2"d S. VII. Feb. 5. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



105 



one of those inelegant words not often seen in 

 print, and I do not remember ever to have met 

 the word otherwise than orally ; but I am quite 

 certain the spelling as I have given it exactly 

 expresses the sound of the word. J. B. 



Melbourne, Australia. 



Halsham, of Sussex, temp. Hen. IV. and VI. — 

 Was Joan Halsham, the wife of Thomas Rad- 

 myld, Esq., granddaughter, and eventually co- 

 heiress of David de Strabolgi, Earl of Athol, &c. ? 



A. H. SwATMAN. 



Lynn. 



Alexander Foi'rest. — Wanted information re- 

 garding the Rev. Alex. Forrest, M.A., author of 

 the Baptismal and Eucharistical Psalmody. In 

 his long Preface to the latter (Lond. 8vo. 1754), 

 Mr. F. intimates that he was a licensed preacher 

 of the Church of Scotland, from which he seceded, 

 and was at the above date a sectarian minister at 

 the east end of London. The author farther in- 

 timates that he proposes to publish some several 

 volumes, among which A Journal, containing an 

 account of his travels and sufferings at home and 

 abroad, in the work of the Gospel, &c. &c. I 

 would ask if this latter is known to have been 

 published ; and, if so, whether it is identical with 

 the Memoirs of the Life and Contendings of the 

 Rev. Dr. Forrest, 1777, which, having met with 

 in an old catalogue, I duly inade a note of, but 

 have never seen the book. J. O. 



Custom of Free Bank or Free Bench. — N". 

 Bailey, ^iXoKoyos, says that this is the custom of 

 the manors of East and West Embourn, Chadle- 

 worth in the county of Berks, Tor in Devonshire, 

 and other places of the West, that if a customary 

 tenant die, the widow shall have her Free Bench 

 in all his copyhold land, '■'■dum sola et casta fueritj' 

 but if she commit incontinency, she forfeits her 

 estate, which, however, she can recover by a 

 ridiculous ceremony, accompanied by the repeti- 

 tion of some rather indecent doggrel, which it is 

 not necessary to transcribe here. I desire much 

 more probably correct account of the custom and 

 ceremony, and a list of such places as are known 

 to be held by this tenure, if at least there are any 

 more than N. B. enumerates. A very good ac- 

 count of Borough English was obtained in this 

 way in the P* Series of" N. & Q." H. H. 



King James's Baronets. — In Donne's Sermon, 

 xiv. vol. i. p. 278. of Alford's edition, I find the 

 following quaint passage : — 



" ' Non multi nobiles.' Few noblemen come to Heaven. 

 Not out of Panigorola, the Bishop of Asti's reason, 

 ' Pauci quia pauci,' there cannot come many noblemen 

 to heaven, because there are not manj' upon earth ; for 

 many times there are many. In calm and peaceable 

 times the large favours of indulgent princes, inactive and 

 stirring times the merit and fortune of forward men, do 

 often enlarge the number." 



This sermon was preached at Whitehall in 

 Lent, 1624. I cannot help fancying the preacher 

 had in his eye King James " enlarging the num- 

 ber " of " nobiles " by a liberal creation of (paid- 

 for) baronetcies : for a baronet is, I suppose, 

 " nobilis," though not a " nobleman " in the or- 

 dinary English usage of that word. 



Who was " Panigorola, the Bishop of Asti ? " 



S. C. 



[Francesco Panigarola, a celebrated Italian preacher, 

 was born at Milan in 1548 ; educated at Pavia and at 

 Bologna ; and in 1567 became a member of the Francis- 

 can order. Being at Rome in 1586, he was consecrated 

 titular Bishop of Chrysopolis, and appointed coadjutor to 

 the Bishop of Ferrara. In 1587, Charles Emanuel, Duke 

 of Savoj', granted him a nomination to the bishopric of 

 Asti in Piedmont. He died in 1594, while engaged in 

 correcting the abuses which had crept into his diocese. 

 See Rose's Biop. Diet.'] 



Sir Philip MoncMon, Knt. — Can any of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." inform me of the date of 

 the death of Sir P. Monckton ; where he was 

 buried, and the inscription to his memory ? He 

 received the honour of knighthood at Newcastle in 

 1644, after the battle of Courtray. The name of 

 his father and mother, and any particulars re- 

 lating to his brothers, would oblige 



C. J. D. Inglbdew. 



Poetical Allusion. — 



" Kin to the Spaniard, insolent yet mean, 

 The Irish kerne, ferocious and unclean, 

 Thinks on futurity with loathsome hope, 

 (Whether he die by bludgeon, knife, or rope,) 

 Of decent sepulture to 'scape the rites, 

 And give his carcase to the hungry kites." * 



The above is from The Conquest of the Picts, an 

 indifferent political poem, Lond. 1764. To what 

 custom or belief is the allusion made, and who are 

 the authorities cited ? K. T. 



The Minutes of the Westminster Assembly. — 



" It is stated that the Rev. Dr. M'Crie, in his anti- 

 quarian explorations of London, has discovered ' The 

 Minutes of the Westminster Assembly,' in manuscript, 

 extending over the whole period of its sittings. Dr. Lee, 

 principal of Edinburgh University, believed they had 

 been destroyed by fire." — Liverpool Mercury, 22nd 

 January, 1859. 



Query, If true, where discovered, and in whose 

 possession now ? W. B. C. 



Liverpool. 



Calais Sand. — In the Great Northern Illus- 

 trated Guide (p. 104.), we find it recorded that 

 at Great Ponton Station (Ad Pontem of Antoni- 

 nus), the church has a tower and spire, much 

 admired for architectural beauty, said to have been 

 erected in 1519 by Anthony Ellys, Esq., who sent 

 his wife from abroad a cask inscribed "Calais 

 Sand," which was stowed away in the cellar as 



* Procop. Ital. Davis. 



