186 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»«» S. No 36., Sep« 6, 



you Our trusty and welbeloved Servant John Ashburn- 

 ham, Esq'., one of Our bedchamber, and Our Treasurer 

 at VVair, whoine Wee pray you speedily to furnish by 

 ■way of ioane with the some of 500/. for Our most im- 

 portant service, to bee raysed amongst you as you shall 

 find best. Wee hereby assuring you Wee shall take per- 

 ticuler care to repay it soe soon as God shall enable Us : 

 Wherefore We doubt not but you will with all expedi- 

 tion and cheerfuUnesse comply with Our desires therein 

 that soe vpon his retorne Wee may have greater cause to 

 retayne you in Our favour and good opinion, and soe give 

 you Our Princely thanks. So Wee bid you farewell. 

 " From Our Court at Mells, this 18'^ of July, 1644, 

 " By his Mat<=' Command, 



" Edw. Walker. 

 " The Maior, Aldermen, and 

 Corporation of Wells." 



[_ Address outside^ : — 

 " To Our trusty and wellbeloved the Mayor, Aldermen, 

 and Corporation of the Citty of Wells." 



The city records afford abundant evidence of 

 the frequent and heavy sacrifices the citizens were 

 obliged to bear at the troublesome and eventful 

 period to which I am now referring. It will be 

 seen by the following acknowledgments (also 

 copied from the originals), that instead of a loan, 

 the corporation sent the king 100^. as a " free 

 present," besides 200 pairs of shoes ; although 

 from the corporate records it would appear that 

 attempts were made to raise the 5001-, apparently 

 without effect. The lOOZ., and the cost of the 

 shoes (30^.), were paid by the corporation, and 

 afterwards partly levied by way of a rate on the 

 inhabitants : — 



« 19 July, 1644. 

 "Received the day and yeare above written, of 

 the Mair, Aldermen, and the rest of the Cor- 

 poration of the Citty of Wells, by me John 

 Ashburnham, Esq""", Treasr att Warr, the sume 

 of One hundred pounds, being theire free present ^ 100/. 

 towards the support of his Mat" Armie. I say 

 received by his Mat' Commande, and for his 

 service by me 



" John Ashburnham," 



" Received likewise att the same time, as the further 

 testimony of the good affections of the said Maior, Alder- 

 men, and Corporation, to his Mat", the number of two 

 hundred paire of Shooes, which they desire may be dis- 

 tributed to the Souldiers of Mat' armie. I say received 

 the number of Shooes aforementioned, by me 



" John Ashburnham." 

 [ Indorsed'] : — 



" His Mat' Lre for the Ioane of 500/. and 

 the Treasures acquitt. for 100/. and 

 200 payre of Shoes." 



Whilst upon this subject, I may be allowed to 

 say that the examination of local, corporate, and 

 parochial records has often been a subject of great 

 interest and pleasure to me, and I feel sure that 

 much correct and valuable information might be 

 brought to light by a careful perusal of old books 

 and papers ; in very many instances considered as 

 valueless, and left to moulder in old chests, or 

 doomed to still more rapid destruction from the 



ignorance of those to whose custody they are 

 entrusted. 



I would suggest to those who have authority in 

 such matters, that more care should be taken of 

 these interesting records of past events ; and I 

 cannot help thinking (judging from my own ex- 

 perience), that a store of valuable historical mat- 

 ter might be extracted from the sources I have 

 referred to, if patient investigation were made, 

 and the information collected under different 

 heads and dates. If acceptable, I should be glad 

 to contribute to such a store. Ina. 



Wells. 



Minax i^atti. 



Newspaper Geography. — The Globe of the 

 9th August, 1856, in its fashionable intelligence 

 announces that " the Earl and Countess of Dur- 

 ham left town on Wednesday for Lambton Castle, 

 Northumberland." One would have thought that 

 if the penny-a-liner who supplied this paragraph 

 was ignorant of the fact, even a printer's devil 

 would have known that the ancient seat of the 

 Lambton family is in the county of Durham 

 (whence they took their title), and not in Nor- 

 thumberland. 



But I make this Note for the purpose of re- 

 marking that it is a singular fact, notwithstanding 

 the important place the County Palatine holds in 

 history, that very little is known by distant inha- 

 bitants (especially Cockneys) of the county of 

 Durham. I travelled some years ago in company 

 with a gentleman, apparently intelligent on matters 

 in general, who, on my pointing out to him Ra- 

 vensworth Castle, two miles south of Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, immediately remarked, " This York- 

 shire seems a fine county, beautiful country- 

 seats ! " and repeated the remark on our coming 

 in view of Lumley Castle, near Chester-le- Street, 

 although on both occasions I informed him (to 

 his great surprise) that we were not near the 

 county of York, but were passing through that of 

 Durham. M. H. R. 



Plague of Mice. — 



"About Hallontide last past [1581], in the marishes 

 of Danesey Hundred, in a place called! Southminster, in 

 the countie of Essex, a strange thing hapened: there 

 sodainlie appeared an infinite multitude of mice, which 

 overwhelming the whole earth in the said marishes, did 

 sheare and gnaw the grasse by the rootes, spoyling and 

 tainting the same with their venimous teeth, in such sort, 

 that the cattell which grazed thereon were smitten with 

 a murreine, and died thereof; which vermine by policie of 

 man could not be destroyed, till at the last it came to 

 passe that there flocked together all about the same 

 marishes such a number of owles, as all the shire was 

 able to yeeld : whereby the marsh-holders were shortly 

 delivered from the vexation of the said mice. The like 

 of this was also in Kent." — Stow's Chronicle. 



Abuba. 



