2nd s. No 108., Jan. 23. '58.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



63 



wit, truth, and sarcasm boldly to look every class 

 and corporate body in the face, and admonish 

 them of their duty — of this faithful servant of the 

 Kirk, and of society in general, except what may 

 be traced through his printed works (all now 

 scarce), I am not aware that any details of his 

 history have ever been given by any writer, nor 

 so much as that hls*name is to be found in any 

 biographical collection. He has yet a traditional 

 fame among our people (perhaps the highest 

 honour not to be forgotten after death), which 

 may transmit and preserve his name ; but it were 

 desirable that a few authentic memorials were 

 gathered up of one who was so eminent and use- 

 ful in his day, and it is probable that some of the 

 contributors to " N. & Q." may be able to add a 

 stone to the cairn. I know of noae better qualified 

 than my esteemed acquaintance the Rev. Hew 

 Scott, minister of Wester- Anstruther,^ Fifeshire, 

 whose long arid valuable researches in matters 

 connected witli the "Kirk of Scotland and her 

 ministers are justly appreciated. G. N. 



castell's "heptaglot lexicon." 



The following curious advertisements, relating 

 to one of the most learned and valuable of our 

 theological works, seem worthy of preservation in 

 "N. & Q." They are extracted from the old 

 numbers of the London Gazette, as specified : — 



" The long expected, often and many wayes most un- 

 happily obstructed and interrupted, Work of the Hepta- 

 ght Lexicon, compiled by Dr. Edmund Castell, is now 

 fully finished : And all the Subscribers to it are desired 

 to send for their several copies due in arrear to them, 

 from Tuesday the 11th Instant, and so every Tuesday, 

 Thursday, and Saturday weekly, unto a Ware-House in 



" The Necessity of erecting an Academy at Glasgow, 

 pp. 38. Glasgow, 1762." 



" The Scheme for erecting an Academy at Glasgow, 

 pp. 46. Glasgow, 1762." 



" A Defence of the College of G(lasgo)w, against an 

 insidious Attempt (his own) to depreciate the Ability 

 and Taste of its Frofessors, pp. 16. 1762." 



" Motives which have determined the University of 

 Glasgow to desert the Blackfriar Church and betake 

 themselves to a Chapel, pp. 62. Glasgow, 1764." 



« The Trial of a Student at the College of Clutha in 

 the Kingdom of Oceana, &c., pp. 76. Glasgow, 1768." 



" An Enquiry into the Causes of the Decline of Re- 

 ligion. A Sermon preached in the High Church of Glas- 

 gow, April 14, 1761 : Published at the Desire of the Synod, 

 2°<i Edit., pp. 40. Glasgow, 1761." 



" A Short History of the General Assembly of the 

 Church of Scotland — Rise and Progress of the Schism 

 Overture — Patronage Act, and the Means which the 

 Cliurch hath in her own power to mitigate or remove 

 that Gnevance, pp. 71. Glasgow, 1766." 



All in 8vo., with other publications quoted in former 

 articles of " N. & Q." 



Much curious Glasgow history, exceeding Waverhy in 

 point of time by-gone, will be found interspersed in Mr. 

 Thorn's various writings, as he is occasionally most amus- 

 ingly anecdotical and descriptive. 



the Charter-House, London: where they shall be de- 

 livered out from 8 of the Clock in the Morning until 12, 

 and from 2 in the Afternoon till 6." — London Gaz., 

 May 3, 1669. 



" Doctor Edmund Castell, the Author of the Heptaglot 

 Lexicon unto the Polyglot Bibles, a work wherein he has 

 laboured 18 years now current, expended also and buried 

 in this service not so little as 12,000 pounds, besides that 

 which has been brought in either by Benefactors or Sub- 

 scribers, after all this, hath with divers of his servants at 

 a very great charge attended the space of three-quarters 

 of a year upon a warehouse he hath in the Charterhouse, 

 London, for the delivering out of the Subscribers' Copies ; 

 who, though publick notice has been many times given 

 them, come in for them very slowlj' : The said Doctor, 

 therefore, desires all concerned persons whatsoever, either 

 to come or send for their Books between this and Lady- 

 day next ensueing at farthest ; the Doctor not being in a 

 condition to continue this charge any longer." — London 

 Gaz., Dec. 27, 1669. 



Dibdin tells us (^Introd. to Classics, vol. i. pp. 

 32—33,, edit. 1827), that it is said 500 copies 

 were unsold at the time of Castell's death : — 



" These were placed by M''» Crisp (his niece) in a room 

 of one of her tenants' houses in Surrey, where for many 

 years they lay at the mercy of the rats, who destroyed 

 them in such a manner that at her death her executors 

 could scarcely form one complete copj' out of them. The 

 whole load of waste paper was sold for 71. 1 ! " 



EiCHABD Hooper, F.S.A. 



White Waltham. 



ARCHBISHOP SHELDON, 1598 — 1677. 



The student of ecclesiastical biography is wont 

 to linger long over the lives of those Fathers who 

 have risen from the humblest origin to the dignity 

 of the episcopal bench. Their lives present all 

 the picturesque situations of romance ; and con- 

 tain the stimulating truth, that merit is not always 

 unrewarded in this world. Accordingly, biogra- 

 phers have seldom left the history of any suc- 

 cessful churchman unillustrated. One exception, 

 however, to this rule occurs in the case of Abp. 

 Sheldon. Interesting materials abound. But no 

 one has yet been willing to pay that " reverence 

 to his merits and memory " which Izaak Walton 

 considered " due from posterity." 



Sheldon was born at Stanton, a hamlet in the 

 parish of EUastone, Staffordshire. His name has 

 quite disappeared from the place. But the house 

 where his parents dwelt is carefully preserved ; 

 and a wooden tablet marks the room in which he 

 first saw the light. On the tablet are some lines, 

 ascribed to Dr. Hacket, of the Scrinia Reserata : 



" Sheldonus ille prassulum primus Pater, 

 Hos inter ortus aspicit lucem lares ; 

 O tu beatam Stantonis villae casam ! 

 Cui cuncta possunt invidere marmora." 



The register of his baptism appears in the Ella- 

 stone register- book : 



" 1598. Gylbarte the sonn of Roger Sheldon and hya 

 wyft'e was baptised y^ — of June. John Kuyhfe, Vicar." 



