April 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



401 



of our historians mention the hurricane at his death, 

 yet few take notice of the storm in the northern 

 counties on that day the House of Peers ordered the 

 digging up his carcase with other regicides. (See Mer- 

 curius Publicus, No. 51. p. 816.)" 



Cotemporaneous proof of the occurrence is af- 

 forded by S. Carriiigton in prose, and by Edmund 

 Waller in verse. 



" Nature itself," says Carrington, " did witness her 

 grief some two or three days before by an extraordinary 

 tempest and violent gust of weather, insomuch that it 

 might have been supposed that herself had been ready 

 to dissolve .... all which is so lively set forth l)y the 

 quaintest wit of these times ( E. Waller), who expresseth 

 it more elegantly and copiously than my rough prose 

 can possibly reach to." 



" Upon the late Storm, and his Highness' Death ensuing 

 the same* 



*' "We must resign ; Heaven his great soul doth claim 

 In storms as loud as his immortal fame. 

 His dying groans, his last breath shakes our isle. 

 And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile ; 

 About his palace their broad roots were tost 

 Into the air — so Romulus w£is lost. 

 New Rome in such a tempest mist their King, 

 And from obeying fell to worshipping. 



Nature herself took notice of his death. 



And sighing swell'd the sea with such a breath, 



That to remoiest shores her billows rould. 



The approaching fate of their great Ruler told." 



The ensuing night, Carrington adds, was serene 

 and peaceful. (See his Life of Cromwell, 1659, 

 p. 223.) Ludlow, in his Memoirs, also notices the 

 storm. On the afternoon of Monday, August 30, 

 he set out for London. He says : 



" On the Monday afternoon I set forward on my 

 journey (from Essex) ; the morning proving so tem- 

 pestuous that the horses were not able to draw against 

 it ; so that I could reach no further than Epping that 

 night. By this means I arrived not at Westminster till 

 Tuesday about noon." 



A. Gratan. 



AUTHENTICATED INSTANCES OF liONGEVITT. 



(Vol. v., pp. 178. 296.) 

 , O. C. D. has avowed himself incredulous as 

 to the reality of the reported remarkable ages of 

 the old Countess of Desmond, Jenkins, Parr, &c., 

 and he suggests that there should be unquestion- 

 able evidence of such extraordinary deviations 

 from the usual course of human life before we 

 credit them. I confess myself of the same way 

 of thinking ; and perhaps my doubts have been 



* Vide Three Poems upon the Death of his late High- 

 nesse Oliver, Lord Protector, written by Waller, Dryden, 

 and Sprat. 4to. London, 1659. 



strengthened from the circumstance, that, although 

 the longevity of members of the Society of Friends 

 is well known at the insurance offices, I do not re- 

 collect an instance of any one attaining one hundred 

 years in the United Kingdom. Upwards of ninety 

 is not uncommon, from eighty to ninety common ; 

 and more than one-third of the whole deaths are 

 from seventy upwards. There was a well-authen- 

 ticated instance of a "Friend" in Virginia, named 

 William Porter, who attained one hundred and 

 seven years, who could hoe Indian corn a year 

 previous to his death ; but it was considered a rare 

 occurrence in America. 



As some of the readers of " N. & Q." may be 

 curious in such matters, the following is an accu- 

 rate statement of the ages at the time of death of 

 members of the Society of Friends in the past two 

 years. The extra number of females arises from 

 the greater number of males who leave the society, 

 or are excommunicated or emigrate. The average 

 duration of life in these two years appears about 

 52 years 6 months 4 days. The number of mem- 

 bers in tiie society in the United Kingdom is 

 computed at 19,000 or 20,000. In America they 

 are iar more numerous. 



Deaths in the Society of Friends in 1849 — 1850, 



286 338 

 A Member of the Society of Friends. 



I noticed, within the last week, the following 

 inscription on a tombstone in Conway church- 

 yard : 



" Also, Here Lieth the Body of 



Lowry Owens, the wife of 



William Vaughan, who 



died May the 1st, 1766, 



aged 192." 



The round of the " 9 " was above the line ; the 

 figui'es were in their natural places, and had evi- 

 dently not been altered ; but as the inscription was 

 remarkably clear for its age, the only explanation 

 that occurred to me was that it had been recut by 

 some ignorant person, when nearly defaced. Im- 

 mediately above it was the following, referring, I 

 presume, to her husband : 



