Dec. 1. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



429 



Counters of Home. — Who was the Countess of 

 Home, who in 1G43 " tuik journey to Berwick," 

 and there took " schip to Yarmouth, neer to 

 quhilk the lady hir motlier remanyes " ? and who 

 was the latter, and where, near Yarmouth, did slie 

 reside ? See Sir John Hope's Diary, 1633-1645. 



C. J. P. 

 Great Yarmouth. 



Casts of Old Figures. — What is the best me- 

 thod of, and composition for, taking casts of 

 figures, particularly those we so frequently see on 

 old oak benches ? K. H. S. 



Margaret, Daughter of Robert II. of Scotland. — 

 In the Maclean pedigree, one of the family is 

 stated to have married the Laily Margaret, daugh- 

 ter of John, Rex Hebridum, and the Princess 

 Margaret, who was daughter of Robert II., King 

 of Scotland. This king had two wives. Will any 

 of your heraldic readers inform me which of these 

 queens was the mother of the Princess Margaret ? 



C. W. AV. 



[The Princess Margaret was the daughter of Robert II. 

 by Elizabeth More, and married John Macdonald, Lord 

 of Yla, or Isla, called The Isle, as being the seat of go- 

 vernment when the Western Isles were ruled by petty 

 princes. Crawfurd states, "There is a charter in the 

 public rolls by Kobert II., anno 137G, to John of Yla and 

 Margaret his spouse, the king's daughter, of tiie lands of 

 Lochaber and Knoydart." Since the death of Macdonald, 

 the last authorised Lord of the Isles, there have not been 

 wanting claimants of the surname of Macdonald, Maclean, 

 Macneil, Macintosh, Macleod, and Mackenzie. Consult 

 Crawfurd's Genealogical History of the Stewarts, fol. 1710. 

 p. 18. ; and Chambers's Gazetteer of Scotland, art. He- 

 brides.] 



Agist, Agistment, Gist Taker. — What are the 

 meanings of these words? 



" Kvery freman may take agistment in his owne woode 

 within our forest at his pleasure." — The Charier of 

 Forestes, article ix. 



J. 11. A. Bone. 



Cleveland. U. S. 



[The privilege of agistment signifies enjoying the pas- 

 turage of any part of a forest, and with the law verb, to 

 agist ; it is derived sometimes from the Latin ager, a field ; 

 agito, to drive or feed ; and the French gesir, to lie, or gife, 

 a lodging ; because, says Lord Coke, the beasts are levant 

 and couchant, whilst they are on the land : both words 

 are also used to signify the money received for pasturing 

 the cattle of strangers. In the passage quoted, the agist- 

 ment of a free forest-tenant, even in his own woods, is 

 confined to his own commonable cattle feeding on the 

 lierbage. See Thomson's Essay on the 3Iaqna Charta, 

 p. 349.] 



Dr. Eohert Hnohe. — In Mr. John Ward'.s Lives 

 of the Gresham Professors, London, 1740, folio, it 

 is stated that Dr. Thomas Stack, a Member of the 



No. 318.] 



Royal Society, collected into one volume all, or 

 most of the papers communicated to the Royal 

 Society by Dr. Robert Hooke. Can you, or any of 

 your correspondents, aid me in tracing this volume, 

 or give me any reference to any unpublished papers 

 by this celebrated man ? Automatopceus. 



Edinburgh. 



[This volume of unpublished papers seems to be still 

 in the library of the Royal Society, according to the 

 statement of Mr. Ward {Lives, vol. i. p. 189.), who says, 

 " Mr. Waller, for brevity, omitted many of Dr. Hooke's 

 discourses, inventions, and experiments, which appears 

 not only from the accounts of them in the Journals and 

 Registers of the Royal Society, but likewise from a large 

 number of his original papers and draughts yet in their pos^' 

 session, which have been lately collected into one volume, 

 and disposed in the order of time, by the care and indus- 

 try of Dr. Thomas Stack, a member of the society." A 

 few of Dr. Hooke's papers may also be found among the 

 Additional MSS. 6238. 6193, 6194. 6209., in the British 

 Museum.] 



^^ Reign of Charles I." — Who was the author 

 of The Reign of King Charles ; a History faith- 

 fully and Impartially delivered and disposed into 

 Annals, London, 165-5? Having experienced con- 

 siderable difficulty in obtaining a copy, am I right 

 ill considering the book as rare ? G. E. R. 



Kidderminster. 



[This work is by Hammond L'Estrang^ "a book," says 

 the Quarterly Review, "of considerable merit, writteta iu 

 a bad style." The second edition, 105G, contains a Reply 

 to the Observations on it, published anonvmouslv, but by 

 Dr. Peter Heylin.] 



Author of " Sympathy.'^ — In the library of the 

 Botanical Garden, Oxford, is a work entitled : 



" Landscapes in Verse taken in Spring. By the 

 Author of Sympathy. Third Edition, London : printed 

 for T. Becket, Pall Mall, 1785." 



Who was the author of Sympathy ? 



Magdalenensis. 



[These works are by that prolific writer Samuel Jack- 

 son Pratt, novelist, poet, and dramatist, born at St. Ives 

 on Christmas Day, 1749, and closed his earthly career at 

 Birmingham, Oct. 4, 1814. Many of his works were pub- 

 lished under the assumed name of Courtney Melmoth.] 



KOMAN CATHOLIC BISIIOPBICS. 



(Vol. xii., p. 314.) 



The work which Mr. Mackenzie Walcott 

 announces that he is preparing on the sufiragan 

 bishops who at various periods have been con- 

 nected with English Sees, will supply to the 

 student of ecclesiastical history much desirable 

 information, which at present cannot be obtained 

 even from the laborious works of Le Neve, and of 

 Archdeacon Cotton. I hope he may succeed in 

 having it published, and in the meanwhile offer 



