256 



NOTES AKD QUERIES. 



[2nds. No65,, Mae. 28. '57. 



As its migbty successor — the Big Ben of 

 ■which we hear so much — is destined for a time- 

 honoured historic site with which imperishable as- 

 sociations connect the name of Edward, it is much 

 to be regretted that the new great bell has not 

 been named Great Edtoard instead of bearing its 

 present unmeaning and pugilistic-sounding ap- 

 pellation. However, let us hope that the sonorous 

 monitor may long resound through the regal halls 

 of the new legislative palace, and 



" FaJin'd by the fleeting wings of Time " 



may never witness a day when Englishmen shall 

 forget the ties that bind them to the past. 



Wm. Sidney Gibson. 

 Tynemouth. 



Traditions through few Links (2"'' S. ii. passim.') 



— The following interesting passage is from Mr. 

 J. H. Jesse's Memoirs of the Cou?'t of England 



from the Revolution in 1688 to the Death of George 

 the Second, vol. iii. p. 250., et seq. 



" It is a singular feature in the history of this noble- 

 man [Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset], that he 

 should have figured in either the pageants or the politics 

 of as many as six reigns. At the funeral of Charles II. 

 he was one of the supporters of the chief mourner, Prince 

 George of Denmark. He carried the orb at the corona- 

 tion of James II.; at the coronation of William and 

 Mary he bore the Queen's crown. At the funeral of 

 King William he was again one of the supporters of the 

 chief mourner, Prince George ; and at the coronations of 

 Queen Anne, George I., and George II. he carried the 

 orb. The share which he had in such pageants equally 

 suited his character and gratified his vanity. It may be 

 incidentally mentioned as a curious circumstance that 

 had the Duke of Somerset been born four j'ears earlier, 

 the same individual would have been a subject under the 

 administration of Oliver Cromwell, and might have been 

 personally acquainted with George III. When we con- 

 sider the extended age of certain individuals, and the 

 information they have the means of imparting to others 

 who may afterwards themselves attain to longevity, we 

 shall find that the links which unite one generation to 

 another, and which connect a past age with the present 

 one, are not so far apart as we might at first be inclined 

 to suppose. For instance, the late King William IV. 

 used to relate that he had spoken to a butcher at Wind- 

 sor who had conversed with Charles II. This circum- 

 stance, on a first consideration, appears somewhat startling, 

 but when we remember that the Duke of Somerset must 

 have frequently conversed with Charles, by whom, in- 

 deed, he was invested with the Garter ; that the Duke 

 died as late as 1748, and consequently that not impossibly 

 there may be aged individuals still living who were per- 

 sonally acquainted with him, we shall find it possible 

 that there may exist but one intermediate link between 

 the reigns of King Charles and Queen Victoria, extending 

 over a period of nearly one hundred and sixty years." 



Edward F. Rimbatjlt. 



" The World Unmasked'' (2"'> S. ii. 390. 476.) 



— My attention was called the other day to an 

 inquiry in your pages concerning the authorship 

 of that old work, The World Unmasked; or The 

 Philosopher the Greatest Cheat. 



The following statement, if not ill-timed, may 



help to solve the question, should you deem it 

 worthy of a corner in your columns. I have had 

 many years in my possession a most pithy and 

 pointed growth of an earnest and devout mind, : — 

 a little volume entitled Letters concerning the Re- 

 ligion essential to Man ; as it is distinct from v)hat 

 is merely an Accession to it ; in two parts. The 

 title-page adds, "5y the Author of the World Un- 

 masked; or the State of Souls separated from their 

 Bodies. Translated from the French." Its date 

 is, London, 1738. My copy is in small duodecimo, 

 and has 226 pages. A friend of mine picked up a 

 copy of it in French, in two volumes, of a some- 

 what earlier date in I2mo., which are gone I know 

 not where. But I recollect well that it was an- 

 nounced in his French copy that the anonymous 

 writer was believed in France to be one Madlle. 

 Huher ; but of her birth, parentage, and educa- 

 tion, I cannot give any account. I had long un- 

 derstood that " The XL. Letters on Religion " 

 were traditionally ascribed to a Lady, and that 

 very few literati believed Mandeville to be the 

 author of the other work. Lest the title above 

 cited of The World Unmasked, &c., should seem 

 to forbid identification, I will extract a note ap- 

 pended to page 1. of the letters : * 



"Those xiv. Letters, wherein the sj'stems of the an- 

 cients and moderns are reconciled, by an exposition of 

 the different sentiments of some Divines, concerning 

 the State of Souls when separated from their bodies, are 

 published in a book entitled ' The World Unmasked ; 

 or The Philosopher the Greatest Cheat;' — printed for A. 

 Millar." 



This is the same publisher as on the title-page 

 of the Letters. It may be well to make a note of 

 the fact, that the excellent little work of which I 

 have a copy was in such keen request, twenty-five 

 or thirty years ago, by some zealous Christians of 

 freely inquiring minds, that from a stray scrap at 

 Qd. or !«., it became a choice and scarce volume 

 at 6s. M. and 7s. per copy ; now, I fear, it hardly 

 can be got at any price. S. C. Freeman. 



Arms of Bishop Bundle (2°* S. iii. 149.)— I 

 have not the coat desired by J. S. R., but I think 

 it highly probable that he may find it in Cole's 

 notes to Ware, vol. Ivii. of his Collections in the 

 British Museum, f. 259. et seq. 



W. K. R. Bedford. 



Sutton Coldfield. 



[Cole has not given the Bishop's arms, but merely the 

 following note : " See Dr. Hawkesworth's edition of Dean 

 Swift's Letters, 17G6, voUiii. p. 119., where is a letter 

 from Mr. Pulteney on the subject of Bishop Bundle's 

 promotion and character. Bishop Gibson was consistent 

 in opposing where he had authority ; where he had none 

 he acquiesced."] 



HandeVs Organ (2"^ S. iii. 171.) — In Church 

 Walks in Middlesex, ip. 41., it is stated that the 

 organ in Kew Church, built by Parker, 1740, once 

 belonged to Handel. R. W. Hackwood. 



