2'^ S. NO 41., Oct. U. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



289 



author of The Irish Recluse, or a Breakfast at the 

 Rotunda, a novel In three volumes, London, 1809 ; 

 The Vale of Louisiana, published in or about 

 1 808 ; The Poor Gentlewoman, a comedy, acted at 

 Dublin in 1811 ; The Cavern, or the Outlaw, an 

 opera, acted at Dublin in 1825, the music by Sir 

 John Stevenson? Miss Isdell is said to have 

 been a near relative of Oliver Goldsmith. R. J. 



Showers of Wheat. — I have lately met with two 

 notices of showers of wheat. What is the real 

 nature of this phenomenon ? 



The first notice occurs in Oldys' Catalogue of 

 Pamphlets in the Harleian Library. (^Harl. Mis- 

 cell, vol. X. p. 359., 4to., 1813) : 



" A wonderful and straunge neAves which happened in 

 the countye of Suffolke and Essex, the first of February 

 being Friday, when it rained wheat the space of vi or vii 

 miles conipas; a notable example to put us in remera- 

 braunce of the judgments of God, and a preparative sent 

 to move us to a speedy repentance. Written by Steplien 

 Averell, student in divinitie. Imprinted at London for 

 Edward White, 1683." [Octavo, in 14 leaves black 

 letter.] 



The author says, not that he saw this wonder- 

 ful shower himself, but reports it from many 

 witnesses (four of whose names are inscribed at 

 the end), that about Ipswich, Stocknayland, and 

 Hadley in Suffolk especially, such grain did fall 

 in a drizzling snow at the time, and to the compass 

 aforesaid : but that it was of a softer substance, 

 greener colour without, whiter within, and of a 

 mealier taste than common wheat. 



The second notice is in Thoresby's Z)zar^ (vol. i. 

 86.): 



" 1681. June 11. Walked with Dutch cousin to Wood- 

 house hill ; where, in cousin Fenton's chamber, I gathered 

 some of the corn that was rained down the chimney the 

 Lord's day seven-night, when it likewise rained plenti- 

 fully of the like upon Hedingley moor, as was confidently 

 reported : but those I gathered from the white hearth, 

 which was stained with drops of blue where it had fallen, 

 for it is of a pale red or a kind of sky colour, is pretty, and 

 tastes like common wheat, of which 1 have 100 corns." 



F, B. 



" The WifeV — Can you inform me who Avrote 

 The Wife, or Women as they are, a Domestic 

 Dj-ama, Longman, London, 1835. The play is 

 illustrated with sketches by G. Cruikshank. I 

 understand it is the production of a lady. R. J. 



JEthergingis. — In the Liber Winton occurs 

 this sentence : 



" Hoc g' sacraiii turn facta fuit. de quatt' xx" vi. Bur- 

 gensib5 meliorib3 Wint' psente Will'o ep'o, herb'to ca- 

 merario. Rad' basset, Gaisfrido ridel, Will'o de Ponte- 

 archar. hoc ante Burgenses pacto sacraihto : aporta orien- 

 tali cepunt inquirere ethergingis." 



What is the meaning of this last word ? 



G. W. J. 



"»S'tr Guy the Seeker.'' — Where is this poem to 



be found ? K. G. jun. 



Jack West. — It is common to hear in Hamp- 

 shire a stye on the eyelid called a Jack West. 

 Whence can this be derived or corrupted ? 



G. W. J. 



" Chara valeto. Chara vale, sed non cetemum." — 

 Whence this line ? C. Y. C. 



Gloucester. 



Peter Newhy. — Can any of your readers furnish 

 me with any information regarding Peter Newby, 

 author of Poems, two volumes 8vo., printed for 

 the author by H. Hodgson and W. Nevett & Son, 

 Liverpool, 1790? The author (of whom there is 

 a portrait in the first volume by T. Barrow) dates 

 his preface, Haighton, Aug. 1790. Among the 

 poems in the first volume, there is "A Poetical 

 Epistle to his much respected uncle, Mr. John 

 Carter." The second volume contains the follow- 

 ing dramas : " Seduction," a tragedy ; " The 

 Shepherd of Cornwall," a dramatic poem ; " The 

 Force of Friendship," a dramatic tale. R. J. 



Thorolds. — Is there any authority for the de- 

 rivation of the Thorolds of Syston from Thorold, 

 Sheriff of Lincolnshire, or his sister the Lady 

 Godiva, as intimated by Burke ? I am inclined to 

 disbelieve the story. J. P. P. 



IretorHs Burial Place. — Is there any reasonable 

 doubt that the coffin taken to Westminster Ab- 

 bey, and said to contain the body of Ireton, really 

 did contain it? I remember, when a boy, to have 

 gone with a party to see a small stone in the church 

 of Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, said to be the 

 burial-place of some distinguished general, I think 

 Ireton. Is there anything certainly known on 

 this subject ? G. L. 



[We have the following testimony of Evelyn, Pepya, 

 and Eugge to the burial of Ireton jn Westminster Abbey, 

 as well as to the subsequent exhumation of his corpse : 

 — Evelyn says, "March 6, 1653, Saw the magnificent 

 funeral of that arch-rebel, Ireton, carried in pomp 

 from Somerset House to Westminster, accompanied with 

 divers regiments of soldiers." Again, "Jan. 30, 1661. 

 This day were the carcases of those arch-rebels, Crom- 

 well, Bradshaw, and Ireton, dragged out of their superb 

 tombs in Westminster among the kings to Tyburn, and 

 hanged on the gallows there from nine in the morning 

 till six at night, and then buried under that fatal and 

 ignominious monument in a deep pit, thousands of people 

 who had seen them in all their pride being spectators." 

 Pepys has the following entry under Jan. 30, 1661 ; 

 " To my Lady Batten's, where my wife and she are lately 

 come back again from being abroad, and seeing of Crom- 

 well, Ireton, and Bradshaw hanged and buried at Ty- 

 burn." Rugge's account is more circumstantial. He 

 says, " Jan. 30. This morning the carcases of Cromwell, 

 Ireton, and Bradshaw (which the day before had been 

 brought from the Red Lion Inn in Holborn), were drawn 

 upon a sledge to Tyburn, and then taken out of their 



