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My La Chancellors owld verses on the cleargy purchasing landes for ther nevews, otherwys ther children. Pascæ: 3 Jacobi 1605.

Aprill 18-My Ld Keep sayed speaking of Copley, a phisitian may purge humores but not mores.

23 Apr. Dans Ingenii est germinus peccati. Mr Attorny speaking of pregnant witts to be caver strayning the conscience.

Trin. 1605. 11° Junij. Mr Attorny. Male facientes currunt ad patentes, speaking of suiters to noblemen for letters.

A Jeweller being demanded of a Lady what vertwe the stoanes she had bought of him had, answered, greate vertue madam that can drawe one hundred pownd out of your purse to myne, for so much she had payed for them-(spoaken of the 2000 band vaulose had of the comptesse of Pembrooke for 200 perle to pay 1400 for them.) L. Chancler.

Michis, 1605, 15 No: fr. Bacon.

The nature of Justice distributiue is to consider not only de toto but de tanto, and not to pronounce sentence by ounces and drames but by graines.

The custome and manner for Marche Lords is to have vppon eu'y alteracōn by deathe, but not by purchase or alienacon, of the Tennts, a certane kind of contry bution or benevolence (but yet of dutie) whiche they call Micys. The Earle of Pembroke pretendeth the like on the Boroughe of Carleion, of whom he claimeth a contribution of 4 p ann' towards the paimts of five hundred markes (which be his whole micis) to be paid in five veares. This cause was handled in the Chan: courts before the Mr of the Roles Justice Warb.rton and Dor

Hunte 15 No. 1605 and two former decrees were shewed in the Corte by the Lo: of Pembr: counsell.

[The two last entries are in the first hand.]
Trin. 4, 1600, Julij 3.

Ignorantia Judicis: miseria inocentis,
Mitius misserauti: melius paretur.

The Ld Cooke, La Cheef Justice assisting in Chancery. 24 July, Lod Cooke being Attor. Informing against the Ld of North the starr Chamber 2 July, 1606. He sayed suspiciones leves, might cause examination, probabiles, incarceration, and violentæ et vehementes condemnation.

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Mr. Babington, M Ashe, and with them 3 or more gentlewomen being in the Coort; my La Chancel. sayd what make all shees... more fitt to be at a stag play heere is a Gynoseum: then came ould mother stephens with her cloake and mufled; over the coort to them. What can we best lerne fay . . heer.

Trinity Terme, 6, 1608. Primus dies Termini.

May 27. The Ld Chancellor sayed: dislyking the clergys leases making and to ther children and of diminishing the reuenues of the churches: this is ablative diuinity, for here is taking away of ther livinges but in former tymes when theire endowments weare to the church that tyme ther divinity was in the dative case. [The last entry.]

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Mary acusinge Robb wrongfullye for the weh Robert prayethe for hire after this man'., and wishethe bim self Hoe better end yf ever adid deserve yt.

I ffervently beseeche the thundring God of might

that all the plague of heven & erthe vppon the wrettche maye light that fury frette her gall her payne maye never ceasse norr fynd noe frend in her distresse that may her woe releasse."

G. A. CARTHEW.

CHARBON DE TERRE: A LIEGE LEGEND.

In the year 1198 a poor blacksmith in the city of Liege was toiling in an obscure street where his wretched little forge was established. He was working away as hard as he could, and his face was bedewed with perspiration.

A stranger who was passing down the street, observing the earnest manner with which the hardy smith was labouring, stopped to look at him.

This stranger was a very venerable old man, with hair and beard as white as snow; and he was arrayed in garments that were the same colour as his beard and hair. (Canitie et barbá venerandus, alba veste indutus, Gilles d'Orval, t. ii. 191.)

"That is a wearisome trade you have devoted yourself to," said the stranger. "Are you content with the profits it yields you?"

it?" said the blacksmith, as he wiped his fore-"What profits do you think I can derive from. head. Nearly everything I gain by my labour I am obliged to expend in buying this miserablecharbon, which costs me so dear."

"Aye, aye!" said the stranger, "I see that the charbon you use is made of wood, and that it must cost a good deal by the time it is conveyed to you from the adjoining forests."

"that

"I assure you," observed the blacksmith, the utmost I can possibly gain is barely sufficient to buy food for myself and my family."

"But," replied the old man, "if you could have a species of charbon which would cost you nothing more than the trouble of digging a little depth into the earth for it, where it lies hidden, and when you could have as much of it as you wishedfor, would you be very happy ?"

"Would I be very happy? Ah!" sighed the blacksmith, as he gazed at the stranger, and endeavoured to make a guess at the meaning of the words addressed to him.

"Well, then," continued the venerable stranger, "listen now attentively to what I am saying. You know the Mont-des-Moines that lies close by this place, as you must have often passed by it. Have you never remarked, if you did so, a sort of black earth that is in some places mixed up with the ordinary soil? Go there; take that black earth, put it in the fire, and, take my word for it, you will never again have to buy an ounce of charbon of wood."

The blacksmith stared with amazement, and at first thought the old stranger was trifling with

him; but that thought vanished as he looked at the kindly face of the good old man, bidding him "good bye" as he disappeared. The smith's confidence returned; he put on his coat at once (for the honest men of Liege never take long to deliberate on anything), and the same instant he ran off to the Mont-des-Moines. Upon examining the soil, he there perceived what he had before never paid any attention to, that there were tracks, and what appeared to be veins of earth that was black and friable. He filled his apron with this earth, and returned home satisfied. His confidence in the words of the venerable stranger was fully realised; for scarcely had he cast a handful of his black earth into the brasier than it began to burn up and sparkle brilliantly.

He had made a grand discovery! He had found out coal! He had hit upon the charbon de terre!! Transported with delight, he ran to tell his neighbours of what had occurred to him. The neighbours in their turn, being fully convinced of the value of the discovery, repaired to Mont-desMoines-which they also called Mont-Public, because it had been waste common-land, and every one that liked had a right to repair to it--and there, with the black earth, they perceived stones of the same colour, which were found to make excellent fuel.

It may easily be guessed what a reputation the discovery of this valuable mine won for the poor blacksmith in his natal city. His name was Houlloz, and from his name was afterwards called that species of coal that is known as houille (pitcoal).

The extraction of pit-coal (houille) became, in course of time, the source of great riches to Liege; but then as to the good old man who had revealed the source of these riches, Houlloz and his companions in vain sought after him from a desire to testify their gratitude; but no one was ever able to gain any intelligence respecting

him.

Who then was this old man? From whence came he? How was he master of a secret which was concealed from the inhabitants of the country? "We have" (says M. E. De Conde, in his Monumens et Souvenirs de la ville de Liege, c. iv., from which this legend is translated) on this subject consulted ancient authors. The oldest work refer

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ring to it is an antique manuscript, very sadly deteriorated. This manuscript, having recounted in detail the preceding history, adds: "That there cannot be any doubt as to the mysterious personage introduced into it, and that, beyond the slightest question, he was an ang..." The last letters have been obliterated by envious time. Could the manuscript have intended to aflirm that the author of the discovery was an angel (angelus)? or, might it not have been an Anglican-an Englishman (Anglus)? for the use of

coal (charbon de terre) was well known in the twelfth century in England. W. B. MAC CABE. Moncontour-de-Bretagne, Côtes du Nord, France.

DR. ARBUTHNOT.

That this celebrated wit and eminent physician, upon whom the mantle of the equally clever and skilful Dr. Pitcairn had fallen, was a cadet of the noble family of Arbuthnot, is, we believe, undoubted, although there is some difficulty in putting together the necessary links of his pedigree. His father was the episcopal clergyman of Arbuthnot, where his son is asserted to have been born shortly after the Restoration.

This

In the Library of the Faculty of Advocates there is a MS. which is thus titled: "A Continuation of the Genealogie of the noble Family of Arbuthnot, by Mr. Alexander Arbuthnot, sometime Minister at the Kirk of Arbuthnott." person was the father of Dr. John Arbuthnot, who, not choosing to adopt the Presbyterian system of worship, preferred relinquishing his church and retiring to an estate, represented by Chambers to have been but a "small" one, which he had inherited, and where, it may be reasonably assumed, he passed the remainder of his days.

This Continuation was intended to form the concluding portion of an account of the Arbuthnot family which had never been printed, but which may be amongst the muniments of the Viscount of Arbuthnot. Its existence was unknown to Dr. Irving, who has given a sketch of the life of the alleged writer in his Lives of Scotish Poets, and to Dr. Robert Chambers, whose brief notice of Principal Arbuthnot, the author, is derived from Irving and M'Crie.

On the back of the title of the Continuation is

the following memorandum:—

"For connecting Principal Arbuthnott's latin Genealogy with the following continuation, 'tis to be noticed that James, who succeeded Robert the second, married Jean Stuart, Athole's daughter, by whom he had two sons and one daughter. His eldest son was Robert the third; the second, called David, Parson of Mammure, was killed at Pinkie. His daughter's name was Issobel, who was married first to Ochterlony of Kelly, and afterwards to Mearl of Panmure. This James got the holding of ward,

changed to blench. He was removed by immature death, in the flower of his age, in the year 1521, and to him succeeded Robert his son, the third of that name, so called after his grandfather."

Copies of this Latin genealogy may exist in some public or private library; but none have hitherto been found, which is the more to be regretted, as the author was a man of admitted ability, and an elegant writer in Latin, both of prose and verse. He died at Aberdeen on the

Lives of Eminent Scotchmen, p. 68.

tenth of October, 1583, before he had completed the age of forty-five." A favourable picture of him is given by Archbishop Spottiswood, who remarks:

"He was greatly loved of all men, hated of none, and

in such account for his moderation with the chief men of these parts, that without his advice they could do nothing; which put him in a great fashrie whereof he did oft complain. Pleasant and jocund in conversation, and in all science expert, a good poet, mathematician, philosopher, theologian, lawyer, and in medicine skilful; so as on every subject he could promptly discourse, and to good purpose."

It is believed that the Principal was the grandfather of Alexander, the clergyman of Arbuthnot, and thus great-grandfather of the friend of Swift and Pope. The conjecture may be erroneous, but it would be satisfactory to have it either proved

or refuted.

J. M.

AN INEDITED ELEGY BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Struggling the other day through a quantity of old papers, I lighted on poor Goldy's panegyric of his warm-hearted patron, the amiable and intelligent Quaker, Joseph Fenn Sleigh (Foote's "Doctor Sligo"), "the schoolfellow of Burke at Ballitore, the first friend of Barry the painter, who died prematurely in 1771, an eminent physician at Cork." (Prior's Life of Goldsmith, i. 148-9.)

The doctor, who was of Derbyshire descent, died on Thursday, May 10, 1770, aged thirty-seven (a life how short for his sorrowing friends!), leaving behind him an idiotic sister and a large fortunethe latter (as too many know to their bitter cost) a never-ending subject of litigation; but to which, if every one had his due, we believe a certain learned serjeant has, or ought to have, a prior claim:

"It were in vain to expatiate on virtues universally known, or emblazon that merit which every heart confesses; were even Fancy to be indulged, it could not exaggerate the reality; but Fancy can here find no breast sufficiently vacant for its admission-on the hearts of all who knew him; on the wretch whom he relievedof the Parent whom he solaced; of the Friend whom he delighted:

"Undoubted grief! no grief excessive call,

Nor stop the tears which now in torrents fall.
Dear Sleigh's no more! the man whom all admired,
The man whose breast each social virtue fired,
Is now no more! In Death's cold sleep he lies;
A cause sufficient for our friendly sighs.
Could Learning, Goodness, Charity insure,
Could Worth and Genius, Wit and Truth secure
Our darling Sleigh-then Love sincere might save
The best of men from an untimely grave!
Cease my sad heart, nor injure by your lays
The worthy man you faintly strive to praise!
View every face-behold the rich and poor-
With downcast eyes regret that Sleigh's no more!

"OLIVER GOLDSMITH,
Roscommon, Ireland."

MOORLAND LAD.

DISCREPANCIES IN DATES.-Amongst ancient charters and indentures such errors are by no means uncommon, and might lead an inexperienced archæologist to pronounce the documents in which they occur spurious, whereas these very errors sometimes afford even corroborative evidence of authenticity. A note on this subject would, I believe, be valued by the public. The author of a paper on "Ancient Sherrif Seals," published a few years ago in the Herald and Genealogist, has had a very extensive experience in this branch of archæology, and might be induced on seeing this reference to his qualifications to contribute a reply. There are probably many other archeologists equally qualified to give an opinion (supported by evidence) on this subject, but as I do not happen to know them as thus specially qualified, I have alluded to him whom I do know as having directed his attention to the question.

S.

THE LATE SIR SAMUEL O'MALLEY, BART.—In a cutting from the Mayo Constitution newspaper published in August, 1864, I find it stated that this gentleman, who died on the 17th of that month, had been for the long period of sixty-three Mayo, and that during the whole of that period years a magistrate and grand juror of the co. no act of his as a magistrate ever met the censure of the superior tribunals or the government of the country. This is, I think, worth putting on record in the pages of "N. & Q.” Y. S. M.

SHROPSHIRE SAYINGS.—An old lady, who was the daughter of a Salopian farmer, and who died not long since at the age of seventy-eight, was accustomed to make use of the following sayings, which had been current in her early days in her native county. Some of them are curious, and may be found interesting:

"Choke chicken, more hatching." A variation of the proverb, that "As good fish remain in the sea as ever came out of it."

"Noble as the race of Shenkin and line of Harry Tudor."

"He smiles like a basket of chips"; i. e. of habit and unconsciously.

"Useful as a shin of beef, which has a big bone for the big dog, a little bone for the little dog, and a sinew for the cat.'

"It's all on one side like Bridgnorth election." "Ahem! as Dick Smith said when he swallowed the dishclout," signifying that troubles should be borne with fortitude.

"All friends round the wrekin."

WM. UNDERHILL.

"EIKON BAZIAIKH'.-On the fly-leaf of a wellbound and ill-thumbed copy in my possession of the third edition of A Vindication of K. Charles the Martyr (London: printed for R. Wilkin, at the

King's Head in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1711), proving that His Majesty was the author of this fiercely-contested work, are these MS. notes, with the autographs of their respective attestors:

"Winchilsea, Aug. ye 12, 1722. "I doe affirm that in the year 1688, Mrs Mompesson (wife to Thomas Mompesson, Esq. of Bruham, in Somersetshire, a worthy and a very good Woman) told me and my Wife that Archbishop Juxton (sic) assur'd her that to his certain knowledge the "EΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ' was all compos'd and written by King Charles ye first.

"Although in the following Book the King's Book is thoroughly Vindicated, and proved to be of his Majesties Composing, I was willing to add this Circumstance from Mrs Mompesson, with whom and her Husband my Wife and I at that time sojourn'd. "WINCHILSEA.

"The Author of the following Tracts was the Rt Reverend Mr Wagstaffe, who was consecrated a Bishop by the Rt. Reverend the Deprived Bps. of Norwich, Ely & Peterburgh, & the Rt Rev'd George Hickes, Suffragan Bishop of Thetford. The Rt. Honorable Henry Earl of Clarendon being a Witness thereto.

"J. CREYK,

"Chaplain to Ld Winchelsea." JOHN SLEIGH.

Thornbridge, Bakewell. AVERAGE OF HUMAN LIFE.-I am rector of a country parish, the population of which, at the last census, was 404, the males and females being exactly equal in number. In the ten succeeding years there have been sixty-eight deaths, of which thirty-six have been those of females. The general average of age has been forty-nine years; the average of males a fraction over forty-nine years; that of the females, therefore, a fraction under that age. Ten of the entire number have lived to over eighty years, of whom eight were females, one of these latter being ninety-two when she died. I do not know how these numbers will bear comparison with those of other parishes, but one thing strikes me in looking them over-while the average length of life is a little in favour of the males, the females show a larger number attaining to extreme old age.

W. M. H. C. FRENCH WAR SONGS.-In The Standard of Dec. 26 is "The Christmas of a German Soldier." Fritz, in a letter to Gretchen, describes "the situation" and his hopes, and gives snatches of a song which he hears the French singing on the opposite bank of the Marne:

"These words they put into King William's mouth:"Qui soutiendra le choc des miens? De vos valises Qui sondera la profondeur?

Von Tann, héros pillard, Verder, brûleur d'églises,
Et Trescon, gendarme frondeur.

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"Bismarck a des conseils loyaux sur toutes choses;
Il me souffla l'avis divin
D'envoyer mes enfants, chiens couchants, doux et roses,
Mendier au pays du vin.

"Comment se défier de ces souples carrures?
Tout foyer leur fut indulgent,

Mes chérubins ont pris l'empreinte des serrures! 'A moi la cave, à moi l'argent."

I cannot learn more about the song, but I think if the whole can be found it is quite as worthy of preservation in " N. & Q." as any war song yet inserted. H. B. Č.

U. U. Club.

MONT CENIS TUNNEL.-The following, from the Daily News of Dec. 27, 1870, is worth putting on record in "N. & Q.":

"Bardonèche, Dec. 25, 4.15 P.M. the middle of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, amid repeated "The last diaphragm has just been bored exactly in shouts from one side to the other of Long live Italy!'

"The greatest engineering work of the great century of engineering has at last been accomplished. The Mont Cenis Tunnel is perhaps a more wonderful triumph of genius and perseverance than the Atlantic Telegraph or the Suez Canal. Its length is seven miles and threefifths, it is twenty-six feet and a quarter in width, and nineteen feet eight inches in height, and will carry a double line of rails from France, under the Alps, to Italy. The tunnel, which is of course unfinished as yet, has been cut by atmospheric machinery through the solid rock, schist, limestone, and quartz, the air which moved the chisels escaping from its compression to supply the lungs of the workmen. The work has been fifteen years in progress, without reckoning the time spent in preliminary investigations; it has been carried on continuously from 1861 till now.

The railway up the Sion valley will now, before long, carry its passengers straight through from Fourneaux to Bardonèche, and it will be possible to go from Paris to Milan without climbing an Alpine pass, or even changing the railway carriage. So far as railway transit is concerned, there are therefore no more Alps. The great mountain chain has been finally removed. This immense work has been carried out under vast difficulties. There could be no shafts as in the short tunnels which pierce our little English hills, and all the débris had to be carried back to the entrance. It was begun at both ends, and the workmen who thus started seven miles apart, with a mountain chain between them, have met as accurately as though there had been but a hill to pierce. As a triumph of engineering skill, we must mark this work as one of the new wonders of the world." PHILIP S. KING.

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Queries.

ALLUSION WANTED: HENRY VAUGHAN."If sudden storms the day invade, They flock about him to the shade: Where wisely they expect the end, Giving the tempest time to spend; And hard by shelters on some bough, Hilarion's servant, the sage crow." Who is Hilarion? And how is the crow called his servant? A. B. GROSART.

St. George's, Blackburn, Lancashire. AMERICAN "NATIONAL SONG."-Can I obtain through "N. & Q.," or by the medium of your correspondents in America, information respecting a "national song" which came out shortly after the declaration of war between England and America in the year 1812?

I can only remember the first stanza, which is

as follows:

"Columbia's shores are wide and wild,

Columbia's hills are high; And rudely planted side by side,

Her forests meet the eye.

But lowly must those shores be made,
And low Columbia's hills;

And low her ancient forests laid,

E'er freedom quits her fields.

For in this land so rude and wild

She played her gambols when a child."
ANNA HARRISON.

Beckenham.

ARMS OF FLEMISH FAMILIES.-LABLACE would be glad to know if there is any list of names and arms of Flemish families similar to our Edmondson; or where would be the proper place to inquire for the arms of a family of Flemish origin.

RAPH AUDLEY OF SANDBACH. - I find in an old memoranda book for 1864

"To Sandbach (in Cheshire), where I went to the church. Some years ago it was nearly rebuilt, and consequently the monuments suffered considerably. I went to the clerk's house, where he showed me a brass plate with an inscription on it to one Raph Audley; this he said he took out of the church at the time of the repairs, and that it had never been replaced because the clergyman thought it was too shabby to be put against the wall!"

Who was Raph Audley?

G. W. M.

BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS. Having a fragment consisting of thirty-five leaves of a small quarto work, comprising woodcut illustrations to the Old Testament, I am desirous of learning the date of its publication, &c. The illustrations (probably cut in the sixteenth century) are 34 inches by 24 inches, set in a framework having figures at the side with devices and such like at top and bottom. Under the illustration are five or six lines in German explanatory of the subject, while above it are the references to the book and chapter. Probably the framework may have served for some other religious publication; there are

eight varieties of it, repeated on each sheet, with a ninth variety occasionally used. On two of them, at the bottom, occur the letters MF, the letter F being formed on the last limb of the letter M. Some of the subjects are drawn in a masterly manner; others are rather poor. I shall be glad of a reference to a perfect copy for a further knowledge of the few leaves in my possession. W. P.

JOHN BOVEY.-I shall be much obliged for any information concerning the ancestry, marriage, &c. of John Bovey, whose daughter Mary married Francis Courtenay (who obit 1699, v. p. Sir William Courtenay of Powderham), ancestor of the present Lord Devon. EDMUND M. BOYLE.

CATHEDRAL BELLS.-What are the weights of the great bell of St. Peter's at Rome, the great bell of the Kremlin at Moscow, and the great bell of St. Paul's of London ? and are there any others exceeding the weight of the largest of these three? C.

[The great bell of St. Peter's at Rome weighs eight tons, according to Mr. E. Beckett Denison. The great bell of Moscow contains 10,000 poods, equal to 400,000 Russian pounds, or to 360,000 English pounds. (Dr. Lyall, see "N. & Q." 4th S. i. 540.) The present great bell of St. Paul's weighs about five tons. (MR. THOMAS WALESBY in "N. & Q." 4th S. v. 419.)]

COBBLERS' LAMPS IN ITALY.-In many of the small towns and villages of Italy, the cobblers, at night, have a glass globe filled with water, fixedin a wire frame, and attached to their lamps or candles. This has somewhat the same effect as a ground-glass shade, and causes a subdued light to be thrown upon the work. I suspect that this simple contrivance is very ancient, and probably of Roman origin. It seems confined to the sons of "Crespino." Are such globes alluded to by any ancient author? JAMES HENRY DIXON.

COOKES: COOKESEY: COOKE.-Some years ago a friend drew my attention to the review of some book in which the author seemed to show that those who bore the above names were of the same family. This I believe to be the case, but should like to see the book. Can any reader of "N. & Q." do me the favour to send me its title? The

review appeared in some newspaper, it is believed, within the last ten years.

Astley Rectory, near Stourport.

H. W. COOKES.

CORNISH SPOKEN IN DEVONSHIRE.-Can you tell me where to find a statement that I have read somewhere, that the Cornish, or at least a British, dialect was still spoken in Devonshire after the Norman conquest, and whether there is any authority for it? There is reason to believe that in Asser's time it was used in Somersetshire also; for he gives us the British name of the

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