2'"i S. VII. Jan. 15. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



67 



about the actual signature being required ; indeed, 

 numerous cases might be brought forward in 

 which the actual signature would be difficult to 

 obtain to the book itself. J. Eastwood. 



If the Querist places any " dependance " on an 

 Act of Parliament, he will find, in 52 Geo. III. 

 cap. 136., prefixed to every register book of bap- 

 tisms since that date, that by a clause in the first 

 section, jorwa/e baptisms are to be registered; and 

 by the third section, that the entry is to be signed 

 by the minister officiating. Woe be to ariy one 

 person who signs the name of another ; but it may 

 be entered as done by the Rev. — — . 



It is to be hoped that very few would be found 

 so careless and lazy as to suppose that initials 

 only could ever be the signature contemplated by 

 the legislature. A. B. may be sufficient for some 

 purposes, but would a banker cash a cheque signed 

 only with initials ? H. T. Ellacombe. 



Thomas Chatterton (2°'> S. vi. 526.)— The name 

 of the young woman alluded to by the " marvel- 

 lous boy " was doubtless Maria Rumsey, a flirt, 

 if not a jilt. 



In Mrs. Newton's letter, 22nd Sept. 1778, to the 

 author of Love and Madness (Sir Herbert Croft), 

 Chatterton is stated to have corresponded with 

 this Miss Rumsey, although in his own letter to 

 his friend, Mr. Baker, 6th March, 1768, it appears 

 then " in public she would not speak to him," and 

 he there describes her as " a female Machiavel," 

 and " about to be married to Mr. Fowler." 



But in subsequent letters from London to his 

 mother and sister, when she also had some idea of 

 visiting the metropolis, she is still styled Miss Rum- 

 sey, the last date being 11th July, 1770, or more 

 than two years after his letter to Baker. D. B. 

 are the initials of Dunelmus Bristoliensis, under 

 which signature he wrote his articles for the Town 

 and Country Magazine. 



I do not find Miss Rumsey 's name entered in 

 the pocket-book Chatterton took with him to 

 London (and which is now in my possession), but 

 there is Betty Carter's, and evidently written by 

 herself, all the other names being in the auto- 

 graph of Chatterton. 



Query. Is anything known of Betty Carter 

 or more of Maria Rumsey ; or, what is of greater 

 importance still, of Chatterton's letters to the lat- 

 ter ; or is this sentimental correspondence lost to 

 us ? Bristoliensis. 



The Feria MS. (2"^ S. v. 13.) — Though I am 

 unable to reply to T.F.'s Query as to the existence 

 of the MS. life of the Duchess of Feria, I can give 

 him some information about the lady herself, 

 which may perhaps be of assistance to him in his 

 inquiries. 



Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, was the 

 younger of the two daughters of Sir William Dor- 



mer, K.B., of Wing, CO. Buckingham (the direct 

 ancestor of the present Lord Dormer), by his first 

 wife, Mary, daughter of Sir William Sidney ; she 

 was Maid of Honour to Queen Mary I., and mar- 

 ried Don Gomez Suarez de Figueroa, Conde de 

 Feria, a Spanish nobleman who had come to Eng- 

 land in the suite of King Philip II. of Spain, by 

 whom he was subsequently created, in September, 

 1567, Duke of Feria. The town of Feria, situated 

 in the province of Estremadura, about five leagues 

 from Badajoz, had been erected into a countship, 

 in the year 1467, by Henry IV. King of Castille, in 

 favour of Don Lorenzo de Figueroa, and the title 

 descended from him to the above Don Gomez 

 Suarez, who was raised to the higher dignity of 

 Duque exactly one century afterwards, having 

 been only a count at the period of his marriage to 

 Jane Dormer. He died Sept. 7th, 1571, leaving 

 one son his successor ; another, Don Pedro, had 

 died in infancy. Don Lorenzo Suarez de Figue- 

 roa y Cordova, second Duke of Feria, was suc- 

 cessively Viceroy of Catalonia and Sicily, and died 

 in Jan. 1607 ; and his male descendants becoming 

 extinct on the death of his grandson, D. Lorenzo- 

 Balthasar de Figueroa y Cordova, fourth Duke of 

 Feria, in 1634, the titles of this house passed, 

 through marriage, to the family of Cordova, and 

 Dukes of Medina-Celi. A. S. A. 



Barrackpore. 



Chickens (2°'* S. vi. 523.) — This exquisite bit 

 of folk-lore is introduced with the happiest effect 

 among the allegorical scenes in the house of the 

 Interpreter, in the Second Part of the Pilgrims 

 Progress, so that it was probably current in Bed- 

 fordshire, unless it be, as I have hitherto looked 

 upon it, an original thought of the immortal 

 dreamer. J. Eastwood. 



May not the fourth verse of George Herbert's 

 poem," " Man's Medley," have suggested to Mary 

 Allen the folk-lore of the " gratitude of the little 

 chickens ? " — ■ 



" Not, that man may not here 

 Taste of the cheer : 

 But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head ; 

 So must he sip and think 

 Of better drink 

 He mav attain to, after he is dead." 



J. Y. 



"And now again, every place to which you journey, 

 every animal that you see, every spot you visit, has a 

 sermon for you. Go into your farm-yard, and j'our ox 

 and your ass shall preach to j'-ou. • The ox knoweth his 

 owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not 

 know, my people doth not consider.' The very dog at 

 your heels may rebuke you. He follows his master; a 

 stranger will he not follow, for he knows not the voice of 

 a stranger ; but ye forsake your God and turn aside unto 

 your crooked ways. Look at the chicken by the side of 

 ycmder pond, and let it rebuke your ingratitude. It drinks, 

 and every sip it takes it lifts its head to heaven and thanks 

 the giver of the rain for the drink afforded to it ; while thou 

 eatest and drinkest, and there is no blessing pronounced 



