12& 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



C2°d S. X. Aug. 18. '60. 



quynt j'our worshipe with my pretended purpose, and 

 desyre to know by this bearar, ho^v^ 3'ou will acepte of 

 me and my pore boyes whose rudnes I hope you will im- 

 ,pute to my meane estates, for shepardes be no courters : 

 thus with many good wishis I attende your worshipes 

 pleasure." 



I am not acquainted with the terra "square 

 play," but Imagine It may have been a combat at 

 quarter- stiiff, after the fashion of the merry com- 

 rades of Robin Hood ; but a reference to Strutt's 

 Sports and Pastimes (to which at present I have 

 not access) will probably afford this Information. 



J.G.N. 



Greek Penmanship. — Can copies, and instruc- 

 tions for writing Greek, be procured anywhere in 

 London ? and if so, where ? Most persons who 

 have learnt the language, have never learnt to 

 write it, but imitate with the pen the printed type. 

 I was taught by my schoolmaster to write Greek ; 

 but I never saw engraved copies or Instructions 

 for forming each letter, &c., though, without doubt, 

 such there must be, and in constant use by the 

 youth of modern Greece and the Ionian Islands. 



E. G. R. 



Seson Family. — What was the origin of the 

 family of Seson, or Sessions, Oxford ? And when, 

 and why, was the name changed from Seson to 

 Sessions? Should correspondence be desired, write 

 to J. W. Sessions, Esq. 



Care Messrs. Goodwin & Co., 

 San Francisco, Cal. 

 Or to Rev. Alexander J. Sessions. 



Salem, Mass., U. S. A. 

 Salem, Massachusetts, U. S. A., June, 1860. 



Limited Liability. — Wanted, particulars of 

 any treatise or work relative to the formation, 

 management, and general operations of Com.panies 

 under the Limited Liability Act. Tristis. 



Commemoration Sermons. — Dr. Livingstone 

 relates, among his African adventures, that at 

 one of his encampments he was watched by a lion, 

 that came down and roared before his tent, over a 

 valley at some distance, for several hours. An 

 ordinary traveller would have made a great deal 

 of this picturesque and striking incident ; but he 

 mentions it briefly as one of the many perilous 

 circumstances to which his occupation subjected 

 him. 



His daily existence Is In fact among lions, 

 human as well as bestial, and his providential es- 

 capes from them are little short of a perpetual 

 miracle; but he moves onward with a grateful 

 sense of his manifold deliverances, and Is not dis- 

 mayed. 



When I read the above anecdote some time 

 ago, It put me in mind of what I had been told in 



my earlier years of an annual sermon that used to 

 be preached at St. Catherine Cree Church in 

 Leadenhall Street, London, for which provision 

 had been made by a London merchant, in thank- 

 ful remembrance of his deliverance from a lion 

 that he met with in Barbary, who stood and gazed 

 at him, but suffered him to go on his way without 

 molestation. Many years after I heard this story, 

 I saw in the house of a Mr. Burslem, then resi- 

 dent at Ravenstone In the county of Derby, near 

 Ashby de la Zouch, a portrait of this selfsame 

 merchant, whose name I have forgotten, and 

 heard the same account of him, and of his be- 

 quest to the parish. I am sorry that It is not In 

 my power to state the period at which It was 

 made, or when the sermon was first preached. I 

 find nothing about it in Cunningham, and I have 

 neither Stowe nor Maitland at hand ; but some of 

 the correspondents of "N. & Q." could perhaps 

 tell us who he was, with other particulars relating 

 to him, and inform us whether the annual sermon 

 for which provision was made is still continued. 



A list of anniversary discourses commemorative 

 of private or public events of Importance might 

 prove an Interesting and useful addition to this 

 valuable omniana. I should like to see It set on 

 foot. J. W. 



[Sir John Gaj'er, Knt., left by will dated 19th Dec. 

 1648, 200/. for an annual Sermon to be preached at St. 

 Catherine Cree Church, " in memory of his deliverance 

 from the paws of a lion in Arabia." The sum of lOZ. is 

 applied to the use of this charity as follows : 1/. to the 

 minister for a sermon on I6th October; 3s. to the clerk 

 and sexton ; and 8?. 17s. on the same day to the poor in- 

 habitants. — See Report of. Charity Commissioners, 1830, 

 xii. 197., and New View of London, i. 182.] 



Adderley Church. — What explanation can 

 be given of the following Latin line round the 

 font In Adderley Church, Shropshire, " Hie male 



f)rlmus homo fruitur cum conjuge pomo ?" Is this 

 ine part of a couplet ; and, if so, what is the other 

 part ? John Allen. 



[Eyton, in his Antiquities of Shropshire, x. 6., gives 

 the line as our correspondent has it, but only by " sup- 

 plying an hiatus." Possibly it may have been restored, 

 since he saw it, to its original integrity. The meaning 

 of the line we take to be " Here our first parents un- 

 happily " (or disastrously, male, qu. a repetition of the 

 used-up pun on malum, an apple?) "partake of the for- 

 bidden fruit;" i.e. "Here you have a representation" 

 (sculptured or pictorial, probably the latter) "of the fall." 

 As the line rhymes at the casura, we think it may have 

 stood alone, and are not disposed to view it as forming 

 part of a couplet. At the same time we would venture 

 to suggest that the first word, "Hie," here, may perhaps 

 be regarded as suggestive. Suppose the church to have 

 been adorned, in medieval times, with pictures repre- 

 senting sacred subjects. Suppose each of these pictures 

 to have had its descriptive label, in the form of a Latin 

 hexameter ; e.g. " Here you see the deluge," " Here you 

 see Abraham offering Isaac," &c. This will account for 

 the "Hie male primus homo," &c., which may have re- 

 ferred to some representation of "man's first disobedience" 

 portrayed either upon the font itself, or hard by.] 



