422 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 265. 



■without having first learned Dutch, sinks into insignifi- 

 cance." 



The university cannot now, I am happy to say, 

 be charfjed with so strange an anomaly. In the 

 year 1840 a Professorship of Irish was founded, 

 and for the encouragement of the study of the 

 language, the Board have placed a liberal sum of 

 money for annual premiums at the disposal of the 

 professor. Moreover, the Governors of the Irish 

 College of St. Columba, and also the Committee 

 of the Irish Society, have, with the sanction of the 

 authorities, founded several scholarships in the 

 University, designed for candidates for the mi- 

 nistry. How true indeed is the maxim, " Better 

 late than never I " Abhba. 



1253 Descendants. — In " N. & Q," (Vol. vii., 

 p. 547.) is an account of William Strutton, who 

 left 251 descendants, which had appeared before 

 in Vol. v., p. 283. ; and in Vol, vi., pp. 106. 209., 

 of Mrs Mary Honeywood, who lived to see 367 

 lawfully descended from her. Fuller, in his 

 Worthies of England, "Buckinghamshire," p. 138., 

 relates that — 



" Dame Hester Temple had four sons and nine 

 daughters, which lived to be married, and so exceed- 

 ingly multiplied, tliat this lady saw 700 extracted from 

 her body. Reader, I speak within compass, and have 

 left myself a reserve, having bought the truth hereof 

 by a wager I lost." 



But the following from the Annual Register for 

 1804, p. 51. of the " Chronicle," throws all these 

 into the shade : 



" At Gloves, near Athenry, Ireland, after a short 

 illness, Mr. Denis Coorobee, of Ballindangin, aged ] 17. 

 He retained his faculties to the last, and until two 

 days previous to his death, he never remefmbered to 

 have any complaint or sickness whatever, toothache 

 only excepted. Three weeks before his death he 

 walked from his house to Galway, and back the same 

 day, which is twenty-six miles. He could, to the last, 

 read the smallest print without the assistance of glasses, 

 which he never accustomed himself to, with as much 

 ease as a boy of sixteen. It has been acknowledged 

 by the most intelligent men of this kingdom, that, for 

 the present age, he was the most experienced farmer, 

 and the brightest genius for the improvement of agri- 

 culture; it is upwards of seventy years since he propa- 

 gated that most useful article to the human species 

 called the 'black potatoe.' He was married seven 

 times, and when married to the last he was ninety-three 

 years old ; by them all he had 48 children, 236 grand- 

 children, 944 great-grandchildren, and 25 great-great- 

 grandchildren, the oldest of whom is four years old ; 

 and his own youngest son, by the last wife, is about 

 eighteen years old." 



Zeus. 



Nelson and tlie Apple-iooman. — As the slightest 

 anecdote of our great naval hero appears to me to 

 be not without interest, I am induced to make a 



note of a passage in Nelson's early life which has 

 not (I am informed) been hitherto noticed in 

 print. Nelson was passing an evening with the 

 family of a London hosier, when the pater-familias, 

 coming in from the street, narrated as an amusing 

 anecdote a misadventure which had just befallen 

 a poor apple-woman. The poor woman had her 

 stall In the street ; a man, while pretending to 

 purchase apples, had made fast one end of a cord 

 to a leg of the apple-stall, and the other end to the 

 back of a hackney coach. Off went the coach, 

 dragging the apple-stall along with it ; the fruit 

 was scattered in the mud, the apple-woman was in 

 tears and despair : the hosier thought it a most 

 capital joke, and laughed immoderately. But 

 Nelson thought it no laughing matter ; his kindly 

 heart was touched by the poor woman's distress, 

 and he at once left the house, sought out the 

 apple-woman, and more than recompensed her for 

 the loss she had sustained. 



CUTHBEET BeDE, B. A. 



i^tnor cauerteiS. 



The Fire of London in 1666. — The vaticina- 

 tions of this great calamity, and its forerunner 

 the plague, collected by Mr. Sternberg, are in- 

 teresting (Vol. vii., pp. 79. 153.) ; but whether 

 they were uttered before or after the vaticinated 

 events, is now of little consequence. The ques- 

 tion, however, is still open. Did the fire originate 

 in accident or design ? Historians generally con- 

 cur in attributing it to the former ; but the fol- 

 lowing seems to point to the latter : 



" At the Committee of Trade and Plantations, in the 

 Council Chamber at Whitehall, Thursday the loth of 

 Dec, 1681 : present. His Highness Prince Kupert, Lord 

 Privy Seal, Earl of Craven, &c. 



" The petition of CoP William Doughty, refcrr'd by an 

 order of Council of the 18th of Nov. last," is read, where- 

 in, &c. _^ 



" CoU Doughty does farther acquaint the Comittee, that 

 about two months before the ffire of London, my L"! Tafi's- 

 brother, a Capuchin, Col' Mort Obryan, and scv' others 

 in France, did speak of a great disaster that should 

 happen shortly after in England, and that soon after 

 this discourse he saw at Paris this Capuchin, my L'^ Taff's 

 brother, in gentleman's cloaths and equipage. And as for 

 the particular discourse, he refers himself to a letter writ- 

 ten by him the said Col' Douglass {sie) at that time to 

 Col. Nicholas Carew here in London. Col' Doughty does, 

 likewise make oath to the truth of what is above men- 

 tioned, according to the best of his reinembrauce ; w«i^ 

 their Ldps agree to report unto his Maty in Council to- 

 morrow in the afternoon, and Dr. {sic) Nich« Carew is ap- 

 pointed to give his attendance at that time." 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." furnish the sub- 

 stance of the report made by the Council on the 

 following day, and the result of the examination 

 of Dr. or Col. Carew, which no doubt followed ? 

 Are the original minutes of the proceedings of the 



