2»i S. VIII, Dkc. 17. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



495 



John Parkinson. — I wish to get information re- 

 lative to tlie family and descendants of John 

 Parkinson, the celebrated herbalist. The date of 

 his death is stated in all biographical dictionaries 

 as unknown, and nothing is said of his family. 

 He was, I believe, a native of Nottinghamshire, 

 and there he was accustomed to retire for recrea- 

 tion in the latter years of his life. H. F. H. 



William Fynmore arrived In J^ngland from Ja- 

 maica, 12 July, 1767. What rank in the law did 

 he hold? and any other information will oblige 



J. R. 

 Liiera Regice. — In Crockford's Clerical Direc- 

 tory for 1860, the Bp. of London's degrees are 

 stated thus, — M.A. 1836, D.C.L. 1842, B.D. (per 

 literas regias) 1856. What are these literas regice? 

 I have heard of degrees by royal mandate at Cam- 

 bridge, and of Lambeth degrees conferred by the 

 Abp. of Canterbury. But there is no such thing 

 that I am aware of at Oxford ; and in the Oxford 

 Calendar the Bp. of London is D.C.L. Has the 

 Sovereign the power to grant degrees j)er literas 

 regias^ independently of Universities ? and if so, 

 how, and by what document is it exercised ? 

 Perhaps some of your readers can enlighten me 

 on this point.. D. C. L. 



Earl of Norihesk. — Can any of your readers 

 supply the epitaph of Rear- Admiral the Earl of 

 Northesk, who died May 28, 1831, which is, I be- 

 lieve, in the crypt under St. Paul's Cathedral ? 

 I know of no work in which it can be found : Sir 

 Henry Ellis's edition of Dugdale's St. Paurs gives 

 the epitaphs in the crypt to the date of publica- 

 tion, "1818." Perhaps there may be a more re- 

 cent edition. F. G. W. 



Historical Narrative. — The following is from 

 2%e Times of Dec. 6, reporting a meeting of the 

 Christian Doctrine Association, held on the Sun- 

 day before at the Carmelite church, Dublin. 



" The oratory was wound up by Father Fox, who gar- 

 nished his speech with a telling historical narrative : — 



" He might relate to them that on one occasion an im- 

 portant city was besieged, and about being entered by a 

 hostile army. In the terror and dismay thus occasioned, 

 it was recommended by a holy man that the inhabitants 

 should assemble in prayer, and that a slip of paper should 

 be furnished to each, inscribed with the pious aspiration, 

 '0! Mary, Immaculate Mother of our God; 0! Mary, 

 conceived' without sin, pray for us, who put our trust in 

 thee.' This was done, and from the entire multitude 

 arose that fervent prayer to the Mother of God. What 

 followed.' Lo! in the silence of the night the host of 

 their enemies retired from before the city, no one could 

 tell how. (Immense cheering.) There was no fact in 

 history better vouched for or more fully authenticated 

 than this. (Cheers.) Therefore he would say to them, 

 pray earnestly. Let them pray to God, and invoke the 

 help of the glorious Virgin in behalf of the Vicar of Christ 

 on earth — in behalf of him whose devotion for Mary had 



been so nobly signalised in adding another bright gem to 

 her crown of glorj'. (Cheers.) Let them pray that his 

 temporal, as well as his spiritual, po«'er should be secured 

 to him, that he and his successors maj' prosperously rule 

 over our Holy Church, and that he and they may meet 

 hereafter to dwell in an eternity of bliss for ever." (Load 

 cheers.) 



Where and when is this said to have occurred, 

 and by what historian ? A. A. R. 



JEiieas Smith, " ffactor to the Earle of Moray .'» 

 in 1760. \\'ho was he? Sigma^ 



Passage in '■'■ Claudian.^^ — In an old album of 

 newspaper cuttings is one from, I think, a Nor- 

 thamptonshire paper of 1781, entitled The Kentish 

 Yeoman, imitated from Claudian. In it are the 

 following lines : — 



" Who though but bred in Norwood's neighbouring town. 

 Egregious novice, knows no more of town 

 Than what from thence the distant view presents 

 Of glittering towers and lofty battlements; 

 From harvests, not Lord Mayors, the j'ear computes, 

 And change of season marks by change of fruits." 



"Lord Mayor" is no doubt the equivalent of 

 consul, bat I have not been able to find the pas- 

 sage imitated in Claudian. Can any reader of 

 " N. & Q." direct me to it there or elsewhere ? 



A. A. R. 



Ferdinand Smyth Stuart. — The Duke of Mon- 

 mouth (natural son of Cha. II.) married, first, the 

 Duchess of Buccleuch ; and, secondly, Henrietta 

 Maria Wentworth, Baroness of Nettlested, and 

 by her had one son, who was deemed illegitimate, 

 and was consequently disinherited. But one Col. 

 Smyth, an adherent of his father's, took him to 

 Paris and had him educated, and subsequently left 

 him his property, upon which he took the name of 

 Smyth in addition to his own. In after life he took 

 part in the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, and at the 

 age of seventy-two was attacked on a bridge in the 

 Highlands by three royalist soldiers in expectation 

 of reward, when he fell over the parapet and was 

 drowned, together with two of his assailants. This 

 Col. Wentworth- Smyth left a son Ferdinand (six 

 years old) by Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert 

 Needham, a great-granddaughter of the Duke of 

 Monmouth. He, Ferdinand Smyth-Stuart, spent 

 some time at the University of Edinburgh, where 

 he studied medicine, but afterwards emigrated to 

 America, and settled in Maryland, where he acted 

 in the twofold character of physician and planter. 



When the American war broke out he became 

 a captain in the AV^est Virginian regiment, and 

 was taken prisoner and kept in irons for eighteen 

 months in Philadelphia. Afterwards he was cap- 

 tain in the Loyal American Regiment, and was 

 afterwards transferred to what is now the 42nd 

 Highlanders. He had landed property to the ex- 

 tent of 65,000 acres, which he valued at 244,000^., 

 which he lost, for which the British governmentgave 

 him 300Z. a year as a compensation, which was after 



