MARRIAGE OF EDMUND SPENSER.

Whilst examining the register of this parish, I read, not without emotion, the following entry :"1590. 1 December. Edmundus Spencer et Maria Towerson nupti fuerunt."

I am quite aware that these later entries, especially the two former ones, tend to diminish the probability the first quoted points to, but it seems desirable that the whole should be recorded in your pages, and so elicit opinions from those better qualified to weigh them in the critical balance than I am. WM. JACKSON. Saint Bees.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS AND THE CARDINAL'S HAT.

I found on examination that Spenser was a graduate of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which Grindal was formerly master: that in the year 1590, the poet, with his friend Sir Walter Raleigh, came to England from Ireland, whither he returned the next or the following year, and that about the same time he married "a country lass" whose name, language, and local habitation have hitherto remained unknown; that the name of his publisher at this time was William Ponsonby, a name native to this district; that in" Colin Clout's come home again," when enumerating the poets of the day, especially the pastoral writers, he says

"There eke is Palin worthy of great praise, Albe he envy at my rustic quill.” Now "Palin" has been identified with Sir Thomas Chaloner the younger, at that time Lord of the manor of Saint Bees, whose poetical genius, though recognised and alluded to by his contemporaries, must be taken on trust, for no fruits of it remain in existence. A careful examination resulted in the discovery of three other Spencer entries, being, I believe, all in the register. The first is the record of a burial earlier in the same year:

"1590. 30 Marcii. Anna uxor Edmundi Spencer de Whithaven sepulta fuit."

The next records how brief was the married life of the bride of 1590:

Paulus Volzius said in writing to his learned friend Beatus Rhenanus about Erasmus's death

enim reliquit sibi post se. Quid autem Erasmi similius, "Mortuus est pater et quasi non est mortuus: simile ac eius libri, vita, doctrinæque suæ testes fidelissimi ?"

In the "Epistolæ D. Erasmi Roterodami Familiares, Basilea apud Barptholomeum Westhemerum, anno MDXLI," are, inter alia, very friendly letters from Erasmus to Peter Tomitius, Bishop of Cracow, to John Antoninus, a medical man of great repute, also residing in the then capital of Poland-some likewise to the illustrious Sir Thomas More. Now I have before me a fine mus, who a month previous (July 12) had gone Latin letter of Antoninus (Aug. 9, 1536) to Erasroads nor electric telegraphs to make events ad patres. (There were in those days no railknown all over the world in the twinkling of an eye.) In this letter Antoninus speaks of the death of More, of that of Tomitius, of the offer of the cardinal's hat, and of his hope that Erasmus, notwithstanding his frail health, may long be preserved to his friends and to letters. Having been long without writing to him, he says:—

negligence in corresponding: if you ask me how I am "I know you do not judge your tried friends by their and what my occupations are, I am well, though getting weak. I have left the Court, and in my retreat I bring

up in the ways of piety, my daughters, my most precious

treasures. And as if awakened by the faithful report of the death of Thomas Morus, I reflect how happy was Diogenes in his tub, and how excellent was the philosophy of Democritus. I cannot tell you how delighted have been with your work on the purity of the Church - a gem of great value."

Then about the Cardinal's hat he says:"Pridie quam hinc emigraret Petrus Tomitius Epus

And the fourth is of earlier date:

"1566. 24 Maii. Elizabetha filia Richardi Spencer baptizata fuit."

tibi persuaderet galerum ut sumeres Cardinalitiu, sed quia morbi tua impotencia non sinit subscribere dominu propterea indigne vere sunt exequutoribus, quod vocant vt a morte dui ad + A mitterentur. Ego vero quia declararent qua voluntate in te fuerit Illustris Pontifex dum

CESAR'S LANDING-PLACE. "Cæsar, in his Commentaries, called it Dola," says a worthy J. P. and ex-mayor, in his Guide to Margate, speaking of Deal! Had Cæsar been so precise in naming the place of his landing; had he even mentioned the exact year B.C. when he first came, or the month of the year and day of the month, after English computation; or how he reckoned the time of day, and the number of days before full moon; or even had he said expressly which way, east or west, the tide was setting when he sailed along shore to his landingplace, on his first expedition,-how many laborious discussions would have been saved! Cæsar has told us none of these things; but he has told enough to enable us to form a conjecture as to the place where he landed, and Mr. Long, one of the most able of his interpreters, maintains that he landed at Deal, and could land nowhere else; and this probably is, and will continue to be, the opinion of most Englishmen, notwithstanding a great difficulty about the tide, which the astronomer-royal and others declare makes "the supposition of Dover or Deal being the places concerned utterly untenable" (Archæologia, vol. xxxix. pp. 277-281, &c.). Cæsar, it is generally supposed, anchored on his first voyage under the high cliffs, about the South Foreland; but his description of the place might possibly have applied to a point nearer the North Foreland, where the land might have been higher than now. The "mirifica moles" mentioned by Cicero, on the report of his brother or Cæsar, may have been derived from an after acquaintance with the Dover and Folkestone coast. And may there not, after all, be a mistake about the tide? Grant, that Caesar anchored under the cliffs off Dover, is it absolutely certain that the tide must have carried him further west? The proof, it seems to me, depends on a chain of evidence, any one link in which being broken, the whole argument is worthless. The direction of the tide depends on the phase of the moon, and the time of high water on the coast; and to determine that, we must be sure that the exact day and hour of Cæsar's heaving anchor are found; that no error has been made in computing the year; no mistake in rectifying the calendar for the year and day. The usually received date of the birth of Christ has been proved erroneous. Can we be certain no similar error has been made in fixing 55 B.C. as the year of Cæsar's first expedition? Then,

does Cæsar speak inclusively or not of the days of landing and of full moon when he says that, on the fourth day after his arrival in Britain, at night there was a full moon? Long, accepting Dr. Halley's computation of this full moon happening on the 30th or 31st of August, B.C. 55, says that Cæsar might have landed on the 26th, 27th, or even 28th. Again, Cæsar does not mention his distance from shore, and the tide turns later some miles out at sea than close in shore. A strong wind also, when the tide is near the slack, will sometimes make the latter appear to be in the same direction. The conformation of the coast was probably very different; the seabottom, rocks, sands, and external currents different, and these all affect more or less the tides and times of high water at different places. MR. LEWIN argues that, if Cæsar came to Deal on his second voyage, he risked wrecking his eight hundred ships on the Goodwin Sands. But what evidence have we of the existence of the Goodwins at that time? None whatever. If they had existed, the Gallic traders to Britain must have known of them, and Cæsar would probably have mentioned them as a reason for going further west. But MR. LEWIN also thinks Deal could not have been the place, because the shore there does not answer to Cæsar's description of the fight, is too steep,—and the water too deep for men to wade. At low water, however, a man can wade a good way from shore along the whole coast, from Walmer to beyond Sandown Castle. I have done so myself scores of times. Sandbanks, like the Goodwins, may form or may disappear in a few centuries. They have formed on many coasts, blocking up ports where once there was deep water. They also probably shift their places as they are acted on by currents. And the Goodwins, if they existed at all in Cæsar's time, may have been in quite a different place and direction from their present; and have affected the tide, with which, and wind, Cæsar proceeded 7 m. p. along coast. Then further, between the Isle of Thanet and the main land, near Walmer, was the mouth of the great æstuary, five miles broad, with perhaps a strong current setting through the Downs from it, and greatly affecting the tide between Walmer and Dover.

On the whole, the tide difficulty has itself so many difficulties crossing it, as hardly to weigh much against the numerous concurrent arguments of Mr. Long, in favour of the coast near Deal; and his opinion is not only consonant with the ancient tradition of the Britons, "who thought Deale, or as Nennius spells it, Dole, to be the place of this battle, but also of the Saxons, who fixed it at the same place, according to an old table set up in Dover Castle, mentioned by Camden" (Carte). FRANCIS J. LEACHMAN, M.A.

Park Place, Margate.

AMERICAN CENTENARIANS.

REV. CHARLES CLEVELAND.

In my last article I referred to a gentleman then living who would complete his century, should he live till the 21st of the present month. I regret to state that he has since died on June 5, lacking sixteen days only of the desired term. In my view, however, any well-established case of extreme old age is valuable, as fortifying in the strongest manner the claims of the few actual centenarians. It would be the merest superstition to suppose that a man might live ninety-nine years and three hundred and fifty days, but that some supreme law prevented the attainment of the century.

The late Rev. Charles Cleveland was born at Norwich, Conn., June 21, 1772. His father was Aaron Cleveland of Norwich, a man of some local note, a member of the legislature, and a minister.

From the City Clerk of Norwich, Mr. John L. Devotion, I have received the following copy of the records:

"Aaron Cleveland and Abiah Hide were married 12th April, 1768.

1770. 1772.

1774.

1775.

Aaron Porter, born July 11, at 9 1778." The father, Aaron Cleveland, married a second time, and died at New Haven, Sept. 21, 1815, aged seventy-one years.

Charles Cleveland came to Salem, Mass., at the age of twelve years; made a voyage to Africa ; was a clerk; and finally was Deputy Collector in the Custom House, remaining there till 1802. He then came to Boston, and was a stockbroker and dealer in dry goods for over twenty years. Finally, he gave up business, becoming greatly interested in a mission to the poor of the city, and in 1838 he was ordained. From that time to the day of his death he was one of the most useful and honoured citizens of Boston. "Father Cleveland" was known to every one by name at least, and he was liberally furnished with the means to carry out the work of active charity in which he delighted.

On the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, in 1862, a little sketch of his life was printed and given to his friends, and in this the date of his birth is recorded as above. So in Miss Caulkins's History of New London, 1866, p. 521. Charles is mentioned as "born June 21, 1772, and now (1865) 93 years of age."

These citations will, I trust, prevent any doubt as to the great age of Charles Cleveland. For

* 4th S. ix. 324.

"THEY CANNOT TOUCH ME FOR COINING.""Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the king himself."-Act IV. Sc. 6.

Shakespeare may here refer to the ancient maxim that the right of coining is comprehended in those royal rights, which never leave the kingly sceptre :

"Jus monetæ comprehenditur in regalibus quæ nunquam a regio sceptro abdicantur. Jus cudendæ monetæ ad solum principem, hoc est, imperatorem, de jure pertinet." W. L. RUSHTON.

EMBEZZLE. The old lexicographers-for instance Minshew, and after him Blount, &c.—give this word "Embezell, to steale, to pilfer," &c.; and I am not aware that it has ever borne any other signification. One is, therefore, a little surprised to find it employed in one of the clauses of the will of Matthew Prior, the poet :

"I leave to Mr. Adrian Drift the sum of one thousand pounds, to be employed and disposed of at his discretion, hoping that his industry and management will be such

that he will not embezzle or decrease the same."

This gentleman was, it will be remembered, joint executor of the will with Lord Harley, and edited the History and the Miscellaneous Works of his deceased friend, 2 vols. 8vo, 1740.

I do not know that executors are honester

now-a-days, as a rule, than in the times of Prior; but I fancy few of them would feel complimented by a testamentary recommendation not to "embezzle" the money bequeathed to them in trust. WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham.

OLIVER CROMWELL'S DESCENDANTS.-Believing that all a man's descendants are lineal descendants, and that any male descendant of Oliver Cromwell is his lineal male descendant whether his name be Cromwell or anything else, I must hold the assertion that his last lineal male descendant died in May, 1821, to be incorrect.

The descendants of Oliver Cromwell's daughter, Claypole or Claypool, have been in Pennsylvania for more than a century and a half. Ďr. Pratt, who died a few years ago, was one of these male descendants; and within the last six months another male descendant died here, Col. William D. Lewis, Jun., who commanded one of the Pennsylvania regiments in the Union army during the late rebellion. BAR-POINT.

GRAY AND JOHNSON ON LONDON.-The following almost contemporary instances of the truth of the proverb-"Quot homines tot sententiæ' may amuse some of the readers of " N. & Q.": "I have been at London this month, that tiresome dull place, where all people under thirty find so much amusement."-Gray, in 1764.

"Why, Sir, you find no man at all intellectual who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."-Dr. Johnson, in 1777.

contemporary Voltaire, should be preserved in its integrity, for Mr. Kenealy to forgive me for pointing out that, with regard to one word-but that an all-important one-in applying this to his great countryman, Dr. Maginn, his memory has led him into an error. Of the latter he says:

"With abilities confined to no single branch of intellect, he shines brilliantly in all, and reminds me more than any man I ever saw of Johnson's eulogium on Voltaire: Vir acerrimi ingenii et multarum literarum.' ”—Brallugham; or the Deipnosophists, p. 25.

Now this may be what Johnson ought to have said, and perhaps is what he did say; but what Boswell makes him to say on his visit to Paris, and in a conversation with Fréron, the journalist, was, "Vir acerrimi ingenii, et paucarum literarum," which is a different thing altogether. WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham. "THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR."-It may perhaps not be generally known to readers that this most expressive and happy phrase was the invention of Washington Irving, and was first used by him in one of his sketches (The Creole Village), published originally in 1837. Irving himself notes the fact in an edition of some of his works issued in 1855 by Constable & Co. of Edinburgh, in which he says in a note on "the almighty dollar ":

"This phrase, used for the first time in this sketch (The Creole Village), has since passed into current circulation, and by some has been questioned as savouring of irreverence. The author, therefore, owes it to his orthodoxy to declare that no irreverence was intended, even to the dollar itself-which, he is aware, is daily becoming more and more an object of worship."

May I take the liberty of saying, in connection with this subject, that it is a great pity Irving's works are not more in the hands of the public than they seem to be? They are, I am sure, infinitely preferable to the flimsy and pretentious rubbish which at present has a hold of the market of light literature. Inverness.

Queries.

F.

BARONS' CAVE, REIGATE.-People who visit Reigate are shown an underground hall, in which they are told the barons first obtained King John's consent to Magna Charta, before going to Runnymede. Could you inform me on what authority this story is founded? WYCLIFFE VAUGHAN.

[The source of the tradition seems to be John Watson's Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey, 1782, i. 30. He says: "Tradition tells us that in this cave, or large room, the barons met in council before their conference with King John in Runingmede; if so, it was probably here that the particulars contained in Magna Charta were agreed upon to be demanded. It goes by the name of the Barons' Cave." From the circumstantial narrative of the movements of the confederated