2°d S. No 34., Aug, 23. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



Catholic, and would probably discompose Her Highness 

 if she had an opportunity." 



So far the probability of her foster parents being 

 Irish is confirmed. Further on in the Diary, we 

 find the following, under date of Nov. 1 1 : 



« I read prayers to Her Highness Lady Anne; she, was 

 somewhat giddy, and ver^' much disordered. She re- 

 quested me not to leave her, and recommended to me the 

 care of her foster-sister's instruction in the Protestant re- 

 ligion. At iiight I christened her nurse's child Mary." 



" This," as Miss Strickland observes, " was the 

 daughter of the Roman Catholic nurse. How she 

 came to permit the Church of England chaplain 

 to christen her baby is not explained." 



So far for Lake's Diary, which must be yet in 

 existence, if not in print.* Miss Strickland ac- 

 knowledges her obligations to Messrs. Elliot and 

 Merrivale for facilitating her access to Its con- 

 tents. Probably farther examination might give 

 the name of the nurse in question. 



But there is a farther notice In the same life, 

 which rather perplexes the question. At the 

 Revolution, when, on Nov. 26, 1688, the Princess 

 Anne fled from Whitehall at night, to join the 

 Prince of Orange, among the proofs of the real or 

 pretended consternation of her household when 

 she was missed next morning. It is mentioned 

 that " old Mrs. Buss, the nurse of the princess, 

 immediately cried out that the princess had been 

 murdered by the queen's priests," and rushed into 

 the queen's presence, rudely demanding her of 

 her majesty. Miss Strickland, recollecting Dr. 

 Lake's notes about her nurse's zealous papistry, 

 seems sensible how oddly this would sound in her 

 mouth, and suggests that she had " perhaps been 

 converted." The name Buss, too, suggests a diffi- 

 culty ; but it is so written in King James's 

 Memoirs, although another MS. has it written 

 Butt. Either is far enough In spelling or sound 

 from " Barry ;" and yet In the l9ose and inaccu- 

 rate spelling of the time, or In the giving familiar 

 or pet names, which Queen Anne was we know 

 in the habit of using for favourites (vid. Mrs. 

 Morley and Freeman), there is no Impossibility in 

 Mrs. Buss having been Mrs. Barry. And know- 

 ing as I do thoroughly the genealogical record to 

 which C. M. B. refers, I can vouch for its general 

 accuracy In anything it asserts. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



'■^Nolo episcopari" (V^ S. iv. 346.) — A corre- 

 spondent inquires why this phrase Is applied to a 

 feigned reluctance In accepting an offer ; and you, 

 in an editorial answer, quote Christian's note on 

 Blackstone's Commentaries, stating that It is a 



[* The Diary of Dr. Edward Lake, edited by George 

 Percy Elliott, Esq., is published in the Camden Miscellany, 

 vol. i. 1847.1 



vulgar error that every bishop, before he accepts 

 his bishoprick, uses the expression ; that the 

 writer has not been able to discover its origin ; 

 and that certainly bishops give no such refusal at 

 present, nor, he thinks, ever did in this country. 

 In the trial of Colonel Flennes for surrender- 

 ing the city of Bristol, Prynne, the prosecutor, 

 speaking of a man's modest excuse of his own in- 

 sufficiency for a place which he perchance desires, 

 assimilates it to — 



" our bishops' usual answer, nolo, nolo, to vis episcopari ? 

 NOW used as a formality, for fashion sake only, even 

 when they come to be consecrated ; when in truth they 

 make all the friends and means they can to compass that 

 bishoprick, which (for fashion sake, out of a dissembling 

 modesty), they pretend, and twice together answer 

 solemnly (when demanded openly before the congregation') 

 that they desire by no means to accept of." — State Trials, 

 iv. 212. 



Surely Prynne, who is an earlier, perhaps a 

 better, authority than Professor Christian, would 

 not have made this allusion unless it were founded 

 in fact. The question therefore is, whether this 

 form of denial. If not adopted now, was or was 

 not In use In the Reformed Church before the 

 Great Rebellion, in the consecration of bishops ? 



The reply In your same volume, p. 456., does 

 not touch this question. Edward Foss. 



The Irish Round Towers (2°" S. 11. 79.) — Al- 

 though your correspondent C. states he has not 

 the slightest doubt that the round towers of Ire- 

 land were belfries, (an opinion In which he could 

 not know that I might not coincide,) I should not 

 have noticed his remarks had they been accom- 

 panied with the usual courtesy which generally 

 pervades the language of your correspondents, in- 

 stead of the following curt rebuke, " that it would 

 be a sad waste of your space to reproduce the 

 absurd theories with which this question has been 

 perplexed." When the origin and use of these 

 very ancient structures have engaged the attention 

 of such eminent antiquaries as Tanner, Vallancey, 

 Petrie, and others, this ipse dixit of an anonymous 

 writer partakes rather too strongly of the authori- 

 tative dictum of an imperial dictator. It was not 

 the office of your correspondent to decide whether 

 the opinions of the above writers might or might 

 not be acceptable to your readers. You were the 

 proper judge. J.-M. G. 



Worcester. 



Varnishing Old Books (2°'^ S. ii. 69.) — Re- 

 garding the varnishing of old volumes, I think 

 that little can be eifected by such compositions to 

 preserve leathers : in some cases varnish applied 

 to new bindings may tend somewhat to repel the 

 action of the atmosphere and deleterious gases, 

 but Is also likely to harden the leather at the 

 joints, the parts where the greatest actioa takes 

 place in opening a book. 



