18 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



L2»d S. No 27., July 5. '56. 



are many monuments of the family. K. H. S. 

 may have any farther particulars from 



E. D. B. 

 I enclose my address. 



Henley-on-Thames (2"'i S. i.454.) —J. S. Burn 

 has given so short a list of books which he has at 

 hand for a history of Henley, omitting some of 

 general information, that I would first refer him 

 to Hastings Past and Present, Lond. 1 855, Append, 

 pp. i. Ixii., the last work I am acquainted with, as 

 giving a long list of works which have reference 

 to the locality it treats of. They cannot of course 

 be transferred at once to a Henley Past and Pre- 

 sent, but they will indicate sources of information 

 which he must have recourse to, more or less, if he 

 would do his work well. 



For Henley in particular there may be men- 

 tioned, — 



Turner, Captain Samuel, A true Relation of a 

 late Skirmish at Henley-on-Thames, wherein a 

 great Defeat was given to the Redding Cavaliers, 

 4to., Lond. 1643. (There is a copy in the Bod- 

 leian.) • 



Gough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, 

 vol. i. plate 4. fig. 8., engraving of a cross. 



The Gentleman s Magazine, vol. Iv. p. 931., and 

 vol. Ivi. pp. 45. 363., an account of Gainsborough, 

 brother to the painter, with his epitaph ; vol. Ixiii. 

 p. 716., and vol. Ixxxiii. part i. p. 716., church 

 notes ; vol. Ixxvii. p. 79., presentation of cup, &c., 

 to T. Chapman for rescuing a child from drown- 

 ing; vol. Ixxxiii. part ii. p. 183., discovery of mi- 

 neral spring. (The general index does not ex- 

 tend to the recent volumes.) 



Henley Guide, earlier than 1827. (See Skel- 

 ton's Oxfordshire.) 



Skelton, J., Engraved Illustrations of the Paro- 

 chial Antiquities of Oxfordshire, 4to., Oxford, 

 1823-7. There is a view of Henley Church, and 

 an interesting account of the town. 



Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England, arranged 

 in Dioceses : Oxford, 8vo., J. H. and J. Parker, 

 Oxford. E. M. 



Oxford. 



In a note to the Coucher Book of Whalley, edited 

 for the Chetham Society by W. A, Hulton (p. 979.), 

 it is stated that Robert de Holland, elsewhere said 

 to have been first the secretary, and afterwards the 

 betrayer, of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, was be- 

 headed at Henley-on-Thames in 1328 ; and Dods- 

 worth, who alludes to the circumstance, says that 

 he owed his death to the hatred which his 

 treachery had excited against him, and that the 

 mob, who found him concealed in a wood near to 

 Henley-on-Thames, conducted him to that place, 

 and there put him to death. Anon. 



Special Report from Committee of House of 

 Commons (2°'^ S. i. 461.) — The Committee of the 



House of Commons referred to by N. E, was ap- 

 pointed Feb. 22, 1719 (House of Commons Journal, 

 p. 274. b.). The Committee reported March 18 

 {Id. p. 305. a.), and the House resolved that several 

 informations given before the Committee tending 

 to accuse the Attorney-General " of corrupt and 

 evil practices are malicious, false, scandalous, and 

 utterly groundless," 4he report and other papers 

 to be printed, and that Mr. Speaker do appoint 

 the printing of the said report {Id. 310. b.). 



The Committee again reported April 27 {Journal, 

 p. 341.), and the House came to a resolution that 

 the subscribers having acted as corporate bodies 

 without legal authority, " and thereby drawn in 

 several unwary persons into unwarrantable under- 

 takings, the said practices manifestly tend to the 

 prejudice of the publick trade and commerce of 

 the kingdom ;" and a Bill was ordered " to re- 

 strain the extravagant and unwarrantable practice 

 of raising money by voluntary subscriptions for 

 carrying on projects dangerous to the trade and 

 subjects of this kingdom." And Mr. Secretary 

 Craggs, Mr. Walpole, Mr. Comptroller, Mr. Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer, do prepare, and bring in 

 the same {Id. 351. a.). Mr. Lowndes was added 

 May 2 {Id. 353. b.). Parliament was prorogued 

 June 11. 



The Reports are printed in the House of Com- 

 mons Journals. See Index to House of Commons 

 Journals, under " Projects." J. H. P. 



There is a copy of this Report in the library of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, from which I shall have 

 pleasure in copying any extracts desired by N. E. 



Dublin. « 



Writers bribed to Silence (2"'' S. i. 471.) — In- 

 formation has lately been sought in " N. & Q." for 

 any information respecting writers who may have 

 been bribed to silence. It would be equally 

 curious and interesting to trace the extent of 

 bribery in modifying or altogether changing a 

 journal's politics. 



In 1816, the Journal de VEmpire, an influential 

 French newspaper, published the following : 



" We are assured the English Journal called The Courier, 

 has received 500.000 francs from the bankers of M. de 

 Blacas to write against France. At first 10,000 Louis 

 were offered to the Journalist ; but was seriously angry, 

 and protested that he was not a man to allow himself to 

 be corrupted for such a trifle." 



William Mudford, author of half a dozen novels 

 now forgotten, and of several miscellaneous works, 

 including the greater part of the Border Antiqui- 

 ties of Scotland, generally regarded as the sole off- 

 spring of Sir Walter Scott's brain, edited the 

 Courier at this period, and replied : 



" Five hundred thousand francs, nearly 21,000/. sterling ! 

 — The Paris Editor, at least, shows by the magnitude of 

 the sum of what importance he thinks our support of any 



