468 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'id S. VIII. Dec. 10. '69. 



^ Under " Down Amprey " ; " Vide Pedigree of Dan- 

 vers, Book B." 



f At the end of « Tysbury " « V, Dunhead in Lib. B.," 

 and again, " V. Cirencester, B." 



f At the end of "Castle Combe," " Vid. Lib. B., 

 p. 318," 



3. In other loose scraps of Aubrey's writing, 

 also in the library, I found, 



^ "Knahil" [Knoyle] " in Lib. B." 



^ " Dr. Muffet, a famous physician lived and dyed at 

 Wilton at Bulbridge House, which transfer to Lib. B." 



IT " Wythoksmede, V. de hoc proprio nomine in Lib. 

 B." 



In " Letters from the Bodleian," 11. 602. Qiote), 

 is the following : — 



% " Mem. In my Lib. B. I liave sett down an exact 

 description of this delicious parke, &c." 



Antony Wood, writing to Aubrey, Nov. 10, 

 1671 : — 



" I have received your Liber B., and have almost done 

 him. If you have any more that follows I would gladly 

 see them.' I read these collections with great delight, 

 and have excerpted some thiugs thence for my pur- 

 pose." 



It only remains to add, that not one shield of 

 arms or scrap of history relating to any of the 

 places above referred to as in " Liber B.," is to be 

 found in any of the present manuscripts ; and it 

 is therefore clear that "B,," which did contain 

 them, and which consisted (as one of the refer- 

 ences proves) of not less than 318 pages, was 

 another and separate volume, now missing. 



Some years ago I was examining Aubrey's ma- 

 nuscripts in the Ashmolean Library, and in so doing 

 was struck by the marginal and other allusions to 

 " Liber B." The Librarian " had never heard of, 

 nor even suspected it. No such manuscript was 

 in the library : nor did the oldest of their present 

 catalogues mention it. Many years ago things 

 were in confusion. What might have been there 

 before, he could not say." At last, however, in 

 poring over Aubrey's collections 1 found out how 

 and when it had disappeared. At the back of page 

 Z in the Index to vol. A, in the handwriting of 

 William Aubrey, six years after the antiquary's 

 death, is this memorandum : — 



"August 14, 1703. Borrowed then of Mr. Edw. Lhwyd, 

 the Keeper of the Ashmolean Librarj', the Second Volume 

 of my Brother's ' Hypomnemata Antiqnaria,' which I 

 shallVestore upon demand. Wm. Aubrey." 



There is no memorandum of its return, and we 

 may therefore conclude that it shared a fate not 

 uncommon with "borrowed" books. William 

 Aubrey, the last of his own family, and without 

 children, died four years afterwards in 1707 ; Mr. 

 Lluyd, the Librarian, in 1709. 



After so long an interval as 150 years inquiry 

 may be thought hopeless. That it is in any of our 

 public libraries is hardly to be supposed, manu- 

 scripts of this character in those repositories being 

 generally very well known. But it is not impos- 



sible, perhaps not improbable, that it may be still 

 in existence somewhere. If on a shelf, and label- 

 led "Hypomnemata Antiquaria," it may have 

 been passed over many a time without the slightest 

 conception that it contained a History of Wilt- 

 shire ! At all events, merely as a literary fact, it 

 should be known that such an additional volume 

 of Aubrey's work did once exist. And if it will 

 help to sharpen the memory of those whose occu- 

 pation it may be to dive into dusty chests and 

 back closets in search of such valuable waifs and 

 strays, I hereby offer tc7i pounds to any person who 

 will give me certain information of the existence 

 now of " Liber B." above described. 



J. E. Jackson. 

 Leigh Delamere Rectory, 

 Chippenham. 



Minax cauen'eS. 



Sea Breaches.-'— 1 used to be much alarmed when 

 a schoolboy at the story of the damage formerl}' 

 done by the inroads of theseaatHorsey-Pallingand 

 Waxham, on the Norfolk coast. My father used 

 to tell me that a few years after the commencement 

 of this century the sea broke through the bank, 

 and very suddenly inundated hundreds of acres of 

 land, and many families were taken from the tops 

 of their houses in boats, of course dreadfully 

 frightened. A Mr. Smith, an eminent engineer, 

 was employed to stop these "sea breaches," and an 

 Act of Parliament obtained to lay rates on all the 

 low ground, even as far as Beccles, and on the 

 marshes and meadows adjoining the Norwich river. 

 Even up to this day the sea often threatens to re- 

 peat its visit, and it frequently costs the rate- 

 payers large sums to keep these breaches in repair. 

 My father said he believed that there was an 

 Act passed in the reign of Anne or Geo. I. to make 

 it felony or a high misdemeanour to take sand or 

 soil, or to cut marrum from the sea banks in the 

 counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and 

 some of the north-western counties, and else- 

 where. My object in writing to you is to i-e- 

 quest you to insert this letter in " N. & Q.," when 

 I hope some of your numerous readers will inform 

 us whether there ever was such an Act passed, 

 public or private ; and if found, its date and pur- 

 port. ? 



Peter Thellnsson' s Will, — This absurd and 

 wicked document, which furnished such a rich 

 harvest to the lawyers, and the litigation on ac- 

 count of which has only just terminated, was not 

 without precedent. In the gossiping Letters of 

 Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, concluding 

 series, vol. i. p. 376., occurs the following para- 

 graph : — 



" Sir William Rowley has left six thousand pounds a year 

 to whom do you think ? — to his great-grandson. To his 



