222 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nds. NO 38., Sept. 20. '56. 



" He dyd my brethren to the deathe on a daye 



In their bed where they did lye. 



He drowned them both in a pype ofwyne" * 

 I can see no way of reconciling this startling 

 inconsistency except in the manner in which I 

 have attempted to account for the story of Cla- 

 rence. And it is remarkable that the fate of 

 Clarence and the fate of the princes were alike 

 shrouded in mystery. The body of Clarence was 

 never shown to the public, and nobody knew what 

 ultimately became of it ; the bodies of the princes 

 were not discovered for many generations. But 

 the world is never content to remain ignorant of 

 the fate of those who have once been prominently 

 before it ; and in the absence, probably, of any 

 certain information about the disposal of the 

 bodies, rumour had recourse to the ingenious 

 contrivance of a wine cask. 



Thus, I venture to think, we may possibly 

 divest these two rumours of the improbability 

 connected with the mode of death. But we have 

 still to consider the "drowning" or immersing of 

 the bodies. That this should have been done in 

 wine, either in the case of Clarence or the princes, 

 appears unlikely. Immersion in wine would, no 

 doubt, have preserved the bodies, but the object, 

 both with Edward IV. and with Richard III., 

 would have been rather to annihilate them, or 

 secrete them beyond the possibility of after-dis- 

 covery. With regard to the bodies of Edward V. 

 and his brother, Rastell gives a story which most 

 probably obtained currency before the confession 

 of the murderers, that they were carried out to 

 sea, and there sunk. May it not have been sup- 

 posed that they were committed to the deep in a 

 wine cask ? The idea was not unnatural. ^ A 

 wine cask taken out to sea as part of a ship's 

 cargo would create no suspicion. A wine cask 

 might be tossed overboard and nobody be one 

 whk the wiser. To this fate popular rumour may 

 have consigned the bodies both of Clarence and 

 the princes ; and it seems just possible that Fa- 

 byan may have meant no more when he said that 

 the former was " drowned in a barrel of Malm- 

 sey." 



I know not. Indeed, if it can be at all made out 

 that in mediaeval English " a pipe of wine," or " a 

 barrel of Malmsey," ever meant the vessel without 

 the liquor ; but I may remark that modern gram- 

 matical usage differs more from ancient usage in 

 the matter of prepositions than in any other part 

 of speech. Of this Home Tooke gives an instance 

 from the old play of the Sad Shepherd : 



" Marian. Come, Amie, you'll go with us. 



Amie. I am not well. 



Lionel. She's sick of the vong shep'ard that bekist 

 her." 



In this case " of" is used where we should say 

 •' for," the difference being easily accounted for. 



as explained by the author of the Diversions of 

 Purley, by extending the expression thus, " She 

 is sick yor love of* the young shepherd." Ancient 

 usage abbreviated the expression by omitting "for 

 love;" modern usage would rather omit "love of." 

 Now may we not deal with the words " a barrel 

 of wine" in a manner somewhat similar ? In our 

 day they mean " a barrel full of wine ;" but who 

 knows that Fabyan may not have meant "a barrel 

 for the holding of wine" ? 



But if this philological explanation will not 

 serve, it may at least be conceded that the wine 

 cask could easily have been converted into a cask 

 of wine by the natural love of the marvellous, and 

 that though both Fabyan and Comines got the 

 story on what seemed very reliable authority, the 

 tale might have been slightly modified before it 

 came to them. But the "drowning" of the corpse 

 is what I principally seek to establish, not that it 

 was immersed in water instead of wine. 



J^MEs Gairdner. 



♦ Harl. MSS. 367. f. 89. 



Before seeing Mb. Blencowe's notices on the 

 East Bergholt parish books (2"'' S. ii. 121.), I had 

 intended to draw attention to the lists of the 

 sums formerly collected under royal authority by 

 means of "briefs," which are prefixed to many 

 ancient parish registers, as they contain various 

 scraps of information regarding the repairs and 

 rebuilding of churches, accidents, &c., the dates 

 of which are likely to prove useful to the topo- 

 grapher and historian. A vast storehouse of facts 

 of this kind already exists in the pages of "N. & 

 Q." I shall therefore add an abstract of the list 

 in my own parish register as a supplement to Mb. 

 B.'s communication, which example may be fol- 

 lowed by other contributors. 



Collected in Onnsby St. Margaret. 

 Jan. 2""!, 1675. Collected by vertue of a letter £ s. d. 

 patent or briefe for y" building the Parish 

 Church of Newent'in Gloucestershire the 

 sume of nineteen pence - - - 00 01 07 



Jan. 16, 1675. Collected for y^ Parish Church 

 of Oswestree in y^ County of Salop, demo- 

 lished in y late Civil War, the sume of 

 three shillings and nine pence - - 00 03 09 



September 24"s 1676. Collected for y« Tow^e 

 and Porte of Topsham in Devon the sume 

 of one shilling nine pence hafpefiy - 00 01 09^ 



Feb. 4, 1676. For a burning at Eato, near 



Windsor, in y= County of Bucks - - 00 0108 



July 19th, 1677. For Blithburgh in Suff., briefe 



for a fire happening about June 22, 76 - 00 03 06 

 July 22. 77. Cottenham in Cambs. - - 00 05 00 



Aug't 5, 77. Towcester in Northampton, fire - 00 01 07^ 

 March 17, 77. Burning in Rickmersworth - 00 01 Oiig' 

 March 31, 78. Do. Harlington in Middlesex - 00 01 08 

 Septem. 8, 78. Do. Wem in Salop - - 00 01 06 



* Or, "o/ love /or." 



