guilty. He was a brewer in Westminster, and Bills explained to the Sovereign, &c. - At p. 198. (vol. i. part 1.) of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, edit. 1707, there is an account how "By the Constitution of the kingdom, and the constant practice of former times, all bills, after they had passed both Houses [of Parliament], were delivered by the clerk of the Parliament to the clerk of the Crown, and by him brought to the attorney-general, who presented the same to the king, sitting in council; and, having read them, declared what alterations were made by those bills to former laws," &c. I wish to inquire, 1. Whether the same forms are now gone through? 2. Whether any bill since the time of Charles I., after passing both Houses of Parliament, has been refused the royal assent? ARTHUR H. BATHER. Admiralty, Somerset House. Passage in Burke. - In his Reflections on the French Revolution, ed. 1852, p. 60., Burke, praising the Queen of France's behaviour in her trying situation, says: " I hear, and I rejoice to hear, that she feels with the dignity of a Roman matron; that in the last extremity (an expression which Jonathan Edwards calls tautological) she will save herself from the last disgrace; and that, if she must fall, she will fall by no ignoble hand." cation, altogether a conceit of my own? I have never seen it adduced in proof of the acknowledged antiquity of armorial bearings; but the association of ideas which it suggests tends to the conclusion that such may be its import. “ Καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τὰ κράνεα λόφους ἐπιδέεσθαι Καρές εἰσι οἱ καταδέξαντες, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς ἀσπίδας τὰ σημήϊα ποιέεσθαι καὶ ὄχανα ἀσπίσι οὗτοί εἰσι οἱ ποιησάμενοι πρώτοι." Clio, clxxi. shield; and the ὄxavor, or supporter (lit. handle, Here we have the λόφος, or crest; the ἀσπίς, or or that by which anything is supported). Prestwich. JOHN BOOKER. Bagford's Collections at Cambridge.-Nichols, in his Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 505., speaks of "a large part of his [i.e. Bagford's] collections in the public library at Cambridge." At p. 612. of the same work is the following note, signed "T. F." : "Bagford's collections are locked up in a large cubical deal box, and probably have never been opened since they have been at Cambridge." Are these collections to be got at? Is there any list of their contents? EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. Minor Queries with Answers. St. Distaff's Day. - On what day of the year was it held? Herrick, in his " Hesperides," mentions its rude celebration, -the ploughmen burning the flax and tow of the spinners, and being in return well "bewashed" with pails of water by the maidens; and it is evident, from the context, that QUANDO TANDEM. this occurred at the end of the Christmas holidays. What is Mr. Burke's meaning here? "'Twas on the Morn." "'Twas on the morn of sweet May-day, Who is the author (and where are they to be "My mind to me," &c. - Who is the author of the song, "My mind to me a kingdom is?" I believe it is mentioned somewhere in Beloe's Anecdotes. Μ. Μ. J. Brougham's Sermons. - What J. Brougham in 1813 published Sermons, 2 vols. 8vo. ? J. R. RELTON. Did the Carrians use Heraldic Devices? - Does the following extract from Herodotus justify the assumption, that to the Carians belongs the credit of first using heraldic devices? or is the supposition, that the quotation has any heraldic signifi But on what day? CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A. [St. Distaff's, or Rock Day, is a name jocularly given to the day after the Epiphany, or Twelfth Day, because, the Christmas holidays having ended, good housewives resumed the distaff and their other industrious employments, See Nares' Glossary, and Hone's Every-Day Book, p. 57.] Baptist Meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne. - In one of the letters of the Rev. John Foster, of whose Life and Correspondence, edited by J. E. Ryland, a new edition has just been published by Mr. Bohn, occurs the following reference to an old house at Newcastle-on-Tyne: "But our meeting, for amplitude and elegance! I believe you never saw its equal. It is, to be sure, considerably larger than your lower school; but then so black and so dark! It looks just like a conjuringcurious antique figures, to aid the magic. That thing room; and, accordingly, the ceiling is all covered with and indeed there is a chimney-piece and very large which they call the pulpit is as black as a chimney; old fire-case behind it." The date of Foster's letter is 1792. Is this interesting old house still in existence; and is anything known of its history? G. J. DE WILDE. [Mr. Mackenzie, in his Descriptive and Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. i. p. 397., has furnished the following notice of this ancient meetinghouse: "No record of the affairs of the Baptists has been preserved previous to the year 1725, when they purchased the property they now possess in the Tuthill Stairs. This property extends sixty-eight yards on the east side of the stairs, and is forty-three yards in breadth. On it was a very large and highly-ornamented room, which, from some figures on the wainscotting, seems to have been built in the year 1585. This room must have been used as a place of worship previous to the Revolution, when the corporation occasionally attended meeting-houses; for affixed to the old pews were two hands for holding the mace and the sword. Above this room was a dwelling-house, and a vestry adjoining to it. Here the Baptists assembled for public worship for seventy-three years. In 1797 [five years after Mr. Foster's letter was written] the congregation resolved to erect a new chapel on the vacant ground above the old one. The foundationstone was laid on the 17th July of that year, and was opened for public worship on February 19, 1798." We have also received from J. E. Ryland, Esq., to whom we submitted our correspondent's Query, some further particulars of this old house to what is stated in Foster's Life and Correspondence. "When preparing that work for the press," says Mr. Ryland, "I applied to my friend the Rev. R. Pengilly, then resident at Newcastle, to obtain some account of this curious remnant of the olden time.' He sent my inquiries to a gentleman who took an interest in the antiquities of the place, who replied as follows: ' I wish it had been in my power to have given Mr. Ryland any intelligence respecting the Tuthill Stairs Chapel, but I know nothing certain about it. You are aware that the Close was, in ancient times, inhabited by the principal county families, and the wealthy merchants of the town. In all likelihood the old chapel formed the principal room of the house of some family of consequence, and the entrance must have been from the Close. The room used as the chapel was highly ornamented. I have a drawing of it. From the hands affixed to the pews in the chapel, I infer that it must have been used as a place of worship previously to the Revolution, as the mayors in the olden time used to go in procession on a Sunday to the places of worship they respectively belonged to, the corporate officers accompanying them. But whether a Baptist, an Independent, or a Presbyterian mayor was a member of Tuthill Stairs I do not know, though the presumption is that the Baptist was the only denomination that occupied the chapel.' "] Bacon's History of Life and Death. - Lord Bacon's History of Life and Death was published in 1623. Was there an earlier edition? and is it known when he wrote that work? H. [The first edition of Historia Vitæ et Mortis was published in 1623; and, according to Basil Montagu, was written in that year, shortly after Bacon had retired to Gorhambury.] Replies. MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY OF WAPPING. (Vol. vi., pp. 410. 493.) I took the liberty of asking whether anything is known of a Mathematical Society of Wapping in 1750? of In a reply by M. H. (not, I think, expressed in over-courteous terms), he states his surprise at my inquiry, and presumes that my notion of Wapping must have been formed "from the deck a steamer on a trip to Dover." He enlarges on the extent of "streets and squares " of W apping, tenanted by the "merchant seamen" of the port of London, and informs us that every tenth shop, or thereabouts, is that of a "maker of mathematical instruments principally used in navigation," many of these shops bearing on the very face of them the signs of a respectable antiquity. After thus peopling the parish with suburban Dollands, M. H. very naturally proceeds to suggest the probable existence, at this day, not of one only, but of "several" similar societies, containing among their matriculated members "every assistant and apprentice in the trade." M. H. and I have certainly surveyed this parish with very different eyes. It has been my fortune to pass whole days in the heart of it; and I know every house in one estate of eight acres (forming a large fraction of the entire parish), in which there is certainly not a single mathematical instrumentmaker's shop. In confirmation of this I may add an extract from a letter just received from my friend Mr. Walton, the vestry clerk of Wapping: "I believe," he says, "there is not one mathematical instrument-maker in my parish; but, to be on the safe side, I would say there are not two." I beg, therefore, to repeat my inquiry, whether anything, and what, is known of the "Mathematical Society of Wapping" in 1750? Does any record exist of its members, or of its transactions? Of course I do not require to be satisfied that there was, in fact, such a society; nor am I ignorant of the circumstance noticed by A. W. (ante, p. 493.), that the various hamlets, which once formed the great manor of Stepney, gave birth or education to many persons of high literary distinction. The author (or one of the authors) of the Parentalia, Joseph Ames, himself a Fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Societies, was resident either in Wapping or in the adjoining parish of St. George's in the East, and may have procured the subscription of the Wapping savants to his work. Possibly the memoirs of that eminent historian of Typography by Gough and others may throw some light on this local association. In conclusion, let me express my regret that the real names of contributors are not more frequently attached to their communications.* The practice would give additional weight to those statements of which the value must depend on the personal authority of the correspondent. It would tend to improve the tone of some contributions, and would certainly be a check upon rash and ill-considered assertions. SYDNEY SMIRKE. * [We will take this opportunity of inserting another communication from a valued correspondent upon this point. " In a late 'Notice to Correspondents' you have asked for the address of I. Allow me to suggest to your many contributors, that, unless they are ashamed of their Queries (which, perhaps, none need be, since Johnson himself has said that one fool, or child, would ask more questions than twenty wise men can answer'), it would tend very much to increase the usefulness of your publication, and facilitate a more direct communication between men of similar pursuits, if they would more generally drop all initials and feigned names, and sign their own proper name and habitat, or at least entrust it to the editor. Much trouble too would be saved. To oblige one correspondent, you were led to ask who is another under the initial I. "I have been led to make this suggestion, from having just received a very long and interesting letter from Boston, on one of my genealogical contributions: and some time ago I received another from Ireland; and these are not the only ones. I have every reason to believe that much mutual gratification and additional information has been the result to all of us. Clyst St. George."] H. T. ELLACOMBE. DISCOVERY AT NUNEHAM REGIS. (Vol. vi., pp. 386. 488.) On my first reading the account of the interesting discovery at Nuneham Regis, the thought occurred to me, as it did to MR. HESLEDON, that the remains might be those of James Duke of Monmouth: but on a little further consideration, I made up my mind that this could not be so. In the first place, the estate of Nuneham Regis does not appear to have belonged to the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth at all, but descended, as stated by L. M. M. R., to the family of Buccleugh, from the Dukes of Montague. This settles the point at once; so that it may seem unnecessary to offer any more proofs. I would, however, remark, that the peaked beard, which this corpse is described to have had, could not have belonged to Monmouth. In Lodge's Portraits his face is delineated perfectly beardless, which probably was its usual appearance; but at the time of his capture, according to Macaulay, "his beard, prematurely grey, was of several days' growth." Yet if even he allowed it to continue to grow during the short interval that elapsed between his capture and his execution (exactly a week), it could hardly have become a "peaked beard." Moreover, it may be doubted whether his widow would have cared to show much respect to his remains, when it is remembered that, after his last interview and parting with her, which some have spoken of as having been very tender, even on the very scaffold, "He went on to speak of his Henrietta," and maintained that she, with whom he had been living in adultery, was "a young lady of virtue and honour." The Duchess certainly showed much feeling during their interview; but she must soon have recovered her composure, if it be true, as is stated by Dalrymple, I think, that she breakfasted with the king the morning after the execution. Though Nuneham Regis did not belong to the Duke of Monmouth, it is worthy of remark that it was the property of another illustrious man, who lost his life on the scaffold for an attempt precisely similar to that of Monmouth, viz. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. There can be no doubt that he was buried in the chapel of the tower. Holinshed accurately describes the position of his grave as being between the two queens, Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn, and next to the Duke of Somerset. Do they still repose there? Could the initials worked on the breast clothes of the discovered body be J. D., not T. B. ? Winchester. W. H. G. The reply suggesting that the decapitated Duke of Monmouth was the person found buried in the ruins of the chapel of Nuneham Regis in Warwickshire is very well for a guess. But the guesser should not have added as a fact, in proof of the probability of his guess being correct, that which is contrary to the fact, viz., that "the quiet chapel of Nuneham Regis" was "at that time, as now, the property of the Buccleuch family." So contrary is this to the fact, that the property of Nuneham Regis only came into the possession of the Buccleuch family in consequence of the marriage of Henry Duke of Buccleuch, the grandfather of the present duke, with Elizabeth, daughter of George, last Duke of Montague, in 1767; the property having come to the Montague family by the marriage of Ralph, son and heir to Edward Lord Montague of Boughton (who afterwards, in the fourth year of the reign of Queen Anne, became Duke of Montague), with Elizabeth, only surviving daughter of Thomas Earl of Southampton, and widow of Josceline Earl of Northumberland. I recollect hearing, about twelve or fourteen years The property descended to the Earl of South-ago, of a parochial library, in some part of Oxford ampton from the Leigh family, who possessed Should a surgeon have been present at the exhumation at Nuneham Regis, the corpse of the Duke of Monmouth might have been partly identified by traces of the clumsy manner in which the executioner performed his office in severing the head from the body. Reform Club. W. G. shire - Wendlebury, I think, -and that it consisted of some very excellent old divinity. The volumes composing it having fallen into a state of dilapidation, were carefully repaired and made fit for use by the new rector of that time. I understood that the library was one of those originally set on foot by Dr. Bray, through whose exertions, and those of Lord Chancellor King, an act was passed in the seventh year of Queen Anne, entitled "An Act for the better Preservation of Parochial Libraries, in that Part of Great Britain called England." J. M. PAROCHIAL LIBRARIES. (Vol. vi., p. 432.) Mr. Newton, in his History and Antiquities of Maidstone, 1741, observes : but " In the large and commodious vestry of this church (All Saints) is a large and useful parochial library; this was begun many years ago, was lately (1735) much augmented by a valuable collection of books, which that public-spirited man, Dr. Thomas Bray, late perpetual curate of the church of St. Botolph, Aldgate, ordered to be sold for 50l. on assurance given of their being placed in some town corporate in South Britain for a parochial library." In 1736 a catalogue of the books was taken and printed by the Rev. John Lewis, the compiler of the History and Antiquities of the Isle of Thanet; and subsequently, in 1810, the library was re-arranged, and a new catalogue made by the Rev. John Finch, then curate, but not, I believe, printed. This library most probably was one of those contemplated by the act of Anne, but notwithstanding the wise precaution thereby enacted for the preservation of the books, and for the better encouragement of similar benefactions, it would appear from a Topography of Maidstone, published in 1839, that of about 800 volumes, which, inclusive of Dr. Bray's collections, constituted the library, no less than one-eighth of them were missing and decayed at the period of Mr. Finch's overhaul. Among the missing were two copies of Bishop Walton's Polyglot Bible (one of which was presented to the library by the corporation), Calvin's works, and many valuable theological commentaries. There still, however, remains, quoting the same authority, a folio MS. Latin Bible, many of the leaves of which have been sadly mutilated, and all the illuminations cut out. The act of Anne would therefore seem, in the eyes of the men of Kent, to have been more honoured in the breach than the observance of it. Any respectable inhabitant can obtain admittance to the library on application to the minister or clerk. ROFFA. FIRST FOLIO SHAKSPEARE. (Vol. vi., p. 470.) I fear your correspondent MR. HEATH will be altogether unable to perfect his copy of the first folio, as it is imperfect exactly in the places where the leaves are the rarest to be met with. A friend at Stratford-on-Avon some time ago placed in my hands a copy of the work in a similarly imperfect state, in the hope I might succeed in finding a copy in London which might at least partially supply its deficiences; and I am most anxious to do so, especially as it is the only copy of the first folio which has found its way to the place of the poet's nativity. The search will, I suspect, be fruitless, the verses by Ben Jonson, the title-page, and the last leaf being next to impossible to pro cure. I possess no less than three copies of the first folio Dr. Dibdin would have told me I was "trebly blessed" - one in an absolutely perfect state in the minutest particular, the other two more or less imperfect. It will give me much pleasure to show these copies to MR. HEATH, or to give him any advice in my power respecting his copy, if he will communicate with me. Avenue Lodge, Brixton Hill. CATCALLS. J. O. HALLIWELL. (Vol. vi., p. 460.) I have inquired among veteran play-goers, and cannot find one who has seen a catcall, or heard one since the O. P. riots. They describe the noise as similar to, but quite distinguishable from whistling through the fingers, as now practised by the galleries. A full and minute history of the O. P. is to be found in The Covent Garden Journal, London, 1810. The contest began September, 1809; at p. 150. it says, "Mr. Kemble made his appearance in the costume of Macbeth, and amid vollies of hissing, hooting, groans, and catcalls, seemed as though he meant to speak a steril and pointless address announced for the occasion." We are not told by whom the catcalls were played; that they were once used by critics and gentlemen will appear from the following passages: "He did intend to have engraved here many histories; as the first night of Captain B-'s play, where you would have seen critics in embroidery transplanted from the boxes to the pit, whose ancient inhabitants were exalted to the galleries, where they played upon catcalls." - Joseph Andrews, b. iii. c. 6. By the way, who was Captain B-? I have seen the blank filled up with "Breval;" but as Captain Breval, the dramatist, recorded in The Dunciad, died in 1739, Fielding would hardly have so noticed him three years later. Lloyd, in his Law Student, says: "By law let others strive to gain renown! Lloyd's Works, vol. i. p. 24., Lond. 1774. Florio is represented as a would-be man of fashion, but his ostentatious use of the catcall shows that it was not reputed a vulgar instrument eighty years ago. Garrick Club. H. B. C. I am surprised that the investigating querist M. M. E. has not been able to discover "any one who has heard or seen the (above) instrument," since I recollect in my schoolboy days that the sonamed catcall was often used as a common whistle, and even now at our theatres it is too frequently made the medium through which "the gods cause themselves to be heard. Its construction is very simple, being two circular pieces of tin, in diameter rather more than a shilling, perforated in the centre, and attached by solder to a small tube of the same metal, scarcely half an inch in length. The instrument is held in the mouth between the teeth and lips, being nearly concealed by the latter, when, by means of the tongue, and inhaling and exhaling the breath, that fearful screech is made, oftentimes so alarming to dramatic authors. purpose of summoning her pets, as a sportsman I am surprised that M. M. E. should doubt the existence of the catcall. He will find in Johnson's Dictionary, "Catcall, a squeaking instrument used in the playhouse to condemn plays," and I myself have seen and possessed, and have heard in playhouses even in the present century, what were called catcalls. It was a small circular whistle, composed of two plates of tin about the size of a halfpenny, perforated by a hole in the centre, and connected by a band or border of the same metal, about one-eighth of an inch thick. The sound given was sharp and shrill, and the advantage of the instrument in the playhouse was that it was altogether concealed within the mouth, and that the perpetrator of the noise could not be easily detected. In my school-days it was in frequent use in our sports and our rows. C. BURYING ALIVE AS A PUNISHMENT. (Vol. vi., p. 245.) I am not able to inform your correspondent JOHN H. A. if this punishment has at any time been inflicted by judicial authority upon criminals in England. Blackstone (Comment., book iv. chap. xv.), quoting Fleta, informs us that the ancient Goths were wont, in case of a particular crime, to punish indifferently with burning to death or burying alive; and we learn from Calmet, who in the early editions of his Dictionary gives a plate representing its infliction, that it was resorted to occasionally by the Jewish nation: "Comment," says Voltaire in his caustic way (Priz de la Justice, et de l'Humanité, article xxvI.), "le béné dictin Calmet s'est-il pu divertir à faire graver dans un dictionnaire, des estampes de tous les tourmens qui étoient en usage chez la petite nation Judaïque? Etre précipité du haut d'un rocher sur des cailloux; ou bien être lapidé avec ces cailloux dont le pays est couvert, et de là être pendu à une potence pour y attendre la mort; être enterré vivant dans un monceau de cendres," &c. Of the comparatively recent use of this punishment among the French, an instance is recorded in the amusing miscellany of Vigneul-Marville (Dom Noel d'Argonne) : " Enterrer vifs les criminels étoit encore un supplice de ce tems-là. En 1460, dit la même Chronique (la Having made the Note, let me in my turn put Chronique scandaleuse), fut fait mourir et enfouye toute a Query. What is the unde derivatur of catcalls? for the sound by no means resembles the squeal of the feline race in anger, nor the loving invitation of Tabby to Tom in the gutter. Neither can I imagine it to have been invented by Mother Bunch, that phenix of nursery literature, for the vive audit lieu de Paris, une femme nommée Perrete Mauger, pour occasion de ce que la dite Perrete avoit fait et commis plusieurs larcins, &c. Pour lesquels cas et autres par elle confessez, fut condamnée par sentence donnée du Prevost de Paris, nommé Messire Robert Destouteville Chevalier, à souffrir mort, et estre enfouye toute vive |