2n4 S. N« 71., May 9. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



367 



though by the aid of the person who kept the 

 church key, I learnt whereabouts it was. On ask- 

 ing her where the memorial stones were, she could 

 not tell me, — supposed the contractor (the man 

 who had put down the coloured tiles in their 

 place) had taken them away. However, a few 

 days afterwards I discovered two of them (I sup- 

 pose these two were thought the best names in 

 the church, and so considered worthy of some 

 kind of preservation), used as paving-stones at 

 the great south porch ; not in the porch, but out- 

 side, where all the children of the town spin their 

 tops. Of course in a few years the inscriptions 

 will be illegible ; and thus are destroyed memo- 

 rials of men certainly not unknown in their day, 

 and deserving greater respect than the unscru- 

 pulous vicar chose to show them. I need scarcely 

 remind your readers how often large estates and 

 fortunes have depended upon the inscription on a 

 gravestone ; and I can hardly think that the pre- 

 sent mode of destruction can be entirely in har- 

 mony with the law. K. 

 Oxford. 



GAME OF CLOSSTNGE. 



Can any of your readers give me information 

 as to the history or practice of a game used in the 

 time of Henry VIII., called Clossynge ? No such 

 game occurs in Brand's Popular Antiquities, nor 

 does any mention of it occur in Nares's Glossary. 



It occurs, however, in A Booke of Precedentes 

 exactly writt in wanner of a Register, printed by 

 Richard Grafton, "Londini, ex officina Richardi 

 Graftoni clarissimo Principi Eduuardo typogra- 

 phia:" — 



" A License to use the Game of Clossynge. 



" Henry the Eyghte, &c. To the Mayre, Shyriffes, and 

 Aldermen of our Cytie of London, that nowe be and that 

 liereafter for the tyme shalbe, and to al other our officers, 

 ministres, and subgiettes, these our letters heryng or 

 8e3'ng, gretynge : We lete you to wyt, that we of our es- 

 pecyal grace have licensed and by these presentes do li- 

 cense our welbeloued Robert P., and his deputie or assigne 

 to kepe in any place within our citie of London and the 

 suburbes of the same, from hencefurth from tyme to tyme 

 duryng his Ijfe, only for ale and here and no money, the 

 game of Closshynge, for the dysport and recreation of 

 honest persons resorting thither, almaner apprentices and 

 vacabundes oriely except, without any dammage, penaltye, 

 daunger, losse, or forfeiture, to ensue either to the sayde 

 R. his father, deputie or assigne, or to the sayde personnes 

 or any of them in this behalf. Any act, statute, or ordi- 

 naunce heretofore had or made to the contrarie hereof 

 notwithstandyng. Wherefore we will and comaunde you 

 and euery of you to permytte and suffre the sayde Robert, 

 his sayde deputie or assigne, to vse and enjoye the hoole 

 effecte of this our licence without any your let or inter- 

 rupcion as ye tender our pleasure, and will auoyde the 

 contrarie. Geuen, &c." 



H.E. 



Minav ^Smtviti. 



Christopher SmarCs Song of David. — I am re- 

 minded by the painfully interesting article on 

 " Lunatic Asylums " in the number of the Quar- 

 terly Review which has just been published, of a 

 Query which I have for some time contemplated 

 addressing to " N. & Q." I have just read in the 

 article in question this passage : 



" In these days poor Christopher Smart would not be 

 deprived of his pen and ink, and compelled to indent his 

 long poem on ^JJavid' with a key on the pannels of his 

 cell." 



This statement, or something very like it, is fre- 

 quently repeated. My Query is. Is this true ? 

 and on what authority does it rest ? S. D. 



Dreadful Visitation. — I am anxious to know 

 whether the statements made in the following 

 cutting from the IVeeklj/ Register of April 11th 

 last are true. If such an event really happened 

 it must have caused great sensation. I shall be 

 glad of a reference to a full account of the cir- 

 cumstance, if any such exists : 



"A clerical corresjiondent writes as follows: 'On the 

 8th of March, in a village near Cherbourg, just across the 

 Channel, six Frenchmen were seen going on a Sunday 

 morning, at Mass time, to their work, with their tools on 

 their shoulders, in contempt of the law of God, which 

 commands us to keep the Sabbath lioh', and to the great 

 scandal of the good people who happened to meet them 

 on their way to church ; when all of a sudden the six 

 unfortunate men fell on the road and expired instantly 

 and simultaneously. The next day, the bodies of these 

 six transgressors were buried together in one and the 

 same grave, amidst the consternation of the inhabitants 

 of the surrounding towns and villages, who could not 

 help seeing the hand of God in this melancholy event. 

 This dreadful visitation of God has created a deep sensa- 

 tion far and wide, and struck terror into the heart of 

 many a Sabbath breaker.' " 



K. P. D. E. 



Common Prayer of James I. — Referring to the 

 sale of Mr. Horner's books, at which a copy of the 

 Booke of Common Prayer, 1604, sold for 130?., I 

 should feel obliged if any of your readers would 

 inform me whether there was an edition of the 

 Prayer-Book printed in 1605, and whether the 

 "Psalter," and the "Psalmes in Meter," were both 

 dated 1604 in Mr. Horner's copy. I have seen a 

 copy, without title, &c., corresponding with the 

 description of the alterations by Mr. Keeling, in 

 his book on the Liturgies of the Church of Eng- 

 land; but the Psalter is dated 1605, the Psalmes 

 in Meter 1606. T. G. L. 



" Good Friday^s Argument.^' — Bishop Jewel (Dr. 

 Jelf's edit. vol. i. p. 413.) describes some foolish 

 reasoning as " a Good Friday's Argument." The 

 editor, in a foot-note, confesses he does not under- 

 stand this, "unless it alludes to the controversy 

 respecting the computation of Easter." In Shak- 

 speare, however (Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 5.), the 



