June 26. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



621 



Is this the work published at New York in 

 1840? I suppose so: at least, if "Prof. Noah" 

 has been reproducing the Bristol Book of Jasher 

 (1829), he can claim but little of the justice and 

 perfectness of his great namesake. A. A. D. 



Stearne's (not Heames) Confirmation and Dis- 

 covert/ of Witchcraft (Vol. v., p. 416.). — Of this 

 tract, inquired after by Mr. Clarke, and which is 

 certainly one of the most extraordinary of all the 

 treatises on Witchcraft, the only copy I ever saw 

 is the one I possess, and which I have fully 

 described in the notes to Pott's Discovery of 

 Witches, printed for the Chetham Society, p. 4. 

 The Rev. Author was no theorist, but a thoroughly 

 practical man ; having been an agent in finding 

 and bringing to justice 200 witches in the eastern 

 counties. He has the subject so perfectly at his 

 fingers' ends, and discusses it so scientifically, that 

 Hopkins sinks into insignificance by the side of 

 him. Pity it is that such a philanthropic indivi- 

 dual should have had occasion to complain : " In 

 many places I never received penny as yet, nor 

 any am like, except that I should sue ! ! " 



Jas. Crosslet. 



Lines on Chaucer (Vol. v., p. 536.). — The lines 

 should be quoted : — 



" Britain's first poet. 

 Famous old Chancer, 

 Swan-like, in dying 



Sung his last song 

 When at his heart-strings 

 Death's hand was strong." 

 They are taken from Hymn cxxiii. of Hymns 

 and Anthems, London, C. Fox, 1841. r. 



Fairlop Oak (Vol. v., pp. 114. 471.). — Your 

 correspondents J. B. Colman and Shirley Hib- 

 BERD will find much information relative to this 

 oak and the fair in a work with the following title . 



" Fairlop and its Founder, or Facts and Fun for the 

 Forest Frolickers. By a famed first Friday Fairgoer; 

 contains Memoirs, Anecdotes, Poems, Songs, &c., with 

 the curious Will of Mr. Day, never hefore printed. 

 A very limited number printed. Tobham, Printed at 

 Charles Clark's Private Press. Fairlop 's Friday, 1847." 



J. Russell Smith, 30. Soho Square, had several 

 copies on sale some time back. S. Wiswould. 



Boy Bishop at Eton (Vol. v., p. 557.). — The 

 festival of St. Hugh, Bishop (Pontijicis) of Lincoln, 

 was kept on November 17. 



For " Nihilensis," in the " Consuetudinarium 

 Etonense," should be read "Nicolatensis," as it 

 stands in a Compatus of Winchester College, of 

 the date 1461 : the Boy Bishop assuming his title 

 on St. Nicholas' Day, Dec. 6, and then performing 

 his parody of Divine Offices for the first time ; 

 St. Nicholas of Myra being, according to the 

 legend, the patron of children. 



It is singular that, whereas, as in other founda- 

 tions, the Feast of the Holy Innocents was ap- 

 pointed for the mummeries of the Boy Bishop at 

 Winchester by the founder, it was forbidden at 

 Eton and King's, although the statutes of the latter 

 were borrowed almost literally from those of 

 Wykeham. It would therefore appear that there 

 was some local reason for the exception. 



Mackenzie Waxcott, M.A. 



Plague Stones — Mr. Mompesson (Vol. v., p. 57 1 .) . 

 — I should be sorry that anything inaccurate was 

 recorded in "N. & Q." respecting so eminently 

 worthy a person as the Rev. William Mompesson, 

 Rector of Eyam during the time that it was 

 scourged by the plague in 1666, when, out of a 

 population of only 330, 259 died of the disorder. 

 Mr. M. himself did not fall a victim, as J. G. C. 

 states ; but his wife did, and her tomb remains to 

 this day. He was, indeed, an ornament to his 

 sacred profession. He not only stood by his flock 

 in the hour of their visitation, but he obtained such 

 an influence during the panic that they entirely 

 deferred to his judgment, and remained, as he ad- 

 vised, within the village. He preached to them 

 on Sundays in the open air from a sort of natural 

 pulpit in the rock, now called Cucklet Church; 

 and he established the water troughs, or plague 

 stones, into which the people dropped their money, 

 in payment for the victuals that were brought to 

 them from the surrounding country. When in 

 reward for his devotedness the Deanery of Lincoln 

 was ofi*ered him, he generously declined it in 

 favour of his friend Dr. Fuller, author of the 

 Worthies of England, who thus obtained the ap- 

 pointment. Mr. Mompesson was subsequently 

 presented to the living of Eakring in Notts, where 

 he died in 1708. 



There has recently been discovered on the moor 

 near FuUwood, by Sheffield, a chalybeate spring, 

 which flows into a small covered recess formed of 

 ashlar stone, and this stands just as It did when 

 the wretched Inhabitants of Eyam, believing the 

 water to have sanatory virtues, came to drink of 

 it, until a watch was placed on the spot by the 

 Sheffield people, and they were driven back to 

 their infected homes. Alfred Gattt. 



Raleigh's Ring (Vol. v., p. 538.). — Sir Walter 

 Raleigh's ring, which he wore at the time of his 

 execution, Is, I believe. In the possession of Capt. 

 Edward James Blanckley, of the 6th Foot, now 

 serving at the Cape of Good Hope. It is an heir- 

 loom In the Blanckley family, of which Captain 

 Blanckley is the senior representative, who are di- 

 rectly descended from Sir Walter, and have in 

 their possession several interesting relics of their 

 great ancestor, viz. a curious tea-pot, and a state 

 paper box of iron gilt and red velvet. 



A Descendant or Sir Walter's. 



