2'"i S. X Dec. 1. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



425 



fell sick immediately after, and died in the thirty-third 

 year of his age, 1048. His monument of white marble 

 ■was set up against the North-East Angle of this Chapel, 

 to perpetuate his honourable Memory to Posterity, by 

 the following Inscription, 



H. S. E. 

 Magnns stirpis Vir, majoris Indolis Thomas Carey, qui 

 obiit Anno ^Etatis suae 33 ; quod est Nobilitatis Comitis 

 Monmouth, Filius natu secnndus, quod vero virtutis 11- 

 lustre Documentum, quod Carolo I. Regi, cui h, cubiculis 

 serviebat, erat dilectissimus, cujus pio in affectu usque 

 superstes, non ante annum 1648, (quo omnia exiniia in- 

 terire necesse erat,) penitus defunctus est. Nobilissima 

 Familia quasi natura in eo formando, totas prosapiae vires 

 prodiga consumpsisset, Herede deficiente Masculo, ex- 

 piravit, extincta est. 



" Abi viator, luctusqueetvenferationis stuporem misce." 



Carey's widow married (the precise date I have 

 not ascertained) Sir Edward Herbert, Kt., At- 

 torney- C4eneral to Charles I. 



In 1660 the estate at Parson's Green was in the 

 possession of John Lord Mordannt, wlio married 

 the daughter and heiress of Thomas Carey. 



These particulars seem worth recording in 

 " N. & Q.;" as tbey add something to the bio- 

 graphy of a man who has been strangely neg- 

 lected. Edward F. Rimbault. 



STANYHURST'S "VIRGIL." 



There is a copy of this very rare work in the 

 collection of books presented by Drummond of 

 Hawthornden to the University of Edinburgh. 

 Oifford, with his usual bitterness, abused both the 

 donor and donation in his vindication of Ben 

 Jonson, because the Scotchman had taken down 

 notes of the dramatist's conversation, which, al- 

 though never made use of by him, were found 

 amongst the Drummond MSS. next century and 

 printed. The attack was quite in keeping with 

 the critic's usual tactics, and was too absurd to 

 receive any countenance from men of sense and 

 learning. Of the catalogue which was at the time 

 printed at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart a few 

 copies were privately reprinted some thirty or 

 forty years ago, and the collection itself, with 

 some few unfortunate abstractions, is still pre- 

 served in the library of the Edinburgh College, 

 in a separate apartment, .having been arranged 

 and put in order under the superintendence of 

 David Laing, Esq., now librarian of the Society 

 of Writers to the Signet. 



This copy was used for the purpose of a re- 

 impression by the Edinburgh Printing Company 

 some years ago. A more beautiful book has 

 seldom issued from the press ; and as the num- 

 ber printed was limited to fifty, it is not sur- 

 prising that copies are of rare occurrence. The 

 cost to subscribers was one guinea, but double 

 that sum would hardly secure one now. 



There was prefixed an account of the author 



and of his works by James Maidment, Esq., who 

 referred to the opinion of Southey as to the 

 propriety of a reprint. He also wrote the sketch 

 of Turberville for the curious volume of his poet- 

 ical tales taken from the rare volume in the Drum- 

 mond collection. J. M. 



THE CHOLERA IX IRELAND : " HOLY ASHES." 



In the summer of 1832, when the cholera raged 

 in Dublin, and nearly in every large toAvn and 

 many villages of Ireland, an extraordinary na- 

 tional incident occurred'; and as I have not seen 

 it alluded to in print, I think " N. & Q." a fit 

 place to record the substance of rather an elabo- 

 rate " note," Avhich I made a couple of years after- 

 wards (although young at the time). I collected 

 the materials in several parts of the country on a 

 summer pleasure ramble, and, curious enough, 

 there was no difference in the details — the story 

 bearing the same complexion in the north as it 

 did in the south, and the east agreeing with the 

 west in the facts. The strangest feature, how- 

 ever, connected with the strange phenomenon (if 

 allowed to be called so), was the fact that the 

 affair was known from one extremity of the king- 

 dom to the other on the same day. I was parti- 

 cular in ascertaining this, and had it from intelli- 

 gent persons. I found the " charm," or whatever 

 it was, practised in the county of Antrim and the 

 county of Waterford — extremes of the island — 

 on the same day. This is corroborated by my 

 owi\ observation : for, on the evening of the day 

 in question, I happened to be at the house of a 

 professional friend at Dundrura, about five miles 

 from Dublin (I resided at the time in the Irish 

 metropolis), when we were much alarmed by 

 several persons coming from different directions 

 to the house (a detached building in the centre of 

 a large and handsome lawn) with the "holy ashes." 

 The facts were these : — A story went forth that 

 the consummation of the world had arrived, and 

 that the destroying angel was out smiting the 

 earth with fire. However, there was a saving 

 clause whereby the destruction was to be avoided, 

 and it was this. Some one person belonging to 

 each house was to take of the fire ashes a mea- 

 sure about a quart in quantity, and sprinkle a 

 portion at the four corners of the house, internally 

 and externally: all the family, or whoever hap- 

 pened to be present, kneeling and repeating certain 

 prayers, commencing with the Lord's Prayer, and 

 ending with supplications to the Omnipotent to 

 spare the people and the house. Some one be- 

 longing to that house must then take the ashes to 

 seven other houses, and go through the same cere- 

 mony ; that person could not rest from his labours 

 until he found seven houses that had not already 

 received the " holy ashes," as it was called ; and 

 some one from every house must serve other 



