Oct. 23. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



387 



body was drawn quite over the neck where the 

 head had been cut off; the head was laid straight 

 with the body, and where the joining of the neck 

 and head should have been, it was tied round with 

 a broad black ribbon. His hands were crossed on 

 his breast, the wrists were tied with black ribbon, 

 and the thumbs were tied together with black 

 ribbon. He had a peaked beard, and a quantity 

 of long brown hair curled and clotted with blood 

 round his neck : the only mark on anything about 

 him was on the linen on his chest, just above 

 where his hands were crossed ; on it were the 

 letters T B worked In black silk. On trenching 

 towards the chancel we came on four leaden 

 coffins laid side by side, with inscriptions on each : 

 one contained the body of Francis, Earl of Chi- 

 chester and Lord Dunsmure, 1 653 ; the next the 

 body of Audrey, Countess of Chichester, 1652 ; 

 another the body of Lady Audrey Leigh, their 

 daughter, 1640; and the fourth, the body of Sir 

 John Anderson, son of Lady Chichester by her 

 first husband. We opened the coffin of Lady 

 Audrey Leigh, and found her perfectly embalmed 

 and in entire preservation, her flesh quite plump 

 as if she were alive, her face very beautiful, her 

 hands exceedingly small and not wasted ; she was 

 dressed in fine linen trimmed all over with old 

 point lace, and two rows of lace were laid flat 

 across her forehead. She looked exactly as if she 

 were lying asleep, and seemed not more than six- 

 teen or seventeen years old ; her beauty was very 

 great; even her eyelashes and eyebrows were 

 quite perfect, and her eyes were closed ; no part of 

 her face or figure was at all fallen in. We also 

 opened Lady Chichester's coffin, but with her the 

 embalming had apparently failed ; she was a ske- 

 leton, though the coffin was half full of aromatic 

 leaves : her hair, however, was as fresh as if she 

 lived ; it was long, thick, and as soft and glossy as 

 that of a child, and of a perfect auburn colour. 

 In trenching on one side of where the altar had 

 been, we found another leaden coffin with an in- 

 Bcription. It contained the body of a Dame Marie 

 Browne, daughter of one of the Leighs, and of 

 X Lady Marie, daughter to Lord Chancellor Brack- 

 ley. This body was also quite perfect, and em- 

 balmed principally with a very small coffee-co- 

 loured seed, with which the coffin was nearly filled, 

 and it also had so powerful a perfume that it filled 

 the whole place. The linen, ribbon, &c., were 

 quite strong and good in all these instances, and 

 remained so after exposure to the air : we kept a 

 piece out of each coffin, and had it washed without 

 its being at all destroyed. Young Lady Audrey 

 had earrings in her ears, black enamelled serpents. 

 The perfume of the herbs and gums used in em- 

 balming them was so sickening, that we were all 

 ill after inhaling it, and most of the men employed 

 in digging up the coffins were ill also. My ob- 

 ject in sending this account is, if possible, to dis- 



cover who the beheaded man is. The chapel is on 

 the estate of Lord John Scott, who inherited it 

 from his paternal grandmother the Duchess of 

 Buccleuch, daughter of the Duke of Montagu, 

 into whose family Nuneham Regis and other pos- 

 sessions in Warwickshire came by the marriage of 

 his grandfather with the daughter of Lord Duns- 

 mure, Earl of Chichester. L. M. M. R. 



"the spectator," no. I., JUNE 13, 1716. 



Perhaps some of your bibliographical readers 

 can state who was the projector and editor of the 

 following periodical, and how many numbers of it 

 were published. A copy of the first number is 

 now before me. It is entitled The Spectator^ 

 No. I., with the following mottoes : 



" Parve, (nee invideo) sine me, Liber, ibis in Urbem," 



Ovid. 



" Why ! I can smile, and murther while I smile." 



Shakspeare. 



It is dated "Wednesday, June 13, 1716." In 

 the first paragraph the writer thus speaks of him- 

 self: 



" Least doubt may arise concerning my abilities, 

 I'll first give a particular account of myself, and then 

 of those friends engaged with me in this work ; for, as 

 my great predecessor Sir Richard Steele has observed, 

 a perfect knowledge of the author conduces very much 

 to the right understanding of his writings." 



The remainder of this fly-leaf of folio contains 

 an account of the writer's birth and parentage, as 

 well as of his travels and adventures ; and con- 

 cludes with the following notice : 



" Those who desire correspondence with Ttie Specta- 

 tor, may direct their letters to Mr. Morphew, near 

 Stationers' Hall, where all papers shall be inspected 

 that will any ways contribute to the advantage of the 

 public, and the authors have all fitting acknowledg- 

 ments of gratuity." 



The impi'int is in one line : " London, printed 

 and given gratis, 1716." I may mention, that it 

 appears to have been published subsequently to 

 I'he Spectator, vol. ix., noticed by Lowndes, which 

 was conducted by a Mr. William Bond, with the 

 assistance of a few friends, No. I. of which ap- 

 peared Jan. 3, 1715. J. YeoweUj. 

 Hoxton. 



Guide-books. — Can any of your correspondents 

 furnish me with the dates and authors' names of 

 the earliest published descriptions of the scenery 

 on the Wye, of the English and Scotch lakes, 

 Welsh tours before Pennant's, and of the Isle of 

 Wight. I recollect having seen at the Royal 

 Hotel at Ross an old small 4to. volume without 



