362 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VIII. Oct. 29. '5&. 



ment made above, p. 302.) is Sam. Clarke's Lives 

 of Divines (1677, fol., pp. 250, 251.) He left 100 

 marks to the college for the purchase of books 

 (see book-plate in volume marked O. 5. 23.). He 

 was rector of Middleton, Lancashire. 



He is best known, however, as author of the 

 Latin life of Dr. Wm. Whitaker, the Professor of 

 Divinity, to whom Ranke has just paid a well- 

 merited tribute of praise. This was published 

 separately, and is also included in Whitaker's 

 Collected Works, where may also be seen (vol. i. 

 p. 707.) verses in honour of Whitaker signed 

 "A. A." 



See, too, Biogr. Britan. (1st ed., p. 2157.), and 

 Strype's Whitgift (8vo. ed.) as cited in the Index 

 to Strype. If M. P. is curious to know more of 

 Asheton, I will send him a copy of the book-plate, 

 and will also search for the entry of his admission 

 at St. John's, which (if it can be found) will most 

 likely give some particulars of his parentage, &c. 



If, as I suppose, M. P. is interested about Ashe- 

 ton chiefly on the score of his attachment to the 

 Earl of Essex, it may not be out of place here to 

 give the title of a work translated by R. Hill, 

 •who was admitted Fellow of St. John's the year 

 before Asheton : — 



" Bucanus (William, Professor of Divinitie in the Uni- 

 versitie of Lausanna). Institutions of Christian Religion 

 framed out of God's Word, translated by Robert Hill of 

 St. John's Coll., Cambridge, 1606, 4to. Dedicated to the 

 hopeful young Lord Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex." 



J. E. B. Mayor. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



The Great St. Leger (2°* S. viii. 225.) — I am 

 not aware that there exists any very authentic 

 account of the origin of this celebrated race. Dr. 

 Miller, who published a History, of Doncaster 

 about 1804, makes no mention of it whatever. 

 Mr. Hunter, in his History of South Yorkshire, 

 published in 1828, states under Doncaster that 

 "in 1776 the famous St. Leger stakes were 

 founded, the first race being won by the Marquis 

 of Rockingham's horse Sampson." I think, how- 

 ever, that the name of the first winner was AUa- 

 baculia, by Sampson. In the absence of better 

 authority I believe I am correct in stating that 

 the name was given to the stakes out of compli- 

 ment to Lieut.- General Anthomi St. Leger, who 

 at that time resided at Park Hill in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Doncaster. He is said to have ori- 

 ginated the race in the year 1776, but I have been 

 informed that it was not until two years after 

 (1778) that it was formally styled "the St. 

 Leger," and that the name was then given to it by 

 the Marquis of Rockingham at a dinner at the Red 

 Lion Inn, Doncaster. General St. Leger above 

 mentioned married in 1761, Margaret, daughter 

 and coheiress of Wm. Wombwell, Esq., of Womb- 

 well. She died without issue Dec. 20, 1776. The 

 General died in 1786, and was succeeded in his 



estate at Park Hill by his nephew, Major-Gene- 

 ral John St. Leger, commonly called " Hand- 

 some Jack St. Leger," the friend and companion 

 of George IV. when Prince of Wales. To the 

 latter General the foundation of the St. Leger 

 race has been frequently attributed, but, as it ap- 

 pears, erroneously. Of him there was, and I dare 

 say still is, at Park Hill, a portrait by Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds, together with one of his royal friend 

 by Hoare. General John St. Leger died in India, 

 unmarried, I believe, in 1799. C. J. 



Two Kings of Brentford (2°* S. viii. 228.) — 

 I have never met with the legend to which your 

 correspondent refers, and have waited some weeks 

 for a reply to his Query. It has occurred to me 

 that the proverb that " there cannot be two kings 

 of Brentford " may refer to Edmund Ironside and 

 Cnute. Upon the death of Ethelred, in 1016, all 

 the witan who were in London and the townsmen 

 proclaimed Edmund as their king, whilst his rival, 

 the Danish King Cnute, received the support of the 

 country. Several bloody battles were fought: one 

 of them, in which great slaughter took place, 

 being at Brentford. Subsequently a peace was 

 concluded in which a partition of the kingdom 

 was agreed upon, and the two kings met and mu- 

 tually swore to observe it. Soon afterwards, 

 however. King Edmund was brutally murdered at 

 Brentford through the treachery of his brother- 

 in-law, Edric, who was the first to bring the news 

 to Cnute, and salute him as sole king. Cnute does 

 not appear to have been privy to this tragedy, and 

 though at the time he deemed it politic to conceal 

 his feelings, finally visited the criminal with the 

 punishment he deserved ; for in the following 

 year he caused Edric to be executed, and his head 

 placed on the highest tower in London. Our 

 early annalists do not very closely agree in their 

 accounts of this troublous period ; but this hint 

 may lead others better qualified than I am to in- 

 vestigate the subject. John Maclean. 

 Hammersmith. 



Book-Markers (2°* S. viii. 301.) —If Profes- 

 sor De Morgan will pay a visit to Messrs. 

 Marion, Regent Street, he will there find book- 

 markers to his taste, at least in one respect, viz. 

 so far as material is concerned ; but I think he 

 will object to the mode in which they are manu- 

 factured, as for prettiness' sake they are both 

 coloured and embossed. Still there is no reason 

 why plain white paper markers of the same kind 

 and pattern should not be stamped out for those 

 whose reading is not purely a matter of amuse- 

 ment, and who would therefore prefer the useful 

 to the ornamental. I have no doubt Messrs. Ma- 

 rion would take a hint, if they have not already 

 provided the desideratum. Those I refer to, and 

 which I have used, point well, and are not given to 

 dropping out. R. W. Hackwood. 



