2nd s. No 49., Dec. 6. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



449 



work-people, together with the engine belonging to the 

 works, was shortly at the place, and rendered every as- 

 sistance. Other engines also arrived, but the fire had 

 got such mastery, and the whole of the interior of the 

 chapel being timber, the roof fell in, and it occupied an- 

 other hour in effectually quelling it. The result has 

 been the destruction of the chapel and vestry, which was 

 one of great antiquity, and held a prominent place in the 

 history of the troublous times of 1555 ; George Marsh, 

 one of the mart3'TS of those days, having, according to 

 tradition, stamped his foot upon the place where he stood, 

 near the door of the entrance, 'in confirmation of the 

 truth of his opinions ; a miraculous impression was made 

 upon the stone, as a perpetual memorial of the injustice 

 of his enemies,' leaving a natural cavity in a flag some- 

 what resembling the print of a man's foot, which neither 

 time nor labour can efi^ace. However incredible this tra- 

 dition may appear, it is referred to in Baines's History of 

 Lancashire, and it is in the memory of ' the oldest in- 

 habitant' that this footprint has been a great source of 

 attraction to the visitors to this ancient chapel. The loss, 

 of course, will be irreparable, there being a considerable 

 quantity of oak carving destroyed, and no doubt the pro- 

 prietor will feel deeply the destruction of so venerable a 

 pile. How the fire originated is not known." 



F. 



Toothless Woman. — The following is an extract 

 from the register of burials at Gayton-le-Marsh, 

 Lincolnshire, duly certified by F. Burton, curate : 



" Elizabeth Cook, a poor woman, aged 86, and who 

 never had a tooth, was buried Jan. 11, 1798." 



P. R. 



Epitaph on Earl of Stirling. — In reading the 

 last number of the Edinburgh Christian Maga- 

 zine, I met with the following epitaph, which may 

 not be unworthy of being inserted in " N. & Q." 



It is on Sir William Alexander, first Earl of 

 Stirling, and was occasioned by the facts of his 

 having translated the Psalms, and obtained a 

 monopoly of the printing and sale of them, and 

 of his having had the privilege conferred upon 

 him of coining copper money, as a solatium for 

 the opposition made by the Scotch to the intro- 

 duction of his New Version. 



" Here layes a fermer and a miliar," 

 A Poet and a psalme book spillar (spoiler), 

 A purchessour by hooke and crooke, 

 A forger of the Service-booke, 

 A coppersmith quho did much evil, 

 A friend to bischopes and ye devill ; 

 A vain, ambitious, flattering thing, 

 Late Secretary for a King. 

 Some tragedies in verse he pen'd. 

 At last he made a tragicke end." 



Alex. Thomson Grant. 

 Aberdeen. 



widow ; that she then married happily to a noble gentle- 

 man, the brother and heir of the Lord Danvers, Earl of 

 Danby, who did most highly value both her person and 

 the most excellent endowments of her mind." 



This noble gentleman was Sir John Danvers, 

 respecting whom Zouch and the rest of Walton's 

 editors are most mysteriously silent, perhaps 

 thinking with the honest angler the less said about 

 his many short-comings the better. Sir John 

 Danvers resided at Danvers House, Chel.«ea, and 

 was at one time a gentleman of the privy chamber 

 to Charles I. After the death of Lady Danvers 

 in 1627, he became deeply plunged in debt, and 

 to extricate himself from his difficulties identified 

 himself with the regicides. Time passes on, and 

 we find him sitting as a judge at the trial of 

 Charles I., and affixing his signature to the death- 

 warrant of his sovereign. Cf. Clarendon's Hist, 

 of the Rebellion, iv. 536., edit. 1849 ; Cobbett's 

 Pari. Hist., iii. 1596 ; and Faulkner's Chelsea^ 

 i. 172.; ii. 143., edit. 1829. Echard, however, 

 has the following curious passage : 



" One of the most inveterate of the King's judges. Sir 

 John Danvers, was a professed papist, and so continued 

 to the day of his death, as his own daughter has suffi- 

 ciently attested." — Hist, of England, p. 647. 



What authority has Echard for this statement ? 

 for it is remarkable to find " a professed papist " 

 sitting on the same judgment-seat with Oliver 

 Cromwell! Sir John Danvers died in 1659, the 

 year before the Restoration, and thereby escaped 

 an ignominious death ; but all his estates, both 

 real and personal, were confiscated in 1661. 



J. Yeowell. 



SIR JOHN DANVERS. 



In Izaak Walton's Life of George Herbert, 

 where speaking of the second marriage of Mrs. 

 Magdalen Herbert, George's mother, he says : 



" I am next to tell that she continued twelve years a 



Mintit <SiVitKiti. 



Bishop Latimer. — I have heard it stated that 

 Mr. Moresby Snaith's mother, late of Barnard- 

 Castle, in the county of Durham, whose maidea 

 name was Ann Latimer, was a descendant of 

 Bishop Latimer. The pedigree, from the Bishop 

 to Ann Latimer, or any other information re- 

 specting the family, would be very acceptable to 



Sigma. 



Moschiis. — Who is the author of The Poetical 

 Works of Moschus, in 2 vols. ; published by Simp- 

 kin, Marshall, & Co., in 1850 ? R. Inglis. 



Old Buildings — Has it ever been ascertained 

 which is the oldest building in the British Isles ? 

 I mean, not a ruin, but a building now inhabited 

 or occupied, either as mansion, church, public 

 hall, &c. Rufus's Hall at Westminster is an in- 

 stance of my meaning. Is there any building ia 

 use older than that ? Stylites. 



Sir William Petty. — Watt makes mention of a 

 publication entitled A Brief e of Proceedings be- 



