Ja>T. 31. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



105 



me with a list of the ancient monastic establish- 

 ments of Scotland ? Having communicated with 

 many learned antiquaries, both in England and 

 Scotland, and having failed in obtaining what I 

 desired, I conclude that no complete list exists. 

 Spottiswoode's list, now appended to Keith's Ca- 

 talogue of Scottish Bishops, is very Imperfect. 

 But there are great facilities now for compiling a 

 perfect list from such works as the publications of 

 the Roxburgh, Bannatyne, and Maitland Clubs, 

 Innes's Origines, Parochiales, &c. I would like 

 the list to be classed either according to the dif- 

 ferent counties, or by the respective orders of 

 the religious houses, with a separate list of the 

 mitred houses that had seats in parliament. The 

 list is wanted for publication. Perhaps the writer 

 of " Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals" In the 

 Quarterly may have compiled such a list. 



Ceyrep. 



Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook. — Can you 

 inform me where I can find the pedigree of the 

 Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook, In the county 

 of Gloucester ? t 



^liza Fenning. — Pray, what has become of the 

 collection of documents rel.ating to Eliza Fenning, 

 which was formerly In the possession of Mr. 

 Upcott ? 



Is it true that some years after the execution of 

 Eliza Fenning a person confessed that he had 

 committed the offence of which she was found 

 guilty ? Onetwothree. 



^'■Character of a True Churchman." — In 1711 a 

 valuable essay was published anonymously, en- 

 titled The Character of a True Churchman, In a 

 letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend 

 in the country : London, printed for John Baker, 

 at the Black Boy, In Paternoster Row, 1711. Who 

 is the writer of it ? J. Y. 



"J. Roaring 3Ieg." — What is the origin of 

 calling any huge piece of ordnance " a roaring 

 Meg?" 



Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says : 



" Musica est mentis medecina mjEstte, a roaring meg 

 against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing 

 soul." 



The earliest edition of the Anatomy of Melan- 

 choly is, I believe, the Oxford one of 1624.* 



Tlie large old-fashioned piece of artillery, called 

 Mons Meg, In the castle of Edinburgh, which is 

 so great a favourite with the Scottish common 

 people, is said by Sir Walter Scott to have been 

 " fabricated at Mons in Flanders, In the reign of 

 James IV. or V. of Scotland;" that is, between 

 A.D. ,1508 and 1514 (note to Rob Roy, vol. il. 

 ch. 10.). 



[* ITie first edition was published in 1621, 4to.- 

 Eu.J 



This accounts for the Mons ; but whence comes 

 the Meg ? The tradition of the Edinburgh people 

 is different from that of Sir Walter : and Black, 

 in his Tourist of Scotland, pp. 51. 341., says, it 

 was forged at Threave Castle, a stronghold of 

 the Black Douglases ; was used by James II. In 

 1455 ; and that It was called Mons Meg after "the 

 man who cast it and his wife." Tlie date in the 

 above must be a mistake^ as I believe James II. 

 was killed In a.d. 1437. 



There is another cannon of similar caliber, and 

 bearing the name of Roaring Meg, presented by 

 the Fishmongers' Company of London to the city 

 of Londonderry In 1642 (Simpson's Annals of 

 Derry, chap. vli. p. 41.). 



Can any of your readers explain the origin of 

 the name, and say whether the phrase " A roaring 

 Meg" occurs In any English author earlier thnn 

 Burton ? W. W. E. T. 



Warwick Square, Belgravia, 



Cardinal Pole. — In 1513 Sir Richard Pole, a 

 Welsh knight, married Margaret, daughter of 

 George Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in 

 the butt of Malmsey. Can any of your readers 

 assist me In tracing his pedigree ? If of Welsh 

 extraction, the name was probably Powell, that is, 

 ap Howel. Or can a connexion be shown with 

 the old family of Pole, Poole, or Pull, of Cheshire? 



L J. H. II. 



Theoloneum. — In an agreement made a.d. 1103,. 

 before Henry I., between the Abbot of Fecamj), in 

 Normandy, and Philip de Braiosa, the Lord o€ 

 Bramber, mention is made of a " theoloneum, quod 

 Injuste recipiebant homines Philippi, de hoiniiiibu* 

 de Staningis." What is a theoloneum f M. T. 



Sterne in Paris. — I should feel extremely obliged 

 to any of your correspondents who would refer 

 me to any contemporary notices of Sterne's resi- 

 dence at Paris in 1762. The author of Tristram 

 Shandy must have been somewat lionized by the 

 Parisian circles, and allusions to his wit probably 

 occur among the many memoirs of the period. 



T. Sternberg. 



King Robert Bruce's Watch. — In Dalyell's 

 Fragments of Scottish History, I find the follow- 

 ing : — 



" The oldest known English watch was made, it is 

 said, in the sixteenth century. There exists a watch, 

 which, antiquarians allow, belonged to King Robert 

 Bruce." — Preface, p. 3. 



Can any correspondent of " N. & Q." give In- 

 formatlcm regarding such an interesting relic of 

 antiquity ? K. S. F. 



Perth. 



