2"* S. VIII. Nov. 26. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



437 



captain, and the exact day of his arrival, but the 

 secresy that was observed on the occasion — the 

 name of Rubens not being even mentioned in 

 either. By the king, who had not seen him, he is 

 designated "a person"; by Capt, Mennes, who 

 had, "a gentleman." It will be observed that 

 on '20th May, 16'29, Charles I. signs a warrant of 

 instructions to Capt. John Mennes of " The Ad- 

 venture," to waft the Marq. de Ville over to 

 Dunkirk, where, or at the Fort of Mardyke, he is 

 to be safely landed ; " w"^** having performed, you 

 are to attend the coming out of that port of such 

 a person as the bearer hereof shall bring unto 

 you, and him to conduct into this o"" Kingdome, 

 w*** such servants and baggage as shall belong 

 unto him, w**" all convenient speede." On the 

 same day Charles I., in a holograph letter to the 

 Earl of Holland (see Original Papers relating to 

 Rubens, pp. 127-8.), threatens to complain of 

 Mons, de Ville : " for if he goe not in my shipp, 

 Rubens jurney will eather be hindered, or I shall 

 ly open to almost a just exception to those that 

 ar no frends to this treatie." The " person," 

 therefore, is doubtless identical with Rubens. 

 Again, on 25th May, Capt. Mennes writes from 

 Dover to the Lords of the Admiralty as follows : — 



" On the receipt of his Ma'>«' order for the transporta- 

 tion of the Marquis de Ville, I set saile for Dunkerk, and 

 on the 23''"i of this present I landed him ; the next day I 

 received on board a gentleman, whoe is coming towards 

 his Ma"^ whome y* night I landed at Dover." 



It is, therefore, pretty certain that Rubens ar- 

 rived in London on the following day, 25th May, 

 1629. 



Abracadabra is not, I think, sufficiently accu- 

 rate in describing the MS. from which he has 

 taken his extract. He has forgotten, by the bye, 

 to say that it is in the State Paper Office as " a 

 Docquet-book of Admiralty letters." It is really 

 a table of contents of a book of letters not apper- 

 taining to the State Paper Office, in the hand- 

 writing of one of the clerks or copyists employed 

 by Sir Jos. Williamson, and was most likely taken 

 by his directions from " a Booke intituled Adm'^ 

 Lres Etc'," belonging to the Admiralty. The 

 MS. has found its way into the State Paper Office 

 among, and forms part of, " Sir Jos. Williamson's 

 Collection," which contains several books of a 

 similar nature, as also many alphabet or index 

 books, &c. 



I would alsp remark that Philip, the brother of 

 Sir Peter Paul Rubens, had not completed his 

 thirty-eighth year, as noted by Abracadabra from 

 Harleian, No. 218., when he died on 28th Aug. 

 1611. His exact age was thirty-seven years four 

 months and one day, as certified in a copy of his 

 epitaph from the original, and kindly forwarded 

 to me by H. B. M. Consul at Antwerp, E. A. 

 Grattan, Esq. It is somewhat singular that in 

 Michel, and all the printed copies that I have seen 



of the epitaph of Philip Rubens, the year of his 

 death is incorrectly given, which I did not dis- 

 cover until after p. 6. of my book had gone to 

 press. Thus, mdcxix. should be mdCxi., without 

 the final x, which I suppose to be a clerical error 

 or a mistake of the compositor. In the pedigree 

 of Rubens attached to my volume, the date of 

 the death of Albert Rubens is 1st Oct. 1657, 

 which I believe, with all the other dates there, to 

 be correct. I collected them with no little care, 

 and in several instances possess original certifi- 

 cates of their accuracy. W. Noel Sainsbdbt. 



dSitpXitS ta Minat cauerfcrf. 



Birtsmorton Court, Worcestershire (2""* S. viii, 

 228. 294. 357.) — It may be interesting to some of 

 your readers to know that Birtsmorton Court, the 

 ancient seat of the Nanfans referred to in the in- 

 quiry respecting Cardinal Wolsey, was the birth- 

 place of the late Right Hon. William Huskisson, 

 whose father rented it for a few years from the 

 last Earl of Bellamont. 



Can your correspondents inform me if any topo- 

 graphical work contains a view of this old man- 

 sion ? 



The Colonel Moncton who is said by T. E. W. 

 (p. 295.) to have bought the estate, was the Hon. 

 Edward Monckton, son of the first Viscount Gal- 

 way, who afterwards purchased Somerford Hall, 

 Staffordshire. H. F. 



Portraits of Archbishop Laud (2"^ S. viii. 309.) 

 — The Abp. was a great benefactor to Henley-on- 

 Thames, and a portrait of him is in the Council 

 Chamber of this town. John S. Burn. 



From a fly-leaf of a MS. I took the following 

 note as an addendum to the portraits of this ec» 

 clesiastic : — 



" Portrait at Amesbury, Oct. 15, 1784, of Arbp. Laud 

 by Vandyke." 



C. Hopper. 



Change in the Dedication of Churches (2"* S. 

 vii. 255.)^ The following may interest B. B. 

 Woodward. The church of S. Martin, Leicester, 

 is so designated in the earliest records belonging 

 to the church that have come under my notice, 

 viz. the churchwardens' accounts for the last 

 years of the reign of Henry VIII. Nevertheless 

 it was also designated S. Cross, and the street on 

 its north side was formerly known as Holy Rood 

 Lane. In addition to the rood-loft, with its usual 

 appurtenances, there was in this church a large 

 cross which appears to have been isolated from 

 any screen-work, &c., of which it might other- 

 wise have been supposed to have been a mere 

 accessory. The church was probably called S. 

 Cross from this circumstance. The cross was re- 

 moved in the year 1568 or 1569, as appears by 



