Nov. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



387 



seeds, which of course fly away at a touch, and 

 make their escape from the herbarium. The best 

 plan, with such plants, is to gather specimens not 

 fully blown. They will become fully blown while 

 drying, and remain so for mounting. 



Dried plants are usually mounted with gum ; 

 but experience has taught me that no particle of 

 gum, or cement of any kind, ought to touch the 

 plant ; unless it be so fragile, that we have no 

 other way of fastening it to the cartridge. Paper 

 straps passed over the stems, or even a few stitches 

 with needle and thread, are preferable and infi- 

 nitely neater. 



Though Unskilled may be aware of the fact, 

 he will pai'don me mentioning, in conclusion, that 

 botanical specimens, however badly dried, may be 

 very fairly restored to their natural shape and 

 colour — if not i-educed to powder — by plunging 

 them into very hot water, I had occasion lately 

 to get some drawings made of plants not at the 

 moment accessible, and was compelled to use 

 dried specimens. On plunging into hot water, 

 they resumed their original shape and colour, 

 even to minutest detail, though they had been 

 dried and mounted at least ten years. 



I cannot hope for more space, or I would offer 

 some further hints. I have treated of this sub- 

 ject very fully in my little book, B?'ambles and 

 Bay Leaves ; and also in No. 48. of the Ho77ie 

 Companion, Shirley Hibbked. 



The only paper that preserves the colour of 

 botanical specimens, is sold by Newman, 9. Devon- 

 shire Street, Bishopsgate. I have used it for six 

 years ; and the colours of my specimens are as 

 vivid as when the plants were living. From Mr. 

 Newman's advertisement, it appears that this 

 paper is^ recommended by Sir William Hooker, 

 Mr. Babington, and other botanists. Expebs. 



RICHARD FURNEY, ARCHDEACON OF SURREY. 



(Vol. xi., p. 205. ; Vol. xii , p. 95.) 



I consider it one, and that not; the least useful, 

 of the purposes of your valuable miscellany, to 

 correct the errors where they have occurred, or 

 to supply notices of eminent persons for biogra- 

 phical dictionaries. It has appeared to me a sin- 

 gular omission, that I could nowhere find any 

 memoir of the above gentleman except what has 

 appeared in your work. It is true he is casually 

 mentioned and quoted by Fosbrooke, in his His- 

 tory of Gloucester, hondon, 1819, folio; and by 

 Mr, George Worrall Counsel, in his History of the 

 City of Gloucester, 1829, 12mo. ; but both these 

 gentlemen, who have drawn very largely upon 

 the documents furnished them by Mr. Furney, 

 have made the most scanty ackno^.vledarments of 



No. 316.] 



the abundant information they had received. Dr. 

 Richard Willis, when Bishop of Gloucester in 

 1714, was acquainted with Mr. Furney's family; 

 and while he occupied that see, the Rev. Mr. 

 Furney was appointed Master of the St. Mary de 

 Crypt Grammar School, in Gloucester. The 

 bishop was translated, in 1721, to Salisbury, and 

 in 172.3, to Winchester. Soon after the latter 

 date, Mr, Furney rendered great assistance to 

 Thomas Hearne, the eminent antiquary, on a 

 point which had much puzzled him respecting the 

 Abbey of Romsey, Hants, in Langtoft's Chronicle, 

 viz. : 



" The abbey of Riimeye ho fefTed richely, 

 With rentes fiille gode and kirkes of pris, 

 He did ther in of nunnes a hundreth ladies." 



Edwy Rex. Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, vol. i. p. 35. 



The number of nuns being large, Ilearne sus- 

 pected it to be a mistake ; and to clear up the 

 difficulty, he says : " I wrote to my learned friend 

 Mr. Richard Furney, and was convinced by his 

 researches that there were not fewer." Through 

 the kindness of Bishop ^Villi3*, he was collated to 

 the Archdeaconry of Surrey, May 31, 1725; he 

 was preferred to the rectory of Houghton, Hants, in 

 July, 1727, and to that of Cheriton, in the same 

 county, in July, 1729")", and he was also pre- 

 sented to the rectory of Long Leadenham, Line, 

 in 1729. J Besides the notices of him by your 

 correspondents, I would beg leave to refer to a 

 very interesting letter of his in Cole's MSS , 

 vol. xl. pp.40, 41., dated Jan. 25, 1743-4, in the 

 British Museum ; and also to a letter of Browne 

 Willis to Dr. Ducai'el, dated five yeai's after his 

 (Furney's) death, speaking of the bequests he had 

 made to the Bodleian Library § (Additional MSS., 

 Brit. Mus., 15,935., art. 90.), which I subjoin : 



" We have had at Oxford vast acquisitions of late. 

 Mr. Furnej', archdeacon of Surrey', a native of Gloucester 

 city, had made great collections of Gloucester city and 

 countj'. He was a great acquaintance and correspondent 

 of mine ; and I was very instrumental in his studying 

 venerable antiquity, which I greatly encoirraged in him ; 

 and so underwent his mother's displeasure, as slie herself 

 told me ; but she was afterwards reconciled to me, and he 

 found a good account in it." 



In conclusion, Mr. Furney died at his seat in 

 the parish of Church-down (vulgd, Chosen) ; con- 

 cerning which there is an article in " N. & Q." 

 Vol. xii., p. 341., and was buried at St. Michael's 

 church, in the city of Gloucester, where the fol- 



* Dr. Nash, in his Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 279., greatly 

 eulogizes the bishop for providing at Winchester for so 

 many of the sons of gentlemen of Worcestershire (his 

 native county). 



f Manning's Sm-rey, Introduct., p. Ixxxviii. 



j Political State, vol. xxxviii. p. 387., for October 1729. 

 Dr. Willis had been Dean of Lincoln ; and it is probable, 

 through him Mr. Furney obtained this living. 



§ They are preserved therein, Archiv. C. 



