2n<iS.N<>95., Oct. 21.'57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



833 



curiosity to rip up the top of the Coffin expecting to dis- 

 cover within it only the bones of the deced, but to his 

 great surprize found the whole body wrap'd in 6 or 7 

 Seer Cloths of Linnen entire and uncorrupted, although it 

 had lain there upwards of 230 years. His unwarrantable 

 curiosity led him also to make an incision through the 

 seer cloths which covered one of the Arms of the Corps, 

 the flesli of which at that time was white and moist. I 

 was very much displeased at the forwardness of Lucas, 

 who of his own head open'd the Coffin. It would have 

 been quite sufficient to have found it ; and then to have 

 made a report of it, to Lord Rivers or myself. 



" In the Summer of the year following, 1783, his Lord- 

 ship's business made it necessary for me and my Son to 

 be at Sudely Castle, and on being told what had been 

 done the year before by Lucas, I directed the earth to be 

 once more remov'd to satisfy my own curiosity; and 

 found Lucas's account of the Coffin and Corps to be just 

 as he had represented them ; with this difference, that 

 the body was then grown quite fetid, and the flesh where 

 the incision had been made was brown and in a state of 

 putrefaction ; in consequence of the air having been let in 

 upon it. The stench of the corps made my son quite 

 sick, whilst he copied the inscription which is on the lid 

 of the Coffin ; he went thro' it, however, with great ex- 

 actness. 



"I afterwards directed that a stone slab should be 

 placed over the Grave to prevent any future and im- 

 proper inspection," &c. 



" Inscription on a Leaden Coffin in the Chapel of Sudely 

 Castle, Gloucestershire, May 1783. 



"K.P. 



HE LYE QUEN 



VI. WIFE TO KYNG 



HOIIY THE VIII. AND 



THE WIF OF THOMAS 



LOKD OF SUDEY HIGH 



DMY LL OF ENGLOND 



AND VNKLB TO KYNG 



EDWARD THE VJ 



DYED 



SEPTEMBEK 



07 IICCC 



* XLVIIJ 



1548." 



Julia R. Bockett. 



Southcotc Lodge, near Reading. 



[Some additional particulars relating to this inspec- 

 tion of Queen Katherine Parr's corpse, by Dr. Nash, are 

 given in Archaologia, ix. 1. — Ed.] 



(2"'J S. iv. 288.) 



In answer to Lybia's questions I beg to inform 

 her that a Conte bleu, jaune, or violet, is simply 

 "a pretty nothing," or "nonsense," — the origin 

 of the expression, except it is traceable to the 

 colour, is as mysterious as par bleu, " Ce fleuret 

 les coupes " are " expressions de danse," tolerably 

 well rendered in English by •' flourish and cuts." 

 Black was for a long time, and it may be still for 

 what I know to the contrary, the aristocratic 

 colour amongst the Spaniards, and if ever your 



correspondent should be at Antwerp on a festival, 

 she may remark that amongst certain classes there 

 (no longer fashionable'), " wearing their best on 

 holidays," might still be well rendered in French 

 by " porter le noir aux bons jours." As L'E'cole 

 des Maris was written in 1661, it is very possible 

 that the Spanish " fashions " introduced twenty 

 years before by Anne of Austria still formed the 

 code by which Sganarelle's class dressed them- 

 selves, though they may have become rococo at 

 the court. If ruelle were a word ever met with 

 in scientific works, " une spirituelle qui ne par- 

 lerait rien que cercle et que ruelle" would simply 

 mean " a blue stocking ; " but as this is not the 

 case, we must find another meaning for cercle. 

 Under the ancien regime the cercle at court was 

 the privileged throng ofgrandes dames around the 

 Queen, amongst whom duchesses alone claimed 

 " the tabouret," all the rest standing. The ruelle 

 was, strictly speaking, the narrow la7ie between 

 the bed and the wall, and when grand dames re- 

 ceived their intimate friends at levee or couchee, it 

 was in this ruelle that their visitors sat and talked. 

 The word is frequently used by Moliere in the 

 sense of the lady's "own room," a meaning now 

 quite forgotten, as the boudoir has long superseded 

 the ruelle. " Parler cercle et ruelle " is to talk in 

 such a manner as to imply an equal acquaintance 

 with the " grand monde " at^court or in the bou- 

 doir — on ceremony or off — a custom that has 

 outlived the days of Moliere. Signet. 



I am not aware that black was a fashionable 

 colour in Moliere's time, but it was the colour in 

 which all women went to church. 



Bon Jours are the great festivals of the Roman 

 Catholic religion. Sganarelle's wife wotild there- 

 fore wear black on those days in order to go to 

 church. 



Contes bleus are defined in the dictionary of the 

 Academy, discours en Voir, mensonges. 



Fleuret, a term of the art of dancing, pas de 

 bourree. What step that is I do not know. 



Ruelle, the space between the bed and the wall 

 of the alcove in which it stands. Here the visitors 

 sat who were admitted before the lady was up, 

 and here the gossip and scandal of the day were 

 the main topics of conversation. 



See any of the memoirs of the 17th and 18th 

 centuries. S. G. 



DE. MOOE, PROF. YOUNG, AND THE POET GRAT. 



(2''"» S. iv. 35. 234.) 



If the first edition of Criticism on the Elegy 

 written in a Country Churchyard was not published 

 till 1783, Dr. Moor could not have had any hand 



