390 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 130. 



styles him Baron of Shipbrooke, a barony founded 

 by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester), who was born 

 some time in the thirteenth century, died at the 

 great age of 150 ! and is said to have been suc- 

 ceeded by his descendant in the sixth generation. 

 He was called the '■'■Old Sir Ralph, " or Sir E. '■'the 

 long liver." His first wife was a daughter of the 

 Lord Dacre ; and in 1325 he made a settlement 

 on the marriage of his grandson (or, as some pedi- 

 grees represent, great-grandson,) Sir Ralph with 

 the daughter of Richard Damory, Chief Justice of 

 Chester. This deed was the cause of future liti- 

 gation ; and it is said that the papers respecting 

 this law-suit still exist, to prove the fact of the 

 old knight's patriarchal age. I would refer those 

 who may be curious for further information on 

 the subject to Ormerod's History of Cheshire, 

 where, in the pedigree of" Vernon of Shipbrooke," 

 they will find some account of " Old Sir Ralph." 



While on the subject of longevity, I may men- 

 tion that in 1833, while passing through Savoy on 

 my way from Italy, I saw and conversed with an 

 old woman, who was then in her 1 19th year. It 

 was at Lanslebourg, on the Mont Cenis. Her 

 name was Elizabeth Durleux, and the date of her 

 birth was the 17th of December, 1714, only four 

 months after the death of Queen Anne, and when 

 Louis XIV. still occupied the throne of France. 

 Her age was well authenticated. In early life 

 she had been in the service of the then reigning 

 family, and a small pension had been settled upon 

 her, which she had been receiving nearly a cen- 

 tury ; and, until within ten years of the time when 

 I saw her, she had been in the habit of journeying 

 on foot over the mountain annually to receive 

 it. She had all her faculties, with the exception 

 of a slight degree of deafness ; and assured me 

 that she could remember everything distinctly for 

 one hundred and twelve years ! She was bony, 

 large limbed, and appeared to have been a tall 

 strong woman formerly ; excessively wrinkled, 

 and very dirty. How long she may have con- 

 tinued to live after I saw her in 1833, 1 know not. 



W. Skeyd. 



Denton. 



THE FALLACY OF TKADITIONS. 



Several communications to the " N. & Q." 

 have already proved how little reliance is to he 

 placed upon the traditions repeated by vergers 

 and guides to wondering lionizers. A collection 

 of other instances, where the test of science and 

 archaeological investigation have exposed their 

 falsity, would be interesting and instructive. In 

 spite of Sir Samuel Meyrick's judicious arrange- 

 ment of the armour in the tower, the beef-eaters 

 still persist in relating the old stories handed 

 down. At Warwick Castle the rib of the dun 



cow Is ascertained to be a bone of a fossil elephant, 

 and Guy's porridge-pot a military cooking utensil 

 of the time of Charles I. St. Crispin's chair, care- 

 fully preserved In Linlithgow Cathedral by inser- 

 tion In the wall, is of mahogany, — an American 

 wood ! The chair of Charles I. at Leicester bears 

 a crown, which, having been the fashionable orna- 

 ment after the Restoration, together with the form, 

 betrays the date. Queen Eleanor's crosses, it now 

 appears, were not built by her affectionate hus- 

 band, but by her own direction and with her own 

 money. The fire-place and other objects in belted 

 Will's bedroom at Naworth Castle, are manifestly 

 of later date. The curious bed treasured up near 

 Leicester as that occupied by Richard III., im- 

 mediately before the battle of Bosworth, is in the 

 style commonly called Elizabethan. Queen Mary's 

 bed at Holyrood is of the last century ; and her 

 room at Hardwicke Is In a house which was not 

 erected till after her death ; the tapestry and fur- 

 niture, however, may have been removed from the 

 old hall where she was Imprisoned. The tower of 

 Caernarvon Castle, In which the first Prince of 

 Wales Is supposed to have been born, is not of so 

 early a period. In short, archaeologists seem to 

 show that there Is not only nothing new under the 

 sun, but that there Is also nothing true under the 

 sun. To assume " a questionable shape," may I 

 request some of your correspondents to add to the 

 list? C.T. 



ON THE DERIVATION OF "THE RACK. 



Some time ago I ventured to call the attention 

 of yoiir readers to what I regarded as an oversight 

 of the commentators on Shakspeare, In reference 

 to a certain passage of the Tempest in which the 

 word " rack " occurs. It seemed to me that, with 

 the exception of Malone, having overlooked the 

 construction of the passage, they had been misled 

 by the authority of Home Tooke ; for to every 

 other part being conceded Its due weight and 

 meaning, and assuming, with Home Tooke, that 

 Shakspeare understood English at least as well as 

 his commentators, I could not conceive It possible 

 that there could be a serious doubt as to the value 

 of the word In question. I have no wish, now, to 

 say a word in addition upon this point, firmly con- 

 vinced as I am that the time will come when 

 " (w)rack " will be generally received by critics, 

 as It always has been by everybody else, as the 

 true reading; but I have a few observations to 

 make on the derivation, of the word used by 

 Shakspeare and others, with which it has been so 

 often Identified, which I trust will be found worthy 

 of a few moments' consideration. 



Home Tooke is justly regarded as a very high 

 authority, and certainly I should be the last to 

 deny how deeply philology Is Indebted to the ori- 

 ginality of his views ; yet with the respect that 



