2nd g. No 95., Oct. 24. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



335 



Barker, 1614. The writing ink bears the tint of 

 age, certainly about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. Above the name of Milton is the auto- 

 graph of " Robert Robert Colcraft." Query, was 

 he connected with Milton ? Bound with the 

 Bible is a Concordance, 1615, and on the reverse 

 of the title is " Robert Colcraft," and in a very 

 small hand, " John Milton ; " this is under a calcu- 

 lation showing how many barleycorns would reach 

 round the earth. The Milton State Papers are 

 in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. I 

 must take my old Bible and get permission to 

 compare the handwriting. Was any other John 

 Milton known about his time ? It would afford 

 me pleasure to show it to any collector of auto- 

 graphs and hear hjs opinion of it. 



Geokge OrroB. 

 Hackney. 



The signature of John Milton is not so very 

 rare as supposed by your correspondent. I have 

 seen five or six, not including those in the British 

 Museum. Preserved In the State Paper Office is 

 a letter of his to Andrew Marvel, and also his 

 treatise De Doctrind Christiana, a translation of 

 which was published in 1825, by the present Bishop 

 of Winchester. I have also been informed that 

 some gentleman In the country has in his possession 

 several letters of the great poet. Cl. Hopper. 



Mcjltj^ to Minax <k\initi. 



Vinegar Bible (2°'* S. I v. 291.) — I have in my 

 possession a copy of the " Vinegar Bible," printed 

 by Baskett at Oxford, in 1717, in two volumes, 

 folio, on vellum. Brunet mentions that there were 

 three copies printed on vellum, and that for one 

 of these the Duke of Chandos was supposed to 

 have given 500Z. This is the copy in my posses- 

 sion. It Is bound in velvet, with rich silver clasps, 

 and plates on the sides engraved with the arms of 

 the Duke of Chandos. It was bought by an an- 

 cestor of mine (I believe) at the sale at Cannons ; 

 and there is an old manuscript with It, stating 

 that there were only three copies printed on vellum, 

 and that the Duke of Chandos gave 500Z. for this 

 one ; but it does not state what it was sold for 

 afterwards. Folet. 



Worksop Manor. 



Joseph JBushnan, Esq. (2"^ S. iv. 227.) — Joseph 

 Bushnan, Esq. was the well-known and much- 

 esteemed Comptroller of the Chamber of London, 

 to which office (having previously been City So- 

 licitor) he succeeded his father in 179.6. Mr. 

 Bushnan died at Southampton in 1831. The 

 present representative of the family Is Dr. J. 

 Stevenson Bushnan, an eminent physician and 

 distinguished author. 



A somewhat remarkable circumstance is con- 



nected with this family, and accounts for the 

 singular and peculiar name they bear. They are 

 of Scottish origin and of the Buchanan race; but 

 having suffered severely in the '45, they fled to 

 England, where changing the c into an s, and 

 sinking the first a in their then name of Buchanan, 

 then became Bushnan. Mr. Bushnan, the first 

 Comptroller, who died in 1797, having married a 

 very wealthy heiress, took out a new coat of arms 

 in the Heralds' Office, and thus founded the Eng- 

 lish family of Bushnan. X. X. X. 



Chichester (2°'^ S. iv. 169.) — Dorcas, daughter 

 of John Hill of Honnely, Warwick, first wife of 

 Arthur Lord Viscount Chichester : her only daugh- 

 ter, Mary, married John Saint Leger of Doneraile. 



Wm. Collyns. 



Sir Philip Francis and Lord Mansfield (2"'' S. 

 iv. 285.) — Your correspondent G. N. speaks of 

 the serious and Important charge of bribery in 

 the Douglas Cause, brought against Lord Mans- 

 field, having been repeated by Sir Philip Francis 

 in the House of Commons without receiving con- 

 tradiction. Will G. N. be good enough to give 

 his authority for this statement ? I have con- 

 sulted those familiar with the history of this case, 

 but in vain. I have looked also into Taylor's 

 Junius Identified, which, as the writer's object Is 

 to identify Francis and Junius, Is almost a bio- 

 graphy of Francis, and I have failed In discover- 

 ing In its pages any foundation for such an 

 assertion. 



Again, G. N. quotes Malcom's Literary Glean- 

 ings, In which that writer asserts that Dr. John- 

 son " agreed most cordially with David Hume as 

 to the Injustice of the final judgment of the 

 peers," and that " neither of those very eminent 

 persons ever entertained the slightest doubt of the 

 imposture which had been perpetrated by Sir 

 John Stewart and his wife Lady Jane Douglas." 

 Now I have no right to ask G. N. to substantiate 

 this statement, but I should be obliged to him, or 

 to any other reader of "N. & Q.," to give the 

 authority on which it is founded. It is certainly 

 not in Boswell's inimitable life of the great mo- 

 ralist. F. M. 



Signs painted hy eminent Artists (2"^ S. iv. 299.) 



— Five years ago Mlllals had been staying some 

 time at VIdler's Inn, at Hayes, in Kent, painting 

 oak and fern on the common ; the landlord's sign 



— the " George and Dragon " — had been hang- 

 ing there so long (he tells me) " you could see 

 nothing of it left : " the artist leaving offered to 

 paint it afresh, so it was sent up to London, and 

 returned by him to the landlord, — St. George on 

 horseback killing the dragon, with emblematical 

 grapes, &c. around. Another living Associate of 

 the Royal Academy and a Royal Academician, 

 each painted one side of au inn sign for Singleton 



