Mae. 20. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



273 



question who was tlie writer of so much verse, I 

 wish to receive information from some of the 

 readers of your very entertaining and often in- 

 structive miscellany. T. S. 



PRAYING TO THE DEVIL. 



I always thought that this unfashionable sort 

 of worship was confined to some obscure fanatical 

 sects in the East, and was not prepared to find an 

 apparent record of its having been practised, 

 amidst the frivolities and plotting of the French 

 Court, by no less celebrated a lady than Catharine 

 de Medicis. In the Secret History of France for 

 the Last Century (London, printed for A. Bell, at 

 the Cross Keys in Cornwel, (sic.) &c. 1714), I find 

 such an odious charge advanced. I do not draw 

 attention to it with the slightest shadow of belief 

 in a story so ridiculous and incredible ; but to 

 ask, whether there existed any foundation for the 

 following statement regarding the "steel box," 

 and if so, what were its contents ? 



" III the first Civil War, when the Prince of Conde 

 was in all appearance likely to prevail, and Katherine 

 was thought to be very near the End of her much 

 desir'd Regency, during the Young King's Minority, 

 she was known to have been for Two days together, 

 retir'd to her Closet, without admitting her menial 

 Servants to her Presence. Some few Days after, 

 having call'd for Monsieur De Mesme, one of the Long 

 Robe, and always firm to her Interest, she deliver'd 

 him a Steel Box fast lock'd, to whom she said, giving 

 him the Key, That in respect she knew not what might 

 come to be her Fortune, amidst those intestine Broils that 

 then shook France, she had tliought fit to inclose a thing 

 of great Value within that Box, which shl consign'd to his 

 Care, not to open it upon Oath, hut hy an Express Order 

 ujider her own Hand. The Queen Dying, without ever 

 calling for the Box, it continued many Years unopen'd 

 in the Family of De Mesme, after both their Deaths, 

 till at last Curiosity, or the Suspicion of some 

 Treasure from the heaviness of it, tempted Monsieur 

 De Musme's Successor to bre;»k it open, which he did. 

 Instead of any Rich Present from so great a Queen, 

 what Horror must the Lookers on have, when they 

 found a Copper Plate of the Form and Bigness of one 

 of the Ancient Roman Votive Shields, on which was 

 Engraven Queen Kathe;'ine de Medicis on her Knees, in 

 a. Praying Posture, offering up to the Devil sitting upon 

 a Throne, in one of the ugliest Shapes they use to Paint 

 him, Charles the IXth. then Reigning, the Duke o/ Anjou, 

 afterwards Henry the I lid., and the Duke o/ Alanson, 

 her Three sons, with this Motto in French, So be it, I 

 hut Reign. This very Plate continues yet in the Cus- 

 tody of the House of Mesme, of which Monsieur 

 D^Aoaux, so famous for his Ambassies, was a Branch, 

 and Was not only acknowledged by him to be so, when 

 Ambassador in Holland, but he was also pleas'd at that 

 time, to promise a Great Man in England, a Copy of 

 it; which is a Terrible Instance of the Power of Am- 

 bition in the Minds of French Princes, and to what 



Divinity, if one dares give the Devil that name, even 

 in Irony, they are ready to pay their adoration, rather 



than part with their hopes of Empire." Pp. 6, 7. 



R. S. F. 

 Perth. 



John Ap Rice's Register. — Two ancient char- 

 ters, formerly belonging to the abbey of Bury 

 St. Edmund's, and now in the possession of the 

 corporation of King's Lynn, bear the indorsement 

 of J. Rhesensis, i. e. John Ap Rice, the commis- 

 sioner who was sent by Hen. VIII. to investigate 

 the affiiirs of this abbey ; and whose letter upon 

 the subject to secretary Cromwell is published in 

 Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monas- 

 teries. On one of the charters the indorsement 

 has been erased all but the name ; on the other it 

 runs thus : — " Relat' in regiii Registr' ad v'bu, 

 1536, J. Rhesens', Registr'." Is anything known 

 of the Royal Register referred to ? C. "W. G. 



Prideauxs Doctrine of Conscience. — Who was 

 the author of the address to the reader in the 

 Doctrine of Conscience, by Bishop Prideaux, 

 published in 1656 ? it is signed Y. !N^. Bishop 

 Prideaux died in 1650. G. P. P. 



John Adair., Geographer for Scotland (alive in 

 1715). — I am anxious to obtain some information 

 respecting the ancestry, wife, death, and descen- 

 dants of this individual. I am already aware of 

 the notices of him in Chalmers's Caledonia (ii. 58.), 

 and in the Bannatyne Miscellany (ii. 347.). 



E.N. 



Clergymen first styled Reverend. — I should be 

 obliged if any of your correspondents would in- 

 form me when the word "Reverend" first came 

 into use as distinctive of a clergyman. It never 

 seems to have been applied to Hooker, who is 

 always called Mr. Hooker in the different editions 

 of his works. Questor 



Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes. — Information is re* 

 quested as to the descendants of the Rev. Na- 

 thaniel Spinckes, one of the Nonjuring divines, 

 who died July 28, 1727. He was rector of Clin- 

 ton with Peakirk, Northamptonshire ; and it ap- 

 pears from Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary 

 that he left two children, William Spinckes, Esq., 

 and Anne, who married Anthony Cope, Esq. 



J. P. Jr. 



Meaning of the Word ^^Flvan." — Will any kind 

 philologist come to the aid of the geologists in 

 ascertaining the meaning of this uncouth word? 

 In the current number of the Quarterly Journal of 

 the Geological Society (No. 29.) we read : 



•' Certain quartziferous porphyries which occur in 

 the mining districts of Cornwall as veins, partly in 

 granite, partly in clay-slate, have been long there 



