268 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. No 66., Apeil 4. '57. 



whose name is not given ; but who we may con- 

 jecture was Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. Can 

 information be given : 1. As to Hawkins ? 2. As 

 to Dr. More ? and last, though not least, whether 

 the Queen of Bohemia is generally known to have 

 been subject to hypochondria ? J. M. 



Style of the Authorised Version, — Can any 

 writer be named from Wicliffe and Chaucer to 

 James I., whose English style resembles that of 

 the authorised version of the Old and New Tes- 

 taments ? ♦JT^ 



Eminent Physicians in the Seventeenth Century. 

 — Are any biographical notices extant of the 

 eminent physicians Dr. Theodore Maherne, Sir 

 Thomas Millington, Sir Thomas Williams, Dr. 

 Needham, Sir Thomas Weatherly, Dr. Brown, and 

 Dr. Hobbs ; the four last of whom attended King 

 Charles II. in his last illness ? A. Tatlob, M. A. 



Pyrrhocorax. — In a curious old road-book, 

 which I recently purchased, entitled Britannia 

 Depicta, or Ogilhy Improvd, by John Owen of 

 the Middle Temple, Gent., and Eman. Bowen, 

 Engraver, 1720, it is stated at p. 67. that "the 

 country people to their sorrow know the Cornish 

 Chough called Pyrrhocorax to be not only a thief, 

 but an incendiary, and privately to sett houses on 

 fire, as well as rob them of what they find por- 

 table." I should have treated this as an amusing 

 instance of the fabulous in natural history, but the 

 Penny Cyclop, (art. " Corvidas ") quotes from Pen- 

 nant, " It is very apt to catch up bits of lighted 

 sticks, so that there are instances of houses being 

 set on fire by its means ; which is the reason that 

 Camden calls it incendiaria avis." I would there- 

 fore ask, can any of your correspondents sub- 

 stantiate or disprove this accusation against the 

 Pyrrhocorax f E. G. R. 



Political Romances of the Times of Louis XIII. 

 and Louis XIV. — Has any book been written on 

 the personal and political romances of the time of 

 Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., of which Barclay's 

 Argenis may be considered the beginning ? I 

 shall be obliged by any account or information 

 where I may find one of Lysandre et Caliste, 

 Mylord Courtenay, Le Capucin Ecossais, and Le 

 Cochon Militaire. Is there any authentic key to 

 Argenis f James Wooj>. 



Mosely. 



John, Duke of Marlborough, SfC. — Where are 

 the letters referred to in the following cutting 

 from a newspaper of the year 1818, now pre- 

 served ? Has their contents been used for his- 

 torical purposes since ? 



*' Original MS. Letters, — Mr. H. Phillipa, of Bond 

 Street, submi i ed for sale, by public auction, upwards of 

 three hundred original Manuscript letters of John, the 

 Great Duke of Marlborough, chiefly addressed to the then 



Secretary of State, Sir Charles Hedges, and many of them 

 containing matter of very considerable interest. These 

 Letters, together with three Notes of her Majesty Queen 

 Anne, to her favourite Secretary, were sold for Five Hun- 

 dred and Seventy Guineas. 



"The notes themselves do honour to the head and 

 heart of the Queen. Two of them are upon the melan- 

 choly subject of the execution of a capital convict of the 

 name of Jeffries. The first incloses to the Minister a pe- 

 tition which her Majesty had received in favour of the 

 culprit ; upon which she says to her Minister, ' it appears 

 he has a wife and six children ; ' and concludes • if it he a 

 case of compassion (that is a case where mercy can pro- 

 perly be shown) take care that his life may be saved.' 



" The other note of the following day states that she 

 has ' been so pressed by the woman ' (the wife of Jeffries, no 

 doubt), and positively commands a respite of the execu- 

 tion, to afford time for a fall inquiry into the circum- 

 stances of the case. 



" The third communication from her Majesty is of an 

 open letter which she had written to Lord Peterborrow, 

 and thus submits to the perusal of her Secretary, 



" Her Majesty uniformlj- subscribes herself, 

 ' Your very affectionate Friend, 



' Anne R.' " 



W. J. FitzPatrick. 



Stillorgan, Dublin. 



Prayers in the Isle of Man for the Earl of 

 Derby. — Among the " Orders and Instructions 

 to be observed by all the Ministers of this Island," 

 issued by Commissioners " appointed for that pur- 

 pose " at the Restoration, there occurs the follow- 

 ing, being the fifth of six orders, dated ad. 1660, 

 signed Richard Sherlock and Ja. Hinde, and now 

 in the Diocesan Registry : 



" 5th. That you observe the SO'i^ of Januarie, being 

 the day whereupon Charles ye I" King of euer blessed 

 memorie suffer'd Martirdome for the Sake of His Church 



and people ; and that you observe also, the Octob' 



being the day whereupon yo'' late Hon^e Ld James Earle 

 of Derby the L* of this Isle suflfered Death for righteous- 

 ness — and the order of prayers for these dayes you shall 

 have presently." 



Can any of your correspondents say whether 

 any form of prayer was composed for the anni- 

 versary of the death of the Earl of Defby, who 

 suffered decapitation at Bolton on the 15th Oc- 

 tober, 1651, and if so, whether the prayers were 

 ever used in the churches of the island ? 



Gilbert J. French. 



Bolton. 



Dr. Bongout. — 



" The Journey of Dr. Robert Bongoiit and his Lady, to 

 Bath. Performed in the year 177-. Lond., Dodsley, 

 1778." 



Portrait by J. Colyer, of a heavy looking gent, 

 with a remarkably protuberant under lip. 



This is a specimen of the scandal of the day, 

 and could only have been relished as a caricature 

 upon some well-known medicus, who here figures, 

 in doggrel, as a bon-vivant, connoisseur, and hen- 

 pecked husband. The book is said to have been 

 bought up : consequently, when a copy appears ia 



