16 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n<' S. Vll. Jan. 1. '59. 



viduals desire to knov^ about, \yhich are felt to be 

 not of sufficient public interest to commit tbem to 

 its pages. 



Novf in every district tbere is pretty sure to be 

 some quiet observing man who knows the where- 

 abouts of most points of interest therein, too re- 

 served perhaps to print much, but who would 

 readily take a walk or a drive to procure inform- 

 ation for a purely literary purpose. All I can say 

 is, I have found many such by accident, and have 

 been very often able to requite them in kind. An 

 exact exchange in point of value need not be 

 aimed at. I, for instance, should be glad to hear 

 of some one in Worcester who would take half an 

 hour's trouble for me, — and I, in return, would 

 give or procure any local information connected 

 with the county of Norfolk. I should add that I 

 can read with fucility court, record^ or any black- 

 letter hands ; and, like most clergymen, have a 

 competent knowledge of Latin. E. S. Taylok. 



Will any antiquary at St. Albans exchange in- 

 formation at the Record Office there for like 

 matter at the British Museum here ? I enclose 

 my card, so that you may kindly make the neces- 

 sary interchange. M. D. 



[We shall be at all times glad to give insertion to 

 proposals like the present, but we must request that our 

 correspondents will in such cases add tlieir addresses, so 

 that commuuications may be made to them direct.] 



SKcpIic^ t0 Minax ^ucrtc^. 



Bishop of Sodor and Man (2"'» S. vi. 498.) — 

 The assertion that the Bishop of Man has a seat, 

 but not a vote, in the House of Lords, is to be 

 found in Lodge's Peerage and Johnson's Jurispru- 

 dence of the Isle of Man, and also in Crutwell'a 

 Life of Bishop Wilson, where it appears to have 

 originated. Mr. Crutwell says that Bp. Levinz 

 (who was Bishop of Man between 1684 and 1692) 

 sat there in his episcopal robes ; and adds, that he 

 had it " from a gentleman on the authority of the 

 present Earl of Abingdon's grandfather, who said 

 that the Bishop had a seat there de suo jure." 

 This seat is said to have been within the House at 

 the lower end of, and detached from, the Bishops' 

 Bench. Camden and Tanner, however, say that 

 he has neither seat nor vote in the English Par- 

 liament. 



As the Bishop of Man was never summoned to 

 Parliament, the Isle of Man being a distinct terri- 

 tory from England, this right, if it existed, would 

 be altogether sui generis, and could hardly have 

 escaped mention by those writers who have treated 

 of the Parliament, and who are entirely silent 

 upon the point. The right to a seat, or to a seat 

 and vote in the Upper House of Parliament, is 

 conferred by the Writ of Summons alone. 



But the claim is conclusively negatived by the 

 orders of the House, made from time to time, of 

 which it Is sufficient to refer to the order of 1788, 

 amended on the Union with Ireland in 1802, 

 which, after much consideration, was finally set- 

 tled as follows, viz. : — 



" No person shall be in any part of the House during 

 the sitting of the House except Lords of Parliament, 

 Peers of the United Kingdom not being Members of the 

 House of Commons, and Heirs Apparent of such Peers or 

 Peeresses of the United Kingdom in their own Right, and 

 such other Persons as attend this House as Assistants." 



J. H. P. 



Forged Assignats (2"'^ S. vi. 70. 134. 25o.) — 

 The whole history of these assignats is given in 

 jywakiVLS Dartford, p. 233. The partisans of the 

 expatriated princes entered into a contract with a 

 stationer in St. Paul's Churchyard, who employed 

 Mr. Finch to make the paper at Dartford, and 

 superintend putting them in the line of the French 

 army, then advancing into Germany. This dan- 

 gerous undertaking liad well nigh proved fatal to 

 Mr. Finch. The moulds of the forged assignats 

 remained in the paper-mills at Dartford until 

 they were closed, in 1832. In the house where 

 Mr. Finch afterwards lived. Lord Lyttelton's 

 ghost appeared to Mr. Andrews. This house ia 

 at present tenanted by Augustus Applegarth, the 

 inventor of a note which " was not to be forged,'* 

 and for which he received many thousands from the 

 Bank of England. Mr. Applegarth was also the 

 inventor of the composition roller, and of tlie 

 printing-machine till lately used by The Times. 



A. J. DUNKIN. 



The Richmond Assmen. — It is a little singular 

 that there was the same inscription mentioned by 

 your correspondent (2""^ S. vi. 526.) upon a board 

 in this place, within fifty yards of our Railway 

 Station. At least it was identical, mutatis mu- 

 tandis, with that at Margate ; it ran thus : — 



" Excellent asses' milk I sell, 

 And keep a stud for hire 

 Of donkeys fam'd for going well : 

 They seldom ever tire. 



" One angel honour'd Balaam's ass, 

 And met her on the way : 

 But Currell's troops through Richmond pass 

 With angels every day. 



" John Currell, Donkey Hackneyman, Richmond, 

 Surre}'." 



This man plied his trade as far back, it is sup- 

 posed, as 1805. There could be here no "invo- 

 luntary plagiarism," as Anna Seward calls it, but 

 Currell's poetry was supposed to have originated 

 in the following manner. Some popular writer, a 

 Mr. Dickens, or a Mr. Thackeray, who spent his 

 summer at Richmond, and went backwards and 

 forwards to London, used to chat a little with 

 Currell, and the latter begged him to write a few 

 lines to celebrate his team of animals. Yet we 



