146 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. N« CO., Feb. 21. '67. 



hi3 company; his beloved books riveted his attention, 

 and to books he sacrificed all the amusements of youth. 

 Every memorial of so ingenious and elegant a writer is 

 interesting to the public." 



The following is the letter, which was addressed 

 to his friend and neighbour the late Francis Hu- 

 gonin, who appears to have taken an active part in 

 attending to his estate at Buriton : 



" My dear Sir, — As my banker's book only mentions 

 the names (and names unknown to me) of the persons 

 ■who have given the draughts, I am at a loss to determine 

 whether the last belong to j-ours or to other remittances ; 

 though indeed my bills from different places are not very 

 numerous, and since the loss of my office are likely to be- 

 come still less frequent. If anything still remains due, I 

 hope you will send it as soon as may be convenient, and I 

 fairl}' own, that I shall grudge every shilling which is 

 kept back for the most useful or necessary repairs. From 

 your silence I suppose that the negociation about Storn 

 fai'm has totally failed. You know I was never anxious 

 about it, and nothing could tempt me but the eagerness 

 of the purchasers. The general receipt or discharge which 

 you mention ought to have been sent you a long while 

 ago, but I have now mislaid (according to my usual prac- 

 tice) the model of the receipt. If you will take the 

 trouble of drawing another, I will return it signed, and 

 only wish you could insert in it all the expressions of gra- 

 titude, confidence, and regard, to which you are so justly 

 entitled. We are all in confusion and amaze at Mr. 

 Fox's resignation. We shall hear his reason next 

 Tuesday, but I think it an act of passion rather than pru- 

 dence, as he does not carry his whole party with him. 

 Mr. W. Pitt will be a minister at tbree-and-twenty. The 

 Duke of Richmond and General Conway stay with Lord 

 Shelburne. Lord Keppel is out ; perhaps Howe succeeds 

 him, but everj'thing is uncertain. 



" I am, Dear Sir, most faithfully yours, 



"E.G. 



"June G, 1782." 



J. S. 0. 



Minav ^aUi, 



Ludlow the Regicide.— --It may not be otherwise 

 than interesting to the readers of "N. & Q." to 

 know that the house in which Edmund Ludlow 

 the regicide lived, and, as some say, was born, is 

 still in existence, and in very tolerable preserva- 

 tion with regard to its antiquities, as the " Somer- 

 set Arms" at Maiden Bradley, Wilts. There are 

 still to be seen some curiously carved chimney- 

 pieces, and the remains of a quaint old cornice, 

 though now much concealed and bedaubed with 

 whitewash. There is also a fine old staircase, 

 broad and spacious, which must have allowed 

 plenty of room for the goodly forms of our sack- 

 loving ancestors and their pretty dames. The 

 house quite retains the old manorial style, and 

 was, in fact, the manor-house. It is said that 

 Ludlow was born at a house now called " New- 

 mead," in the same parish ; but at some little dis- 

 tance from the village of Maiden Bradley, and 

 which did not belong to Sir Henry Ludlow, but 

 to the Seymour family. The " Somerset Arms " 



though, I believe, has the greater claim to having 

 witnessed the first moments of the celebrated re- 

 gicide. There are some tombs in the church, or 

 rather slabs, of tlie Ludlow family ; as also at the 

 church of Hill Deverill, a village about six or 

 seven miles from Maiden Bradley. Hembi. 



Surnames for Illegitimate Children. — The sub- 

 joined singular conjunction of the parents' names 

 to frame a surname for an illegitimate offspring is 

 an extract from the parish registers of Landbeche. 

 Are there any similar instances on record ? 



" 1595, 3 Apr. — Yone (prob. Joan) wJiom we may call 

 Yorkoop because she was the Bastarde D. as comonly re- 

 ported of one Yorke and Cooper the mother, baptized." 



Cii. Hopper. 



Queen Mary^s Signet Ring. — In The Times of 

 January 2nd ult. is a letter signed a "Constant 

 Header," which says : 



" That there is a lady residing at Bi'oadstairs who is in 

 possession of the identical ring which was worn by Mary 

 during her confinement in Fotheringay Castle previous to 

 her execution, and given by her to one of her maids of 

 honour as a token of remembrance, who was afterwards so 

 reduced as to compel her to sell it for the value of the 

 gold. 



" The engraving is on amber, the usual material for 

 such purposes at that period, and, as you may perceive 

 from the enclosed impression, is much worn by time. It 

 is supposed that the seal in the late Earl of Buchan's col- 

 lection was copied from it. 



" This valuable antique was purchased many years ago 

 by a member of the present possessor's family at the sale 

 of the celebrated antiquarj* John M'Gowan, of Edinburgh, 

 who considered it a most valuable gem." 



" A Constant Reader," but without giving his 

 or her address, then kindly offers an impression to 

 any tyro of heraldry. I have thought this account 

 would be acceptable as a Note for " N. & Q.," 

 considering it is on so interesting a subject ; and 

 embodied there not so likely to be lost sight of as 

 in The Times. Henri. 



Altar Candles, why made of Wax ? — Wax 

 candles are said to have been used on the altars in 

 Welsh churches ; but the following passage I lately 

 met with, quoted from an ancient Welsh law, and 

 from which the above inference has been drawn, 

 is curious, as affording a somewhat ingenious and 

 logical argument for their use : 



" Bees derive their origin from Paradise ; and 'because 

 of the sin of man did they come from thence, and God 

 conferred on them his blessing ; and therefore Mass can - 

 not be chanted without their wax ! " * 



F. Phillott. 



" Masks and Faces.^'' — Those who have wit- 

 nessed the representation of the very clever drama 

 of Masks and Faces, will not have forgotten one 

 of its most striking situations, — the scene of poor 

 Triplet's triumph, where the despised portrait of 



[* The original occurs in Leges Wallicce, lib. iii. cap. v. 

 sect. 10. — Ed.] 



