2''4 S. VII. Fbb. 19. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



149 



taph, if any monument has been erected to his 

 memory, either at Exning or St. Mary's, Bryan- 

 ston Square, or elsewhere, would be very accepta- 

 ble to F. G. 



Lines on Toothache. — Who was the author of 

 the lines, and where may the poem be found ? 



" Ruthless tormentor ! who with constant gnawing 

 Scoops thy dark caverns in my aking grinder 

 Like mining mole t " 



J. L. P. 

 Spinny or Spinney, — In Bedfordshire and Berk- 

 shire this name is given to any small wood. Can 

 it be derived from the Anglo-Saxon pinn^ a pine 

 tree, and signify originally a clump of pines or 

 fir trees ? The word, however, seems to be ap- 

 plied to small woods of any kinds of timber. 



A. A. 

 Poets' Corner. 



The whole Duty of a Christian, hy the Author of 

 the Devout Communicant. — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents kindly inform me who was the author 

 of these works, published about the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century ? Eden Warwick. 



Birmingham. 



:^tnor e9ttcrteS initlj %xxi^txi- 



Robert Belus. — Where can I find any account 

 of Robert Belus, as he is called in a Latin docu- 

 ment ? All I know is that he was a secretary of 

 Privy Council to Queen ftlizabeth in 1577, and 

 was by her sent on an embassy to Germany. 

 What was his proper name ? Early information 

 will fulfil the saying, " Bis dat," &c. - B. H. C. 



[Robert Beale was a descendant of the family of Beale 

 of Wood bridge, in Suffolk, and by marriage related to Sir 

 Francis Walsingham, under whose patronage he first ap- 

 peared at court, and was appointed Secretary for the 

 J!^orthern Parts, and a Clerk of the Privy Council, As a 

 bitter enemy to the Romanists, he was chosen to convey 

 to Fothcringhay the warrant for the beheading of Mary 

 Queen of Scots. He read that fatal instrument on the 

 scaffold, and was a witness to its execution. In 1600, he 

 was one of the commissioners at the treaty of Boulogne, 

 which was his last public service." — Lodge's Illustrations, 

 ii. 264., and Strickland's Queens of Scotland, vii. chap. 

 Ixii.] 



Ben Jonson helped to build Lincoln^ s Inn. — Has 

 the information contained in the following note 

 been admitted into any life of Ben Jonson, whose 

 early career was marked by so many vicissitudes ? 



" Ben Johtison . . . honest Ben, I &a.j, was himself a 

 bricklayer, and helpt his father-in-law to build Lincoln's 

 Inn." — Terra Filius, No. XLIV. 



CUTHBERT BeDE. 



[We believe that Fuller is the only authority for the 

 story of Jonson having assisted his father-in-law " in the 

 structure of Lincoln's Inn." From the fact of Gifford, in 

 his memoir of the dramatist, overlooking the circum- 

 stance, it may be inferred that he disbelieved it, as well 

 as the statement that young Ben worked with a trowel 



in one hand and a Horace or a Homer in the other. 

 They are, says he, " figments pleasing enough to merit 

 to be believed ; but, unfortunately, they have no founda- 

 tion in truth."] 



Thomas Johnson, M. D., the editor of Gerard's 

 Herbal, and author of a Latin tract on the Bath 

 waters, is said in Lloyd's Worthies to have under- 

 taken " a dangerous piece of service " at the siege 

 of Basing House, and to have died there. Is there 

 any account of this siege which gives a fuller 

 statement of Johnson's part in it than is related 

 above ? R. Wilbraham Falconer, M.D. 



[The following notices of Dr. Thomas Johnson occur 

 in A Description of the Siege of Basing Castle, Oxford, 

 1644, 4to. Johnson had the care of the Grange; and 

 on Sept. 14, the writer states, that " the town of Basing 

 not yet repossest, a hundred musqueteers are sent under 

 command of Captain Fletcher to guard our carts fetching 

 provision thence, on whom the enemy with horse and 

 foot falls out towards evening, Norton himself there pre- 

 sent ; ours taken in disorder are beat back, but soon re- 

 stored by the coming forth of the field officers, and they 

 forced back into their works, sixteen being slain in the 

 retreat, and eleven taken : of ours, an ensign and two 

 common soldiers killed, six hurt, whereof four died, and 

 eight made prisoners. Lieut.-Col. Johnson, Doctor of 

 Physic, was here shot in the shoulder, whereby con- 

 tracting a fever, he died a fortnight after, his worth 

 challenging funeral tears, being no less eminent in the 

 garrison for his valour and conduct as a soldier, than 

 famous through the kingdom for his excellency as an 

 herbraist and physician." Consult also Fuller's Worthies, 

 art. "Yorkshire;" Pulteney's Botanical Sketches; and 

 Granger's Hist, of England, "i. 275. edit. 1775.] 



" Pandion and Amphigenia." — Who is the au- 

 thor of this play ? It is not noticed in the 

 Biographia Dramatica, but it appears that the 

 author was concerned with Dryden and Shadwell 

 in the publication of a pamphlet entitled Notes 

 and Observations on Settle's Empress of Morocco. 

 See Wood's Athena, ed. Bliss, vol. iv. p. 684. 



Iota. 



[This is a romance adorned with sculptures by John 

 Crowne, the dramatist, and is entitled Pandion and Am- 

 phigenia; or the Coy Lady of Thessalia. 1665. 8vo.] 



ChurchilVs '■'■ Divi Britannica." — A short time 

 since I met with a copy of Divi Britannica, by 

 Sir Winston Churchill. Can you inform me where 

 I can learn the proper colours for the arms therein 

 given, as they are only done in outline P Also, 

 are they considered correct ? Most of the coats 

 have a MS. note, with queries as to whether they 

 should not be difierent from what is given, and a 

 reference is naade to L. in Coll. Armor. ^ Is the 

 Divi considered of any value now ? Any inform- 

 ation will greatly oblige S. V. P. 



[Sir Winston Churchill was the father of the great 

 Duke of Marlborough. In Sandford's Genealogical His- 

 tory of Engla7id, the authenticitj' of such of the Royal 

 arms as are doubtful is amply and judiciously discussed, 

 according to evidence drawn from sources of genuine an- 

 tiquitv, viz. seals, coins, tombs, &c. The proper colours 

 for the arms may be found in Willement'a Regal Heraldry, 

 4to., 1821.] 



