2»a S. No 66., Mar. 28. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



255 



son was an enthusiast in the art. His life seems to 

 have been devoted to the improvement and per- 

 fecting of short-hand writing. In simplicity of 

 characters he surpassed all his predecessors. 

 Lewis, in his History of Short-hand, says that 

 Mason was the greatest short-hand writer of the 

 seventeenth century. Judging by his works, he 

 deserves to be so called. Mason's first work had 

 for title a Pen Pluckt from an Eagle's Wing. It 

 appeared in 1672, and was ,an improvement on 

 his predecessor, J. Rich. Practice proved the 

 work too complex for use. In 1682 he produced 

 his second work, called Arts Advancement, &c. 

 This was followed by A Table of Natural Con- 

 tractions, being a method of abbreviations by 

 means of the persons, moods, and tenses. The 

 table not being sufficiently explanatory obliged 

 the author, in 1695, to publish a key entitled the 

 Aiirea Clavis. In 1707 was published his last 

 and most important work, La Plume Volante. 

 The alphabet, rules, and contractions of this work 

 have been republished time after time by the 

 Gurneys, Shorter, Parker, and many others. Ma- 

 son gave such an impetus to the improvement of 

 the art, that his own works were soon superseded 

 by succeeding authors. With the exception of 

 the Government Short-hand writers, Mason's 

 system is now nearly obsolete. W. E. C. 



My friend, Mr. Hanbury's, note, reminds me 

 of the original query upon this subject, and this 

 chance threw in my way, on the shelf of an old 

 curiosity shop at Sevenoaks, lately, — a copy of a 

 scarce and curious work by Thos. Shelton, of 

 ■which I give the title : 



« ZEIGLOGRAPHIA, or a new Art of Short Writing 

 never before published. More easie, exact, short, and 

 speedle than any here to fore. Invented and composed by 

 Thomas Shelton, Author and Teacher of y same Art. 

 Allowed by Authoritie. London, Printed by M. S., and 

 are sold at the Author's house in Bore's Head Court, by 

 Cripple Gate, 1659." 



This good man argues that the sermons preached 

 by Chrysostome to the people of Antloch must 

 have been taken down in short-hand, or characters, 

 and criticises the systems of Mr. Ball, Dr. Bright, 

 John and Edmund Willis, William Labourer, and 

 others, and dedicates his little work " To the 

 Supream Authority of England." 



CharXtES Heed. 



Paternoster Row. 



Derivation of '' Forge" (2"'^ S. iii. 206,) — To 

 forge, i. e.fore'reach, to get a-head of. C. 



Rev. Hobert Talbot (2"'^ S. iii. 189.) —Robert 

 Talbot was instituted to the rectory of Eyam, 

 Dec. 16, 1617. His successor was Sherland 

 Adams, instituted Sept. 10, 1630. (From the In- 

 stitution Books in the Public Record Office.) 



R. T. 



Ancient Great Bells at Westminster (2"^ S. iii. 

 187.) — Allow me to mention by way of appen- 

 dix to the interesting document of the 39 Henry 

 III. communicated from the Patent Rolls by 

 Mr. Ellacombe, that we find upon the Close 

 Rolls mandates of the same king in the 34th and 

 35 th years of his reign, which show that great 

 bells were being then provided at Westminster. 



In tj)e first of these mandates, he commanded 

 Edward Fitz Otho to cause a bell to be made from 

 the metal in his custody, larger than the bells 

 that had been made under his direction in the 

 year before, and if that metal should not be suf- 

 ficient, then to buy in London or elsewhere as 

 much more as should be required, so that none of 

 the old bells should be broken up to supply the 

 deficiency ; and he was to have the great bell 

 completed before the ensuing St. Edward's Day 

 [1250]. (Rot. Litt. Claus. 34 H. IIL, m. 8.) 



In the second of these mandates, which was 

 issued a few months afterwards, the king com- 

 manded Edward of Westminster (who seems to 

 have been charged with providing the decorations 

 for St. Stephen's Chapel, as also those for the 

 Abbey, and for the King's Great Chamber at 

 Westminster), to get a bell made, by advice of the 

 founder, which, though it was not to be so large 

 as the great bell at Westminster, might neverthe- 

 less correspond with it in tone. (Rot. Litt. Claus. 

 35 Hen. III., m. 17.) 



It is probable that the great bell which the king 

 wished to be provided by St. Edward's Day was 

 named in honour of Edward the Confessor, and 

 was one of the great bells of Westminster, with 

 the ringing of which the fraternity mentioned by 

 Me. Ellacombe was charged. 



" Edward of Westminster," the great bell which, 

 from the reign of Edward III., if not from an 

 earlier period, hung in a strong tower in New 

 Palace Yard, opposite the great door of West- 

 minster Hall, was quite an historic bell. It is 

 said to have borne the following inscription : 



" Tercius aptavit rae Rex Edwardque vocavit 

 Sancti decore Edwardi signeretur ut hore : " 



and for more than three hundred years i(r sounded 

 the hours to the judges of England ; but in the 

 reign of William of Orange, commonly called 

 William III., it was magnanimously sold to the 

 Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, who exchanged 

 it with the founder for the present great bell of 

 the cathedral, which was cast by Phelps in 1716. 

 About this time the old tower in which it had 

 hung at Westminster was demolished. At some 

 time after the Reformation, " Edward of West- 

 minster " became known as " Westminster Tom," 

 and it bore that name when sold to the Chapter 

 of St. Paul's. It had been recast by Wightman, 

 and was broken up when Phelps's new bell was 

 delivered. {Antiquarian Repertory, ii. 162.) 



