Various

Chantrey's Sleeping Children in Lichfield Cathedral.—In reference to a claim recently put forth on behalf of an individual to the merit of having designed and executed this celebrated monument, Mr. Peter Cunningham says (Literary Gazette, June 5.),—"The merit of the composition belongs to Chantrey and Stothard." As a regular reader of the "Notes and Queries," I shall feel obliged to Mr. Cunningham (whose name I am always glad to see as a correspondent) if he will be kind enough to inform me on what evidence he founds the title of Mr. Stothard to a share of the merit of a piece of sculpture, which is so generally attributed to the genius of Chantrey?

Plectrum.

Viscount Dundee's Ring.—In the Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1826, is a description and engraving of a ring containing some of Ld. Dundee's hair, with the letters V.D., surmounted by a coronet, worked on it in gold; and on the inside of the ring are engraved a skull, and the posey—"Great Dundee, for God and me, J. Rex."

The ring, which belonged to the family of Graham of Duntrune (representative of Viscount Dundee), has for several years been lost or mislaid; perhaps, through some of the numerous readers of the "Notes and Queries," information might be obtained as to the place where that ring is at present preserved, and whether there would be any possibility of the family recovering it by purchase or otherwise.

W. C. Trevelyan.

Duntrune, near Dundee.

The Kilkenny Cats.—I would feel obliged if any of your correspondents could give me information as to the first, or any early, published allusion to the strange tale, modernly become proverbial, of the ferocity of the cats of Kilkenny. The story generally told is, that two of those animals fought in a sawpit with such ferocious determination that when the battle was over nothing could be found remaining of either combatant except his tail,—the marvellous inference to be drawn therefrom being, of course, that they had devoured each other. This ludicrous anecdote has, no doubt, been generally looked upon as an absurdity of the Joe Miller class; but this I conceive to be a mistake. I have not the least doubt that the story of the mutual destruction of the contending cats was an allegory designed to typify the utter ruin to which centuries of litigation and embroilment on the subject of conflicting rights and privileges tended to reduce the respective exchequers of the rival municipal bodies of Kilkenny and Irishtown,—separate corporations existing within the liberties of one city, and the boundaries of whose respective jurisdiction had never been marked out or defined by an authority to which either was willing to bow. Their struggles for precedency, and for the maintenance of alleged rights invaded, commenced A.D. 1377. (see Rot. Claus. 51 Ed. III. 76.), and were carried on with truly feline fierceness and implacability till the end of the seventeenth century, when it may fairly be considered that they had mutually devoured each other to the very tail, as we find their property all mortgaged, and see them each passing by-laws that their respective officers should be content with the dignity of their station, and forego all hope of salary till the suit at law with the other "pretended corporation" should be terminated, and the incumbrances thereby caused removed with the vanquishment of the enemy. Those who have taken the story of the Kilkenny cats in its literal sense have done grievous injustice to the character of the grimalkins of the "faire cittie," who are really quite as demure and quietly disposed a race of tabbies as it is in the nature of any such animals to be.

John G. A. Prim.

Kilkenny.

Robert de Welle.—Can any of your correspondents inform me of what family was Robert de Welle, who married Matilda, one of the co-heirs of Thomas de Clare, and in 15th Edward II. received seisin of possessions in Ireland, and a mediety of the Seneschalship of the Forest of Essex in her right? (Rotul. Original., Record Commission, pp. 266, 277.) And how came the Irish title of Baron Welles into the family of Knox?

Again, where can I meet with a song called the Derby Ram, very popular in my school-boy days, but of which I recollect only one stanza,—

"The man that killed the ram, Sir,

Was up to his knees in blood;

The boy that held the bucket, Sir,

Was carried away in the flood."

I fancy it had an electioneering origin.

H. W.

Lady Slingsby.—Among many of the plays temp. Car. II. the name of "The Lady Slingsby" occurs in the list of performers composing the dramatis personÆ. Who was this Lady Slingsby?

T.

God save the Queen.—Can any correspondent state the reason of the recent discontinuance of this brief but solemn and scriptural ejaculation, at the close of royal proclamations, letters, &c., read during the service of the Church?

J. H. M.

Meaning of Steyne—Origin of Adur.—Can any of your correspondents give the derivation of the word "Steyne," as used at Brighton, for instance? or the origin of the name "Adur," a small river running into the sea at Shoreham?

F.

Col. Lilburn.—Who was the author of a book called Lieut.-Colonel John Lilburn tryed and cast, or his Case and Craft discovered, &c., &c., published by authority, 1653?

P. S. W. E.

French Verses.—Will one of your readers kindly inform me from what French poet the two following stanzas are taken?

"La Mort a des rigueurs À nulle autre pareilles.

On a beau la prier,

La cruelle, qu'elle est, se bouche les oreilles,

Et nous laisse crier.

"Le pauvre en sa cabane, que le chaume couvre,

Est sujet À ses lois;

Et la garde qui veille aux barriÈres du Louvre

N'en dÉfend pas les rois."

E. R. C. B.

Our World.—I once heard a lady repeat the following pithy lines, and shall be glad if any of your readers can tell me who is the author, and where they first appeared,

D. V. S.

Home, April 29.

Porson's Imposition.—When Porson was at Cambridge, his tutor lent him a pound to buy books, which he spent in getting drunk at a tavern. The tutor set him an imposition, which he made to consist in a dog-Greek poem, giving an account of the affair. These were the three first lines,—

Then part of another,—

I cannot but think that some Cambridge men know the whole, which would be invaluable to retrieve. There is nothing about it in Kidd.

C. B.

Alice Rolle.—Can any of your readers conversant with Irish pedigrees, if they remember to have met with this lady's name, kindly inform me where it may be found?

S. S. S.

The Meaning of "Race" in Ship-building.—In Hawkin's Voyages ("Hakluyt Society, 1847"), p. 199., he says, "Here is offerred to speak of a point much canvassed amongst carpenters and sea-captains, diversely maintained but yet undetermined, that is, whether the race, or loftie built shippe, bee best for the merchant;" and again, p. 219.: "A third and last cause of the losse of sundry of our men, most worthy of note for all captains, owners, and carpenters, was the race building of our ship, the onely fault she had," &c. Can any of your correspondents explain what is meant by "race"; the editor of the Voyages, Captain C. R. D. Bethune, R.N., confesses himself unable to explain it.

E. N. W.

Southwark, May 27. 1850.

The Battle of Death.—I possess a curious old print entitled "The Battle of Death against all Creatures, and the Desolation wrought by Time." It bears the engraver's name, "Robert Smith," but no date. The figures, however, which are numerous, and comprise all ranks, seem to present the costume of the latter end of the 16th century. There is a long inscription in verse, and another in prose: query, who was the author of the verses, and what is the date of the engraving? As I am on the subject of prints, perhaps some person learned in such matters will also be kind enough to inform me what number constitutes a complete series of the engravings after Claude by Francis Vivares; and who was "Jean Rocque, Chirographaire du Roi," who executed several maps of portions of London, also a map of Kilkenny?

X. Y. A.

Kilkenny, June 8. 1850.

Execution of Charles I.—Is the name of the executioner known who beheaded King Charles I.? Is there any truth in the report that it was an Earl Stair?

P. S. W. E.

Morganitic Marriage.—In Ducange, &c., the adjective morganitic is connected with the morgangab (morning gift), which was usual from a husband to his wife the day after their marriage. How comes this adjective to be applied to marriages in which the wife does not take her husband's rank?

M.

Lord Bacon's Palace and Gardens.—Will any of your architectural or landscape gardening readers inform me whether any attempts were ever made by any of our English sovereigns or nobility, or by any of our rich men of science and taste, to carry out, in practice, Lord Bacon's plans of a princely palace, or a prince-like garden, as so graphically and so beautifully described in his Essays, xlv. and xlvi., "Of Building" and "Of Gardens"?

I cannot but think that if such an attempt was never made, the failure is discreditable to us as a nation; and that this work ought yet to be executed, as well for its own intrinsic beauty and excellence, as in honour of the name and fame of its great proposer.

Effaress.

June 24. 1850.

"Dies IrÆ, Dies Illa."—Will any of your correspondents oblige me by answering the following Queries. Who was the author of the extremely beautiful hymn, commencing—

And in what book was it first printed?

A copy of it is contained in a small tract in our library, entitled Lyrica Sacra, excerpta ex Hymnis EcclesiÆ Antiquis. Privatim excusa RomÆ, 1818. At the end of the preface is subscribed "T. M. Anglus." And on the title page in MS., "For the Rev. Dr. Milner, Dean of Carlisle, Master of Queen's College, in the University of Cambridge, from T. J. Mathia—" the rest of the name has been cut off in binding; it was probably Mathias. As here given, it has only twenty-seven lines. The original hymn is, I believe, much longer.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

Queen's College, Cambridge.

Aubrey Family.—In Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, under the head "Aubrey," I find the following passage:—

"Vincent, Windsor Herald in the time of Elizabeth, compiled a pedigree of the family of Aubrey, which he commences thus:—'Saint Aubrey, of the blood royal of France, came into England with William the Conqueror, anno 1066, as the Chronicles of All Souls College testify, which are there to be seen tied to a chain of iron.'"

Can any of your readers give me any information respecting this "Saint Aubrey," whose name I have not been able to find in the Roll of Battle Abbey: or respecting his son, Sir Reginald Aubrey, who aided Bernard de Newmarch in the conquest of the Marches of Wales, and any of his descendants?

Pwcca.

Ogden Family.—The writer is very desirous of information as to the past history of a family of the name of Ogden. Dr. Samuel Ogden, the author of a volume of sermons, published in 1760, was a member of it. A branch of the family emigrated to America about 1700, and still exists there. They yet bear in their crest allusion to a tradition, that one of their family hid Charles II. in an oak, when pursued by his enemies. What authority is there for this story? I shall be grateful for any indications of sources of information that may seem likely to aid my researches.

Twyford.