2nd s. No 27., July 5. '56.] 



NOTES AND QITEBIES. 



from, and after, I the said Richard Duke sliould 

 have fully attained that my said full age of one 

 and twenty yeares (if I should so long live) then 

 he gave, deviseii, and bequeathed the said mes- 

 suages or tenements unto me the said Richard 

 Duke, my heires and assigns for ever: subject, 

 nevertheless, to the provisoes and conditions con- 

 teyned, and appearing, in the said will and testa- 

 ment of my said late father. As for touching and 

 concerning which my said share of bookes, and 

 the deeds, evidences, and writeings aforesaid, and 

 all trust, clayme, and pretence, whatsoever con- 

 cerning them, or any of them, I the said Richard 

 Duke doe hereby, for me, my heires, executors, 

 administrators, and assigns, fully, cleerly, and ab- 

 solutely remisi^, release, and for ever discharge, 

 them the said Robert Chilcott, George Dashwooii, 

 and Thomas Goodwin, their heires, executors, and 

 administrators, and every of them. And know 

 ye farther that I the said Richard Duke, in con- 

 formity and obedience to the expresse will, order, 

 and appointment of my said late father, declared 

 in and by his said last will and testament, have 

 reraised, released, and for ever quitt claymed, 

 and by these presents doe remise, release, and for 

 ever quitt claym, unto the said Robert Chilcott, 

 George Dashwood, and Thomas Goodwin, and 

 every of them, their, and every of their heires, 

 executors, and administrators, all or any cliilds 

 part, or customary part or share, which I the said 

 Richard Duke can or may clayme, or demande, 

 out of any part or share of the estate whatsoever 

 of my said late father, by force or virtue of the 

 custom of the city of London, or otherwise how- 

 soever (except only such perticular legacyes as 

 should be, and are, given or shall fall to mee, by 

 and according to the true intent, and meaneing, of 

 the same last will and testament of my said late 

 father). 



" In Witnes whereof I the said Richard Duke 

 have hereunto set my hand and seale. Dated the 

 sixth day of September, Anno Dni 1679, and in 

 the one and thirtieth yeare of the reigne of our 

 sovereigne Lord Charles the Second, by the grace 

 of God of England, Scotland, ],i) ranee, and Ire- 

 land, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. 



" Richard Duke. 



" Sealed and delivered in the presence of John 

 Sherley, Wm. Antrobus, Sen, and Sam. Bradley." 



The truth of the copy is attested by Wm. An- 

 trobus and John Dann. 



I should like to add one or two remarks, as well 

 as some further particulars, which may be gleaned 

 from some of the other documents ; but this one 

 will occupy so much space that it would be un- 

 reasonable to ask for more at present. Allow 

 me, however, to add a Query. Johnson states 

 that the poet is said to have been tutor to the 

 Duke of Richmond ; and this seems not impro- 



bable. The duke must have been about seven 

 years old when the poet came of age and gave 

 this discharge. I shall be much obliged to any 

 one who will tell me, either through "N. & Q." 

 or directly, where I mny find the particulars of 

 the young Duke of Richmond's conversion to ' 

 Popery, and re-conversion to Protestantism. 



S. R. Maitland. 

 Gloucester. 



rORGED ROMAN " WAXEN TABLETS." 



In the Dictionary of Greeh. and Roman Antiqui- 

 ties, edited by William Smith, LL.D. second edit., 

 1848, I may be permitted to notice an error 

 which ought not to exist in a work of any au- 

 thority. Under the head of " Tabula?," the writer 

 of that article has referred to certain " ancient 

 waxen tablets," said "to have been discovered in 

 one of the gold mines near the village of Abrud- 

 bianya, in Hungary, and which were described by 

 M. Massmann of Munich in his Libellus Aurarius, 

 sive TabulcB ceratce, et AntiquissiihoB et unicce Ro- 

 mance, Leipsic, 1840, 4to. The date assigned to 

 these tablets is A. d. 167, and, supposing them to be 

 genuine, they would afford us the earliest existing 

 specimens of cursive minuscule Roman writing ; 

 but the fact is, that they have been long proved 

 to be fictitious by the continental scholars and 

 palaeographers ; and a statement to that effect was 

 published by Silvestre in the Paleographie Uni' 

 verselle, published in 1839-1841, and, more re- 

 cently, repeated in the English translation of that 

 work, 1850, vol. i. p. 255. I may add, from ray 

 own testimony, that these very tablets, or similar 

 ones, were offered to me for purchase several 

 years ago, but were rejected at once as palpable 

 forgeries. F. Madden. 



British Museum. 



IIXUSTEATIONS OP MACAULAT. 



[The general satisfaction with which this series of 

 Papers has been received, has determined us to con- 

 tinue it in the present volume: and We shall be greatly 

 obliged by the communication of Inedited Letters, 

 Ballads, or other Documents, which may serve to 

 throw light upon the eventful period treated of by Mr. 

 Macaulay.] 



Jack Ketch (2"'' S. i. 72.) — 



" The Apologie of John Ketch, Esq., the Executioner of 



London, in vindication of himself as to the Execution of 



tJie late Lord Russel, on July 21, 1683. 



"It is an old saying and a true one, that one story's 



good till another's heard, but it is one of the most difficult 



things imaginable to dispossess the world of any censure 



or prejudice, that is once fixt or hath taken root in the 



harts of the People. However, since it is not fit that so 



publick a Person as the Executioner of Justice and the 



Law's Sentence upon Criminals and Malefactors should 



lye under the scandal of untrue Reports, and be unjustly 



