474 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 102., Dec. 12. '67. 



Sir Piercy is thus mentioned in Hasted's His- 

 tory of Kent, parish of Ash : 



" At the west end of the Hamlet of Gilton Town stands 

 Gilton Parsonage, lateljj inhabited by the Bretts." * 



The same History contains particulars about 

 the Bretts at East Mailing, Larkfield Hundred ; 

 Bexley; and Wye Parish, Hundred of Wye. 



There is some account of Sir Piercy Brett in 

 the Oentlemari s Magazine for 17,81. 



George Bowybb. 



Temple. 



London Goldsmiths, — Where can I find any 

 account of the goldsmiths and silversmiths of 

 London during the reigns of James I. and 

 Charles I. ? Were they distinguished for their 

 workmanship or design ? Heriot was the one 

 principally patronised by King James. 



A Constant Reader. 



Trimmer. — What is the meaning of the word 

 " Trimmer" a political term in use in the reigns 

 of Charles II. and William III. ? In Dryden's 

 Epilogue to the Duke of Guise, it is mentioned in 

 connexion with Whig and Tory thus : — 

 " A Trimmer cried (that heard me tell his story) 

 Pie Mistress Cook ! Faith, you're too rank a Tory ! 

 Wish not Whigs hang'd," &c. 



And again : 

 " We Trimmers are for wishing all things even." 

 In the Epilogue to Nat. Lee's Constantine the 

 Great, it is also thus mentioned : — 



" The Court of Constantine was full of glorj'. 

 And every Trimmer turned addressing Tory." 

 And 



« I'll tell 



Why these d— d Trimmers lov'd the Turks so well. 

 Th' original Trimmer, tho* a friend to no man, 

 Yet in his heart ador'd a pretty woman," &c. 



If any of your readers would explain this term, 

 they would confer an obligation on 



An Old Toby. 



[Sir Walter Scott has the following note to the pas- 

 sage from the Epilogue to Nat. Lee's Constantine the 

 Great (Dryden's Tf^orks, x. 389.) : " The original Trimmer 

 was probably meant for Lord Shaftesbury, once a member 

 of the Cabal, and a favourite minister, though afterwards 

 in such violent opposition. The party of Trimmers, 

 properly so called, only comprehended the followers of 

 Halifax ; but our author seems to include all those who, 

 professing to be friends of monarchy, were enemies to the 

 Duke of York, and who were as odious to the Court as 



« • William Brett, Esq., Capt. in the Navy, resided here, 

 ob. 1769, set. 51., marr. Frances, daughter of John Harvey 

 of Dane Court, Esq., who died 1773, set. 39., by whom he 

 had issue Piercy, now of Gosport ; Anne-Maud ; Frances, 

 d. 1778, a;t. 23.; and William Francis, d. 1774, s&t. 13.; 

 and were all buried in this church. He bore for his arms 

 arg., a lion rampant gules, an orle of cross croslets fitche 

 of the 2nd." 



the fanatical republicans. Much wit, and more virulence, 

 was unchained against them. Among others, I find in 

 Mr. Luttrell's Collection, a poem, entitled, ' The Cha- 

 racter of a Trimmer,' beginning thus : 

 " ' Hang out your cloth, and let the trumpet sound, 

 Here's such a beast as Afric never own'd : 

 A twisted brute, the satyr in the story. 

 That blows up the Whig heat, and cools the Tory ; 

 A state hermaphrodite, whose doubtful lust 

 Salutes all parties with an equal gust. 

 Like Ireland shocks, he seems two natures joined, 

 Savage before, and all betrimm'd behind ; 

 And the well-tutor'd curs like him will strain, 

 Come over for the king, and back again,' " &e. 



" Halifax," says Macaulaj', " was the chief of those 

 politicians whom the two great parties contemptuously 

 called Trimmers. Instead of quarrelling with this nick- 

 name, he assumed it as a title of honour, and vindicated, 

 with great vivacity, the dignity of the appellation. Evcr^'- 

 thing good, he said, trims between extremes. The tem- 

 perate zone trims between the climate in which men are 

 roasted and the climate in which the}' are frozen. The 

 English Church trims between the Anabaptist madness 

 and the Papist lethargy. The English constitution trims 

 between Turkish despotism and Polish anarchy. Viituc 

 is nothing but a just temper between propensities any one 

 of which, if indulged to excess, becomes vice. Naj', the 

 perfection of the Supreme Being Himself consists in the 

 exact equilibrium of attributes, none of which could pre- 

 ponderate without disturbing the whole moral and phj- 

 sical order of the world. Thus Halifax was a Trimmer 

 on principle. He was also a Trimmer by the constitution 

 both of his head and of his heart. His understanding 

 was keen, sceptical, inexhaustibly fertile in distinctions 

 and objections ; his taste refined ; his sense of the lu- 

 dicrous exquisite ; his temper placid and forgiving, but 

 fastidious, and by no means prone either to malevolence 

 or to enthusiastic admiration. Such a man could not 

 long be constant to any band of political allies. He must 

 not, however, be confounded with the vulgar crowd of 

 renegades. For though, like them, he passed from side 

 to side, his transition was always in the direction oppo- 

 site to theirs. His'place was between the hostile divisions 

 of the community, and he never wandered far beyond the 

 frontier of either." {Hist, of England, i. 244., edit. 185f!.) 

 From this extract it will be seen that Lord Macaulay (as 

 he states in a note) believes Halifax to have been the 

 author, or at least one of the authors, of The Character 

 of a Trimmer, which, for a time, went under the name of 

 his kinsman. Sir William Coventrj*. The full title of this 

 celebrated pamphlet reads, The Character of a Trimmer; 

 his Opinion of, I. The Laws and Government. II. Pro- 

 testant Keligion. III. The Papists. IV. Foreign Af- 

 fairs. By the Hon. Sir W. C. London, Printed in the 

 year 1688. 4to., pp. 43. In D'Urfey's Pills to Purge 

 Melancholy 'is a song entitled " The Trimmer," of which 

 the following extract may serve as a specimen : — 



" Pray lend me your ear, if you've any to spare. 

 You that love Commonwealth or you that hate Common 



Prayer, 

 That can in a breath praj', dissemble, and sWear, 

 Which nobody can deny. 



Of our gracious King William I am a great lover, 

 Yet side with a party that praj's for another; 

 I'll drink the king's health, take it one way or other. 

 Which nobod}' can deny. 



The times are so ticklish, I vow and profess 

 I know not which party or cause to embrace ; 

 I want to join those that are least in distress. 

 Which nobodj' can deny. 



