July 22. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



67 



Monuments in the Burial-ground of St. George 

 the Martyr. — This burial-ground is near to the 

 Foundling Hospital. Can any correspondent say 

 if any copies of inscriptions on the monuments 

 exist ? There was one inscription on a tomb of 

 the date of 1730, that is worn out by rain and 

 damp, that the writer wishes to recover. It were 

 to be desired that, in each parish, there were pre- 

 served a " monument-book," in which the inscrip- 

 tions on every tomb and monument were inserted 

 so soon after their date as might be practicable. 



T. F. 



[We subjoin a copy of the inscription required by our 

 correspondent, which is on the base of a high and very 

 handsome stone obelisk : — " In this vault lies the body of 

 Thojias Falconer, Esq., descended from an ancient 

 honourable family of the same name in Scotland, who, 

 after having been employed eighteen years by the Hon. 

 East India Companj' at Bengal, returned into England in 

 1727, with the just reward of his extensive skill and 

 honest industry in commerce ; an established good name, 

 and a very ample fortune; with that rare felicity and 

 largeness of mind, that knew the pleasure of possessing 

 only from the power it gave him of dispensing ; of being 

 generous to his acquaintance, grateful to his friends, and 

 charitable to the poor ; with the same sound Church-of- 

 England principles in religion that he took with him 

 from home, and in which he died on the 25th of January, 

 1729-30, in the 35th year of his age. To the memory 

 of this, her much-beloved Son, his Mother erected this 

 monument." In the same burial-ground is a handsome 

 monument, with an urn at top, to the memory of that 

 good man Robert Nelson, the author of Fasts and 

 JFestivals-l 



W. De Britaine. — In 1682 was printed, — 



" Humane Prudence, or the Art by which a Man may 

 raise himself and fortune to Grandeur. By A. B. The 

 second edition, with the addition of a Table. London, 

 printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in Cornhill, near 

 the Eoyal Exchange ; small 8vo." 



In the address by the bookseller to the reader, it 

 is remarked : 



" I have had these few sheets so long by me, that the 

 author (who is a gentleman of modesty and worth) has 

 even almost forgot them." 



The first edition I never saw, but I presume the 

 address to both editions is the same, and that the 

 only variation between the two is the addition of 

 the " Table." 



Twenty-eight years afterwards (1710) there was 

 printed in London for Richard Sare, at Gray's 

 Inn Gate, in Holborn, — 



" Humane Prudence, or the Art by which a Man may 

 raise himself and his fortune to Grandeur. The tenth 

 edition, corrected and very much enlarged." 



This is undoubtedly the same work as that pre- 

 viously noticed, only much enlarged, but not 

 much improved, by the introduction of anecdotes 

 and illustrati(ms taken chiefly from the Italian 

 novelists. The original address, however, is 



omitted, and there is substituted a dedication " To 

 the Virtuous and most Ingenious Edw. Hunger- 

 ford, Esq.," which is subscribed " W. de Britaine," 

 and in which this passage occurs : 



" Some part of this manual was formerly dedicated to 

 a person of great honour and merit, who is since dead ; 

 and you being the next heir of all his virtues, no man has 

 a juster title to ' humane prudence ' than yourself." 



Now, although W. de Britaine has been recog- 

 nised as the author in the catalogue of the Bod- 

 leian, in Watt, and elsewhere, what evidence is 

 there either of such a person really existing, or, if 

 he did exist, of his being the author of this valu- 

 able and curious manual ? If there was such a 

 person, he, although, as the bookseller tells his 

 readers, " a gentleman of modesty and worth," 

 must have got quit of his bashfulness very speedily. 

 My own impression is that W. de Britaine, who- 

 ever he may be, did not write the work, but that, 

 having found it an excellent text-book, he made 

 such spicy additions to it, as might suit the exist- 

 ing taste of the public, and enable him to make a 

 little money. 



Perhaps some of your numerous readers may 

 possess the intermediate editions, and be able with 

 their aid to throw some light on the authorship ; 

 and particularly the one " formerly dedicated to a 

 person of great honour " would give his name ia 

 all probability, as well as that of the dedicator. 



J.M. 



Edinburgh. 



[We have before us the sixth edition " corrected and 

 enlarged by the author," published in 1693, by J. Eawlina 

 for R. Sare, at Gray's Inn Gate. Also, the ninth edition 

 corrected and enlarged (the words " by the author " are 

 omitted), published in 1702, by Richard Sare, at Gray's 

 Inn Gate. Both editions contain the dedication to Ed- 

 ward Hungerford, Esq., with a few verbal alterations. In 

 one of them is written in pencil " William de Britaine, 

 pseud." Our correspondent may probably get a clue to 

 the author from two articles which appeared in the Gen- 

 tleman's Magazine for 1793, pp. 124. 711.] 



Early Salopian Pedigrees. — I am desirous to 

 ascertain if there be any collection of pedigrees, 

 either in MS. or print, treating of the early his- 

 tory and connexions of old Shropshire families, 

 more especially In and near the ancient borough, 

 of Bridgnorth? I allude more particularly to 

 such families as flourished in the first four cen- 

 turies after the Conquest. I am aware that the 

 ancient records of the corporation of Bridgnorth 

 perished during the civil war, otherwise a search 

 through them might have materially assisted me 

 in the object I have in view. T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



[Our correspondent may consult with advantage Mr. 

 Sims's valuable Index to the Pedigrees and Arms contained 

 in the Heralds' Visitations, and other Genealogical Manu- 

 scripts in the British Museum, art. Shropshire, which gives 

 a bird's-eye view of the different families and their re- 

 spective localities.] 



