^86 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[Nov. 17. 1855. 



having visited, and much less for having resided at Ilfra- 

 combe, after his appointment to this Prebend, though 

 Lj-sous (p. 290., Part II., Devon) refers to such a tradi- 

 tion. Arms of Camden : argent, a fess engrailed, between 

 six cross croslets, fitchy sable." — Ecclesiastical Antiqui- 

 ties in Devon, by the Kev. George Oliver, art. Ilfbacombe, 

 note, vol. ii. p. 138. 



Independently of the interest felt in any thing 

 illustrative of the title of Camden, I am induced 

 to forward the above extract by observing, that 

 in the new editions by Duffus Hardy of Le 

 Neve's Fasti Ecclesice Anglicana;, the name of 

 Camden is not inserted amongst the incumbents 

 of Prebends in the church of Sarum. Neither, 

 indeed, is the collation of Davenant there men- 

 tioned as Prebendary; though his collations as 

 archdeacon of Berks, in 1630, and as treasurer of 

 the cathedral in 1634, are both given. 



Another Prebend (that of Shipton) in the same 

 cathedral, was permanently assigned by James I. 

 to the Regius Professorship of Civil Law at Ox- 

 ford ; and is expressly reserved by an exception 

 in its favour (§ xxix., stat. 13. and 14 Car. II., 

 c. 4.) known as the Act of Uniformity, so as to be 

 tenable by a layman. Query, How do the Cathe- 

 dral Commissioners intend to deal with this stall ? 

 And was the delay in the nomination of the new 

 professor, and the provisional nature of the ap- 

 pointment — so it was described in the newspapers 

 — occasioned by any considerations of the expe- 

 diency of awaiting their Report ? Baxholensis. 



MjbDAJL Ot* THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 



The volume of the Harl. MS., 6584., seems to 

 be a rough copy of Bishop Burnet's History of his 

 Own Time, with many variations from the printed 

 editions. It contains some useful remarks by 

 Dr. GifTord, who states that, " from many par- 

 ticulars, it appears that the printed editions 

 were not taken from these papers." Among 

 other matters is the following notice of a medal 

 struck for Louise do Queroualle, Duchess of 

 Portsmouth, one of the most extravagant in- 

 triguantes of the court of Charles II. At the time 

 it was written the bishop thought the account 

 " deserved to be put in history ; " but this trim- 

 ming prelate, for some reason or other, has omitted 

 to notice it in his published work : 



"The king (Charles II.) seemed fonder of the Duchess 

 of Portsmouth than ever, though an intrigue had been 

 discovered between the Grand Prior of France and her, 

 in which it was said that the king, coming himself in a 

 little abruptly on them, where they were together in her 

 closet, saw more than he himself had a mind to see. 

 Upon this the king ordered the Grand Prior to go out of 

 England immediately; but he, that had all the insolence 

 of his country about him, without the spirit that generally 

 accompanied it, began to pretend that, by the laws of 

 England, the king could banish nobody, and that there- 

 fore he would not obey his order. But the king let him 



No. 316.] 



understand that the laws of England could only be 

 claimed by Englishmen ; and so, if he did not obey his 

 orders in twenty-four hours' time, he would make him 

 feel what he could do for him. Upon this he went away: 

 but this, instead of diminishing the king's kindness for 

 the Duchess of Portsmouth, as everybody expected it 

 would have done, increased it to that pitch, that after 

 this the king kissed her often before all the world, which 

 he was never observed to do before this time. There was 

 also a medal struck for her ; her face was on the one side, 

 with Lucia Duchissa Portsmouthensis about it ; and on 

 the reverse a cupid was sitting on a globe, and about him 

 Omnia vincit. This was insolent to all degrees, the medals 

 being exposed to sale by the goldsmiths : and one that 

 happened to go by a goldsmith's shop, bought one of 

 them for me, which I happened to show that evening to 

 some of the court that came to see me. Whether this 

 was told again or not I cannot tell, but the very next day 

 all the medals were called in, and were never seen any 

 more. So that I never saw any of them but my own, 

 which is in silver, and of the size of half-a-crown. 

 This I thought deserved to be put in historj', to show 

 how far the insolence of a whore can rise." 



One of these silver medals, I am informed, is 

 preserved in the British Museum. J. Yeowbli.. 



BURIALS WITHOUT COFFINS. 



In looking over some memorials of a dis- 

 tinguished family in the West of England, I find 

 the burial of one of its members thus recorded : 



" April 30, 1701, died Sir N L , at his house in 



H , and was buried in the outer chancel of the 



said church, on the 3rd of May, at 12 of the clock at night, 

 without a coffin, according to his own directions. He was 

 then in his 88th year." 



Some of your readers can state whether in- 

 stances of this mode of burial have occurred to 

 them. At this moment I can only call to mind 

 that George Psalmanazar, fifty years later, " ear- 

 nestly requested that his body should not be en- 

 closed in any kind of coffin, but be decently 

 laid in a shell without a lid or other covering." 

 We are told that the Emperor Joseph* pro- 

 hibited the interment of bodies, not in churches 

 only, but in towns and their suburbs. He also 

 proscribed the use of coffins, and ordered lime to 

 be strewed on the corpse to accelerate its dis- 

 solution. This latter edict, Eustace tells us, giving 

 general disgust, was suppressed. 



Might not good reason be given for the occa- 

 sional adoption of this practice, so that the dust 

 should speedily "return to the earth as it was"? 

 How many painful scenes, both in churches and 

 churchyards, and how much of infectious disease 

 might have been prevented, if, in committing the 

 body to the ground, " earth to earth " had been 

 literally carried into effect, and that a triple, or 

 even a single coffin had not been used. What 

 sad spectacles have been presented to survivors 



* Query, Joseph I. or II. ? 



