2'"» S. VII. June 18. '69.} 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



497 



calls the lady a daughter of Sir Thomas Chamber- 

 lain. Can you or any correspondent decide the 

 question for me ? C. J. Robinson. 



Query. — What was the object of the following, 

 a printed copy (apparently a fragment of a pretty 

 thick 8vo., as it is paged 225.) of -S". D. N. Gre- 

 gorii PapcB XIII. Constitutio de Nova Instituli 

 Societatis Jesu Confirmatione, &c. ? * The curious 

 part is the end : — 



"Anno a Nativitate Domini m.dlxxxiiii., indictione 

 duodecima, die vero Lunae decima sexta Mensis Julii ; pon- 

 tificatus sanctissimi in Xto Patris et D. N. D. Greg. Divina 

 providentia Papae XIII., anno xiii. Retroscriptae littM^ae 

 apostolicfB affixa, lectS, et publicatae fuerunt, et per ali- 

 quod temporis spatium dimissae in Valvis Basilicarum 

 Principis Apostolorum de Urbe et Sancti Jo. Lateran., 

 necnon Cancellaria; Apostolicae, et aciei campi Florae, per 

 nos Job. Freril et Nic. Tagliettam Sanctiss. D. Nostri 

 Papae cursores. Romae. In Collegio ejusdem Societatis. 

 A. D. M.D.LXXXIIII, cum facultate Superiorum." 



Then follows in writing the signature, — 

 " Jacobus Ximenez, Secret'y." 

 (Sigillum praepositi Soc. Jes.) 



Why was this copy signed and sealed ? 



J. C. J. 



Halls of Greatford. — Will any of your corre- 

 spondents have the kindness to inform me — 1st. 

 Who was the founder of Greatford Hall near 

 Stamford, Lincolnshire ? 2nd. Who is the pre- 

 sent representative of the Halls of Greatford 

 Hall? S. H. 



Sale of Villeins. — Dr. Vaughan, in ,his Life of 

 Wycliffe, states (2nd ed. vol. i, p. 207.) that to- 

 wards the end of the fourteenth century the sale 

 of native villeins to foreigners was not altogether 

 unknown. He says in a note to the Ist edition 

 that he mislaid his authority for the statement. 

 As he has not given it subsequently, can you or 

 any of your readers supply it.? The matter is of 

 great historical importance. 



J. B. K. RUTHERGLEN. 



William Oldys. — I shall be glad to learn whe- 

 ther Mr. Charles Bridger has relinquished his 

 intention of publishing the autobiography of Wil- 

 liam Oldys, an interesting extract from which he 

 communicated seven years ago to " N. & Q." 

 (P« S. V. 529.) Thompsok Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



" Christianity and its Counterfeits." — Who are 

 the publishers of Clunstianity and its Counterfeits : 

 a Word for Jesus, by the Followers of Jesus, 3 

 vols. ? Any other information with regard to this 

 work will greatly oblige H. G. 



Edinburgh. 



[* Our correspondent has a fragment of the following 

 work : Littera Apostolicce, Quibus Institutio, Confirmatio. 

 Et varta Privilegia continentur Societatis Jesu. Cum Fa- 

 cultate Superiorum, m.dc.xii. 8vo. — Eo.] 



British Anthropophagi. — In a curious work* 

 by Francesco Sansovino, entitled Le Antichita di 

 Beroso Caldeo Sacerdote, &c., published at Venice 

 in 1583, I find these words : — 



" Et San Hieronimo Scriue, cbe gli Scozzesi vsauano in 

 cihola came dell' huomo net suo tempo. ' Quid (dice egli) 

 de caeteris nationibus, cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia 

 viderim Scottos, gentem Brittanieam, humanis vesci cami- 

 brtsf" 



Perhaps some of your readers can point out 

 the whereabouts of the passage in Jerome, and 

 explain his accusation of eating human flesh, here 

 brought against the Scots. The words above 

 quoted are in a note of Sansovino's (fol. 2. b.) 



B. H. C. 



Russell. — One of the younger brothers of Lord 

 William Russell (who was beheaded in 1683) 

 served in America somewhere about the time of 

 his brother's death. Which of the brothers was 

 he, and what are the best sources of information 

 respecting the Bedford family ? f C. N. Y. 



The Holy Thistle. — While walking in the garden 

 of a bricklayer in this town the other day, my at- 

 tention was directed to the variegated thistle, 

 which my friend at once told me was famed for 

 being made into an ointment — a never-failing 

 remedy for any wound or sore ; adding that a 

 tradesman had told him the Virgin Mary once 

 shed her milk on a thistle of that sort, since which 

 time the plant had been marked with white stripes. 

 Is such a belief at all general, or is it confined to 

 Hampshire ? J. W. B. 



Odiham, Hants, 



[That this tradition respecting the Blessed Virgin and 

 the milk-thistle is by no means limited to Odiham or 

 Hampshire, is sutficiently proved by the following pas- 

 sage from Loudon : — " Carduus Marianus, the Milk- 

 thistle, derived its name from the Virgin Mary, some of 

 whose milk is said to have fallen upon the leaves of the 

 plant, and changed them to white," (^Eucyc. of Plants, 

 1855, p. 681.) That the tradition is of no modern date, 

 may be inferred from the various names which we find 

 given to the plant in question by early botanists. Thus, 

 1, with reference to the Virgin, it was "Our Ladies 

 thistle," " Carduus Mariae," " C. Marianus," " C. Sanctas 

 Mariae;" Ital. " Cardo di Santa Maria;" Fr. " Chardon 

 Nostre Dame," and " Chardon Marie ;" Ger. " Marien 

 Distel " .and " Frauen D. ;" Du. " Onser Vrowen distel." 

 Then, 2, with reference to its leaves, " wherein are many 

 lines and strakes of a milkie white colour," it was the 

 " Carduus lacteus, or the stript [striped] milkie thistle," 

 and, more short, the " Milk-thistle." 



With regard to the healing virtues attributed by our 

 friend the Odiham bricklayer to this plant, we apprehend 

 a little of that confusion which, as we recently had occa- 

 sion to suggest (p. 457.), is so incidental to the earlier 



* Including some remarkable literary forgeries as pro- 

 fessed relics of ancient writers. 



[t Consult Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 

 by J. H. Wiffen, 2 vols. 8vo. 1833. — Ed.] 



