July 7. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



" Memorandum quod, etc., recognovit se teneri Johanni 

 de Lidegate clerico in quinque crarinocis avene quorum 

 quilibet crannocus continebit xvj pecks sicci boni et 

 muiidi bladi." 



This measure, therefore, in Edward II.'s days, 

 contained either eight or sixteen pecks. 



James F. Ferguson. 



Dublin. . 



A Relic of Wolfe. — There is, I think, a work 

 of the day entitled il Ship from her Cradle to her 

 Grave. Could the undernoted good old craft 

 have bequeathed to us her reminiscences, how 

 interesting and eventful ! 



« The End of an. Old Collier. 



« The ' Conference,' of North Shields, captured and 

 burnt by the Riff pirates, was one of the oldest collier 

 brigs belonging to the Tyne. She was employed as a 

 transport at the siege of Quebec, and has been ploughing 

 the main ever since." — Times, June 15, 1855. 



J.O. 



Alliterative Couplet on Cardinal Wolsey. — The 

 couplet in the following extract is new to me, and 

 may also be the same to the readers of "N. & 

 Q.:" 



" Wolsey, they tell us, was a butcher. An alliterative 

 couplet, too, was made upon him to that import : 



* By butchers born, by bishops bred. 

 How high his honour holds his haughty head.' 



Notwithstanding which, however, and other similar al- 

 lusions, there have arisen many disputes touching the 

 veracity of the assertion ; yet doubtless, those who first 

 promulgated the idea were keen observers of men and 

 manners ; and probably', in the critical examination of 

 the Cardinal's character, discovered a particular trait 

 •which indubitably satisfied them of his origin." — Ab- 

 surdities, by A. Crowquill, p. 89., 1827. 



What a pity that the Duke of Buckingham did 

 not avail himself of " apt alliteration's artful aid" 

 in his invectives against the " butcher's cur ! " 



CUTHBEKT BeDE, B.A. 



Shahspeare's " Seven Ages." — In a former 

 Number of " N. & Q.," (Vol. viii., p. 383.) some 

 Latin verses were quoted, as resembling these ce- 

 lebrated lines in As You Like It. I do not know 

 whether it lias been observed, that there is a 

 parallel passasje in one ot the spurious dialogues of 

 Plato (the Axiochus), in which Socrates suras up 

 the successive miseries of human life, much in the 

 spirit of Jaques, though more grave and less sa- 

 tirical. See the English translation of Plato in 

 Bohn's Classical Library, vol. vi. p. 44. F. 



Enigma on a Hole. — Pontanus having made 

 the following enigma on a hole, — 



"Die mihi quod majus fiat quo plurima demas." 

 Scriverius answered, — 



"Pontano demas carniina, major erit." 



K L. T 

 No. 297.] 



€iutvitS, 



WAS THE DUKE OF YORK IN EDINBURGH IN 1684? 



The above question has lately turned up among 

 the historical antiquaries of Edinburgh, and given 

 rise to a good deal of discussion. As a question 

 of the greatest importance regarding the force and 

 value of evidence depends upon it, I venture to 

 submit a few particulars to the public through 

 your esteemed medium. 



The Duke of York, as is well known, spent 

 some years previous to May, 1682, in Edinburgh , 

 in consequence of his desperate unpopularity in 

 the south, and from a desire to cultivate an in- 

 terest in Scotland. He has not hitherto been 

 supposed to have visited Edinburgh after that 

 period ; not a single writer, even among such 

 minute cotemporary chroniclers as Lord Poun- 

 tainhall, speaks of his having done so. Yet , 

 strange to say, in the written record of the Privy 

 Council of Scotland, preserved in our General 

 Register House here, the duke is described, under 

 his usual style of " His E,oyal Highness his Ma- 

 jesty's High Commissioner," as presiding at four 

 meetings in the latter half of July, 1684, namely, 

 those of the 15th, 17th, 22nd, and 24th. I appre- 

 hend that, in the practice of our law courts, in- 

 cluding the House of Lords, this evidence as to 

 the whereabouts of a man at a particular date 

 would be held as paramount and irrefragable. 

 Nevertheless, there can scarcely be a doubt that 

 the duke was not in Edinburgh at that time. 



In the first place, there is the remarkable cir- 

 cumstance that we have no other notice of the fact 

 whatever. Fountainhall notes from day to day 

 every movement of the state, every meeting of 

 the Privy Council, and a vast number of small 

 local matters, .and yet takes no notice of a visit 

 of the duke. On the contrary, describing the 

 reception given on the 10th of July to the Ear 

 of Perth, newly arrived as Chancellor, vice Aber- 

 deen displaced, he says, the demonstrations could 

 not have been more honourable, though the king 

 or the duke had been of the party. If the duke 

 really had appeared, in however incognito a man- 

 ner, at the council board, fully twenty people 

 were there to recognise him; and that such a 

 secret should have been preserved in such a town 

 as Edinburgh is inconceivable. 



In the second place, the first day's minutes pre- 

 sent us with a letter addressed by the council to 

 the duke himself, thanking him for his share in 

 bringing about tlie late ministerial changes; and 

 this letter, as well as an address to the king, is 

 sent in another to the English Secretaries o 

 State, with a request that it may be delivered. 

 We can scarcely suppose that all this business 

 would be gone through in obedience to mere form 

 without any reference being made to the duke 

 personal presence, if he had been present. 



