176 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>d S. N-* 35., Aug. 30. '56. 



their recovery, such informant will be entitled 

 to thanks ; and, if so desired, suhstantial marks of 

 gratitude from the present representative of the 

 Ormonde family, by whose desire these lines are 

 inserted. James Graves, Clk. 



Kilkenny. 



GAPS IN ENGLISH HISTOKY. 



Fernando Colombo and Henry VII. — It has 

 not been generally adverted to, that amongst the 

 several offers which the great world-discoverer 

 made to the Republic of Genoa, to Spain, &c., the 

 dispatching of his own brother to London on a 

 similar errand is of much interest. Fernando 

 stayed a long time here, (I think si^ months or 

 more), during which many communications must 

 have been made by him to the Court, Admiralty, 

 &c., as the claims and demands of Christopher 

 were not trifling, some of them puny. He con- 

 stantly insisted on the admiralship {el Admiralaseo) 

 of the discovered lands to be granted to his family 

 for ever ; although he might have known, even 

 from the history of the kings of Rome, that there 

 is no lease in perpetuity of the kind. However 

 this may have been, the reasons adduced by the 

 Colombos for the existence of the great western 

 land must have been cogent. The Court stretched 

 out the hand to conclude the bargain, but — il etoit 

 trop tard ! In the meantime the mystical affair 

 of Rabida had come to pass ; the New World be- 

 longed for awhile to Old Spain, &c. There is a 

 bit of immortality for any one who will search the 

 State Paper Office or Trinity House archives for 

 these surely yet existing documents. The private 

 archives of the then high admiral would be also 

 a very likely place to find them. 



The Parliament and Education (2"'' S. i. 470.) — 

 When in 1637 the tract on John Amos Comenius, 

 Conatuum Comenianorum Prceludia, appeared in 

 Oxford, this was really only a prceludium of what 

 happened afterwards. Q'he following (scanty) 

 passage, extracted from the great Cyclopedia of 

 Ersch and Gruher, may induce English searchers 

 to go further into the matter, and to clear up a 

 most important incident of English and European 

 Culture-History : 



" Subsequently the English Parliament called upon 

 him [Comenius] to undertake the arrangement (Ein- 

 richtung) of their schools {Schulwesen) 1 1 Comenius 

 obej-ed the call. He arrived in 1641 in London, over- 

 whelmed with demonstrations of respect. But internal 

 commotions, which placed mighty impediments in his 

 way, induced him to leave England." 



But the publication of tracts and books lasted 

 uninterruptedly up to 1659, and even in 1777 a 

 book of Comenius has been printed here. Never 

 before nor since had any foreigner connected 

 his name with the history of England as Co- 



menius (alias Komensky)'has done. We are but 

 pigmies compared with such a man. 



J, LoTSKY, Panslave. 

 15. Gower Street. 



DR. TIMOTHY THURSCROSSE. 



In the will and its codicils of Barnabas Oley, 

 the worthy Vicar of Great Gransden in Hunting- 

 donshire, we have the following notices of the Dr. 

 Timothy Thurscrosse, respecting whom some few 

 particulars were elicited in " N. & Q.," 1*' S. ii. 

 441. 484.; iii. 44..: 



" Item. I give all those books that I took out of Dr. 

 Timothy Thurscrosse his library to his kinsman, Mr. 

 Marmaduke Flathers, Vicar of North Grimston, for his 

 use during his life, provided he give security to the town 

 to leave them safe for the use of his successors, Vicars of 

 North Grimston in Yorkshire, and that every Vicar do so 

 successively, or else forfeit the books to the Vicar of the 

 poorest parish within Ave miles of North Grimston, to be 

 taken by that poor Vicar, and recovered by course of law 

 upon the same conditipns that I gave them to the Vicar 

 of North Grimston." 



In the second codicil these books are thus 

 noticed : 



" Bj' Dr. Thurscrosse his books mentioned in my Will, 

 I mean and declare the same shall be known to be such 

 books as after my death shall be found in my study 

 marked or inscribed to have been his the said Doctor's, 

 and none other. And I will and desire the said books 

 shall be so settled and secured by articles to be made be- 

 tween my executors and the Vicar and Churchwardens of 

 North Grimston in Yorkshire, that the same may be 

 placed in some convenient room or library for the use of 

 the Vicars therein and their successors for ever, without 

 power to remove or embezzle the same, in such manner 

 as my executors shall in discretion think fit before the 

 said books be parted with out of their possession." 



Again, in the third codicil we read : 



" I do humbly entreat both my honored friend William 

 Thursby and any other the one or two that he shall chuse 

 to assist him, to have a care of the books : those in my 

 study upon the right hand here behind the door are the 

 books which I took as a legacy given myself out of his 

 library (I might have taken as many as I would) by his 

 Will to dispose of where I would — his Will, I mean the 

 Will of Dr. Timothy Thurscrosse of blessed memory. 

 These I have given to Mr. Thomas Langlej', a worthy 

 friend and an honest attorney of Furnival's Inn in London 

 to be preserved for the use of the present Vicar of North 

 Grimston, and his successors for ever." 



Mr. Thursby, the executor, has added the fol- 

 lowing note to the extract from the second codicil, 

 " This I have performed." Query, Are these 

 books at present in the custody of the Vicar of 

 North Grimston ? J. Yeowell. 



Minor <k\itvitS. 



Cambridge Clods. — Can any of your readers 

 inform me where it h likely I can get a sight of 



