2n'« S. VII. May 7. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



375 



honey in some parts of the country. Is there any 

 connection between these "hot-cross-buns" and 

 that " small round thing " which was " like cori- 

 ander seed," the taste of which was " like wafers 

 with honey," and which first became the bread of 

 the children of Israel in the wilderness during the 

 season of the first passover ? Hilton Henbubnt. 



Commencement of the Year in April. — In the 

 Memoirs of Philip de Commines it is stated that 

 Mary, Princess of Burgundy and wife of the 

 Archduke Maximilian of Austria, died in the 

 year 1482 : upon which Mr. Bohn's editor has 

 attached this note : — 



" Commines is here in error as to the date ; the year 

 1482 (old style) did not begin until the 7th of April, and 

 the princess died on the 27th of March (1481)." — Edit. 

 1856, ii. 17. 



Where did Mr. Scoble learn that the year 1482 

 (old style) began on the 7th of April ? N. 



Bev. Meredith Townsend. — I have a series of 

 original letters, unpublished, extending from the 

 year 1743 to 1793, addressed by the Rev. Mere- 

 dith Townsend to an intimate friend. Mr. Towns- 

 end was minister of a dissenting congregation at 

 Stoke Newington from 1752 to midsummer 1787; 

 soon after which period he appears to have re- 

 moved to Fairford, in Gloucestershire. His death 

 occurred 12th December, 1801, and, according to 

 the Gentlemuris Magazine (vol. Ixxi. p. 1157., 

 corrected at p. 1207.), at Bath. The letters are 

 very sensibly written, and in a spirit of exemplary 

 piety, humility, and candour. Can any one refer 

 to, or furnish an account of Mr. Townsend, es- 

 pecially after his removal from Stoke Newington, 

 or of his family, or say whether any letters to him 

 are in existence ? S. W. Eix. 



Beccles. 



" An Ould Facioned Love." — Who is the author 

 of an English version of Tasso's Amintas, having 

 the following title :. An Ovid facioned Love : or a 

 Love of the Ould Facion" by J. T., Gent., 4to., 

 1594. The volume is dedicated to Mistres Anne 

 Robertes. There is a copy of this work in Sion 

 College Library, and also in the library of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. Z. 



" Read and Wonder." — Was George Wither 

 the author of Read and Wonder, &c., a political 

 dramatic piece, written in blank verse, 4to., 1641 ? 

 There is some account of this piece in Sir E. 

 Brydges' British Bibliographer, i. 538-39. Z. 



Heraldic. — Can any one decipher the following 

 shield? Party per pale, two coats. 1. Or, on a 

 chief indented gules three crescents of the first. 

 2. Or, on a fess wavy azure between three stags 

 courant gules, as many pheons argent ; on a chief 

 of the second three escallops of the fourth. 



Selkach. 



Fusils in Fesse. — There are several families 

 whose armorial bearings are fusils (generally 

 four) in fesse, distinguished by some diflference of 

 colour or of charges. 



Can any of your correspondents fxirnish a list 

 of these families ? 



Many of these families came from Lower Nor- 

 mandy, others from Brittany. Were they ori- 

 ginally, or were any of them connected with one 

 another ? Meletes. 



" The Bells were rung backwards." — Can you 

 or any of your correspondents inform me of the 

 origin of this phrase ? Minnie. 



Nathaniel Hooke, the Roman Historian. — Dr. 

 Valpy, in the Preface to his Poetical Chronology^ 

 states that he found his path fortunately traced, 

 and his labour diminished, by two poems written 

 with a similar design, " one of which was a series 

 of Chronological verses of Ancient History written 

 by Mr. Hooke, the Roman historian." Can any 

 of your readers direct me to the work in which 

 the verses were published ? 



I should also like to know whether The Ca- 

 pitoline Marbles, or Consular Calendars are still 

 in existence, a copy of which is appended to the 

 second volume of Hooke's Roman History. Hooke 

 states that the Calendars were taken from an 

 ancient monument accidentally discovered at 

 Rome in the year 1545 during the pontificate of 

 Paul in. Any information relative to Nathaniel 

 Hooke will be thankfully received. My family 

 possessed a number of letters from him to the 

 Throgmorton family, which were lost in a trunk 

 in Paris many years ago ; and two letters of in- 

 troduction from Sarah Duchess of Marlborough 

 and Pope to the head master of Pembroke Col- 

 lege at Oxford, were sold by Sotheby in 1844, 

 which I should be glad to purchase. The Throg- 

 morton letters might possibly be in one of the 

 libraries in Paris. One of Hooke's letters ad- 

 dressed to the Earl of Oxford is preserved in the 

 British Museum, and Bowyer collected some de- 

 tails of his life, and expressed a wish that more 

 was known of this author. A iew of Hooke's 

 letters are printed in the Rev. Sir Adam Gor- 

 don's work, to which you kindly gave me a clue 

 in 2"^ S. vii. 258. ; but as these are without dates, 

 I should like to find the originals, which it is 

 stated in the Preface to a subsequent publica- 

 tion, were given to the widow of Dr. Berkeley. I 

 think it probable that many of his letters would 

 be found among the Earl of Marchmont's papers 

 (which were, I believe, bequeathed to Sir George 

 Rose), and those of Lord Orrery, both of whom 

 were his friends and patrons. 



Noel Hooke Robinson. 



" The PoniatowsU Gems."— At the death of 

 Prince Poniatowski these gems came into the 

 possession of Mr. William Tyrrell, of Craven 



