324' 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2''d S. VIII. Oct. 22. '59. 



king's mind by some evil-disposed persons, wlio were in 

 his confidence, ' was occasion that h« in part,' as Holin- 

 shed says, ' withdrew his affection and singular love from 

 the Prince.'" — Oxoniana, vol. ii. pp. 45 — 8. 



While on the subject of foi'iner Princes of 

 Wales, I take the opportunity of mentioning that, 

 •on taking down the bells of this parish, for being re- 

 cast, in the course of the present year, it was found 

 that the largest among them had (in addition to 

 the inscription " Omnia parata. Venite," being the 

 translation of Mat. xxii. 4., or Luke xiv. 17., and 

 the date 1623), the arms and motto of the Prince 

 of Wales. To explain this it was necessary to 

 refer to English history ; and, in so doing, it ap- 

 peared that this was the very year in which the 

 Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles L, occupied 

 such a prominent position in the nation's eye, 

 from the journey to Spain, and the marriage 

 question therewith connected. There was, at the 

 time, no special reason, of which I am aware, why 

 this royal emblem should have appeared on the 

 bells of this, more than any other rural parish of 

 the country : I therefore conclude that it merely 

 arose from the general interest felt for the Prince 

 of Wales. Should any correspondent be able to 

 throw additional light on the subject, information 

 will be welcome. Francis Trench. 



Islip Rectory. 



tinued, grew impatient of staying longer, and resolved 

 to pass the brook whatever the danger was ; but to do it 

 with the less peril, and the more steadiness, he took a 

 great heavy stone upon his shoulders, whose weight giv- 

 ing hiin some firmness against the violence of the water, 

 he passed the same without harm, and came safe to the 

 other side, to the wonderment of many people who liad 

 been looking on, and given him up for a lost person." 



Abhba. 



SIR WILLIAM USSHEB. 



I have more than once seen it in print, that in 

 the year 1649 " Sir William Ussher, though at- 

 tended by many of his friends, was drowned in 

 ci'ossing the Dodder," which runs in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dublin ; but a reference to Boate's 

 Ireland's Natural History (London, 1652), p. 60, 

 proves that this is a mistake, which it may be well 

 to correct : — 



" This [the Dodder] groweth thereby so deep, 



and exceeding violent, that many persons have lost 

 their lives therein ; amongst others Mr. John Ussher, 

 father to Sir fVilliam Ussher that noiv is, who was carried 

 by the current, nobody being able to succour him, al- 

 though many persons, and of his nearest friends, both 

 a-foot and horseback, were by on both the sides." 



The danger experienced in crossing other streams 

 as well as the Dodder (which generally indeed 

 " is of very little depth," but is subject to fre- 

 quent inundations), suggests a farther quotation 

 from Dr. Boate's History : — 



" It shall not be improper to insert here a particular 

 observed by a very credible- and reverend person, Theo- 

 philus Buckworth, Bishop of Dromore, the which he hath 

 several times related to my brother and others, being 

 this : The Lagon, a little river or brook which passeth 

 by the town of Dromore, upon a certain time being 

 greatly risen through a great and lasting rain, and hav- 

 ing carried away the wooden bridge, whereby the same 

 used to be passed at that town ; a country fellow who was 

 travelling that way, having stayed three days in hope 

 that the water would fall, and seeing that the rain con- 



SIR AMTAS PAULETT AND SIR DRUE DRURY. 



It is the duty of the historian and biographer 

 to deal justly by the persons whose sayings and 

 doings they undertake to narrate; and also to 

 quote correctly the authorities they refer to ; and 

 I cannot but think that Miss Strickland, in her 

 Life of Mary Stuart, Chapter Ixii. (" Queens of 

 Scotland ") hath violated both these duties, in 

 respect to the two individuals to whom was con- 

 fided the unpleasant duty of being her keepers in 

 Fotheringay castle. 



It is well known that Walsingham " wrote, in 

 conjunction with his secretary Davison," a letter 

 to Paulett and Drury, moving them, in the name 

 of Queen Elizabeth, " to shorten the life of that 

 Queen," Mary Stuart, their prisoner ; and " sug- 

 gesting the private execution of their royal 

 charge." 



Miss Strickland, after giving an account of this 

 " memorable" and wicked letter, says that : — 



" Sir Amyas Paulett, in reply to Walsingham, ex- 

 presses ' his grief that he should be so unhappy as to live 

 to see the day in which he is required, b}' direction from 

 his most gracious sovereign, to do an act which God and 

 the law forbiddeth ; ' and indignantly adds, ' God forbid 

 I should make so foul a shipwreck of ray conscience, or 

 leave so great a blot to my poor posterity as to shed 

 blood Avithout law or warrant,' " 



Yet Miss Strickland also says : — 



" The stern integrity of Sir Amyas Paulett and Sir 

 Drue Drury in refusing to comply with this request in 

 the name of their sovereign, has been highly extolled ; 

 hut no advantage had been offered to induce them to incur 

 the risk of being rendered, like Gournaije and Maltravers, 

 not only unpaid executioners, hut scapegoats for public in- 

 dignation. History had not told her tale to the keepers of 

 Mary Stuart in vain." 



I would now ask whether it is fair, or just, or 

 right, in Miss Strickland broadly to insinuate 

 that Paulett and Drury were not influenced by 

 the feelings they avowed ; but were only hindered 

 by the absence of a bribe and the offer of an 

 " advantage " from doing the foul murder ; 

 which insinuation she makes with Paulett's 

 proud, noble, and indignant reply lying before 

 her ? I think it will be replied by every one, 

 " it is not." 



Next, she says that : — 



" Sir Drue Drury did not commit himself to writing 

 on the subject ; but merely signed his name to a post- 

 script, hy Sir Amj'as Paulett, declaring ' that he sub- 

 scribed in heart to his opinion.' " 



