24 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d s. X. Jdly 14. '60. 



apparition, the historical vouchers are so cogent, 

 the attestations so respectable, and, better than 

 all, the vraisemblance, and, as a lawyer might say, 

 the " inner persuasions of the evidence " so per- 

 fect, that one might pause, before really rejecting. 

 Reappearing in various forms in biographical and 

 historical accounts, which have come down to us 

 from this period, we have never yet encountered 

 the verification as produced very nearly at the 

 time at which the appearance is stated to have 

 taken place. In the coldest and most reluctant — 

 and, we may add, the most scientific of minds — 

 a feeling of awe will intrude as the fancy dimly 

 glances at the possibility of such unbelieved-of 

 matters : — 



" A Postscript of a Letter of Mr. Douche, concerning the 

 appearing of the Shade of Sir George Villiers, Father 

 to the first Duke of Buckingham. 

 " Sir, — 



" Since the writing of the premises, a passage con- 

 cerning an Apparition of Sir George Villiers giving 

 warning of his son's (the Duke of Buckingham's) murder 

 is come into my mind, which hath been assured, by a 

 servant of the Duke's, to be a great truth. Thus it hap- 

 pened. Some few days before the Duke's going to 

 Portsmouth (where he was stabbed by Felton), the ap- 

 pearance of his father, Sir George Villiers, made itself 

 visible to one Parker (formerly his own servant, but then 

 servant to the Duke) in his morning chamber-gowii. 

 He charged Parker to tell his son that he should decline 

 that employment and design he was going upon, or else 

 he would certainly be murdered. Parker promised the 

 apparition to do it, but neglected it. The Duke, making 

 preparations for his expedition, the apparition came 

 again to Parker, taxing him very severely for his breach 

 of promise, and required him not to dela}- the acquainting 

 bis son of the danger he was in. Then Parker the next 

 day tells the Duke that his Father's Ghost had twice ap- 

 peared to him, and had commanded him to give him 

 that warning. The Duke slighted it, and told him he 

 was an old doting fool. That night the Apparition came 

 to Parker a third time, saying : ' Parker, thou hast done 

 well in warning my son of his danger. But, though he 

 will not yet believe thee, Go to him once more however, 

 and tell him from me by such a token (naming a private 

 token), which nobody knows but only he and I, that if 

 he will not refuse his journey such a knife as this is 

 (pulling a long knife out from under his gown) will be 

 his death.' This message Parker also delivered the next 

 day to the Duke, who, when he heard the private token, 

 visibly changed countenance in the sight of Parker, and 

 inwardly believed that he had it from hi^ Father verita- 

 bl3'. Yet he even now said that his honour was utterly 

 at stake, and that he could not go back from what he was 

 so sworn and engaged to, come life, come death ! This real 

 visitation Parker, after the Duke's murder, with infinite 

 wonder, communicated to his fellow-servant, Henry See- 

 le)% who told it to a reverend divine, a neighbour of 

 mine. From whose mouth, indeed, I have it. This Henry 

 Seeley has not been dead above twenty years : and his 

 habitation, for several years before his death, was at 

 North-Currey (North Cray), but three miles from this 

 place. 



"My friend, the divine aforesaid, was an intimate ac- 

 quaintance of this Henry Seeley's, and assures me he was 

 a person of known truth and integrity. 



"James Douche." 



" Advertisement concerning this same singular and well- 

 attested Narration. 



" This story I certify that I hear* (but a certain other 

 name was put for that of Parker) with great assurance 

 and with fuller circumstances from a person of honour. 

 But I shall content myself to note only what I find in 

 a letter of Mr. Timothy Lockett. of the same place as 

 Mr. James Douche. That this apparition to Mr. Parker 

 was, all three times, towards midnight, when he was 

 reading in some book or otherwise quietly occupied. 

 And he mentions that the Duke's expedition was hasty, 

 and for the relief of Rochelle : then sore pressed. The 

 rest is much what as Mr. Douche has declared. But I 

 will not omit the close of Mr. Lockett's letter. I was 

 confirmed in the truth of these extraordinary particulars, 

 saith he, by Mr. Henry Seeley, who was then a servant 

 with this Mr. Parker to the Duke. And he told me that 

 he knew Mr. Parker to be a religious and sober person, 

 no way given to extravagancies either of speech or 

 thought : and that every particular related was, to his 

 knowledge, of substantial fact, and true." 



Hargravb Jennings. 



FEUDAL HOMAGE OF THE STEWARD OF 

 SCOTLAND TO THE KING OF ENGLAND. 



In Michaelmas Term in the thirty-fifth year of 

 K. Edward I., the Lord Treasurer delivered into 

 the Court of Exchequer an instrument made 

 under the signatures of two Public Notaries, and 

 under the seal of James Steward of Scotland, con- 

 cerning the homage and fealty done to the King 

 by the said James. The import of the said In- 

 strument was this. On the 23rd day of October, 

 1306, James Steward of Scotland appeared before 

 the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Lord Trea- 

 surer, and several other persons hereunder named, 

 and did fealty to King Edward I. for all his lands, 

 and confirmed his said fealty in all its articles and 

 points by his corporal oath, taken upon the con- 

 secrated body of Christ, and upon the two holy 

 crosses, to wit, the Cross Neytz and the Blake- 

 rode, and other holy reliques ; and that the said 

 James made a patent letter under his seal, de- 

 claring the manner and form of this transaction, 

 in the following terms : — 



" To all who shall see or hear this letter, James Steward 

 of Scotland wisheth health. Whereas lately, for the 

 great trespasses and misdeeds which we had done, in 

 divers manners, against our Lige Lord, the Lord Edward 

 by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, 

 and Duke of Aquitaine, contrary to the Homage and 

 Fealty which we did to him, and contrary to our Ligeance, 

 we rendred and submitted ourself, fully and wholly, ouf 

 Body, lands and tenements, and all that we have or can 

 have, to the Will of our said Lord, and he hath since, of 

 his special grace, restored to us our said lands and tene- 

 ments which we hold in Scotland. Wherefore, we have 

 now done to him Homage and Oath of Fealty anew. We 

 being quitted and delivered, and in our full power, do 

 promise loyally and in good Faith, that from hence- 

 forth for ever we will be Faithful and Loyal to our Lord 

 the King of England, and to his heirs Kings of England, 

 and will bear to them good Faith, for Life andjMember, 

 and for Earthly honour, against all men that ^may live 



