I have lately been much interested in a pack of cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth at the Hague, and representing the chief personages and the principal events of that period. I have been able, by reference to historical authorities, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broadsides in the British Museum, forming the collection presented to the nation by George III., to explain the whole pack, with the exception of two. These are "Parry, Father and Sonne," and "Simonias slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The former simply represents two figures, without any thing to offer a clue to any event; the latter gives the representation of six Puritans, forming an assembly, who are being addressed by one of the body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to whom such a name has been applied, in any of the Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. Probably some of your readers can help me in this matter. Of these cards I can find no notice: they are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatto. They were purchased at the Hague, more than thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are exceedingly curious: indeed they form a bundle of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal persons of the time figure in some characteristic representation, and the private scandal is also recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert; Sir Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which his own corrects him; and he is also being beaten by a footboy,—which event is alluded to in Butler's Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom your pages have given some interesting information, is represented as "The Knight of the Golden Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal with a pension to Holland, where he is known to have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope this communication may enable me to complete my account of these cards, the explanation of which may probably throw light upon some of the stirring events of that extraordinary period of our history.
T. J. Pettigrew.
Saville Row.
MOVABLE METAL TYPES ANNO 1435.
A vellum MS. has lately come into my possession, containing the Service for the Dead, Prayers, &c., with the tones for chanting, &c., in Latin, written for a German Order, apparently about the year 1430.
This tome, which is in small 4to., is very remarkable and valuable on account of the binding. This is red leather, stamped with double lines forming lozenges, and powdered with additional stamps, Or, a lion, a fleur-de-lys, an eagle, and a star. The whole is on the plain leather, without any gilding.
But in addition hereto, a full inscription runs along each back, at top and bottom and each side, stamped with movable metal types applied by hand, without gold, as is done by the bookbinder to this day in blind stamping.
The legend on the first back is as follows:
- At top.—"DIEZ.PUCHLEI
- Continued to the right.—IST.S..MARGRETEN.
- At the bottom.—SCHUEST.ABT.ZU.
- Continued to the left.—S..KATHEREI.ZU.MUR."
That is,—
"Diez puchlein ist schwester Margreten, sehuest abtisse zu Sankt Katherein zu Mur."
The legend on the last back is,—
- At top.—"NACH.CRIST.
- Continued to the right.—GEPURT.MCCCCXXXV.
- At bottom.—UVART.GEPUN
- Continued to the left.—DE.DIEZ.PUCH...K."
That is,—
"Nach Crist gepurt MCCCCXXXV uvart gepunden diez puch ... k."
The whole inscription will therefore be, in English,—
- THIS BOOKLET
- IS SISTER MARGARET'S,
- SISTER-ABBESS AT
- SAINT CATHERINE'S AT MUR.
- AFTER CHRIST'S
- BIRTH, 1435,
- WAS BOUN-
- DEN THIS BOOK ... K.
A letter or two is illegible, from the injury made by the clasp, before the last K. Both the clasps are torn away, perhaps from their having been of some precious metal. Has this K anything to do with KÖster?
Can any particulars be given of the abbess, monastery, and town mentioned?
Is any other specimen of movable metal types known of so early a date?
George Stephens.
Copenhagen.
PORTRAITS AT BRICKWALL HOUSE.
Among the pictures at Brickwall House, Northiam, Sussex, are the following portraits by artists whose names are not mentioned either in Bryan, or Pilkington, or Horace Walpole's notices of painters. I shall be thankful for any information respecting them.
1. A full-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (29 inches by 24) of a gentleman seated, dressed in a handsome loose gown, red slippers, and on his head a handsome, but very peculiar velvet cap; on the ground, near him, a squirrel; and on a table by his side, a ground plan of some fortification. "John Sommer pinxit, 1700."
N. B.—The late Capt. Marryatt, and subsequently another gentleman, guessed it to be a portrait of Wortley Montague from the peculiar dress; but the fortification would seem to indicate a military personage. The picture is well painted.
2. A half-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (20-1/2 inches by 17), of an old lady seated; a landscape in the background. A highly finished and excellent picture; the lace in her cap is most elaborate. "T. Vander Wilt, 1701."
N. B.—I conclude this is the artist's name, though possibly it may be the subject's.
3. A pair of portraits (Kit Kat size), of John Knight of Slapton, Northamptonshire, aged seventy-two; and Catherine his wife, aged thirty-seven. "Lucas Whittonus pinxit, 1736."
N. B.—Inferior portraits by some provincial artist. I conclude Lucas is the surname, and Whittonus indicates his locality; if so, what place?
Whilst on this subject, I would add another Query respecting a picture in this house: a very highly finished portrait (small size) by Terburgh, of a gentleman standing, in black gown, long brown wig, and a book on a table by him. "Andries de GrÆff. Obiit lxxiii., MDCLXXIIII."
Can you tell me anything about this old gentleman?
T. F.
Minor Queries.
Christian Names.—Can any of your correspondents inform me when it became a common practice to have more than one Christian name? Lord Coke says (Co. Litt. 3 a):
"And regularly it is requisite that the purchaser be named by the name of baptism and his surname, and that special heed be taken to the name of baptism; for that a man cannot have two names of baptism as he may have divers surnames."
And further on he says:
"If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his confirmation by the bishop, he is named John, he may purchase by the name of his confirmation.... And this doth agree with our ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian names."
It appears, then, that during the first half of the seventeenth century a man could not have two Christian names.
Also, at what period did the custom arise of using as Christian names words which are properly surnames?
Ericas.
Lake of Geneva.—The chronicler Marius (in the second volume of Dom Bouquet) mentions that, in the reign of the sons of Clotaire, an earthquake or landslip, in the valley of the Upper Rhone, enlarged the Lemannus, or Genevese Lake, by thirty miles of length and twenty of breadth, destroying towns and villages. Montfaucon, in his Monumens de la Monarchie, i. p. 63., states that the Lake of Geneva was formed on this occasion: absurdly, unless he means that upon this occasion its limits were extended to Geneva, having previously terminated further east. What vestiges of this catastrophe are now perceptible?
A. N.
Clerical Portrait.—May I request the assistance of "N. & Q." in discovering the name of a reverend person whose portrait I have recently met with in my parish? The individual from whom I procured it could give me no other history of it, but that he had bought it at the sale of the effects of a respectable pawnbroker in the village many years ago.
Afterwards I learned from another resident in the parish that he well remembered visiting the shop of the same broker, in company with another gentleman still living, when this identical portrait was the subject of conversation, and the broker went into his private room and brought out a book, conceived to be a magazine, from which he read a description of the person of whom this was the portrait, to the following effect, viz., "That he was born of obscure parentage in the parish of Glemham, Suffolk; that he was sent to school, and afterwards became a great man and a dignitary of the church, if not a bishop; and became so wealthy that he gave a large sum for the repairs of Norwich Cathedral."
These are the only particulars which I have yet ascertained as to the portrait, for neither of the gentlemen who were present at this transaction with the broker, though they agree in the circumstances which I have above narrated, can remember the name of my great unknown.
I look, however, with confidence to the wide range of your correspondents, and hope to receive some clue which may guide me to the wished-for discovery.
The portrait is an oil painting, a fine full florid face, with a long wig of black curly hair resting on the shoulders, gown and band, date probably from Queen Anne to George II.
J. T. A.
Arms: Battle-axe.—With some quarterings of Welsh arms in Bisham (Marlow) of Hobey, is one of three battle-axes. The same appear near Denbigh, supposed taken in with a L. R. from Vaughan. Query, What family or families bore three battle-axes?
A. C.
Bullinger's Sermons.—Will some of your correspondents kindly give me some information regarding a volume of sermons by Henry Bullinger, which I have reason to believe is of rather rare occurrence? It is Festorum dierum Domini et Servatoris nostri Jesu Christi Sermones Ecclesiastici: Heinrycho Bullingero, Authore. There is a vignette, short preface (on title-page), with a Scripture motto, Matt. xvii. Date is, "Tiguri apud Christoph. Froschoverum a. MDLVIII." I believe there is a copy in the University Library, Cambridge.
Enivri.
Monkstown, Dublin.
Gibbon's Library.—Matthews, in his Diary of an Invalid, says, when visiting Gibbon's house at Lausanne, "His library still remains; but it is buried and lost to the world. It is the property of Mr. Beckford, and lies locked up in an uninhabited house at Lausanne" (1st edit. 1820, p. 319.). This was written about 1817. Was the library ever transferred to Fonthill or to Bath, or does it still remain at Lausanne?
J. H. M.
Dr. Timothy Bright.—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether this gentleman, author of a Treatise on Melancholy, an edition of Fox's Martyrs, &c., was an ancestor of the Rev. Henry Bright, prebend of Worcester Cathedral, and instructor of Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras?
H. A. B.
Townley MSS.—I request to know, where are the Townley MSS.? A They are quoted by Nicolas in the Scope and Grosvenor Rolls? Also, where are the MSS. often referred to in the History of the House of Yvery as then penes the Earl of Egmont; and also a folio of Pedigrees by Camden Russet?
H. T. Ellacombe.
A [For a notice of the Townley MSS., see "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 103.](return)
Order of St. John of Jerusalem.—1. Who were the members of the British Language of St. John of Jerusalem, when Elizabeth took away their property?
2. What members of the British Language were present when, in 1546, the English commander Upton attacked and defeated the famous Corsair Dragut at Tarschien in Malta? Also, what members of it were present when the Chevalier Repton, Grand Prior of England in 1551, was killed, after signally defeating the Turks in another attack which they made on the island?
3. What became of the records of the Language?
N.B.—Some of them, belonging to the Irish branch of it, were lately bought of a Jew by a private gentleman in the Grand Duchy of Baden. They are supposed to have been deposited for security at Heidersheim near Fribourg, which was the chief seat of the German Language of the Order.
R. L. P.
Wartensee, Lake of Constance.
Consecrated Roses, Swords, &c.—Where will any account be found of the origin of the custom, which has long prevailed at Rome, of the Pope's blessing, on the eve at certain festivals, roses and other articles, and which were afterwards frequently presented to sovereigns and potentates as tokens of friendship and amity?
G.
West, Kipling, and Millbourne.—In 1752 there was a firm of West and Kipling in Holborn: the Christian name of West was Thomas; and there is reason to believe that he had two sons, Francis and Thomas. A George Millbourne, Esq., of Spring Gardens, married a cousin of Thomas West, the partner of Kipling: these facts are referred to in the will of a lady proved A.D. 1764. Can any reader of "N. & Q." furnish me with materials or references from which I may gather information of these families of West and Millbourne? The smallest contribution will be thankfully received by
F. S.
Font Inscriptions.—I would request the favour of any such of ancient date. A collection of them would be interesting. I can give three.
At Lullington, Somerset, on a Norman font, in characters of that date:
"In hoc Fontu sacro pereunt delicta lavacro."
At Bourn, Lincoln:
"Sup ome nom I H C est nom qde."
At Melton Mowbray:
"Sancta Trinitas misere nobis."
H. T. Ellacombe.
Welsh Genealogical Queries.—Can John ap William ap John (Vol. vii., p. 292.), or some other reader, enlighten me as to who the following personages were, or where a pedigree of them is to be found:
- 1. Gwladys, da. of Ithel ap Rhys ap Morgan, of Ewias ap Morgan HÎr ap Testyn ap Gwrgant, of 4th royal tribe, who ma. Madog ap Griffith.—Burke's Landed Gentry, "Hughes of Gwerclas."
- 2. Beatrix, da. of Eignion ap David ap Myles ap Griffith ap Owen, lord of Bromfield; and Honet ap Jago ap Ydwall, prince of Wales, who ma. William Belward, baron of Malpas.
- 3. Gwernwy, cousin of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, called prince of the 14th royal tribe, whose grand-da. Hunydd ma. Meredith ap Bleddyn.—V. Burke, as above.
- 4. Gwentlian, wife of the above Gwernwy, da. of Rhys ap Morgan.
- 5. Griffin, son of Wenovewyn, whose da. ma. Fulke Fitzwarine, a baron, 1295—1314.—V. Burke's Extinct Peerage.
- 6. Gladys, da. of Rygwallon, prince of Wales, said by Sir Wm. Segar to be wife of Walter FitzOther, ancestor of Lords Windsor; and what authority is there for this match?—V. Collins, &c.
As these Queries are not of general interest, I inclose a stamped envelope for the answers.
E. H. Y.
The Butler and his Man William.—These mythological personages, the grotesque creation of Mr. Grosvenor Bedford's fertile imagination, are frequently referred to and dilated on in the letters addressed to him by Southey (Life of Southey, by his Son, vol. ii. p. 335., &c.), when urging Mr. Bedford to write a Pantagruelian romance on their lives and adventures, which however was never accomplished. What therefore is the meaning of the following paragraph, which appears at the conclusion of the review of volume ii. of Southey's Life, contained in the Gent.'s Mag. for April, 1850, p. 359.?
"We will only add, that with respect to the Butler mentioned at p. 335., the editor seems but imperfectly informed. His portrait, and that of his man William, are now hanging on the walls of our study. His Life is on our table. He himself has long since returned to the 'august abode' from which he came."
J. M. B.
Tunbridge Wells.
Longhi's Portraits of Guidiccioni.—The Count Alessandro Cappi of Ravenna is about to publish an elaborate life of his fellow-townsman Luca Longhi, with very copious illustrations from that painter's works.
He has ransacked Italy in vain for a portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Guidiccioni, President of Romagna, painted by Luca Longhi in 1540. This portrait possesses more than ordinary interest, since (to use the words of Armenini, author of Veri Precetti della Pittura) "fu predicato per maraviglioso in Roma da Michelangelo Buonarrotti." Count Cappi, supposing that the picture may have found its way to England, hopes by the publication of this notice to discover its whereabouts. Any correspondent who shall be kind enough to furnish him, through this journal, with the desired information, may be assured of his "piÙ vera riconoscenza."
W. G. C.
Sir George Carr.—Wanted, pedigree and arms, wife's name and family, of Sir George Carr, who was joint clerk of the council of Munster from 1620 to 1663, or thereabouts. Sir George had two sons at least, William and Thomas; William was alive in 1673. Whom did he marry, and what family had he?
Y. S. M.
Dublin.
Dean Pratt.—Dr. Hessey will feel obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who can answer the following questions.
At what College of what University did Dr. Samuel Pratt, Dean of Rochester, receive his education, and by whom was he ordained?
He was born in 1658, left Merchant Taylors' school (where he passed his early years) in 1677, and was created D.D. by royal mandate, at Cambridge, in 1697, but no college is attached to his name in the list of Cambridge graduates. Still, if he was of neither university, it seems difficult to account for his having had the successive preferments of Chaplain to the Princess of Denmark, Almoner to the Duke of Gloucester, Clerk of the Closet to the Queen, and in 1706 Dean of Rochester. He died in 1728, aged seventy-one.
Merchant Taylors'.
Portrait of Franklin.—I have heard of a story to the effect that when Franklin left England, he presented a portrait of himself, by West, to Thurlow. I am exceedingly anxious to know if there is any foundation for this, as during the last week I saw in a shop near the chapel here, a portrait of the philosopher which I rather suspect to be the one alluded to.
H. G. D.
Knightsbridge.
"Enquiry into the State of the Union."—A book of much importance has fallen into my hands, entitled—
"An Enquiry into the State of the Union of Great Britain. The past and present State of the public Revenues. By the Wednesday's Club in Friday Street. London: printed for A. and W. Bell, at the Cross Keys, Cornhill; J. Watts, in Bow Street, Covent Garden: and sold by B. Barker and C. King, in Westminster Hall; W. Mears and J. Brown, without Temple Bar; and W. Taylor, in Paternoster Row. 1717."
Can any of your correspondents throw a light upon this Wednesday's Club, in Friday Street? Was it a real club or fictitious?
By so doing you would greatly oblige me, and afford important information to this office.
James A. Davies.
National Debt Office.
Minor Queries with Answers.
Bishop of Oxford in 1164.—Among the names of the bishops who signed the Constitutions of Clarendon I see "Bartholomeus Oxoniensis Episcopus." How is this signature accounted for? There are no other signatures of suffragan or inferior bishops attached.
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
[Clearly a misprint for Bartholomeus Exoniensis Episcopus, the celebrated Bartholomew Iscanus, the opponent of Thomas À Becket. Our correspondent should have given the title of the work where he found the signatures, as they are not appended to the "Constitutions" in Matthew Paris, Spelman, or Wilkins.]
Roman Inscription found at Battle Bridge.—I shall be very much obliged if any one of your numerous readers or correspondents will be so kind as to furnish me with an authentic copy of the inscription on the Roman stone which in July 1842 was found at Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, and also state where the original stone is to be seen. The account of the discovery of the stone is mentioned in a paragraph which appeared in The Times newspaper of the 30th July, 1842, in the following manner:
"Antiquities discovered.—A Roman inscription has within these few days past been discovered at Battle Bridge, otherwise, by an absurd change of denomination, known as King's Cross, New Road, St. Pancras. This discovery appears fully to justify the conjectures of Stukeley and other antiquaries, that the great battle between the Britons under Boadicea and the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus took place at this spot. Faithful tradition, in the absence of all decisive evidence, still pointed to the place by the appellation of Battle Bridge. The inscription, which in parts is much obliterated, bears distinctly the letters 'LEG. XX.' The writer of this notice has not yet had an opportunity personally to examine it, but speaks from the information of an antiquarian friend. The twentieth legion, it is well known, was one of the four which came into Britain in the reign of Claudius, and contributed to its subjugation: the vexillation of this legion was in the army of Suetonius Paulinus when he made that victorious stand in a fortified pass, with a forest in his rear, against the insurgent Britons. The position is sketched by Tacitus, and antiquaries well know that on the high ground above Battle Bridge there are vestiges of Roman works, and that the tract of land to the north was formerly a forest. The veracity of the following passage of Tacitus is therefore fully confirmed:—'Deligitque locum artis faucibus, et a tergo sylva clausum; satis cognito, nihil hostium, nisi in fronte, et apertam planitiem esse, sine metu insidiarum.' He further tells us that the force of Suetonius was composed of 'Quartadecima legio cum vexillariis vicessimariis et e proximis auxiliares.'"
S. R.
[A sketch of this fragment of stone, discovered by Mr. E. B. Price, is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1842, p. 144.]
Blow-shoppes.—
"Wild bores, bulls, and falcons bredde there in times paste; now, for lakke of woodde, blow-shoppes decay there."—Leland's Itin., Hearne's edit., vol. vii. p. 42.
What is the meaning of blow-shoppe?
J. B.
[Leland appears to refer to blacksmiths' forges, which decayed for lack of wood.]
Bishop Hesketh (Vol. vii., p 209.).—There is evidently an error in your note respecting the death of Bishop Hesketh, but it is one common to all the lists of Manx bishops to which I have access. You state that he died in 1510: it is certain that he was living in 1520.
He was a son of Robert Hesketh, of Rufford, co. Lanc., and his brother Richard Hesketh, "learned in the lawe," and who is stated by Kimber to have been Attorney-General to King Hen. VIII., by his will, dated 15th August, 1520, appointed his "trusty brethren Hugh, bishopp of Manne, and Thomas Hesketh, esquier," executors, and proceeded:
"I wyll that the said Bishopp shall haue a goblett of syluer wt a couir, and my said brothir Thomas to haue a pouncid bool of syluer, a counterpoynt, and a cordyn gemnete bedde wt the hangings, a paire of fustyan blanketts, and a paire of shetys, and a fether bedde that lyeth uppon the same bedde, for their labours."
So that the vacancy, if there really was any, between his death and the consecration of Bishop Stanley, is much less than is generally supposed.
H. A.
[Our authority for the date of Bishop Hesketh's death was Bishop Hildesley's MS. list of the Manx bishops, which he presented to the British Museum, and which appears to have been carefully compiled. His words are, "Huan Hesketh died 1510, and was buried in his cathedral of St. Germans in Peel." It is clear, however, there is an error somewhere, which did not escape the notice of William Cole, the Cambridge antiquary; for in his MS. Collections, vol. xxvi. p. 24., he has the following entry:—"Huan Hesketh was living 13 Henry VIII., 1531, at which time Thomas Earl of Derby appointed, among others, Sir Hugh Hesketh, Bishop of Man, to be one of his executors. (See Collins's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 33.) Wolsey was appointed supervisor of the will, and is in it called Lord Chancellor: he was so made 1516, which proves that he was alive after 1510. The will of Richard Hesketh, Esq.—to be buried in his chapel at Rufford: executors, Hugh Hesketh, Bishop of Man, his brother; and Thomas Hesketh, Esq.—was proved Nov. 13, 1520. (In Reg. Manwaring, 3.) He continued bishop, I presume, forty-three years, from 1487 to 1530. It is plain he was so thirty-four years."]
Form of Prayer for Prisoners.—
"It is not, perhaps, generally known, that we have a form of prayer for prisoners, which is printed in the Irish Common Prayer-Book, though not in ours. Mrs. Berkeley, in whose preface of prefaces to her son's poems I first saw this mentioned, regrets the omission; observing, that the very fine prayer for those under sentence of death, might, being read by the children of the poor, at least keep them from the gallows. The remark is just."—Southey's Omniana, vol. i. p. 50.
What Irish Common Prayer-Book is here meant? I have the books issued by the late Ecclesiastical History Society, but do not see the service among them. Could the prayer referred to be transferred to "N. & Q.;" or where is the said Irish Prayer-Book to be found?
Thomas Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
[The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Church of Ireland, we believe, may frequently be met with. An edition in folio, 1740, is in the British Museum, containing "The Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners, treated upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland, and agreed upon by Her Majesty's License in their Synod, holden at Dublin in the Year 1711." We are inclined to think that Mrs. Berkeley must have intended its beautiful exhortation—not the prayer—for the use of the poor. See "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 246.]
