«48 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 136. 



amazing, even to John Snell, who knew very well, by 

 the smoke and the heat, that was broiling his feet, 

 through his great thick boots in the Black Rod's seat, 

 that Dick Reynolds was right, that the fires were too 

 bright, heaped up to such an unconscionable height, in 

 spite of the fright, they gave poor Mistress Wright, 

 ■when she sent to Josh. Cross, so full of his sauce, both 

 to her and to Weobly, who'd heard so feebly, the 

 directions of Phipps, when he told him the chips, 

 might be burnt in the flues, yet never sent the news, 

 as he ought to Milne, who 'd have burnt in a kiln, 

 these confounded old sticks, and not heated the bricks, 

 nor set fire to the house that Josh, burnt." 



Cbanmoke. 



Large Families (Vol. v., pp. 204. 357.). — In a 

 MS. commonplace-book of the year 1787 et seq., 

 I find two notes which may be added to your 

 curious collection of large families. 



" In the church of Abberconway is a stone with this 

 inscription : « Here lyeth the body of Nich'"" Hooker, 

 who was the one and fortieth child of his father by 

 Alice his only wife, and the father of seven and twenty 

 children by one wife. He died the 20"' of March, 

 1637.'" 



The other entry is as follows : — 



" The following well-attested fact is copied from 

 Brand's History of Newcastle : — 



" ' A weaver in Scotland had by one wife (a Scotch- 

 woman) sixty-two children, all living till they were 

 baptized ; of whom four daughters only lived to be 

 women, and forty-six sons attained to man's estate.'" 



Anon. 



The following instance of a large family by one 

 woman is gravely related by Master Richard 

 Verstegan, in his Restitution of Decayed Intel- 

 ligence in Antiqidties, p. 3. edit. 1655 ; and which, 

 it must be confessed, is enough to frighten any 

 day labourer " out of his seven senses :" — 

 , " There died in the city of Paris in the year of our 

 Lord 1514, a woman named Yoland Baillie, at the 

 age of eighty-eight years, and in the eighth year of 

 her widowhood, who there lieth buried in the church- 

 yard of St. Innocents ; by whose epitaph it appeareth, 

 that there were two hundred, fourscore and fifteen 

 children issued from herself, while herself yet lived J " 



J.Y. 



Frebord (Vol. v., p. 440.). — Your correspon- 

 dent P. M. M. desires information on this matter. 

 He may be glad to know that, in the adjoining 

 manor from whence I write, the claim is sixteen 

 feet and a half from the set of the hedge ; and this 

 claim has been ever allowed, and is still enforced. 

 It is supposed to depend on a right of free-warren 

 which the manor in question possesses under a 

 grant of Henry III. Is there any reason to be- 

 lieve that there is any connexion between /reiorrf 

 and free-warren ? I have heard it explained as 

 reserved for the use of the lord for the purpose of 

 preserving the game. Sfes. 



S. L. P. 



Milton's (?) Epitaph (Vol. v., p. 361.). — Your 

 correspondent Is possibly not acquainted with the 

 Rev. Charles Wordsworth's very beautiful epitaph 

 on his first wife. It is In the College Chapel at 

 Winchester, and is remai-kably similar in idea to 

 the one he gives. The words are : 



" I nimium dilecta ! vocat Deus : i bona nostras 

 Pars animas: moerens altera disee sequi." 

 Both authors are doubtless indebted to Horace's — 



" Ah ! te meae si partem animae rapit 

 Maturior vis," &c. 



Oxford and Cambridge Club. 



Can Bishops vacate their Sees? (Vol. iv., p. 293.) 

 — As an instance of bishops vacating their sees* 

 I find in the account of Twysden's Hist. Anglicance 

 Scrip, decern,, that, speaking of the Epistle of 

 Simeon Archbishop of York, it says, inter alia, 

 "the names after Thurstan, who resigned a.b. 

 1139, must have been added," &c. E. H. B. 



Demerary. 



Sleekstone, Cleaning of (Vol. iii., p. 241 . ; Vol. iv., 

 p. 394. ; Vol. v., p. 140.). — I can confirm what 

 R. C. H. says respecting this word, having had 

 one in my possession. It was of glass, of the 

 same shape as described by R. C. H., and was 

 used for giving a gloss to silk stockings. It is 

 called here (Demerary) a sleeking stone. E. H. B. 

 Demerary. 



Poems in the Spectator (Vol. v., p. 439.). — The 

 three poems mentioned are unquestionably by 

 Addison. Captain Thompson, in the Preface to 

 his edition of Andrew Marvell's works in three 

 vols. 4to., 1766, states that he found them in a 

 manuscript collection of Marvell's poems ; but the 

 fact no doubt was, that the manuscript he refers 

 to was a miscellaneous collection by different 

 writers, and not by Marvell exclusively (see Pre- 

 face, p. xlv.) Thus, "William and Margaret," 

 Mallet's ballad, was found in the same manuscript, 

 and is likewise ascribed by Capt. Thompson to 

 Marvell, and with as little reason. Hartley Cole- 

 ridge observes (Biog.Borealis, p. 64.) with respect 

 to the three poems alluded to : 



" As to their being Marvell's, it is just as probable 

 that they are Chaucer's. They present neither his lan- 

 guage, his versification, nor his cast of thought." 



While on the subject of Marvell, let me express 

 a hope that we may soon have a new and better 

 edition of his works than the cumbrous but Incor- 

 rect and incomplete edition published by Thomp- 

 son. His admirable prose works deserve editing 

 with care, and amongst them should be included 

 the tract omitted in his works, but worthy of him 

 in every respect, Remarks upon a late Disingenuous 

 Discourse tvrit by one T.D. under the Pretence 

 De Causa Dei, 1678, Svo. ; and which has now- 

 become exceedingly rare. Jas. Ceosslet. 



