Sept. 23. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



245 



flagons of wine and a lance ; and he was entitled to re- 

 ceive from every minstrel the sum of ihd., and de qualibet 

 meretrice, in the citv of Chester, officium suum exercente, 

 the sum of 4rf. In the Tabley MS. c. 143., will be found 

 a detail of the solemnities pursued on June 24, 1642. 

 Some vears before the courts fell into desuetude, they had 

 been held only occasionally at intervals of four or five 

 years. The fee for a licence" was 2s. 6d. In the last court 

 but one, held in 1754, there were only twenty-one licences 

 granted. The last court was held in 1756, by R. Lant, 

 Esq., being then Lord of Dutton, and possessing the 

 advowry of the minstrels by purchase. See Lysons' 

 Magna Britannia, vol. ii. part ii. p. 526., for the charge 

 delivered bv Mr. Lant's steward at one of the last courts ; 

 and also " N. & Q.," Vol. ii., p. 77., for farther particulars.] 



Blsliop BecMngton. — Can you inform me where 

 I could obtain a copy of the will of Bishop Beck- 

 ington? I am aware that the original is in 

 Doctors' Commons ; but I find that the fees de- 

 manded by the officials there (2Z. 2s.), with the 

 charge of a professed transcriber of ancient writ- 

 ings, would bring the total cost to nearly 51. I 

 should be glad to pay a reasonable sum for what 

 I want, Ina. 



Wells, Somersetshire. 



[In the Catalogue of the Bishops of Bath and Wells 

 (in Latin) published by Hearne, Oxon. 1732, are extracts 

 from this document so ample, that they seem to contain 

 nearly all the particulars of the original in Doctors' Com- 

 mons. This Catalogue is authentic, as our learned anti- 

 quary informs us it was compiled in 1595, by Francis 

 Godwin, Canon of Wells, most probably the author of 

 De Frcesulibus Anglice. If our correspondent has not 

 access to this Catalogue, these extracts can be transcribed 

 for 6s., or with a translation for 12.'?., and collated with 

 those portions of the will given in Cassan's Lives of the 

 Bishops of Bath and Wells ; Sir Harris Nicolas's Memoirs 

 of Thomas Bechington ; Warner's History of Bath ; and 

 Collinson's Somersetshire.^ 



Charles J., his Relics at Ashhurnham. — From 

 the Scots Magazine for October, 1743, vol. v. 

 p. 479. : 



" Died, The Hon, Bertram Ashbumham, Esq. He be- 

 queathed to the clerk of the parish of Ashburnham and 

 his successors for ever, the watch which King Charles I. 

 had in his pocket at the time of his death, and the shirt 

 he then wore, which has some drops of blood on it. And 

 thej' are deposited in the vestry of the said church." 



Can these interesting relics be still produced ? 



[A Query respecting these relics appeared in " N. & Q.," 

 Vol. vi., p. 173., but was not answered. On turning to 

 Horsfield's Sussex, vol. i. p. 559,, published in 1835, we 

 read, that " in the chancel of Ashburnham Church are 

 kept, in a glass case lined with red velvet, some relics of 

 the unfortunate Charles I. These consist of the shirt, with 

 ruffled wrists (on which are a few faint traces of blood) in 

 which he was beheaded ; his watch, which at the place 

 of execution he gave to Mr. John Ashburnham ; his white 

 silk drawers; and the sheet that was thrown over the 

 body after the execution. These articles have certainly 

 been cai-efully preserved. Long were they treasured up 

 as precious relics, fit only to be gazed upon by the devotees 

 of the Icon Basilihe. At length, however, the charm 

 was broken by Bertram Ashburnham, Esq. ; who, in 1743, 

 bequeathed them to the clerk of the parish and his suc- 



cessors for ever, to be exhibited as great curiosities — may 

 we add, pro bono publico." In a note Mr. Horsfield state* 

 that " the superstition of the last, and even of the present 

 age, have occasionally resorted to these relics for the cure 

 of the king's evil."] 



Thomas Fuller, D.D. — In 1658 he was pre- 

 sented to the living of Cranford, where, in 1661, 

 he was buried. Was this Cranford in Middlesex ; 

 or either of the two parishes so named in North- 

 amptonshire, near which (at Aldwinkle) he was 

 born ? I have sought in vain for anjr memorial 

 of him in Cranford, Northamptonshire. It is 

 much to be regretted that, by the death of Mr. 

 Pickering, we lose all hope of a republication of 

 any more of his valuable works. E. G. R. 



[Dr. Fuller was buried in the Church of Cranford in 

 Middlesex, on the north wall of the chancel of which is 

 his monument, with the following inscription : — " Hie 

 jacet Thomas Fuller, h coUegio Sydneiano in academia 

 Cantabrigiense, S. S. T.D. hujus e'cclesise rector ; ingenii 

 acumine, memorise felicitate, morum probitate, omnigena 

 doctrinS. (historia prsesertim), uti varia ejus summa aequa- 

 nimitate composita testantur, celleberrimus. Qui dum 

 viros Anglife illustres opera posthumo immortalitati con- 

 secrare meditatus est, ipse immortalitatem est consecutus, 

 August 15, 1661." A good Life of Tom Fuller would be 

 an acquisition to our biographical literature. Oldys, no 

 doubt, made the most of his materials in the Biugraphia 

 Britannica, ] 



Dr. William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle. — 

 Allow me to inquire through the medium of 

 " N. & Q.," if within the last twenty or thirty 

 years there has not been published some memoir 

 of the right reverend prelate above named, some 

 new edition of his works, in short, something con- 

 nected with his life or writings ? Any information 

 on the subject will greatly oblige 



JoHW o' THE Ford. 



Malta. 



[Nothing more has been published relating to Bishop 

 Nicolson since 1809, when Mr. John Nichols edited his 

 Letters on Various Subjects, Literary, Political, and Ec- 

 clesiastical. A popular edition of the historico-biogra- 

 phical labours of this able prelate is much required.] 



Prostitution a religious Ordinance. — It is stated 

 in Dixon's Life of Penn, p. 45., as quoted in The 

 Three Days of Wensleydale, by W. G. M. J. 

 Barker, Esq., p. 85., that at the time of the Great 

 Rebellion, "in more than one part of the country^, 

 prostitution was practised as a religious ordinance." 

 What is the authority for this ? K. P. D. E. 



[Mr. Dixon's authority is "Mercurius (section ' Demo- 

 craticus '), Nos. 1—30." We do not understand this re- 

 ference. Among the King's pamphlets in the British 

 Museum is Mercurius Democritus, the first number of 

 which appeared on April 8, 1652.] 



Lempriere's " Universal Biography." — Which 

 is the latest edition of this work, as I have a copy 

 ofCadell's edition of 1808 interleaved, and con- 

 taining a quantity of well-written additions and 



