404 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



l_2nd s. No 47., Nov. 22. '56. 



guinea per sheet, according to a specimen of The Essay 

 on Gibing." 



" Nov. 10, 1740. Thomas Stretser received of Mr. Curll 

 full satisfaction for the sole right and title to the copy of 

 a book entitled A JVew Description of Merryland. No 

 sum as the consideration mentioned. In like manner, on 

 Oct. 17, 1741, was transferred the copy of a book entitled 

 JHerryland Displayed," §-c. 



[No date.] " John jMarkland received of Mr. Curll 

 two guineas for The Fryar's Tale, The Retaliation, and 

 Other Poems, amounting to four sheets in print." 



S. N. M. 



OUR POPULAR BOOKS OF REFERENCE : THE COUR- 

 TENAYS, 



Permit me to draw your attention, and that 

 of your correspondents, to an evil that might, 

 by the exercise of more vigilance, be corrected. 

 I allude to the inaccuracies which I may say 

 abound in books of reference, and which are 

 clearly chargeable to editorial laxity. A few 

 nights since I amused myself with looking into 

 Sir Harris Nicolas's Synopsis of the Pee?'age, and 

 comparing it with other authorities. He says 

 (p. 194.), speaking of William Courtenay, who 

 married Katherine, daughter of Edward IV., that 

 he — 



" is by most writers called Earl of Devon, but as he was 

 attainted in 1504, vita patris, and the attainder not having 

 been reversed, he could not of course inherit the dignitj' ; 

 he died 1511, and, at Henry VIII.'s command, was buried 

 with the honours of an earl." 



Lodge, in his Genealogy of the Peerage (1834), 

 says of the same individual, that — 



"he was attainted in 1502 on suspicion of holding a trea- 

 sonable correspondence with Edmund de la Pole 



As, in consequence of the attainder, he could not legally 

 inherit his father's earldom, he was created Earl of 

 Devon, May 10, 1511, by a new patent." 



So, according to this, the latest authority, he ivas 

 Earl of Devon. 



It will be noticed that two dates are given for 

 the attainder. To settle the point I turn to 

 Salmon's Chronological Historian, and there I 

 find, — 



" 1506. Another conspiracy by the Earl of Suffolk, the 

 Earl of Devons/«Ve, and others, is discovered and de- 

 feated." 



This latter authority also says that — 



" 1469. Thomas Courtney was created Earl of Devon." 



Nicolas, ubi sup., is doubtless more correct in 

 saying that in 1461 Thomas, sixth earl, was at- 

 tainted and beheaded, and his honours forfeited. 



II. The Vh-gin Seducer. A. true History, 



III. The Batchelor Keeper, or 3Iodern Rake. 



By Philaretas. 



London: Printed in the Year M.DCCXXVII. Price 

 2s. M. 



The Dedication "To Dr. Towne" is signed "E. Curll," 

 and dated "New Year's Day, 1726-7." 



Neither Nicolas nor Lodge mention any issue 

 of any patent in 1469 ; but the latter says that in 

 1470 John Courtney (he was brother to the sixth 

 earl) was restored to the earldom during the 

 brief restoration of Henry VI. 



In the same page above quoted Lodge calls an- 

 other individual " Sir Edward " and " Sir Wil- 

 liam." 



Your own pages have been the media for cor- 

 recting several such errors in Burke's Worhs. 

 Surely we have a right to expect to be able to 

 rely on the authorised publications of a " Norroy 

 King of Arms" and an " Ulster King of Arms." 



In the present instance can you or your corre- 

 spondents inform me of the truth of tiie matters 

 which the above extracts leave in doubt ? 



Tee Bee. 



FOLK LORE. 



The Biddenden Maids. — 



" Felices ter et ampHus 

 Quas irrupta tenet copula." 



The following broadside, printed in tlie last 

 century, relates to two ladies whose duality was 

 even more remarkable than that of the Siamese 

 twins of our own days, inasmuch as they appear to 

 have been connected both at the shoulders and at 

 the hips, while the Siamese were, or are, joined by 

 a single ligature at the abdomen. 



The broadside is beaded by a woodcut of this 

 specimen of the " monstrous regiment of women." 

 They are dressed in the costume- of the time of 

 Mary I., with the head-dress of that period, open 

 bodices, with vandycked ruffs, and sleeves slashed 

 at the shoulders. They are only provided with 

 one pair of arms, the other right and left shoulders 

 respectively forming the junction. When the 

 Siamese twins were in London, the surgeons were 

 very desirous of disconnecting them, but the 

 brothers were not to be persuaded of the advan- 

 tages of the operation, and preferred remaining as 

 nature formed them, although, I believe, they did 

 not imitate these sisters in their celibacy. I re- 

 member that their conformation did not prevent 

 their playing, though awkwardly enough, at bat- 

 tledore and shuttlecock, which these ladies could 

 hardly have done. 



The annual dole on Easter Day of bread and 

 cheese, and of cakes stamped with the impression 

 represented by the woodcut, is still kept up, and 

 draws together a large concourse of people. 



"A 

 Short, but concise account of Elizabeth and Mary Chulk- 

 hurst, who were born joined together by the Hips and 

 Shoulders, in the Year of our Lord 1100, at Biddenden, in 

 the County of Kent ; 



Commonly called the 



Biddenden Maid's. 



The Reader will observe by the above Plate of them, that 



