7S* 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 117. 



Preservation of Life at Sea. — On the road be- 

 tween Yarmouth and Gorleston is a small obelisk 

 or monument, with a device of a ship in a storm, a 

 rocket with a rope attached just passing over it. 

 The inscription on it may interest some of your 

 readers : 



" In commemoration of the 



12th Feb. 1808, on which day, 



directly eastward of this spot, 



the FIRST LIFE was saved from 



SHIPWRECK, by means of a rope 



attach'd to a shot propelled 



by the force of gunpowder 



over the stranded vessel. 



A method now universally 



adopted, and to which at least 



1000 sailors of different nations 



owe their preservation. 



1842." 



W. Sparrow Simpson, B. A. 



Epigram — written in consequence of Queen 

 Elizabeth having dined on board Sir Francis 

 Drake's ship, on his return from circumnavigating 

 the globe : 



" Oh Nature ! to old England still 

 Continue these mistakes ; 

 Give us for all our Kings such Queens, 

 And for our Dux such Drakes." 



Clericus (D). 



Count Konigsmarh. — Horace Walpole, in his 

 Meminiscences, says distinctly that Count Konigs- 

 mark, the admirer of the ill-fated Princess Sophia 

 Dorothea of Zelle, was the same person as the insti- 

 ^tor of Mr.Thynne's assassination. Sir E.Brydges, 

 in his edition of Collins's Peerage, on the other 

 hand, calls them brothers. Which of these writers 

 is correct ? The fact may not be important other- 

 wise than as giving us an instance (if Walpole be 

 correct) of the righteous judgment of heaven in 

 visiting a murderer with such fearful retribution. 

 I cannot find what became of Konigsmark, after 

 the murder of Mr. Thynne, in 1681-2. It is said 

 in the Harleian Miscellany, that he was taken by 

 one of Monmouth's attendants, who seized him as 

 he was going on ship-board. The three actual 

 a$sassins were, we know, executed; but it is added, 

 "by some foul play, Konigsmark, who had em- 

 ployed them, and came over to England expressly 

 .to see they executed their bloody commission, was 

 acquitted." What was this foul play, and how 

 came the greatest villain of the four to escape ? 

 I have not the State Trials to refer to : that work 

 may give some explanation. 



Walpole, who was familiar from childhood with 

 the events of the courts of the first three Georges, 

 is likely to have been accurate as to the identity 

 bf Konigsmark ; but his occasional mistakes £uid 



misrepresentations, as we are aware, have been 

 frequently exposed by Mr. Croker. 



J. H. Marklans. 



" O Leoline ! be absolutely Just." — 



" O Leoline ! be absolutely just, 

 Indulge no passion and betray no trust. 

 Never let man be bold enough to say 

 Thus and no farther shall my passion stray. 

 The first step past still leads us on to more, 

 And guilt proves fate which was but choice before." 



Who is the author of the above ? H. B. C. 



Lyte Family. — When did the Lyte family 

 first settle at Lytes Carey, Somersetshire? On 

 what occasion, and by whom, was the fleur de lis 

 added to their crest ? And when did a part of 

 the family alter the spelling of the name from 

 Lyte to Light ? 



The family is an ancient one, and in the reign 

 of Elizabeth of considerable literary distinction. 



J. L. 



Sir Walter Raleigh's Snuff-box. — What has be- 

 come of Sir Walter Raleigh's snufF-box ? It was 

 a favourite box, in constant use by the late Duke 

 of Sussex, and was knocked down at his sale for 

 6/. It is the box out of which Raleigh took a 

 pinch of snufF on the scafibld. L. H. L. T. 



" Poets beware." — Where are the following lines 

 to be found : 



" Poets beware ; never compare 

 Women to aught in earth or in air," &c. 



E. F. L. 



Guandhani, or Cat Island. — Why is this small 

 island, one of the Bahama group, so called? 

 It is supposed that cats of large size, and quite 

 wild, used to be shot on this island ; but none of 

 the many writers on theWest Indies have touched 

 on Guanahani, or Cat Island. W. J. C. 



St. Lucia. 



Wiggan, or Utiggan, an Oxford Student. — To 

 assist in deciphering a MS. I should be glad to 

 know the name of a senior student of Christ Church, 

 Oxford, April, 1721, which seems to be Wiggan, 

 Utiggan, or some such like name. W. Dn. 



Prayers for the Fire of London. — When were 

 the "Prayers for the Fire of London" first intro- 

 duced into the Book of Common Prayer, and when 

 were they discontinued ? 



I have never seen them except in the Prayer 

 Book prefixed to the Bibles "Printed at the 

 Theater, Oxford; and are to be sold by Peter 

 Parker at the Leg and Star in Cornhil. London, 

 MDCLXxxii." The Prayer Book bears the same 

 colophon. W. E. 



Donkey. — An omission in our dictionaries of a 

 curious kind is that of the word donkey, which is not 

 to be found in any that I know of. There may, how- 



