2°'» S. No 77„ June 20. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



489 



Can any of your correspondents give further in- 

 formation on the subject ? Henry T. Riley. 



[The peafowl is the natural enemy not onlj"- of the 

 adder, but of every kind of snake found in our island. A 

 - friend assures us, tliat some years ago he witnessed the fol- 

 lowing curious scene in Gloucestershire. His attention 

 was attracted one morning by the loud call of a peacock, 

 which was followed by the immediate flight of its con- 

 geners to the spot whence it proceeded. Upon arriving 

 there himself, the birds were encircling an adder, and 

 each striking it on the head in turns. The reptile was 

 coiled up, and apparently had just died. The blows had 

 all been given close to the little orifice in the neck (the 

 ear? *), which was very much lacerated.] 



ia^pitt*. 



JAMES HOWELL. 



(2°^ S. iii. 167. 212. 315. 410.) 

 Your correspondent Dk. Rimbault, although 

 more correct than his predecessors, has, by con- 

 fining his researches to Wood instead of turning to 

 the Epistolce Ho-EUana, received very imperfect 

 impressions as to the incidents in Howeirs life 

 referred to. 



As to the statement that Howell was employed 

 at the Court of Madrid by James I., in voL i. 

 sec. 3., Letter vi., Howell, to his fatlicr, says : — 



" I was at a dead stand in the cours of my Fortunes, 

 when it pleas'd God to provide me lately an emploj'ment 

 to Spain, whence I hope there maj^ arise both repute and 

 profit. Som of the Cape Merchants of the Turky Com- 

 pany, amongst whom, the chiefest were Sir Robert Napper 

 and Captain Leat, propos'd unto me, that they had a 

 great business in the Court of Spain in agitation many 

 years; nor was it now their business but the king's, in 

 whose name it is followed." 



This appears to prove that Howell was really 

 the agent of the merchants, and that his character 

 of the king's servant was assumed to gain addi- 

 tional credit and security. The conclusion of the 

 letter confirms this view ; and in subsequent let- 

 ters to Captain Nich. Leat and others, he details 

 the progress of his commission, ending, after the 

 marriage between the Prince and the Infanta was 

 broken off, with a letter dated London, Dec. 10, 

 1624, to his father ; announcing his arrival there, 

 the failure in his Spanish employment, and his 

 own pecuniary disappointment. Reference to the 

 same transaction is made in later letters. 



Soon after his appointment as secretary to Lord 

 Scrope, he was elected to the new parliament for 

 Richmond, and his letters are in a short time 

 dated from London ; between which city and 

 York his time was divided, in both places evi- 

 dently entirely as a retainer of Scrope, his ap- 

 pointment remaining with the Lord President's 

 resignation in June, 1629. He went to Denmark 

 with the Earl of Leicester in 1632 ; and, among 

 other interesting passages, the following, with a 



* " Deaf as an adder 1 " • 



striking parallel from Worsaae's Danes and NoV' 

 wegians in England (p. 79.), is highly so : — 



Howell, vol. i. sec. 5. Let. ii. 

 " The King was in an advantagious position to give 

 audience, for there was a Parlement then at Rheinshurg, 

 wher all the Younkers met. Amongst other things I put 

 my self to mark the carriage of the Holstein Gentlemen, 

 as they were going in and out at the Parlement House ; 

 and observing well their Physiognomies, their Com- 

 plexions, and Gate, I thought' verily I was in England; 

 for they resemble the English more than either Welsh or 

 Scot (though cohabiting upon the same Island), or any 

 other people, that ever I saw yet, which makes me verily 

 believe that the English nation came first from this lower 

 circuit of Saxony; and ther is one thing that strength- 

 neth me in this belief, that there is an ancient Toim hard 

 by call'd Lunden, and an Island call'd Angles ; whence it 

 mav well be that our Countrey came from Britannia to 

 Anglia." 



WORSAAE. 



« In the midland, and especially in the northern part 

 of England, I saw every moment, and particularly in the 

 rural districts, faces exactly resembling those at home. 

 Had I met the same persons in Denmark or Norwaj', it 

 would never have entered my mind that they were 

 foreigners. Now and then I also met with some whoso 

 taller growth and sharper features reminded me of the 

 inhabitants of South Jutland or Sleswick, and particu- 

 larly of Angein ; districts of Denmark which first sent 

 colo'nists to England. It is not easy to describe peculia- 

 rities which can be appreciated in all their details only 

 by the eye; nor dare I implicitly conclude that in the 

 above-named cases I have really met with persons de- 

 scended in a direct line from the old Northmen. I ad- 

 duce it only as a striking fact, which will not escape the 

 attention of at least any observant Scandinavian traveller, 

 that the inhabitants of the north of England bear, on 

 the whole, more than those of any other part of that 

 country, an unmistakeable personal resemblance to the 

 Danes and Norwegians." 



Returning from Denmark, he was occasionally 

 employed in public matters ; and his commitment 

 to the Fleet, so far from being any result of debt, 

 as Wood insinuates, arose wholly from political 

 causes : for in his eagerness to procure wealth 

 and distinction, no little intrigue was resorted to, 

 and his gossiping freedom of speech was sure to 

 offend. Vol. i. sec. 6. Letter xvii. relates his 

 arrest ; and in many other letters dated from the 

 Fleet, especially Letter liii., the preface to vol. ii., 

 and Letters lxii., lxiii., and lxx., his complaints, 

 while quite consistent with imprisonment as a 

 political offender, bear no trace whatever of such 

 feelings as would actuate a spendthrift debtor. 



Dr. Rimbault's information as to the date of 

 the various editions is far from complete. The 

 first edition, printed in 1645, was only the present 

 first volume ; the second volume was printed in 

 1647, the third volume in 1650, and the fourth 

 volume in 1655 ; successive editions of the earlier 

 volumes appearing also. 



I can endorse the remarks of Db.Rimbatjlt as 

 to the value of these letters : much information is 

 to be found in them not otherwise accessible ; the 

 anecdotes are amusing and descriptions racy, but 



