2n<i S. VIII. Nov. 12. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



393 



1658: "suffering," says Dugdale, "with great 

 equanimity;" and his speech on the scaffold, and 

 also his letter written 7th June, 1658, the night 

 before his execution, to Dr. Wilde*, and which was 

 read at his funeral, are fine specimens of eloquence, 

 nervous English composition, and pious resigna- 

 tion. His widow, " Lady Mary Huet, on Monday, 

 14th Feb. 1658, petitioned the Grand-committee 

 of the whole House for grievance against the High 

 Court of Justice for unjustly taking away her 

 husband's life." (Lord Somers' Tracts, by Scott, 

 vol. vi. p. 484. ; Proceedings of Parliament ; State 

 Trials ; and Journal of House of Commons.) 



The murder of this worthy gentleman and right 

 loyal Cavalier caused great sensation. A mourn- 

 ing ring, inscribed " Herodes necuit Johannem," 

 was worn by the king's party (Kennett's Register 

 and Chronicle, mdccxxvii., p. 373. ; and List of 

 Royal Martyrs). An oration was delivered on 

 the occasion of his funeral, and a curious Elegy, 

 a printed broadside, is still extant. 



He left a widow, and, I think, five children; 

 but on this uncertain point, perhaps some of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." would assist me by search- 

 ing the parish register of St. Gregory's in ex- 

 change for any information from this country. 

 His widow subsequently married the gallant Sir 

 Abraham Shipman, Governor of Chester for the 

 king. Of his arms too, owing to the exorbitant 

 charges made by the heralds, which charges pre- 

 clude such extensive searches as mine would be, 

 I know nothing ; whether borne by descent, or 

 obtained by grant. Neither am I aware what de- 

 scendants he left beyond the following extract 

 from the Deanery of Doncaster (vol. i.), that a 

 Rev. Mr. Hewett (two others of the name suc- 

 ceeded him), who held the rectory of Harthill, 

 (near Wales, York, the seat of the Hewets, and 

 formerly the property of Sir William Hewett, 

 Knt., obiit 1566, from whom it passed by an 

 heiress to the ducal house of Osborne,) was 

 "grandson to Dr. Hewitt, Chaplain to King Chas. 

 I., and who married a sister of the Earl of Lynd- 

 say, who was father to the first Duchess of Leeds" 

 (the mother of the first duke was a Hewett). 

 " Dr. Hewett was beheaded by Cromwell ; his 

 son John Hewett, father of the first Mr. Hewett, 

 of Harthill, was a Barbadoes merchant (Qu. Bar- 

 badoes proprietor, having been expelled by Crom- 

 well, and, like so many loyalists, rewarded by 

 grants of land in the West Indies ?). The last of 

 the three rectors succeeded by virtue of entails 

 made by Sir Thomas Hewett to the beautiful 



[* Dr. Hewett's letter to Dr. Wilde is printed in Wil- 

 son's History of the Merchant Taylors' School, p. 762. 

 The Ashmolean MS., 781., pp. 155-6., contains " An Elegie 

 upon the Death of Seccretarie Wynwood, whoe deceased 

 the 26 of October, 1617: 'Stay heere thou walking 

 flesh that pasest by.'" It is subscribed "D. Heuit,"— 

 Ed.] 



estate of Shire-oaks, a few miles distant from 

 Harthill :" and, as the family of Shire-oaks were 

 undoubtedly descended from the ancient stock, it 

 would seem as though this Dr. Hewett had been 

 connected with that family, and that his descend- 

 ants had succeeded in due course of time through 

 lapse of direct heirs. J. F. N. Hewett. 



Tyr Mab Ellis, Pont y Pridd, Glamorgan. 



scott's novels : geokge constable. 



The position held by the writings of Sir Walter 

 Scott in the world of letters has been the subject 

 of much dispute, for although all are inclined to 

 give them a high place therein, it is but natural 

 that some of us should put on them a much 

 greater comparative value than others. While 

 with a large number the poems rank as second 

 only to those of Homer, there are many who put 

 them below those of Byron and Coleridge. Con- 

 cerning the novels there is a much greater degree 

 of unanimity. Every one who has got eyes, ears, 

 or imagination, admits their marvellous truthful- 

 ness and their wonderful picturesqueness of de- 

 tail. It has been said, and I think truly, for the 

 matter is incapable of proof, that Scott's novels 

 have had more readers, during the last five-and- 

 twenty years than any other works, except, per- 

 haps, Robinson Crusoe and I'ke Pilgrim's Pro- 

 gress. It is certain that but one other man was 

 ever born in this island who, on account of his 

 literary fame only, has attached such universal 

 interest to his life and actions. Stratford Church 

 and Dryburgh Abbey alone, of all our British 

 shrines, attract more than a solitary pilgrim. Of 

 the life of him who sleeps in the chancel of the 

 old Warwickshire market town, notwithstanding 

 the diligence of the wise and the foolish, the 

 learned and the ignorant, little has been re- 

 covered ; of Sir Walter Scott, on the other hand, 

 we possess, with perhaps one exception, the best 

 biography in the English language. The com- 

 mentators have done little for his memory, the 

 reverence and affection of one who knew him and 

 loved him well, has more than supplied their place. 

 Of this great writer's cast of mind and mode of 

 thought we know sufficient to be able to compre- 

 hend clearly almost every doubtful passage or ques- 

 tionable statement to be found in his pages ; indeed, 

 probably no author ever lived whose works contain 

 so little that needs annotation ; and this fact is so 

 self-evident, that even the bookmakers — a race 

 by no means quick of perception — have for the 

 most part kept their hands off him. I am not 

 sure, indeed, whether this absence of comment 

 has not been carried a little farther than wisdom 

 warrants. A large number of Sir Walter's novels 

 relate to periods concerning which he drew his 

 materials, not from written or printed history, 



