872 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 45., Nov. 8. '56. 



jSkinall, Dryboots, Three Attorneys, and Season, a 

 Bencher. London, 1737? Henry T. Rilet. 



Dr. J. C. Whitehead. — Could any of your 

 readers give me any information regarding Dr. J. 

 C. Whitehead, author (besides some poetical 

 works) of Considerations upon the present State of 

 Medical Practice in Great Britain, published about 

 thirty years ago ? R. J. 



Magpie, Corvus Pica. — Can you inform me 

 the origin of the following lines which, in refer- 

 ence to magpies, are frequently used by country 

 people in Berkshire and Oxfordshire : 



" One, Sorrow : Two, Mirth : 

 Three, a, Wedding : Four, a Birth." 



Quest. 



Tothill Pedigree. — Francis Drake, of Esher, 

 married Joan, eldest daughter and coheir of Wm. 

 Tothill of Shardelves, co. Bucks, c. 1600. The 

 pedigree, or any information about the Tothills, 

 will be very acceptable to A. 



Crab's '■'■ English, Irish, and Latin Dictionary." 



" In 1750," as stated by Anderson, in his veiy in- 

 teresting Sketches of the Native Irish, p. 98., " proposals 

 Avere issued in Dublin for pviblishing an English, Irish, 

 and Latin Dictionary, by a Mr. Crab of Ring's End, near 

 that city ; but the book was never printed. Finding its 

 way into the library of the late General Vallancey, it was 

 purchased, when his books were sold, at the price of forty 

 guineas, for a gentleman of Irish birth, the Rev. Dr. 

 Adam Clarke." 



Who was this Mr. Crab ? and where is his 

 MS. ? I am anxious to know something about 

 them. Abhba. 



Walter Carey. — Mr. Cunningham, in his Notes 

 to Johnson\<s Lives, states that Pope's Umbra — 

 the eaves-dropping hanger-on at Button's — was 

 a certain Walter Carey. All the editors of Pope 

 name Ambrose Philips, and from Philips's cha- 

 racter and Pope's enmity to him the satire seems 

 applicable. There was a John Carey of Oxford, 

 a contributor to The Toiler and Spectator, and 

 Harry Carey of immortal lyric and dramatic me- 

 mory. Walter Carey was a public man, Clerk of 

 the Privy Council, &c. He was a T.R.S. in 1727, 

 and lived thirty years afterwards, dying M.P. for 

 Clifton, Dartmouth. This man seems unconnected 

 with the Addison junto, though John Carey was 

 connected with it. M. (3.) 



Literary Remains of Edmund Burke : the Duke 

 of Grafton s Vindication of his own Administra- 

 tion. — The two following literary announcements 

 appeared some five-and-thirty years ago. I send 

 the original cuttings. 



Query, Were the works so announced ever 

 published ? I do not remember having naet them, 



and they are not, so far as I can see, mentioned 

 in the London Catalogue of Books. 



It would be as monstrous for Lord Stanhope 

 and Mr. Cardwell to have suppressed the late 

 Sir Robert Peel's vindication of his policy on the 

 Catholic Question, as for the representative of 

 Augustus Duke of Grafton, Secretary of State 

 and First Lord of the Treasury, to omit publishing, 

 as desired by his testament, the ministerial justi- 

 fication referred to. George Henry Duke of 

 Grafton died in 1844 ; the noble statesman, his 

 father, in 1811. 



^ " His grace the Duke of Grafton, we understand, is 

 enjoined by the will of the late Duke, his father, to pub- 

 lish the Memoir which he had prepared in justification of 

 his own ministry, after the death of the King. This 

 interesting document will be looked for with extreme 

 anxiety." — London Morning Paper. 



"Mr. Burke. — A London paper" states that the long- 

 expected work of Mr. Burke's remains will really come 

 forward in the spring. It will contain the History of 

 England to the reign of John, of which we have read a 

 valuable fragment ; and it is new to the public to learn 

 that, as in the case of the Nabob of Arcot's debts, Jlr. 

 Burke has himself reported, and, as usual, admirably, his 

 own opening speech against Mr. Hastings, which will bo 

 included in the same volume." 



William John Fitzpatrick. 

 Kilmacud House, Stillorgan, Dublin. 



Maws of Kites, — From the allusion in Macbeth 

 one would infer that kites, like owls, reject from 

 the maw what they do not digest. Is this the 

 fact ? C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Sir William Estcourt. — He was the son of Sir 

 Giles Estcourt, who was created a baronet 

 March 17, 1626-27. Sir William was the last 

 baronet, and was killed in the Devil's Tavern, 

 London, by Henry St. John, towards the end of 

 the seventeenth century. What was the cause of 

 the quarrel, and was the murderer punished ? 



Alfred T. Lee. 



[This quarrel occurred Dec. 20, 1684, and is noticed by 

 Evelyn in his Diary. Bishop Burnet tells the story thus : 

 That in 1684 a young gentleman of a noble family [Sir 

 Henry St. John, the father of Queen Anne's secretary], 

 being at supper with a large party, a sudden quarrel 

 arose between him and another gentleman [Sir William 

 Estcourt], warm words passed, swords were drawn, three 

 persons were engaged, one of whom was killed on the 

 spot; the other two were indicted for the murder. It 

 was uncertain by whom the fatal wound was given ; nor 

 did the proof against either amount to more than man- 

 slaughter. Yet Sir Henry St. John was advised to con- 

 fess the indictment, and let sentence pass for murder. He 

 was threatened with the utmost rigour of the law if he 

 neglected to follow this advice ; if he complied, he was 

 promised a pardon. He complied, and was convicted; 

 but found that his pardon was to be purchased by paj-- 

 ment of 1600?. ; one-half of this the king converted to his 



