, who married Ann, the Daughter of Wm. Carpenter, late of the same place, D.D., deced." As the text and the signatures are apparently written by one hand, it is probably a copy of a copy. et "Scutum Gentilitium Paludamentum Crista Cognominis Carpender or Carpenter thus blazoned Partie per pale indented Or and Azure An Eagle Counterchang'd of the first and second An Helmet befitting the Degree, A Wreath of the Colours &c. This Name had its Original Ab Officio non Artis sed Ingenii (as Fordon relates it) about the year MCCLXXIV from the cunning Contrivance of Hugh Cressingham of Abbington in Berkshire Who cutt a Bridge upon the Wey so dextrously that It was not perceived by any, He having a Pin, whereunto he clandestinely Horn, which was a Sign that half the Army was fastened in a Cradle, Expecting the Blast of a over the Bridge, which he performed so courageously that those upon the Bridge were drown'd, & their Army divided, so that one Party might see the other routed, and not be able to assist in all Probability might have fallen out otherwise, them: The River being betwixt them: Which the Enemy being thrice their Number. By Which means the English gained the Victory over the Welsh, and the said Hugh surnamed Carpenter, and had for his Crest (as Forden saith) Manum dextram armatam Clavum ligneum tenentem, and he further adds Filius ejus Johannes Carpenter eadem Insignia in Scuto sed Cristam alteram portavit. Many of the Vulgar have taken the Arms of the Company of Carpenters for their own Arms, and so lie under a Mistake. This Hugh married Anna Barton and had Issue John Carpenter a Companion of Piers Gaveston in the Reign of King Edward II. and accompanied him to Ireland, but did not return with him, But remained there and married a Daughter of Donald Fitzgerald and had Issue Thomas, George, Richard and Edward Carpenter Who came all over to England in the Beginning of the Reign him through all his Wars with France; Thomas of King Edward III. and Richard accompanied married Anna Cecil and lived in Essex. George was Abbott of Kilkenny in Ireland and afterwards came to be Archbishop of Cashell and Richard was Rectius istis Candidus Imperti si a Commander under Henry IV. Si quid novisti non His utere mecum.' 66 DISRAELI AND BULWER.-I have dis- According to the "N.E.D.,' "him" was covered three mistakes about Bulwer (after- used for it" in the objective case down wards Lord Lytton) in Mr. Monypenny's to the seventeenth century, though the last 'Life of Lord Beaconsfield,' two of which example there given is no later than 1612. are Disraeli's, whilst the third is presum-"Heart" in the concluding sentence does ably Mr. Monypenny's. On p. 124 Disraeli says: Just at the commencement of the spring of 1830, if spring it could be called, I made the acquaintance of Lytton Bulwer and dined with him at his house in Hertford Street. He was just married or about just married : a year or two. We were both of us then quite youths; about four-and-twenty." As Bulwer was born in 1803 and Disraeli in 1804, it follows that Bulwer completed his twenty-seventh year, and Disraeli his twenty-sixth, in 1830. But they were really acquainted before that year, for the Life of Lord Lytton' by his son shows that they were corresponding early in 1829, when Bulwer's home was a house called Woodcot in Oxfordshire, whither he had gone after his marriage on 29 August, 1827. In a letter of 26 July, 1829, Bulwer tells Disraeli that his lease of Woodcot will expire on 24 August, after which his address will be 36, Hertford Street. not express the author's meaning with good effect; while the general description has much of the obscurity of certain parts of the Apocalypse. In all subsequent editions the entire passage is said to have been suppressed. N. W. HILL. New York. description, which is taken from a letter of GRIMALDI AS A CANARY.-The following "S. G. O." in The Times, 1 January, 1849, seems too good to be lost : : "When Grimaldi used to come on the stage as a canary bird in full plumage, well can I recollect the ecstasy of every schoolboy who looked upon him. When he shook his wings, there was laughter ; when he began to clean his breastfeathers with his beak, there was much laughter; when he took up the gigantic piece of groundsel in his claw, and then began to peck it with true canary relish, the laughter was tremendous and prolonged. It might have been the day before the dreaded annual visit to the dentist; it might have been the very last night of the holidays: all of the future or the present was merged in the Writing to Lady Blessington on 12 Janu- one delicious sense of schoolboy enjoyment of ary, 1837, Disraeli says: I am sorry about B.'s play; I would not write to him as I detest sympathy save with good fortune.... From the extracts which have met my eye the play seems excellent." A foot-note to this (on p. 344) says that the play was The Lady of Lyons, but that is impossible, as that play was not written till 1838; fun." RICHARD H. THORNTON. 36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C. "GOTHAMITES "=LONDONERS.-In these days the citizens of New York are apt to be referred to by their comic journals as Gothamites," in memory of "the Wise Men 66 of Gotham but in January, 1837, The Duchess de la Vallière was played for a few nights and then had to be withdrawn as a failure. W. A. FROST. "As he [Christian] struggled with one of the branches, he became entangled with a briar, and a thorn fixed itself in him. It might have been alive, for as he tried to free himself, it dragged his clothes from his body, and then tore a deep gash in his side. Christian could not [?] see right into him, and was amazed to find there was no heart in the hole; but in place of a heart there were cogged wheels of brass, which revolved with a clicking noise at a great rate." of old English legend. But a couple of centuries ago those of London were apt thus to be alluded to, as is evident from the following advertisement, which appeared, on the eve of the general election caused by the death of George I., in The Daily Post of 13 July, 1727 :— "This is to give Notice, that there will soon be a General Meeting of the Positive Goathamites for Nominating such worthy Persons to their Representatives, as will exert their hest Endeavours against the Use of Common Sense in all Political Affairs. "P.S. Likewise a full and true Account of some late Suffrages of these Wise Men of Goatham will be published in the L-d-n J-rn-l of Saturday next." ALFRED F. ROBBINS. ELEEMOSYNARY STUDENTS AND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.-In his new work entitled La Renaissance Tchèque' my honoured Slavophil friend Prof. Louis Leger alludes to a custom or understanding recognized in German universities, perhaps in those of other countries. Referring to the ASTROLOGY AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA early struggling days at Jena of the eminent BRITANNICA.'-In an article on Astrology' Bohemian antiquary Shafarik, Prof. Leger in the new (eleventh) edition of The observes :Encyclopædia Britannica' we read (vol. ii. “Il était admis que les étudiants pauvres p. 799): "Gustavus Adolphus, it is well pouvaient mendier en route chez les pasteurs, known, was born in Finland.... les professeurs, les hauts fonctionnaires, et leur réclamer une hospitalité qui était bien rarement refusée." I am not aware of any similar understanding among members of universities in Great Britain. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. SPIDER STORIES.-The following stories relating to spiders are interesting; we should have them, however, on better authority before we accept them without reserve :— "The sexton of the church of St. Eustace at Paris, amazed to find frequently a particular lamp extinct early, and yet the oil consumed only, sat up several nights to perceive the cause. At length he discovered that a spider of surpassing size came down the cord to drink the oil. A still more extraordinary instance of the same kind occurred during the year 1751 in the Cathedral of Milan. A vast spider was observed there, which fed on the oil of the lamps. M. Morland of the Academy of Sciences has described this spider, and furnished a drawing of it. It weighed four pounds, and was sent to the Emperor of Austria, and is now in the Imperial Museum at Vienna."-Sporting Magazine, 1821, vol. viii. N.S., p. 289. 66 66 N. M. & A. "BUT": WITHOUT" IN THE BIBLE. The "but of Amos iii. 7 has been explained as being equal to without or "unless." It seems strange that if this, which I do not question, is correct, the nineteenth-century Revisers of the A.V. left the passage in its archaic obscurity. To my thinking, 1 Cor. vii. 4 has a twofold need of like emendation. As a sometime member of the Revision Committee wrote: "It....occurred to me that with all their Greek my colleagues knew very little English....It is hardly worth while to abandon one imperfect version for the sake of another." ST. SWITHIN. 66 Under Gustavus Adolphus (vol. xii. p. 735) we read that he was born at Stockholm castle on the 9th of December, 1594." The point is of some interest in its bearing upon the accuracy of an astrological prediction by Tycho Brahe, but there are other flaws in the supposed correspondence of this with facts, as I have shown in another place. See The Observatory, vol. xxxiii, p. 247. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. Another version, alluding to the Duke's love Le Duc de York voulût danser. Vivent les sans-culottes ! barrière "), and I have heard Englishmen in France say that the Chant' must be an adaptation; but it was composed for the 1792 volunteers, long before Trafalgar. At 2 S. ii. 269, 335, 394, I find some interestbut there is no allusion to the air being ing information about the 'Carmagnole'; adopted for words in other than the French language, or being played by British or other foreign military bands. We must remember that the first bars of 'The Death of Nelson' are the same as MITRES AT CORONATIONS.-For several Coronations now-I think from that of in Trafalgar Bay, The French at anchor lay" those of the Chant du Départ ("Twas George II.—no bishops have worn the mitre. La victoire en chantant, nous ouvre la Even on that occasion the mitres were carried in the hand, not worn on the head. I am anxious to know whether any of these mitres are still in existence. A very old clergyman told me that his father recollected being shown a "Coronation mitre," as he called it, at Norwich Cathedral some time in the fifties. I do not think, however, that it is still there. Dr. Pusey is said to have possessed a mitre worn by one of the Nonjuring bishops; and at an exhibition of ecclesiastical ornaments in New York some years ago I saw a mitre of black velvet with a gilt embroidered cross on it, said to have been worn by an archbishop of Canterbury at the Coronation of some king whose name I cannot for the moment remember. One would imagine that at least one out of all the mitres worn at Coronations previous to that of George II. would have survived, if not in a cathedral, perhaps in the family of the bishop wearing it. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME. 'LA CARMAGNOLE.' On Wednesday, 21 June, the day preceding the Coronation, I listened to the band of a regiment marching to its encampment in Regent's Park, and noticed that it played 'La Carmagnole,' the celebrated fierce revolutionary hymn, of which the opening words are :— Madam' Véto avait promis Dansons la Carmagnole, &c. I have heard these words sung many Le Duc de York avait promis ALBAN DORAN. THE LOTUS AND INDIA.-I see that in the embroidery on the Queen's robe the lotus QUEEN ELIZABETH AT BISHOP'S STORTFORD.-Monsignor Benson in his novel By what Authority?' describes a play, a parody upon the Romish Church, which was performed by some students from Cambridge before Queen Elizabeth at Bishop's Stortford, while she was resting there on her way back to London. Is there any evidence for this? W. B. GERISH. Bishop's Stortford. DIDEROT'S 'PARADOXE SUR LE COMÉDIEN': GARRICK.-In my book recently published by MM. Hachette, David Garrick et ses amis français,' I mention (pp. 193, 196) the communication by Suard to the English actor of a manuscript of Diderot's Paradoxe sur le Comédien in 1773. Garrick does not seem to have sent this back to his French correspondent. Can any reader tell me if it, or any trace of it, exists in England ? An examination of it might help to clear up an interesting and obscure point in French literary erudition, and to decide'D.N.B.' that by favour of, and as a comwhether Le Paradoxe,' as we now possess it, was really the work of Diderot, or whether it has been developed and retouched by his friend and disciple Naigeon. 66 F. A. HEDGCOCK. 10, rue Antoine Chantin, Paris, XIV. AGASONIC." — In an old magazine buggy is given a fantastic derivation from Lat. biga, and the writer adds: "Buggy is the agasonic approximation to the name. I cannot find or guess any meaning or derivation of this weird adjective agasonic." Can any one help me? If a typographical error, for what ? 66 FORREST MORGAN. 66 THOUGH CHRIST A THOUSAND TIMES BE SLAIN."-In some volume of hymns or translations a hymn of " Angelus Silesius is given a fine rendering, beginning Though Christ a thousand times be slain. pliment to, the Swedish monarch, he assumed as his motto the "Runic or Old Norse "Madr er moldur auki," paraphrased As for man, his days are grass.” J. T. F. Durham. In Bohn's edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets' (vol. i. p. 474) the following should like to find it again. Does any one lines are quoted as from Dryden. Where know the name of the author or collection? [Various authorities are cited at the end of Canon Venables's notice of Fletcher in the 'D.N.B.,' but no biography.] ROBINSON ARMS AND MOTTO.-In Sunderland parish church, which was consecrated in 1719 by Dr. John Robinson, Bishop of London, acting for Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, are the arms of both prelates. Those of Bishop Robinson are represented as Or, on a chevron vert between three stags trippant gu., three cinquefoils of the first; and the motto is in Scandinavian runes. I should be glad to know whether the above tinctures are what were used by the bishop. The bearings are what Burke gives for Robinson of London and York, 1634, but there the chevron is gu. and the stags are vert. Has the Sunderland painter put in the wrong colours ? The singular motto is explained by the bishop's having long been chaplain to the English Embassy in Sweden. It is stated in the are they to be found? Move swiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace; To guard thee from the demons of the air; J. M. On a stained window at Honington, Warwickshire, is the following : Effigiem Christi dum transis pronus honora, "HERE SLEEPS A YOUTH," &c.-Concerning whom was the following epitaph written? Where is it to be found? Here sleeps a youth who once had every art I am quoting from memory, so may not be quite accurate. D. W. 'ST. AUBIN; OR, THE INFIDEL: A NOVEL.'-In connexion with a genealogical search, I have been trying for some years to get a copy of this anonymous romance (which is, I believe, an autobiography), but so far without success. It was not entered at Stationers' Hall, and is not in the British Museum, although the book appears in The London Catalogue of Books, 1810-31.' If any reader could tell me of some library where I could see the book, or of the existence and ownership of a copy, I |