2°'» S. VII. Feb. 19. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



W 



Fliberdegibbet, moreover, was one of the fiends 

 alleged to have been cast out of " Sara " with 

 Frateretto, Smolkin, Maho, and many others. 

 (See Harsnet, p. 181.) 



I think the following passage must have been 

 in Milton's recollection, who was an omniooroxis 

 reader, when he wrote the lines in L Allegro : — 



" She was pincht and pulled, she sed, 

 And he by Friar's lantern led. 

 Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat, 

 To earn his Cream Bowl duly set," &c. 

 " And if that the Bowl of Curds and Creame were not duly 

 set out for Robin Goodfellow (the Friar?) and Siste the 

 Dairymaide to meet at ' Hynch-pynch and Laughnot' 

 ■when the goodwife was abed, why then, eyther the Pot- 

 tage was burnt to next day in the Pot, or the Cheese 

 would not curdle, or the Butter would not come, or the 

 Ale in the Fat never have good bead." — Harsnet, p. 134., 

 1603, or about fortj'-three years before the publication of 

 Milton's 3Iinor Poems, 1645. 



J. M. N. 



EDWARD THE CONrESSOR S FOHT, 



I have often been asked by antiquaries and 

 others about " Edward the Confessor's Font," as 

 it is called. Your readers may perhaps be inter- 

 ested by a short account of it as to the past and 

 present. 



It is spoken of by Camden, and engraved in 

 Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, ed. 1677, 

 p. 356. It never was in the parish church of 

 Islip, but originally belonged to a chapel attached 

 to the royal palace, once existing there. Plot, 

 about 1670, says : — 



" In the chapel above-mentioned not many years since, 

 there stood (as was constantly delivered down to poste- 

 rity) the very font in which that religious prince, (viz. 

 Edward the Confessor) received the sacrament of baptism, 

 which, together with the chapel, in these latter daj's, 

 being put to some indecent, if not profane use, was care- 

 fully and piously rescued from it by some of the right 

 worshipful family of the Browns of Nether Kiddinglon, 

 where it now remains in the garden of that worthy gen- 

 tleman. Sir Henry Brown, set handsomely on a pedes- 

 tal." 



This removal from Islip took place in 1660. 

 Dean Vincent treats at large of the subject in his 

 MS, memoranda of Islip, now in my charge as 

 rector of the parish. He alludes to the year as 

 one very likely for a removal of the relic, from 

 the rector (Hinton) being a Puritan and Sir T. 

 Brown (as he conjectures) a Roman Catholic. 



The font has since that time had many changes 

 of place. When in the possession of Mr. Mostyn 

 Brown, afterwards Lord Vaux, it was purchased 

 by the late Sir Gregory Page Turner (as I have 

 heard) for the sum of 400/., and sent to Langford, 

 near Bicester, the residence of Mr. Paxton. Some 

 little time afterwards, at the solicitation of Dr. 

 Ireland, then Dean of Westminster and Rector of 

 Islip, it was sent back to lis native village (if I 



may use the expression), but, the chapel being no 

 more in existence, was put in the rectory garden. 

 I have a picture of it in my possession, with ivy 

 for the background. 



In a note on Dean Vincent's Memoranda, quoted 

 before, Dean Ireland describes this restoration as 

 having taken place July 13, 1829, "to the great 

 joy of the parish." He adds, " Its size and great 

 weight prevented us from receiving it within the 

 house, and a complete covering was made for it 

 during the winter." 



When Sir G. P. Turner died, his effects were 

 sold, and the font was then disposed of at a very 

 different price from that which it formerly gained. 

 At this time it was sold for five pounds. Mr. Pax- 

 ton, of Bicester, was the purchaser ; he presented 

 it to Lady Jersey of Middleton Park, not far fVora 

 Bicester, who placed it in the fine picturesque old 

 church of Middleton Stoney, and there it will pro- 

 bably remain. I must now conclude with stating 

 — for the truth must be told — that, in reality, the 

 font is not older than the fourteenth century, and 

 therefore its connexion with Edward the Confessor 

 is a mere fiction. Fbahcis Trench. 



Islip Rectory, near Oxford. 



fdinat §.atti> 



Warren Hastings' Impeachment. — I have heard 

 that the whole of the speeches delivered in West- 

 minster Hall on this occasion are to be printed at 

 the public expense. It is usual for public speakers 

 to correct for publication the short-hand writers' 

 notes of what they delivered on important occa- 

 sions ; and it might have been expected, especi- 

 ally, that Mr. Sheridan's speech at this interesting 

 trial (on the preparation of which he is said to 

 have employed several months, and which caused 

 the greatest sensation on its delivery) would have 

 been given to the world, in a corrected form, soon 

 after its occasion. But, in the year 18 — *, being 

 in company with Mr. Gurney, the Lords' reporter, 

 who took notes of the trial by authority, I asked 

 him whether that speech had been published in 

 any more authentic form than in the newspapers 

 of the day. He replied that it had not ; adding, 

 that in an interview with Mr. Sheridan on the 

 subject, the latter had promised to revise Mr. 

 Gurney's transcript of his notes, with a view to 

 its publication, but never did so. 



It is to be hoped that we shall, at length, see 

 this and the other splendid orations which were 

 delivered at this impeachment, in their original 

 form : and that, being able at this distance of ^ 

 time to read them with a more dispassionate 

 judgment than was possible to their excited and 



[* The last two figures of this date are illegible in the 

 MS.— Ed.] 



