Oct. 28. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



349 



ground in lease, and also gave lum_133Z, ;" so I 

 presume him to have been engaged in mercantile 

 pursuits. 



He figures as an author, having produced An 

 Apology or Defence for the Christians of France, 

 which are of the Ecangelical or Reformed Re- 

 ligion, translated out of the French, published 

 " Lond. 1579, 8vo.," so that he seems to have been 

 a man of some attainments and of the Protestant 

 faith. 



His family settled at Elford (co. StaflFord) and 

 Humberstone, and the heiress of their estates 

 about a century later took them, and for some 

 time the name also, into the Howard family, as 

 the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and 

 fifteenth Earls of Suffolk, I believe, bore the name 

 of Bowes, and then that branch of the Howards 

 failed. 



I am greatly obliged to both your correspon- 

 dents for their answers to my inquiry. Mr. 

 Cooper's Reply contains the anecdote I wanted, 

 Mr. Beaumont's being quite a new version to 

 me. The novel I alluded to was entitled 2'he 

 Czar, and was published about twelve or fifteen 

 years ago. At this time a notice of our first 

 envoy to Russia will, I doubt not, be read with 

 interest by many. A. B. 



DR. WILMOT. 



(Vol. X., p. 228.) 



Your correspondent William Bates is most 

 likely aware that a life of Dr. Wilmot was written 

 by his niece, Olivia Wilmot Series, who has put 

 forward other claims for notoriety by means well 

 known to many of your readers. As the work, 

 however, may not be generally known, I forward 

 a short description. An engraved frontispiece 

 bears this title : 



" Junius : James Wilmot, D. D., Fellow of Trinity 

 College, Oxford. 



' A Shelburne, Chatham, and a Camden too, 

 Each future period shall enraptur'd view; 

 Our Wiimofs name will also nobly live. 

 And patriot precepts to the unborn give, 

 Till thrones and empires each dissolve away, 

 And all approach the great, the awful day. 

 When God supreme his anger'd sceptre weilds, (sic) 

 And claims that truth on earth oppression shields.' " 



The printed title, — 



" The Life of the Author of the Letters of Junius, the 

 Rev. James Wilmot, D. D., late Fellowof Trinity College, 

 Oxford, Rector of Barton-on-the-Heath, and Aulcester, 

 Warwickshire, and one of his Majesty's Justices of the 

 Peace for that county. With portrait, fac-similes, &c. 

 By his niece, Olivia Wilmot Serres. Anima legis ratio. 

 London: sold by E. Williams, Bookseller to the Duke 

 and Duchess of York, No. 11. Strand; John Walker, 

 'No. 44. Paternoster Row ; and John Hatchard, No. 190. 

 Piccadilly. 1813. 8vo." 



It is dedicated " To the Most Noble the Marquis 



of Blandford, &c. &c. &c." In an address " To 

 the Public," the fair biographer states : 



" Her sole pretension consists in being the relative of a 

 patriot, whose fame will live until time shall be no more ; 

 and whose exertions have raised him a monument in the 

 hearts of his countrymen, more durable than trophies 

 erected b}' the hand of man. 



" The editor is aware that her assertions may create 

 much opposition ; but at a future period she may again 

 address you more explicitly ; when some additional evi- 

 dences shall be disclosed to the world, to substantiate the 

 reality of that claim she now makes in the behalf of her 

 late uncle, and to convince you that he was the author of 

 the Letters of Junius. 



" Dr. Wilmot lived in habits of friendship and con- 

 fidence with some of the most distinguished characters of 

 the age ; among them were Mr. Grenville, Lords North- 

 ington, Shelburne, and Sackville, together with the cele- 

 brated Mr. Wilkes, Mr. Thurlow, and Mr. Dunning. The 

 late Bishop of Worcester, Lords Plymouth, Archer, Sondes, 

 Bathurst, Grosvenor, Craven, and Abingdon, were ou 

 terms of intimacy with him, more particularly the three 

 first-named noblemen. He was well acquainted with 

 many members of the administration from 1766 to 1773 ; 

 and there is no question but that his poUtical information 

 was derived from these sources." 



The Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord North, 

 Mr. G. Onslow, Mr. Willes, Mr. H. Beauclerk, 

 the Princess Amelia, the Duke of Gloucester, the 

 Waldegrave family, the Russell family, Mr. Burke, 

 Lord Ashburton, Lord Chatham, the Marchioness 

 of Tavistock, Mr. Wharton, the Duke of York, 

 with many others, are mentioned as his intimate 

 friends and patrons. It is stated, p. 44., that one 

 or two of the poems in the Oxford ISausage were 

 the production of his pen. 



" Our friend was convivial in his habits, and liberal in 

 his use of old port. ' When alone he invariablj' drank 

 his bottle. He disliked white glass decanters, and Avould 

 always have his wine poured into a clean common green 

 bottle, which was named Cicero. " I like my wine," our 

 author would say, " and I do not choose to be admonished 

 by the transparency of my decanter." He once jokingly 

 told his niece Olivia (the editor of these memoirs) that 

 Jedediah Buxton, the famous calculator, had informed 

 him that he had drunk a sufficient quantity of port to 

 drown himself, at a bottle a da}'.' " 



Such is the character of Dr. Wilmot, one of the 

 supposed authors of Junius, and such the style of 

 writing of his niece, Miss Olivia Wilmot Serres. 

 I oflTer this notice of a somewhat scarce book to 

 the readers of " N. & Q.," without venturing to 

 agree with Mr. Beckford's opinion as to Dr. 

 Wilmot's merit. H. B., F. R. C. S. 



Warwick. 



THE POPE SITTING ON THE ALTAR. 



(Vol. X., pp. 161.273.) 



I hope that " N. & Q." will always avoid purely 

 theological questions. There may be reasons for 

 or against the pope seating himself supra altare, 

 but such reasons had better be left to the contro- 



