380 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d s. V, 123., May 8. '58, 



If riches alone could make people happy, the last 

 two proprietors of this immense wealth ought to 

 have been so, but they never were." {Letters, 

 iv. 459.) 



To what does Lord Chesterfield allude in the 

 foregoing extracts ? The Bradford Estate ap- 

 pears to have been devised by Lord Bradford to his 

 mistress and her son. The latter becoming insane, 

 she devised the estate to Lord Bath, the school- 

 fellow and fellow-collegian of Lord Bradford : 

 Bishop Newton says that the contents of the will 

 were matter of surprise to both Lord and Lady 

 Bath, and we may easily suppose that a will, made 

 under these circumstances, was a surprise to others, 

 and provoked many remarks. Did it give Lord B. 

 the sobriquet to which Horace Walpole alludes, 

 Will Pulteney ? The large property in Bath, 

 each street bearing the name of some member of 

 this family, and which, from the progress of build- 

 ing, may, since the purchase was made, in 1726, 

 have been augmented in value fifty or one hun- 

 dredfold, was bought by the Earl from the de- 

 scendant of Capel, Earl of Essex.* 



To return to William, the father, the subject of 

 H. B.'s inquiry ; we may presume that, free from 

 the din and jars of political strife, he may have led 

 the quiet life of a country gentleman — hunting 

 and shooting over his Leicestershire property — 



" In peaceful joy he passed each hour, 

 Nor envy'd VValpoIe's wealth and power; 

 And reckoned wonderful inviting 

 A Quarter Sessions, or cockfighting." 



It is worthy of remark that after the death of 

 the Earl's father in 1715, no one member of this 

 most opulent family left a male heir. With the 

 Countess of Bath, who died in 1808, the race be- 

 came extinct. J. H. M. 



BACON S ESSAYS. 



(2"i S. v. 251.) 



1. " This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly 

 when the wives have plots for the raising of their own 

 children, or else that they be advoutresses." — Essay xix. 

 " On Empire." 



EiBiONNACH supposes advoutresses to mean 

 " votaresses, fanatic devotees." The word advou- 

 tress or avoutress means adulteress, as Eihionnach 

 may learn by a reference to Johnson, or any dic- 

 tionary of archaic words. The word adulterium 

 underwent this change both in Italian and French, 

 and it is from the French form that the English 

 word is borrowed. 



2. " Some there are that know the resorts and falls of 

 business, that cannot sink into the main of it; like a 

 house that hath convenient stairs and entries, but never 

 a fair room. Therefore you shall see them find out pretty 

 looses in the conclusion, but are no ways able to examine 

 or debate matters." — Essay xxii.. On Cunning. 



♦ CoHiuson's Somersetshire, vol. i, p. 121. 



EiRioNNACH thinks that " resorts and falls " 

 are " rise and fall," or that " resorts" may mean 

 " relapses." He suggests that " main " may be 

 the " sea," or the " chief part of the business." 

 He interprets " looses " by " losses." I cannot 

 accede to these explanations. By " resort " is 

 meant a spring ; " fall," in this context, seems 

 to be used as in the phrase " to try a fall," that 

 is, to wrestle. A " loose " seems to be here used 

 in the same sense as Xva-ts, for a " refutation." 

 The entire passage would then mean that some 

 men know which are the points of contention 

 in any business, though they cannot penetrate 

 into its heart ; and they are able to find flaws 

 in the conclusion arrived at by others, though 

 they themselves can contribute nothing to the 

 discussion. 



3. In Essay xxxiii. on Plantations, " to certify 

 over to their country," seems to mean, " to apply 

 for assistance to the mother-country." 



4. " The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them 

 be upon a fair open newtl, and finely railed in, with 

 images of wood, cast into a brass colour, and a very fair 

 landing-place at the top." — Essay xlv. on Building. 



A newel is the pillar of stone or wood upon 

 which a winding staircase turns. See Halliwell's 

 Dictionary, in v. 



5. In the same Essay an " avoidance " for water 

 is an issue ; the place by which water escapes or 

 empties itself. L. 



HONOUR OF A F£EB. 



(2"'i S. V. 317.) 



The origin of " protesting on his honour " must 

 be sought in our National Constitution temp, the 

 Norman-French kings. The fountain of honour 

 was not then, as now, exclusively in the person of 

 the sovereign-regnant. On the contrary, the 

 great parliamentary barons — barones regni — of 

 those times not only shared with their chief the 

 responsibilities, but also the highest immunities of 

 the State. " Such rights were the very essence of 

 the feudal system. The prerogatives of both king 

 and barons were defined ; but the diflference ori- 

 ginally between them was more in name than in 

 degree. Hence we find the Kings of Navarre and 

 Castile referring their disputes to the joint arbi- 

 tration of Henry I. and his barons (" Comites et 

 barones regalis curiae Anglias adjudicaverunt ") ; 

 the Earl of Warren producing an old sword as 

 his warranty for his land, in answer to a Quo 

 Warranto brought against him, and adding that 

 " William the Bastard did not conquer the king- 

 dom for himself, but that his ancestors were joint 

 adventurers in the enterprise, and sharers and as- 

 sistants therein ;" and the right which the barons 

 jealously maintained of confirming the creation of 

 every new peer. 



