Irish Bishops as English Suffragans.—In compliance with the suggestion of J.M.D. in your last volume, p. 385., I abridge from The Record of March 17th the following particulars:

"At a recent meeting of the ArchÆolgical Society the Rev. W. Gunner stated that from a research among the archives of the bishops and of the college of Winchester, he had found that many Irish bishops, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were merely titular bishops, bearing the titles of sees in Ireland, while they acted as suffragans to bishops in England. A Bishop of Achonry, for instance, appeared to have been frequently deputed by William of Wykeham to consecrate churches, and to perform other episcopal duties, in his diocese; and the Bishops of Achonry seemed frequently to have been suffragans of those of Winchester. No see exhibits more instances of this expatriation than Dromore, lying as it did in an unsettled and tumultuous country. Richard Messing, who succeeded to Dromore bishopric in 1408, was suffragan to the Archbishop of York; and so died at York within a year after his appointment. His successor John became a suffragan to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and died such in 1420. Thomas Scrope, a divine from Leicestershire, was appointed by the Pope to this see in 1430: he could not live in peace with the Irish, and therefore became vicar-general to the Bishop of Norwich. Thomas Radcliffe, his successor, never lived in Ireland: 'the profits of his see did not extend to 30l. sterling, and for its extreme poverty it is void and desolate, and almost extincted, in so much as none will own the same, or abide therein.' Dr. Radcliffe was therefore obliged to become a suffragan to the Bishop of Durham. William, who followed him in the Dromore succession in 1500, lived in York, and was suffragan to its archbishop; and it would seem his successors were also suffragans in England, until the plantation of Ulster improved the circumstances of that province."

An Oxford B. C. L.

Pope and Buchanan.—I beg to suggest as a Query, whether Pope did not borrow the opening of his Essay on Man from that of the second book of Buchanan's Latin poem De SphÆrÂ. Let us compare them.

Buchanan:

Pope:

I do not remember the comparison to have been made before.

Wm. Ewart.

University Club.

Scarce MSS. in the British Museum.—In Cotton MSS., Titus, B 1., will be found a curious and valuable collection of papers entitled "Cromwell's Remembrances." These comprise:

1. A period from about the death of Anne Boleyn to his attainder.

2. They are very miscellaneous, consisting of memoranda of subjects for conference with the king. Notices of persons to be remembered for offices. Sale of lands. Diplomacy, and various other particulars. Notes relative to the dissolution of monasteries; their riches, revenues, and pensions to abbots, &c. The reception of Anne Cleves, and the alteration of the royal household thereupon. Privy council and parliamentary notes. Foreign alliances. Scotch and Irish affairs, consequent on the dissolution of abbeys, &c.

These curious materials for history are in the rough and confused state in which they were left by their author, and, to render them available, would require an index to the whole.

The "Remembrances" are in some degree illustrated by Harl. MS. 604., which is a very curious volume of monastic affairs at the dissolution. Also by 605, 606, and 607. The last two belong to the reign of Philip and Mary, and contain an official account of the lands sold by them belonging to the crown in the third and fourth years of their reign.

E. G. Ballard.

The Royal Garden at Holyrood Palace.—I cannot help noticing a disgraceful fact, which has only lately come to my knowledge. There is, adjoining the Palace of Holyrood, an ancient garden of the old kings of Scotland: in it is a curious sundial, with Queen Mary's name on it. There is a pear-tree planted by her hands, and there are many other deeply interesting traces of the royal race, who little dreamed how their old stately places were to be profaned, after they themselves were laid in the dust. The garden of the Royal Stuarts is now let to a market gardener! Are there no true-hearted Scotchmen left, who will redeem it from such desecration?

L. M. M. R.

The Old Ship "Royal Escape."—The following extract from the Norwich Mercury of Aug. 21, 1819, under the head of "Yarmouth News," will probably be gratifying to your querist Anon, Vol. vii., p. 380.:

"On the 13th inst. put into this port (Yarmouth), having been grounded on the Barnard Sand, The Royal Escape, government hoy, with horses for his royal highness at Hanover. This vessel is the same that King Charles II. made his escape in from Brighthelmstone."

Joseph Davey.