Dec. 1. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



417 



LOUDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1855. 



MISS STRICKLAND AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 



The queen is much indebted to Miss Strickland 

 for her attempted whitewashing ; which, if not 

 very successful, has not arisen from want of zeal. 

 The great error of all the vindications is, that 

 they overlook the period during which her majesty 

 lived, and forgetting her education under the ac- 

 complished poisoner Catherine de Medici, assisted 

 by the chaste Duchess of Valentinois* (the corre- 

 spondent of Mary the Queen Dowager), treat her 

 as if she had lived two centuries latex-, and had 

 been piously and virtuously educated. Mary was 

 a better woman than the Queen of France, and 

 fully as virtuous as the Queen of England ; but 

 she was violent, unscrupulous, and vindictive, and 

 this she establishes under her own hand : for in 

 one of her letters, in the Labanoff Collection, and 

 which has been translated by Mr. Turnbull in his 

 excellent volume of Marian Letters, she not only 

 declares her extreme hatred of her cousin of 

 Guise, and her desire for his assassination, but she 

 expresses her intention of pensioning her brother's 

 murderer (if she had the means) ; remarking that 

 the " act" was the more agreeable, as she had not 

 been told of it beforehand ! 



Be this as it may. Miss Strickland will perhaps 

 forgive us for correcting an awkward mistake she 

 has made. In rejecting the Bothwell letters, the 

 lady refers to the opinion of Prince Labanoff, 

 which is against their authenticity. She then 

 brings forward an additional authority in " The 

 elder Tytler, who, as a Lord of Session, or judge, 

 had been accustomed to study and collate evi- 

 dence in the criminal courts of Scotland " — a 

 strange discovery ; for Lords of Session have as 

 little to do with criminal proceedings near the 

 Tweed as Miss Strickland herself. But to pro- 

 ceed : this learned judge has, it seems, "written 

 two able volumes" to expose " their fallacies" 

 (vol. V. p. 128.). Lords of Session are not re- 

 markable, if we may believe the House of Peers, 

 for their ability in analysing evidence, even in 

 civil cases ; but the gentleman thus honoured 

 most assuredly never was a judge of any kind, 

 although his son afterwards became a Lord of 

 Session, under the title of Lord Woodhouselee. 

 The father was what is termed a writer to the 

 signet ; in other words, an Edinburgh attorney ; 

 but a person of great worth, and considerable 

 ability. The arguments are pretty much the 

 same as those of his predecessor Goodall, and his 

 successors Whitaker and Chalmers. They have 



* Her letters from the originals, in the librarj' of the 

 Faculty of Advocates, are printed in Mr. Maidment's 

 Analecta Scotica. 



No. 318.] 



the merit of being less tedious than those of his 

 successors. 



In returning thanks to Joseph Robertson and 

 William Pitt Dundas, Esqrs. (p. 200.), for access 

 to the very interesting disposition by the queen of 

 her jewels. Miss Strickland did what was ritrht 

 and proper ; but it is a pity that the lady had not 

 been informed when and where the document was 

 found, and told that there also existed other 

 equally curious relics. We will supply the omis- 

 sion. Some short time previous to the publication 

 of the fifth volume, Mr. George Melville, a gen- 

 tleman who probably is better skilled in the de- 

 cyphering of ancient writings than any one else in 

 Scotland, had occasion to make a search amongst 

 what are termed the warrants of the " acts and 

 decreets of the Court of Session : " in opening one 

 of the numberless bundles, he discovered a parcel 

 of papers altogether unconnected with "acts and 

 decrees," including, not only the document alluded 

 to by Miss Strickland, but various others equally 

 important. For instance, the inventory of the 

 books in her majesty's chapel library, as given up 

 to the Earl of Moray, and bearing his authentica- 

 tion. The discovery was immediately communi- 

 cated to the deputy-clerk register ; and it is said, 

 that the whole, or at least the more valuable por- 

 tion of the writings discovered, will be printed 

 for the use of the members of tbe Bannatyne Club. 



J. M. 



Edinburgh. 



MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 



I enclose a list of German monumental brasses, 

 more extensive than any you have yet published. 

 It was furnished by Dr. Lisch, the conservator of 

 the historical monuments of the Grand Duchy of 

 Mecklenburg Schwerin to the Deutsches Kunstblatt 

 for 1852. They all belong to the class we call 

 " Flemish brasses." There seem to be many more 

 brasses in the North of Germany than he has pub- 

 lished. The brass at Verden is stated to be the 

 oldest of the collection, but no description is given 

 of it. 



The Nauraburg brasses are described in the 

 Kunstblatt for 1853, p. 361. W. G. Searle. 



Queen's College, Cambridge. 



Verden. 



Liibeck Cathedral. 



Bishops Burchard von Serken (f 1317) and Johann von 

 Mull (tl360), on one plate (engraved in Milde's 

 Monuments of Liibeck). 



Laurentius Neibur, canon (tl622). 



Bishop Bertram Cremun (11377). 



Bishop Johann IX. Tiedemann (f 1561). 



Bruno von Warendorp (tl341) and his wife (fl316). 



Johann von Warendorp (flGSO). 



Liibeck, St. Mary. 



Hermann Hutterode (flSOO). 



