2°^ S. N<» 32., Aug. 9. '66.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Ill 



Letter of Charles JI. to the Queen of Bohemia. 

 — I have in my possession a letter in the auto- 

 graph of Charles II., of which the following is a 



copy : 



"Paris, Aprill 16. 

 " Madame, 

 " T could not lett this bearer my Ld. Wentworth gee, 

 without giueing your Ma^'^ the trouble of a letter, and to 

 lett your Ma"» know that I send him to the K. of Den- 

 marke to desire his assistance, and recommendation to the 

 States on my behalfe, I will not say any more at present, 

 because I haue commanded the beai-er to giue your Ma"« 

 an account of all that's a doeing heere, only to desire 

 your Ma''« to giue credite to him, and to me that I am, 

 " Madame, 



" Your Ma**«» most bumble 



and most affectionate 

 nephew and seruant, 



" Chart.es R." 



The letter bears a small seal, and is endorsed, 

 " For the Queene of Bohemia my Deare Aunt." 



Queries. Can any of your readers determine 

 or conjecture the year in which this letter was 

 written ? Is there any account of Charles apply- 

 ing to the " K. of Denmarke, to desire his as- 

 sistance ? " Who is meant by " the bearer my 

 Ld. Wentworth?" An early answer would be 

 very acceptable. Vox. 



Were Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell distant 

 Cousins ? — What authority has the writer of the 

 amusing and interesting article on the " Causes of 

 the Civil War," in the newly published number of 

 the Quarterly Beview, p. 109., for the assertion of 

 the relationship which forms the subject of this 

 Query, and is declared in the following passage ? 



"In addition to Sir Oliver the 'Golden Knight' (Sir 

 Henry Cromwell) left five sons and five daughters. It is 

 a singular circumstance that from his children should 

 have sprung the two most famous leaders in the great 

 rebellion, for his second daughter was the mother of 

 Hampden, as his second son Robert was the father of the 

 Protector. Another curious circumstance is that Robert 

 married a widow, Mrs. Lynne, whose maiden name was 

 Steward, and who came of the royal race. The fact is 

 now established beyond question that Charles I. and 

 Oliver Cromwell were distant cousins. The Protector 

 certainly did not exaggerate his descent when he said in 

 a speech to his first Parliament, ' I was by birth a gen- 

 tleman ; living neither in any considerable height, nor 

 yet in obscurity." 



C. o. c. 



" Ohnoxious." — What is the meaning of the 

 word obnoxious? Walker says "liable." Why 

 then do almost all modern authors, including 

 Macaulay and, I think, Dickens, use it in the 

 sense of " disagreeable" or " disgusting ?"* S. B. 



Relper. 



" Titan's Goblet." — Will you, or some one of 

 your readers, oblige me with the locus in quo I can 

 find anything relative to the "Titan's goblet?" 



[* The various senses in which obnoxious is used has 

 been incidentally noticed in our 1" S. viii. 439.] 



I am possessor of a remarkable picture of this 

 title and subject, painted by the late Thomas 

 Cole, whose classic reading may have furnished 

 the subject, but whose own poetic capacity was so 

 large, that he (artistically speaking) invented his 

 own subjects and painted them, epic, fanciful, and 

 dramatic. 



Should this Query find answer I will gladly 

 send you a Note of the treatment of the subject. 



J. M. F. 



New York. 



William the Conqueror's Joculator. — In Speci- 

 mens of early English Metrical Romances, chiefly 

 written during the early part of the 14th Century, 

 by George Ellis, Esq., speaking of the minstrels, 

 he says : 



" They were obliged to adopt various modes of amusing, 

 and to unite the mimic and the juggler, as a compensation 

 for the defects of the musician and poet. Their rewards 

 were in some cases enormous, and prove the esteem in 

 which they were held ; though this may be partly as- 

 cribed to the general thirst after amusement, and the 

 difficulty of the great in dissipating the tediousness of 

 life." 



He then states that William the Conqueror as- 

 signed three parishes in Gloucestershire as a gift 

 for the support of his Joculator, and adds : 



" This may, perhaps, be a less accurate measure of the 

 minstrel's accomplishments than of the monarch's power, 

 and of the insipidity of his court." — Ellis, vol. i. p. 19., 

 &c. 



"Three parishes in Gloucestershire" must at 

 any time have been an immense donation for 

 almost any services one can imagine ; and I should 

 be much obliged to any reader of " N. & Q." to 

 point out which were these three parishes, and the 

 name of the fortunate /ocztZa^or, if it has descended 

 to posterity. A. 



" Wheel for the Borough of Milborn Port" — I 

 have a small old print, of which the following is a 

 description. 



The figure of a wheel, about three inches in 

 diameter, round the edge of which is the follow- 

 ing : " (ix) Antient (viii) Wheel (vii) for (vi) 

 the (v) Borrough (irii) of (iii) Milborn (ii) 

 Port (i)." Nine names, representing the spokes 

 of the wheel, commence opposite the numerals, 

 each meeting in the centre, and each divided by 

 a wave line. The names, commencing with No. 1., 

 are, " William Carent, William Raymond, Robert 

 Gerrard, William Caldecut, John Huddy, James 

 Hannam, Roger Saunders, George Millborn." 



Milborn Port (Somerset), to which this figure 

 probably refers, was formerly one of the principal 

 towns in the southern part of the county, and for 

 a very long period sent two members to parlia- 

 ment. It was one of the "rotten boroughs" 

 swept away by the Reform Bill. 



Queries. What is the meaning of this "an- 



