Nov. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



387 



not being undesirable. Query also, whether related 

 to Captain Upton,"the reported constructor of the 

 more important defences of Sebastopol ? 



In my possession is a memorial from Lieut. 

 John Upton to the Secretary at War, 1790, stat- 

 ing that he had assisted in raising the 72nd, or 

 Royal Manchester Volunteers, and had served in 

 that corps at Gibraltar ; but had subsequently 

 been reduced to half-pay, and concludes by re- 

 questing to be put on active service. Reference 

 is made to Lord Heathfield and Sir Robert Boyd, 

 the former of whom certifies by signature as 

 follows : 



" The Memorialist did serve during the siege at Gi- 

 braltar, and always discharged his duty as became a faith- 

 ful officer. Heathfield. 



" Turnham Green, 18th May, 1790." 



The Upton I inquire about is said to have been 

 in the Engineers, and his wife to have written a 

 poem on the subject of the siege. Fuevus. 



Plumstead Common. 



Furnace Cinders. — In IsTo. 1404. p. 1150. of 

 The Athenceum appeared the following paragraph : 



"A new Use for Furnace Cinders. — A useful invention, 

 for which we are indebted to a Dr. W. H. Smith, of Phi- 

 ladelphia, has lately been the subject of experiments 

 made at Merthyr Tydvil, under the authority of Lady 

 Charlotte Guest and other proprietors of iron works. Dr. 

 Smith professes to produce from the scorice east aside from 

 the blast-furnaces a variety of articles of daily use, such 

 as square tiles, paving-flags, and bottles, the last of which 

 are much stronger, and the annealment more complete 

 than in the common glass bottles, from which in appear- 

 ance they are scarcely to be distinguished. The scoria 

 are thrown into a mould before they have time to cool. 

 If it should turn out to be possible to put the furnace 

 cinders to such uses, the invention will be of great im- 

 portance to all proprietors of blast-furnaces." 



Now, in Cooke's Topographical Library, "Here- 

 fordshire," p. 119., I stumbled on the following 

 passage : 



" About two miles to the cast of Goodrich are the iron 

 works of Bishop's -Wood furnace, and some powerful en- 

 gines for stamping the ancient scoria, &c. to powder, which 

 is manufactured here to considerable advantage." 



Not to trouble you farther with more passages, 

 I will just add, that Mr. Thos. Wright, in his 

 Wanderings of an Antiquary, p. 11., makes men- 

 tion of the same thing, and adds, — 



"And this powder is carried down to Bristol, where it 

 is used for making coarse glass bottles." 



_ What I wish to know is, if there really is any 

 difference, and if there be, is it that in the one 

 case the scorice are first reduced to powder, and 

 in the other are thrown into a mould before they 

 have time to cool ? T. E. N. 



Erasmus's ^^Adagia." — In what does the small 

 edition of Erasmus's Adagia, published by Elze- 

 vir, 1650, differ from the editio princeps in folio ? 



H. E.W. 



Bruce. — Not having access to any extensive 

 library, I should feel obliged to any of your 

 genealogical correspondents to give me inform- 

 ation respecting the Hon. Robert Bruce, one of 

 the sons of the first Earl of Ailesbury, of whom 

 all I know is, that he was elected M. P. for Marl- 

 borough in 1702 and 1710; for Great Bedwin in 

 1722 ; and that he died in May, 1729, aged sixty- 

 two. Also respecting his brother, the Hon. James 

 Bruce, who was elected M. P. for Great Bedwin 

 in 1702, and for Marlborough in 1708. He was 

 living in 1716. Were they married? Had they 

 issue ? When did James die, and where was he 

 buried ? Who was the Rev. George Bruce, 

 " frater germanus " of Alexander, Earl of Kincar- 

 dine? He died May 27, 1723, aged eighty- one. 



Patonce. 



Chaucer's Parish Priest. — It is hinted in the 

 Westminster Review for July last, that this de- 

 lineation in the Canterbury Tales " has been sur- 

 mised to have been sketched from Wiclif in his 

 later days." What are the grounds, if any, for 

 such a surmise ? J. P. 



[This is merely conjectural, probably from the fact that 

 when Wiclif was warden of Canterbury College, Oxford, 

 he is said to have had under his tuition, or at least as a 

 student in that house, Geoffrey Chaucer. Hence the editor 

 of The Persone of a Toun, published in 1841, has added 

 the following note to a paraphrase of the lines — 



" Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder, 

 But he ne left nought for no rain ne thonder." 



" Though Lutterworth lies north, no doubt Chaucer drew 

 his friend Wickliff herein." And Le Bas, in his Life of 

 Wiclif, p. 211., speaking of the Reformer as a parish 

 priest, says, " It may with propriety be mentioned here, 

 that the faithfulness, the zeal, and the spirit of charity, 

 with which all the duties of a parochial minister were 

 discharged by Wiclif, have given occasion to the conjec- 

 ture, that he may have been the real original of Chaucer's 

 celebrated picture of the Village Priest."] 



Decalogue in Churches. — When, and by whom, 

 were the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Command- 

 ments first introduced authoritatively into our 

 churches ? And if this was done after the Re- 

 formation, on what grounds is it now considered 

 correct to paint them in Saxon, Lombardic, tallf 

 black-letter, and other very far pre-Reformation 

 characters ? P. P. 



[By the Canons published at the commencement of the 

 reign of James I., 1603, it was ordered " that the Ten 

 Commandments be set up on the east end of every church 

 and chapel, where the people may best see and read the 

 same, and other chosen sentences written upon the walls 

 of the said churches and chapels, in places convenient." 

 (Canon Ixxxii.) Their being painted in mediaeval cha- 

 racters is simply a matter of taste, exhibiting the biblio- 

 maniacal propensities and devotion of our churchwardens 

 and architects to the Roxburgh Club and "black letter."] 



