494 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 22. 1855. 



the celebrated actor, who was educated at West- 

 minster (he was in the fourth form in 1693), it is 

 stated that while there, he distinguished himself 

 by his performance of a character in one of 

 Seneca's tragedies. Can any one versed in the 

 history of Westminster School say what authority 

 there is for this statement ? and when any play 

 of Seneca was last performed there ? Westmon. 



County Magistrates. — I have heard there are 

 two counties in England in which there is not a 

 single clergyman in the commission of the peace. 

 Sussex, I have heard, is one. Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me if this is true with re- 

 gard to Sussex, and which is the other county ? 



Geo. E. Frere. 

 Royden Hall, Diss. 



Value of Mo7iey in Past Times. — What would 

 10,000Z., in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, be 

 equal to in the present day ? Are there any rules 

 or data whereby the value of money in England 

 several centuries ago may be determined ? L. 



Manchester. 



Anti- Mendicity Societies. — Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me in what towns anti- 

 mendicity societies have been established ? There 

 is an interesting account of the fiftieth anniversary 

 of the Bath Society in the Oxford Herald of 

 Dec. 1., the parent society of all such institutions ; 

 and the Archbishop, in his Records of Creation, 

 mentions similar societies as in existence in Ox- 

 ford and Bristol more than forty years ago. 

 These are still in operation, but I do not know of 

 any other except one, which was established in 

 Hastings at the beginning of the year, and has 

 been found to answer well, the London Society, 

 and one on a small scale in Brighton. E. M. 



Hastings. 



Brunei, '''^ Manuel du Libraire,^' Sfc. — I was 

 surprised to find, when recently looking into this 

 very useful work, that no mention is made in it of 

 Robert Brown's Prodromus Florce Nova: Hol- 

 landia, a work which forms an era in the history 

 of botany, and which is now so very rare. It is 

 Baron A. Humboldt, I believe, who styles the 

 author " Botanicorum facile princeps." Can any 

 of your botanical readers state what has become 

 of Morison's Planturum Historia Universalis Oxo- 

 niensis, part i., which, it is said, was left by the 

 author in MS., but was never published ? 



Indagator. 



Mainhardt Frederick Darcy. — Dr. Whitaker, 

 in his History of Richmondshire, mentions in his 

 Darcy pedigree that Mainhardt Frederick Darcy, 

 eldest son of Robert, third Earl of Holdernesse 

 (who married Frederica, daughter and co-heiress 

 of Meinhardt, Duke of Schomberg), died young, 

 and that Robert Darcy, the second son (born 



No. 321.] 



May 18, 1718), succeeded his father in the earl- 

 dom. No doubt Robert had an elder brother, 

 who died young ; but if he had an elder brother 

 of the above names, he must have had two elder 

 brothers, for in the Hornby register is the fol' 

 lowing entry : 



" 1716. George Schonbergh, son to Robert, Earl of 

 Holdernes, was born in London, in tlie parish of St. James, 

 on tlie fourteenth dav of Aprill, and was baptized 

 May 10th." 



This entry is confirmed by one in St. James's 

 register, which runs as follows : 



" Bap. 1716, May 10, George Schonbergh darcy, of 

 Robert, Earl of Holdernesse and Lady Frederic, born 14 

 (April)." 



Query whether there were two elder sons, or 

 whether Dr. Whitaker made a mistake in the 

 names of the first son ? Also query the date of 

 the third earl's marriage with Lady Frederica, 

 daughter of Meinhardt, Duke of Schomberg ? 



Patoncb. 



" Those days were never," Sj^'C. — Can any of your 

 readers tell me where to find the following : 



" Those days were never : airy nothings 

 Sat for the picture ; and the poet's hand, 

 Imparting substance to an empty shade. 

 Imposed a gay delirium for a truth. 

 Grant it — 1 still must envy then an age 

 That favoured such a dream 1 " 



C.H. 



Queen of Bohemia's Jewels. — Is anything known 

 of the Queen of Bohemia (daughter of James I. 

 of Great Britain) having, in her necessities, 

 pawned or sold her jewels and plate ? Many 

 years ago, I took a copy from the record of a 

 curious confirmed testament, in which there is an 

 enumeration and description of silver plate and 

 jewels ; some of them having the queen's arms, 

 and the ciphers of herself and her unfortunate 

 husband. They belonged to Colonel Alexander 

 Conyngham ; the inventory of whose effects are 

 given in by an executor creditor, John Ramsay, 

 agent for the Scottish Burghs. R. R. 



Inscriptions in Cardigan Bay. — I make the fol- 

 lowing extracts from a note to Southey's Madoc 

 (vol.ii. p. 160., edit. 1807) : 



" A large track of fenny country, called Cantrev y 

 Gwaelod, the Lowland Canton, was, about the year 500 

 inundated by the sea ; for Seithenyn, in a fit of drunken- 

 ness, let the sea through the dams whicli secured it. This 

 district, which forms the present Cardigan Bay. . . . 

 There were latelj' (and, I believe, says Edmund Williams, 

 are still,) to be seen in the sands of this bay, large stones 

 with inscriptions on them ; the characters Roman, but 

 the langu.age unknown." — E. Williams's Poems. 



Do these inscriptions still exist? and if so, can 

 any reader of " N. & Q." furnish a copy ? When 

 we remember that the Silures, the ancient in- 

 habitants of those parts, came from Spain, we 



