NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. No 27., July 5. '5G. 



expos'd to popular Clamour, I thought it a matter of 

 highest importance to me to clear and vindicate myself as 

 tothe manner of my Lord Russel's Execution, and the 

 hard usage he is said to have had in the Severing of his 

 Head from his Bodj'. 



" As to the several reports that have been rais'd, as it 

 hath been always a common Custom in the World, not 

 only to magnifie and misrepresent the truth, but to forgo 

 things that never were, the falsity of them will appear to 

 judicious Persons as well by the improbability of them 

 as by testimony of those that know the Contrary ; As 

 namely that I had been drinking all the foregoing Night 

 and was in Drink when I came upon the Scaffold, when 

 as all my Neighbours can testifie that I went orderlie to 

 Bed that Night and wholly undisguis'd in Drink. That 

 I had 20,Guinnies the Night before. That after the First 

 blow my Lord should say. You Dog did I give you 10 

 Guinnies to use me so inhumanl}-? 'Tis true I receav'd 

 10 Guenies but not till after having dispos'd of his Coat, 

 Hat, and Periwig; I took the boldness to give him a 

 small remembrance of the Civilities customary on the like 

 occasion, as to the report of my striking my Lord into the 

 Shoulder, how false it is I appeaj to those that were the 

 nearest Spectatours of the Execution ; and for my being 

 committed Prisoner to Newgate, it is so Easie a matter 

 to disprove the truth thereof, that I need not trouble my- 

 self anj' farther about it. 



"But my grand business is to acquit myself and come 

 off as fairly as I can, as to those grievous Obloquies and 

 Invectives that have been thrown upon me for not Sever- 

 ing my Lords Head from his Body at one blow, and in- 

 deed had I given my Lord more Blows then one out of 

 design to put him to more then ordinary Pain, as I have 

 been Taxt, I might justlj' be exclaim'd on as Guilty of 

 grater Inhumanity then can be imputed even to one of 

 my Profession, or had it been occasioned by a Bungling 

 and Supine Negligence, 1 had been much to blame. But 

 there are circumstances enow to clear me in this par- 

 ticular, and to make it plainly appear that my Lord him- 

 self was the real obstruct that he had not a quicker dis- 

 patch out of this World ; since if I may speak it of a 

 Person of his Quality? He died with more Galantry 

 then Discresion, and did not dispose him for receiving of 

 the fatal Stroke in such a posture as was most suitable, 

 for whereas he should have put his hands before his 

 Breast, or else behind him, he spread them out before 

 him, nor would he be persuaded to give any Signal or 

 pull his Cap over his eyes, which might possibly be the 

 Occasion that discovering the Blow, he somewhat heav'd 

 his Body. Moreover after having receiv'd the Guinnies, 

 and according to my dut}' ask't his Lordships Pardon, I 

 receav'd some Interruption iust as I was taking Aim, and 

 going to give the Blow. Thus have I truely and faith- 

 fully expos'd to the Publick all that can be said in this 

 matter, and hope, whatever prejudice the undiscerning 

 Multitude may retain, to have given sufficient satisfaction 

 to all rational judicious Persons." 



No. 2627. of the Collection of Proclamations, 

 Sfc, presented to the Chetham Library, Man- 

 chester, by James O. HalHwell, Esq., F.R.S. 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM. 



Prince of Orange (2°"^ S. i. 370.) — 



" Even that court seems to have had some sense of 

 shame ; for the sentence of confiscation and banishment 

 against the Ruart did not state the crime for which it 

 •was passed." 



The sentence is fully set out in a pamphlet en- 

 titled : 



" Sententia van den generalen hove van Nederlnnd 

 tegens Mr. C. de Wit en Mr. Jan de Witt, 's Gravenhaag^ 

 1672," 



which is in the British Museum, VViV I* ex- 

 plicitly states that the Ruart suborned Tichelaer 

 to assassinate the Prince of Orange. P. H. 



MARRIOT THK GREAT EATER. 



In that amusing and really instructive work, 

 John Duntons Life and Errors, may be found the 

 following paragraph : 



" The air of New England was sharper than at London, 

 which, with the temptation of fresh provisions, made me 

 eat like a second Mariot of Gray's Inn." 



Upon which Dunton's editor, Mr. J. B. NichoL^, 

 has this note ; 



" Of this celebrated eater no other record, it is probable, 

 now remains." 



Not so. In Smith's Obituary, edited for the 

 Camden Society by Sir Henry Ellis, I find the 

 following entry : 



"25 Nov. 1653, Old Marriot of Gray's Inn (y* great 

 eater) buried." 



Sir Henry Ellis is silent about this Gray's Inn 

 worthy. 



Not so Charles Cotton, Walton's associate in 

 The Complete Angler, who, in his Poems on Seve- 

 ral Occasions, 1689, has two copies of verses on 

 the Gray's Inn cormorant ; one (p. 349.) called 

 " On the Great Eater of Gray's Inn," the other 

 (p. 417.) "On Marriot." From the former we 

 learn that he was spare and thin : 



" Approaching famine in thy physnomy." 

 The other has this line : 



" Mariot the eater of Gray's Inn is dead." 



The readers of John Dunton and Charles Cotton 

 will probably make a note of this communication. 

 Peter Cunningham. 

 Kensington. 



THE liASS OF RICHMOND HILL. 



In the Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert, by the 

 Hon. Charles Langdale, lately published, there is 

 the following quotation from the above song : 



" I'd crowns resign 

 To call thee mine, 

 Sweet lass of Richmond Hill ! " 



And it is stated, upon the authority of the late 

 Lord Stoiirton, that the song*was written to cele- 

 brate the charms of the above lady. With all due 

 deference to his lordship's opinion, I consider this 

 to be a mistake, and I beg to enumerate two or 

 three other individual ladies, for whom it has been 

 asserted it was compiled. A Miss Smith, who 

 resided on the Hill near the Terrace, at the period 



