NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 258. 



torted." It is to be regretted that this account 

 Las been withheld from the public. With Lady 

 Mary, Pope was on friendly terms up to Septem- 

 ber 15, 1721. This appears from the published 

 correspondence. Before 1728, the rupture had 

 taken place, as appears from the couplet in The 

 Dunciad : 



" Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris, 

 Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady JMarics." 



This is an insidious allusion to Lady Mary's gam- 

 bling transactions with M. Euzemonde, detailed in 

 Lord Wharncliife's edition of Lady Mary's Works, 

 and in Carruthers' Life oj" Pope. The poet him- 

 self points out the allusion in a note to the passage 

 in Wo7'ks, vol. ii., edit. 1735 : 



"This passage," he saj's, "was thought to allude to 

 a famous lady, who cheated a French wit of 5000/. in the 

 South-Sea year. But the author meant it in general of 

 all bragging travellers, and of all whores and cheats 

 under the name of ladies." 



This coarse note I have found only in the edition 

 of 1735. Now, had there been any overt oiFence 

 on the part of the witty and sarcastic lady be- 

 tween 1721 and 1728 ? Pope, in his letter to 

 Lord Hervey, 1733, states that he had not the 

 least misunderstanding with Lady Mary till after 

 he was the author of his own misfortune by dis- 

 continuing her acquaintance. The real question, 

 however, is, had Lady Mary published any sar- 

 casm or lampoon on Pope before he made the 

 offensive allusion to her in The Dunciad f Her 

 famous satire (written in conjunction with Lord 

 Hervey) was a reply to a subsequent attack in 

 1733. With Dennis, Pope was the aggressor, and 

 also with Aaron Hill. N. B. 



THE LORB CIIANCKLLOK S PURSE. 



It may not be an uninteresting Note, to record 

 in the pages of " N. & Q." the various changes 

 that have taken place in the material and colour 

 of the purse in which the Lord Chancellor carried 

 the Great Seal ; which, till the reign of Henry VIII., 

 was of the most simple character ; and then, under 

 the rule of the " proud Cardinal," received the 

 most ostentatious additions. 



In the earlier times, no purse whatever is men- 

 tioned ; the seal being placed in the wardrobe 

 when not in actual use. The first allusion to a 

 purse is in 1 Edw. II., when the v.'ords " in qua- 

 dam bursa rubea" are used, being the only time 

 during tliat reign ; but as l^^e seal was then always, 

 described as being kept under the Seals of the 

 Chancellor, or Keeper, or some other persons, it is 

 clear tliat it had some cover. This cover in 

 1 Edw. in. is called "in quodam panno lineo;" 

 followed in the next year by " in quadara bursa." 

 This is changed in 1 1 Edw. IH. to " in quadam 

 baga;" and in the following year to "bursa 



rubea." Two years afterwards, the linen cover- 

 ing again appears, " in quadam pecia tecaa linese." 

 The colour is next altered to " bursa alba ;" and 

 then the material, " bursa de corio," " bursa albi 

 corei," "baga de corio." We then find, in 35 Hen. 

 VI., that one of the three seals then used was "in 

 baga de nigro corio,** and the other two " in ba- 

 gis de aibo corio ;" and three years afterwards all 

 the three bags are white. So it went on till the 

 reign of Henry VIII., in the seventh year of which 

 Cardinal Wolsey received the seal in "baga da 

 albo corio:" but the description was very differ- 

 ent when he gave it up on October 17, 1529, 

 21 Henry VIII. 



To the Cardinal's magnificence we owe the 

 splendour of the modern receptacle of the Great 

 Seal. Though the old "baga de albo corio" was 

 retained, we find it placed " in quadam alia baga 

 sive Teca de Veluto criraisino desuper armis et 

 insigniis Anglise ornata." This description is 

 varied in the next and succeeding reigns, accord- 

 ing to the taste of the writer of the record. In 

 38 Eliz. we have " in crumenam holosericam 

 rubeam cum serenissime Regina Majestatis in- 

 signibus segmentatam." In James I., " in quen- 

 dam succulum velvetti rubei insigniis regis deco- 

 ratam more assueto : " expressions which are 

 improved in the sixteenth year of that king's 

 reign to " alio jam marsupio auro, serico, et regiis 

 insignibus affabre intexto." 



To Cardinal Wolsey's love of processional 

 pageantry also, we may probably trace the modern 

 practice of carrying a silver-gilt mace before the 

 Lord Chancellor ; though it may be doubtful 

 whether it was borne before Wolsey in that cha- 

 racter, or solely as Legate and Cardinal. 



Edward Foss. 



HIGH CHURCH AND LOW CHURCH. 



(^Concluded from p. 262.) 



The great principle of religious toleration is a 

 discovery of very recent date. Butler's exqui- 

 sitely-witty lines on " Tiie True Church Militant" 

 apply as well to Papists as Puritans, to High 

 Church as well as Low Church. 



The High Churchmen, unfortunately, had re- 

 course to an argument which cuts both ways ; 

 they taught their opponents " the holy text of 

 pike and gun," and to 



" Decide all controversies by 

 Infallible artillery ; 

 And prove their doctrine orthodox 

 By apostolic blows and knocks." 



By penal kws and acts of uniformity they erected 

 an " Establishment " at the loss of a Church : and 

 by abject servility to the State they gained their 

 temporalities at the loss of spiritual power. They 

 were all this time tying a halter round their own 



