2»'« S. VII. Jan. 1. '6t).] 



NOTES AND QUBRIES. 



17 



are far from insisting upon this version, and leave 

 the question of plajfiarism open for decision. 



Still from time immemorial large numbers of 

 these animals have been kept at Richmond for the 

 saddle. In the 2nd year of James ll. the mineral 

 waters here were discovered, and riding exercise 

 was probably enjoined with their use. 



In The Belvidei-e, a Poem^ Lond. 1749, Inscribed 

 to Joseph Grove, Esq., of llichmond, there is a 

 couplet — 



" There harmless asses seek their nightly fold, 

 Though mean the flock, they bring their owner* 

 gold." 



Of Mr. Scott, this assman, as he was called, I 

 have an anciently engraved copper-plate card, 

 which I transcribe and annex. 



Under the royal arms of the period, from 1694 

 to 1702, is the following inscription, which is given 

 verbatim el literatim : — 



' " At King William's Royal Ass-House a 

 little above y" ferrey on Riclimond Hill ; 

 Asses Milk is Sold. Also Asses are Bought & sold 

 there or let to sucli as Desire to keep them at 

 their own Houses by . John Scott." 



*• 

 liichmond, Surrey. 



Francis Lord Lovel (2"'* S. vi. 896.) — Chance 

 has nearly directed me to an answer to the Query. 

 A few days since I purchased an old second-hand 

 book, entitled, " The Last of the Plantagenets, an 

 Historical Narrative, illustrating some of the 

 public Events, 8cc. of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth 

 Centuries." Smith & Elder, 1839. A great part 

 of the work relates to the stirring events of the 

 Battles of the Roses; and Richard III.'s "noble 

 soldier" Francis, ninth Lord Lovel, adds much 

 interest to the story. It is therein incidentally 

 mentioned that, after the reverses at Stokefield, 

 Lord Lovel fled with a friend and one faithful at- 

 tendant, and eventually took refuge in the secret 

 chamber at Minster-Lovel, where he died from 

 illness and privation. A graphic description is 

 given of his painful end ; how he had himself — ■ 



" Dressed in his armonr as he was wont to be in the 

 day of his power, and placed in a chair before a table, so 

 that when they in after times shall haply find his wasted 

 limbs and mouldered form in this secret place, which had 

 been his cell and sepulchre, thej' may know who and 

 what he was when living ; nor confound the reliques of a 

 Lovel and a soldier with the ashes of the ignoble dead ! " 



Being in a weak and exhausted state, the nar- 

 rative adds that he died soon after, and was left 

 in that position by his attendant, who escaped by 

 a secret passage. The book itself is a romance, 

 but a note at page 215. says : — 



" This discovery did not take place until the year 1708, 

 when in laying a new chimney at Minster-Lovel, a large 

 vault or room was found beneath, in which appeared the 



* With a note: "Mr. Scott, an honest man in the 

 neighbourhood, who keeps near 200 asses." 



entire skeleton of a man sitting at a table with books, &c. 

 before him, whilst in another part of the ehambfer Was a 

 cap, the whole being in A decayed and mouldering state. 

 It is also sometimes added that the vault contained 

 several barrels and jars which had held his stores ; but 

 the former part of this account lests on the witness and 

 authority of John Manners, third Duke of Rutland, who 

 related it in the hearing of William Cowper, l£sq., Clerk 

 of the Parliament, on May 8, 1728 ; by whom it is pre- 

 served in a letter dated Huntingfordbury Park, August 9» 

 1737." 



There is no authority given for this note, but 

 I assume it to be true, all the pnrticulars being 

 given more at length, with Mr. Cowper's letter, 

 in Burke's Extinct and Dormant Peerage^ under 

 Lovel, Bakons Lovel ; and Banks considers it 

 worthy of belief. Simon Ward. 



The Cann Family (2''« S. vi. 409.^ — I find tlie 

 name of Cann mentioned in " Calendarium Inquis. 

 ad quod Damnum," Edvv. 11., p. 253., No. 157. : 

 " Hen" Can pro Priore de Brugge, 



Brugge de terr' et ten' ibm. Salop." 



I also find, at p. 370., vol. i. Part iv., of the 

 Antiquities of Shropshire, by the Rev. R. W. 

 Eyton, mention made of William Kanne as a wit- 

 ness with others to the grant of a tenement in 

 Mill Street In Bridgnorth, by Wm. Fitz Hamund, 

 In the year 1277 ; and In a note to the name of 

 Kanne, at the foot of the same page, Mr. Eyton 

 says : — 



" The first member who has occurred to me of a Family 

 afterwards well known in the Borough, and from which 

 Cann Hall in the Low Town derived its name." 



It is probable that Mr. Eyton, in the compila- 

 tion of his important work, may have met with 

 other information respecting this family. 



The late Mr. Hardwicke, In his valuable col- 

 lection of MS. Shropshire Pedigrees, now in the 

 possession of Mr. Sidney Stedman Smith of this 

 town, gives no information or pedigree, possibly 

 for want of reliable data, as I think he would 

 scarcely have failed to give the pedigree of A 

 family of so much note, if he had found materials 

 for so doing, especially as being connected with 

 this town. 



Cann Hall, the ancient residence of this family, 

 yet remains. It Is an old gabled mansion, with 

 a fine oak staircase, and now the property of 

 Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., of Apley Park. 

 The old hall is also invested with historic associa- 

 tions derived from the fact that Prince Rupert 

 took up his residence for one night at this man- 

 sion in 1642, when engaged in the cause of his 

 uncle Charles I. At p. 134. of the Antiquities of 

 Bridgnorth, by the Rev. George Bellett, mention 

 Is made of this event ; and a copy of a letter 

 given, dated 21_Sept. 1642, which Prince Rupert 

 then addressed to the jury appointed to choose 

 bailiffs, in order that such only should be chosen 

 as were well affected for his Majesty's service. 



H.S. 



