yond that on which Columbus had touched, and thus ascertained that this country was part of the continent, Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine gentleman, accompanied Ojeda......By universal usage the name of America has been bestowed on this part of the globe.""-Mackenzie's 'Nat. Encycl.,' vol. i. p. 228, ed. 1883. M.A.Oxon.

Miss Yonge says from Amal, Latin Emilius, and rich. So Almerick, Aylmar, and Emmery. Amerigo is the Italian form, hence America. From what small causes, &c.

A. H.

AN ANCIENT MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE (7th S. iv. 46, 197). A friend has just written to me that a correspondent of yours "doubts the genuineness of the extract" I sent you from Bishop Chedworth's register. I have not seen the communication, so I do not understand whether your correspondent is serious in wishing to argue as to the genuineness of the episcopal registers here; if so, I will leave the argument to wiser heads than mine; but, as I am printing a calendar to this very register, I am curious to hear the result arrived at. And as my contribution to the discussion I have taken the

trouble to transcribe the entry immediately following the marriage certificate, which perhaps you may think it worth while to insert if you have

room :

"VIII kl'n Julij in festo videlicet Nativitatis S. Johannis Bapt. Anno d'ni M.CCCCLVI in capella infra Martyn college Oxon' situat', Rev' in xp'o pater et dominus, dominus Johannes dei gr'a Lincoln' Ep'us in pontificalibus indutus votum per dictum Reverendum patrem intra missarum solempnia admisit et recepit in hac forma -I Johan Stretton of Lincoln dioc' not wedded p'mitte and avowe to God and to oure lady and to all the saintis of bevyn in youre p'sence Rev'end fadre in God John by the grace of God Bisshop of Lincoln, the prpose of chastite aftir the rewle of saint Paule and with myn owne handes I subscribe here my selffe. In no'ie p'ris & filij & sp'us sancti amen et cetera benedictionum insignia in hac parte requisita fecit et exercuit coram populi multitudine ibi congregata."-Reg. Chedworth, Linc. Ep., fol. 20.

HOBBY, &c. (7th S. iii. 182, 356, 506; iv. 118). In the Salisbury Museum are two grostesque figures that the Tailors' Guild of that city carried in all processions and pageants, called the "Giant and Hobnob"; the latter name seeming connected with "hobby-horse," &c. The Hobnob is a kind of biped dragon, with snapping crocodile jaws, that precedes and clears a way for the giant, who is a somewhat ecclesiastical one, about twelve feet

high, with tobacco-pipe in mouth, which is probably a modern addition. E. L. G.

POISONING BY MEANS OF THE EUCHARISTIC ELEMENTS (7th S. iv. 206).—As the subject of persons being poisoned whilst receiving the Eucharist has been mentioned, I venture to enclose a very curious extract from the correspondence of Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's minister. It is out of a letter of one Atkinson, proposing a scheme of poisoning O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, the celebrated Irish rebel :

"For I have made theme for to beleeve howe I intend

for to be a religious man, and of the Order of St. Francis, and in regarde I ame of good acquaintance in Ireland, I make choise for toe be under Bishoppe McTeith, by the which Letters, Right Honorable, I assure myself (so that theire be verie greate secresie used) for to p'forme shortlie services worthie of a good rewardd, for it is most easy for to poysone Tyrone through some poysined hoastes, the which in regard I shall be theire, where he hath continual resorte, I make noe doubte at all, but to abbreviate the Traitor's dayes."

I. W. HARDMAN, LL.D.

MR C. A. WARD will find a biography of the late Alderman and Lord Mayor Kelly in Hardwicke's 'Annual Biography' for 1856, edited by E. Walford, M.A. He had no connexion with the author of the Post Office Directories.

MUS URBANUS. [Other correspondents are thanked for replies to the same effect.]

THE IMP OF LINCOLN (7th S. ii. 308, 416; iii. 18, 115, 179, 334, 505; iv. 195).—If it were worth while to give any more instances of the use of imp in a good sense, I could furnish a dozen. It may, however, be more interesting to record an act imputed to this particular imp. About two miles from my native place, and forty from Lincoln, upon the edge of the Nottinghamshire Wolds, from which the Minster towers can be occasionally seen, is the old churchyard of Kinoulton. Of the church itself, unless my memory deceive me, there are no remains, only the foundations; but near its site lies a huge boulder, weighing, I suppose, several tons, and I was always told in my boyhood that with this stone the Devil on Lincoln Minster had knocked down the church. I am persuaded that many of our rustics believed this story. I certainly did for many years. There were one or two other similar stones in neighbouring villages, and I used to wonder where they came from? C. C. B.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES (7th S. iii. 168, 218, 333, 373, 418).-Since several of your correspondents have disputed the accuracy of my definition of a diamond wedding as the seventyfifth anniversary, I have remembered my old note on that subject (5th S. xii. 268), that on some day in the summer of 1878 the Times contained a telegram from Denmark stating that one couple in a small Danish village had just celebrated their diamond wedding (.e., the seventy-fifth), and another couple would do so in a few days; that during ten years about six or seven diamond weddings had been celebrated in the same village. Perhaps some of your correspondents could refer to a file of the Times, and give complete particulars. FREDERICK E. SAWYER, F.S.A.

Brighton.

An amusing story is told of this lady. She, with her cousins Mary, Kitty, Elizabeth, and Jack, went to the village schoolmistress to learn the first rudiments of reading and writing. As they were crossing the Trent by a low bridge which then existed, some of the party walked on the parapet, and were spied by their grandfather, Justice Jervis," who, calling "Bet!" so terrified her that she jumped over into the river to avoid a further scolding, it being at the time very low. THUS. In the pedigree of the Smiths of Elmhurst, Stafford, and Great Fenton, given in the 'History of Stoke-upon-Trent,' appears the following:

First wife, Elizabeth, dau. of John Jervis, of Darlaston, Esq. (three sons, one daughter). According to this the wives are exactly reversed from what is stated in Burke's 'Landed Gentry.' The family was formerly so well known in the neighbourhood it hardly seems probable any great error would have remained uncorrected in a history of the place. It may be interesting to state that the above is written from Fenton Hall, the old mansion belonging to the Smith family, and formerly occupied by them. Until lately there was a pane of glass in one of the windows on which was scratched the name of Mary Jervis. MARY MARSHALL.

Second wife, Jeremiah Smith, Margaret Jervis, of Great Fenton, sister to the Earl sheriff of Staffs., of St. Vincent, 2 George III., ob.s.p. ob. 1792.

Great Fenton, Stoke-upon-Trent.

BISHOP SPARROW'S 'RATIONALE' (7th S. iv. 49, 173).-The Rev. A. T. Russell, in his 'Memoirs of the Life of Bishop Andrewes,' p. 471, observes :"The Rev. J. Bliss, M.A., of Oriel Coll., Oxf., the

S. PARDEN.

This remarkable poem will be found in Temple Bar for September, 1878. It is entitled 'Tantalus: Texas' (No. 214, p. 84). The following note is prefixed to the verses :

"The Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain (so called from the means taken by the Mexicans to mark a track for travellers), is a large tableland to the west of the State of Texas, U.S., and is without a stream in its extent."

W. J. BUCKLEY.

JERVIS FAMILY (7th S. iv. 189).-Swynfen Jervis, of Meaford, Esq., had, by Elizabeth, daughter of George Parker, of Park Hall, Esq., two sons and three daughters. The second son, John Jervis, was Earl St. Vincent. The daughters were Mary, married William Henry Ricketts, Esq., in 1757; Elizabeth, married Rev. D. Batwell, died in childbed; Katharine (or Kitty), married Jeremiah Smith, Esq., of Great Fenton, died in childbed. Mr. Smith_married secondly Elizabeth Jervis, daughter of John Jervis, jun., of Darlaston.

Andrewes' Form for the Consecration of a Church or Chapel,' that it was first published in 32mo, in 1659 with a preface dated May 29 of that year; that the only copy of this edition which he had seen was now in the Bodleian Library, and that it was afterwards printed in 4to., and appended to Bp. Sparrow's Collection of Articles.' It has since been reprinted and bound up with Bishop Sparrow's 'Rationale of the Book of Common Prayer."

I find it appended to a copy of the 'Rationale' of 1668 in my own library. There is prefixed to it an engraved title by Hollar, and this copy also contains a portrait of Bishop Andrewes, by Hollar. If MR. MARSHALL refers to the authority" of Bishop Sparrow, will he not be mistaken? this edition with the form having been issued seventeen years before Bishop Sparrow's death. I find it in my third edition of the 'Collection of Articles,' published in 1675. W. H. BURNS.

Clayton Hall, Manchester.

A LONG-LIVED FAMILY (7th S. iv. 203).—The record given by MR. JOHNSON BAILY is no doubt remarkable; but it is right to point out that, as

MERES (7th S. iv. 168).-John Bodenham, a publisher, issued 'Politeuphuia: Wit's Commonwealth,' 8vo., 1598, in which Nicholas Ling, a printer, signs an epistle dedicatory, with an address to I. B., but there is no real proof that Bodenham did compile it. The Rev. Francis Meres, M. A., rector of Wing, ob. 1646, may have done the work for Bodenham; and in 1598 he issued Palladis Tamia, Wit's Treasury; being the Second Part of Wit's Commonwealth.' It was not published by Bodenham. A. HALL.

The full title of this book, which was published in 1598, runs as follows: "Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasury. Being the Second Part of Wits CommonWealth. By Francis Meres, Master of Artes of both Vniuersities." According to Dr. Ingleby, 'Wits Common-Wealth' was a generic title for probably four distinct works-viz, (1) 'Politeuphuia Wits Common-Wealth,' 1597; (2) the book referred to above; (3) the third part, which, in the opinion of Mr. W. C. Hazlitt (but not of Dr. Ingleby), was 'Wit's Theatre of the Little World,' N. Ling, 1599; and (4) 'Palladis Palatium Wisedomes Pallace, or the Fourth Part of Wit's Commonwealth,' G. Elde for Francis Burton, 1604. See 'Shakspere Allusion - Books,' part i. pp. xxiii-iv. It appears that the compilation of Politeuphuia' has been wrongly attributed to John Bodenham, as 66 the material for that volume was chiefly collected by Ling," and Bodenham did "little beyond suggesting the publication of such a collection." See 'Dict. of Nat. Biog.,' vol. v., s.n. "Bodenham." G. F. R. B.

PROF. HAILSTONE (7th S. iv. 188).-Rev. John Hailstone, of Trinity College, Cambs., graduated B.A. in 1782, and M.A. in 1785. In 1788 be was appointed Woodwardian Professor of Geology, or, as the Gentleman's Magazine (1818, i. 463) says, of Mineralogy. He resigned in 1818, and was succeeded by Prof. A. Sedgwick.

University College, W.C.

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

SARSEN STONES (7th S. iv. 206).—I do not object to Mr. Walford's derivation of sarsen stones, or even to his imagination of the Roman workman who cursed them because they were so big; but I do object to stretch my imagination so far as that the workman cried out "Confunde has sarcinas!" He might have consigned them "ad corvos," or

perhaps "in malam crucem "; I do not think he would have confounded them in a literal translation of modern English. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. The Cottage, Fulbourn, Cambridge.

THE ROYAL STUARTS (7th S. iv. 67,216).-I must venture to point out a mistake in MR. TAYLOR'S note. Charlemagne's great-granddaughter Judith did, it is true, marry Ethelwulf of England, but Edward Etheling was descended from Ethelwulf's first marriage, not from this. The descent in question goes, as I gave it, through Judith's second marriage with Baldwin. I may add that Townend's 'Descendants of the Stuarts' gives, on a large folding sheet, no fewer than twenty-four royal descents from Egbert and William the Conqueror, and therefore from Charlemagne.

C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. 'AUTHENTIC MEMOIRS OF THE LITTLE MAN AND THE LITTLE MAID' (7th S. iv. 69).-A list of Tabart's publications will be found at the end of most of his books; but being destined for the use of children, they are exceedingly scarce. I have a copy of the Book of Trades,' which was published in 1804, and contains some excellent engravings on copper. The first two volumes I purchased of a London bookseller, supposing the work to be complete. On looking it over, I found a third volume was required. This I acquired by the merest accident after the sale of Mr. William Bates's books. Mr. Bates only seemed to possess the third volume, and I fortunately managed to secure it. It is of a later edition than the other two, and the plates are considerably worn. The late Mr. Thoms possessed a copy of Tabart's 'Popular Fairy Tales,' which is very rare. It appears from the list of publications annexed to my Book of Trades' that this collection was originally issued before 1804, but I have never heard of a copy of that early date. A collation of a later edition is given in the Row fant catalogue. W. F. PRIDEaux.

BALE FAMILY (7th S. iv. 209).—There is a life and portrait of John Bale in Fuller's Abel Redevivus,' 1651, p. 502. R. R.

Boston, Lincolnshire.

OLYMPUS (7th S. iv. 267).-The edition of the Novum Organum' published at Oxford in 1855, under the care of the present Dean of Winchester,

shows that Bacon took his information from Solinus, Polyhist.,' ch. xiii. "Litera in cinere scriptæ usque ad alteram anni ceremoniam permanent." Readers of N. & Q' will find Dr. Kitchin's notes useful. W. C. B.

MARRIAGE OF LADY ANN CECIL (7th S. iv. 109, 219).-I was hasty in taking the date in Betham (1637) as that of marriage. At it turns out, it is the date of her death. She was born in 1612, and baptized in the Royal Chapel, Whitehall, on

PEASANTRY (7th S. iv. 265).—F. J. F. observes that Cobbett called peasantry a new word in 1817, and asks, "Was it not used before?" Cobbett's ignorance of literature was equalled only by his self-conceit; and it would be an endless task to correct his blunders. If he had looked into Johnson's 'Dictionary' he would have found that peasantry had been used by Shakspeare and by Locke; and if he had read The Deserted Village he could hardly have forgotten the now familiar lines :

But a bold peasantry, a country's pride, When once destroy'd, can never be supplied. J. DIXON. The well-known line in "The Deserted Village' must be earlier by nearly half a century.

R. H. BUSK.

"LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT" (7th S. iv. 245).-Allow me to supplement my note on this subject by adding that the "other pen" which added a fourth stanza is that of Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, now Bishop of Exeter. I have learnt this fact only recently. E. Walford, M.A. Hyde Park Mansions, N.W. LEO AND DRACO (7th S. iv. 127).-In the Middle Ages the custom of carrying the image of a dragon in procession on the Rogation Days seems to have been very widely spread. It is spoken of by Durandus, Sicardus in his 'Mitrale,' and by many other liturgical writers. Besides the figure in the Sarum 'Processionale,' Barrault and Martin give a drawing of a processional dragon, still preserved at Metz, at p. 44 of their 'Baton Pastoral' (Paris, 1856). Sometimes the dragon was also carried on

Palm Sunday, as at Orleans, where both a dragon and a cock, as well as three banners, were borne in the procession on these days.

I think that the Rogation dragon must be separated from the Easter dragon; this latter was nothing but a stick for the triple candle, which it held in its mouth. It is thus figured in the Sarum Processionale.' In the now extinct RomanoToletan rite there is this rubric for Easter Eve, before the new fire is blessed: "Primo procedat coluber cum una candela trium ramorum extincta quam unus puer portabit "; and I daresay the present Mozarabic rubric has been borrowed, like some other rites, from the Romano-Toletan, "Cereus paschalis coram cereis, et serpens coram cereo, et sic procedant ad fontem."

At Westminster there were "ij other tunycles of dyvers collors, oon to hallowe the Pascall and the other for hym that beryth the Dragon on Easter Evyn." This serpent as a candle holder was also carried at Rouen on Easter Eve to the end of the seventeenth century at least. The processional dragon is, therefore, not particular either to Sarum or to the Celtic Church. What its source is, if a figure of the noisome beasts to get rid of which S. Mamertus began the Rogations, or whether it has come from the Labarum of Constantine, or is of Pagan origin, the eagle of the Roman army, I must leave others to determine.

VICTORIAN COINS (7th S. iv. 208).—The coins described by your correspondent are known among collectors as proofs, and are esteemed by such on account of their comparative rarity. There is nothing unusual in a set of 1839 proofs, as the authorities at the Mint have been accustomed to issue unmilled pieces in limited numbers to collectors on the occasion of a new coinage. Specimens of our so-called "Jubilee" coinage have been similarly struck with plain edges. Some Victorian coins, but not a complete set, were struck in 1838, none in 1837.

H. S.

PITT'S LAST WORDS (7th S. iv. 23).—Surely if "Austerlitz killed Pitt," "O, my poor country!" may have been an ejaculation of the dying Premier within the closing hours of his life; and held by Lord Stanhope to be worthy of record rather than the " more last words of Mr. Baxter " in reference to Nicholls's veal pies. Certainly the words quoted by Lord Stanhope were long before he wrote accepted as Pitt's last words. I have a suspicion that the "cockney" form of the word veal was Mr. Disraeli's own pleasantry. Supposing the keeper of "Bel