NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>d S. X. July 28, '60. 



such premises ? I put it to the common sense of 

 your readers whether there is any such whisper, 

 open utterance, or challenge, in the words of Mk. 

 Nichols, or anywhere else except in the imagina- 

 tion or misconsti'uction of Dr. Rock. 



Far from me be it to assert that Dr. Rock has 

 invented tliis misconstruction merely to make an 

 opportunity for glorifying his church, but I hold 

 that the misconstruction, from wluitever cause it 

 may have arisen, is quite clear. Dr. Rock's con- 

 clusion, that in Mr. Nichols's expression of his 

 fear he " more than whispered an open assertion " 

 that the Atonement was quite unknown to and 

 wilfully hidden from Englishmen up to the change 

 of religion, and his personal appeal to yourself, 

 that Mr. Nichols thus threw down a " chal- 

 lenge" which you, "as a true Englishman who 

 loves fair play," ought to allow Dr. Rock to take 

 up, are totally and absolutely gratuitous. 



" As a true Englishman " your duty, I submit, 

 was rather to have protected Mr. Nichols and 

 your readers in general from being involved in 

 such a solemn controversy. It would be far more 

 reasonable, because not founded on any miscon- 

 struction, for anyone to call upon you, as "a 

 true Englishman," to allow him to prove in your 

 pages that the Mass is not what Db. Rock as- 

 serts it to be, a " holy sacrifice," but what many 

 people all over the world believe it to be, a ser- 

 vice superstitious and idolatrous, and therefore 

 unholy. 



Dr. Rock follows up his misconstruction by a 

 laborious defence of the teaching of his church, 

 and an endeavour to prove that a knowledge of 

 the Atonement was inculcated in its symbolism, 

 and miiiht be found in its formularies and other 

 j)ublications. His pains are thrown away. Mb. 

 Nichols has not denied these facts. I know no- 

 thing of Mr. Nichols's opinions on the points 

 alluded to, but I suppose that what he, as well as 

 most other people who have thoroughly studied 

 the medigeval period would contend for, is simply 

 this; not that the doctrine alluded to — the corner- 

 stone and foundation of all Christianity — was al- 

 together lost, but that it was under an eclipse — so 

 hidden under the worship of the Virgin and the 

 saints, and a multitude of other articles of the 

 popular faith — so concealed by the "wood, liay, 

 and stubble " which the unrefbi'med church had 

 laid over it, that it had lost its proper influence 

 upon the public mind and was unlikely to have 

 found place in the inscription on the brass refer- 

 red to. This, I take it, was the feeling which 

 prompted Mr. Nichols's fear. 



If you are willing to give up your pages to a 

 full discussion of this subject, and Dr. Rock 

 should go on, it would in that case be but justice, 

 and would narrow what must follow, if, after 

 having completed the comments suggested by his 

 misconstruction of Mb. Nicnoi,s's meaning, he 



would address himself to the grounds for Mr. 

 Nichols's fear which I have suggested above. 



John Bruce. 

 ■ 5. Upper Gloucester Street, Dorset Square. 



OXFORD RIDING SCHOOL. 

 (P' S. X. 185.; xi. 32.) 



In September, 1854, I sent you some remarks, 

 under the signature of Querist, respecting the 

 bequest made by the noble family of Clarendon 

 (as stated in the Preface to vol. i. of the Life of 

 Edward JEarl of Clarendon, ^c, written by him- 

 self, and published in 3 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1759), 

 for the purpose of establishing and supporting an 

 academy for riding and other useful exercises in 

 the University of Oxford. It was by mere acci- 

 dent that I met with the passage relating to the 

 bequest, and feeling some surprise that I had 

 never heard of the riding-school, and that no one 

 to whom I mentioned it could tell me of its exist- 

 ence, I concluded that the whole matter had fallen 

 into oblivion. The insertion of a Note in your 

 pages would, I believed, elicit the wished-for ex- 

 planations, and accordingly, in " N. & Q." (P' S. 

 xi. 32.) a correspondent wrote to you in reply to 

 my Query, detailing additional particulars, but 

 without possessing that intimate knowledge which 

 could authoritatively acquaint the world with the 

 reasons for the non-fulfilment of the will of the 

 noble donors. That knowledge has now been ob- 

 tained through the assiduous endeavours of the 

 Rev. James E. T. Rogers, of Magdalen Hall, 

 Tooke Professor of Political Economy, King's 

 Coll., London, who, at the recent meeting of the 

 British Astociation here, thought the opportunity 

 suitable for mentioning the bequest at one of the 

 Sectional Meetings, when the subject of military 

 drill and rifle practice was being discussed by 

 himself, Mr. Edwin Chadwick, and others. In 

 compliance with Mr. Rogers' request, his friend, 

 Mr. Chadwick, had set on foot inquiries, and had 

 been informed by the Duke of Newcastle that his 

 Grace is one of the Trustees of the Clarendon 

 bequest, and that the sum now available for it 

 amounts to 10,000/. Professor Neate, of Oriel 

 College, I am informed, brought the bequest be- 

 fore Convocation some time ago. John SIacbay, 



Oxford. 



THOMAS BEDWELL. 



(2"" S. X. 29.) 



It is very likely that the little information I 



possess (and which I am anxious to enlarge) has 



reference to the Thomas Bedivell about whom 



C. H. & Thompson Cooper have made inquiry. 



Thomas Bedwell seems to have been employed 

 as a military engineer in repairing the defences 

 at Grave.send at the time of the Spanish Armada. 



