416 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 264. 



as she was leaving the church, and to compel her 

 to remain till the end of the service. They did 

 80, but as soon as the consecration took place, the 

 countess shrieked, burst from her guards, flew 

 through the churclx window, and was never more 

 Been. M. P. 



Buying the Devil (Vol. x., p. 365.). — " Buying 

 and selling the devil" has long been a proverbial 

 expression ; but that such a traffic was ever ac- 

 tually negotiated will scarcely be credited : never- 

 theless, ^\o\xn^s Law DictioTiary, under the article 

 Conventio, gives an instance of this sale. The 

 story is extracted from the court rolls of the 

 manor of Hatfield, near the isle of Axholme, in 

 Yorkshire. A copy of it is given in the Anti- 

 quarian Repertory., vol. ii. p 395., together with 

 the following English translation : 



"Curia tenta apud Hatfield die Mercurii prox. post 

 festum. Anno xi" Edw. III., 1337." 



*' Robert de Roderham appeared against John de Ithon, 

 for that he had not kept the agreement made between 

 them, and therefore complain.s tliat on a certain day and 

 year, at Thome, there was an agreement between the 

 aforesaid Robert and John, whereby' the said John sold 

 to the .said Robert the Devi), bound in a certain bond, for 

 threepence farthing, and thereupon the said Robert de- 

 livered to the said John one farthing as earnest-money, 

 by which the property of the said Devil rested in the 

 person of the said Robert, to have livery of the said 

 Devil on the fourth day next following ; at which Aay 

 the said Robert came to the forenamed John, and asked 

 delivery of the said Devil, according to the agreement 

 between them made. But the said John refused to deliver 

 the said Devil, nor has he yet done it, &c., to the great 

 damage of the said Robert, to the amount of 60s., and he 

 has therefore brought his suit, &c 



"The said John came, &c., and did not deny the said 

 agreement ; and because it appeared to the Court that 

 such a suit ought not to subsist among Christians, the 

 aforesaid parties are therefore adjourned to the infernal 

 regions, there to hear their judgment, and both parties 

 were amerced, &c. by William De Scargell, Seneschal." 



J. Yeowell. 



Charles I. and his Relics (Vol. x., p. 245.). — 

 Having read a paragraph on this touching por- 

 tion of our history in " N. & Q.," it may not be 

 amiss to apprise G. N. that the Prayer Book used 

 by the martyr-king, after his sentence, is now, 

 and has been since that trajjical event, in the 

 possession of the Evelyn family of Wotton Park, 

 near Dorking. The present owner of that de- 

 mesne is a descendant of tlie celebrated John 

 Evelyn, who was a staunch loyalist, ami co- 

 temporary with the ill-fated Charles. C. H. (1) 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



One of the best characteristics of the literature of the 

 present day is tl\e absence from all the higher journals of 

 articles animadverting on personal character or conduct. 



One of those exceptions which confirm the rule was made 

 by The Athenceum, on Saturday the 28th ult., in a review 

 of The Handbook for Advertisers, a book obviously issued 

 as a part of a .system of puffery almost unexampled, ex- 

 ercised in behalf of The Critic. Law Times, &c., of wliich 

 journals we should think nothing worse could be said 

 than that they should require such aid. In furtherance 

 of his object, the author of The Handbook not only ignores 

 the existence of The Literary Gazette, The Examiner, 

 The Spectator, and Notes and Queries, as literary papers, 

 but makes a statement of the sales of his own journals, 

 based on the Stamp Office Returns, which the reviewer 

 shows to be absolutely untrue. We say his own journals, 

 because we think The. Athenaeum identifies pretty dis- 

 tinctly the writer of The Handbook with Mr. William 

 Edward Cox — the proprietor of the journals to be puffed 

 — a barrister, whose connexion with the Law Times 

 formed the subject of a pungent article in Fraser's Ma- 

 gazine for November, 18.52. The Athenceum deserves the 

 thanks of the respectable portion of the press for the 

 manner in which it has entered upon this question, which 

 it well describes as one of " literary honour and business 

 integrity." 



The memory of the learned author of the Fasti Hel- 

 lenici and Fasti Romani m\ist be held in honour by every 

 classical scholar; and every such scholar will read with 

 interest the record of his persevering and continuous 

 studies in the recently published Literary Remains of 

 Henry Fynes Clinton, Esq., 3LA., Author of the Fasti 

 He/lenici, Sj-c. ; consisting of an Autobiography and Literary 

 Journal, and Brief Essays on Theological Subjects, edited 

 by The Rev. C J. Fynes Clinton, jVI.A. The book, al- 

 though of a nature that can never make it a popular one, 

 is worthy of note on many accounts. It furnishes an im- 

 port.mt lesson to the man of letters, by showing the vast 

 amount of preliminary study and intellectual labour by 

 which Mr. Fynes Clinton fitted himself for the great 

 works which he accomplished ; and exhibits a picture of 

 the inner life of a man of profound learning, sound sense, 

 and deep and unaflTected piety, delightful to contemplate. 



Of somewhat cognate character, inasmuch as it pictures 

 to us the mind of the accomplished writer, is Mrs. Jame- 

 son's new. volume, A Common-place Book of Thoughts, 

 Memories, and Fancies, original and selected. Part I. 

 Ethics and Character. Part II. Literature and Art, with 

 Illustrations and Etchings. Mrs. Jameson, who might 

 apply to herself the line of Leigh Hunt's — 



" I who do love the beautiful of things," — 



and who insists upon the Good and the True as the ele- 

 ments and essentials of the Beautiful, has given us in this 

 handsome volume the results of her habit of making a 

 memorandum of any thought which might come across 

 her, and of marking or remarking any passage in a book 

 which excited either a sympathetic or an antagonistic 

 feeling — a habit to which we are indebted for her works 

 on Shakspeare's Women, and on Sacred and Legendary 

 Art. The volume before us contains the fragments that 

 remained after her various other works had been formed 

 from materials so gathered together. She speaks modestly 

 of it as a book which " can do good only in one way. It 

 may, like conversation with a friend, open up sources of 

 syn'ipathy and reflection ; excite to argument, agreement 

 or disagreement, and, like every spontaneous utterance of 

 thought out of an earnest mind, suggest far higher and 

 better thoughts than any to be found here ro higher and 

 more productive minds " The work, which, like all Mrs. 

 Jameson's later productionsi, is rich in artistic beauty, 

 etchings and woodcuts alike redolent of grace, is destined 

 to extend still more widely the reputation of the authoress, 

 as one who thinks deeply and writes wisely. 



