Jan. 15. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



63 



curious old work in my possession, published in 

 1761 in London, and entitled A Memorial of An- 

 cient British Piety, or a British Martyrology. It 

 gives also the names of St. Moroc, C, Nov. 8 ; 

 St. Munnu, Ab., Oct. 21, both saints in the Scot- 

 tish calendar. A. S. A. 

 Punjaub. 



Epitaph in Chesham Churchyard. — 



" As an 



Encouragement 



to Regularity, Integrity, 



and good Conduct, 



This Stone 



was erected at the general Expense 



of the Inhabitants of 



this Town and Parish 



to perpetuate the Memory of 



Matthew Archir, 



who served the Office of Clerk with 



the utmost Punctuality and Decorum 



for upwards of Thirty Years. 



He died 15th December, 1793." 



F. B. Relton, 



Gentlemen Pensioners. — 



" On Saturday last, the Secretary to the Band of 

 Gentleman Pensioners did, by order of the Duke of 

 Montague their Captain, dispatch circular letters to 

 the said gentlemen, signifying his Grace's pleasure to 

 revive the ancient rules and orders that were practised 

 at the time of the first institution of the Band in the 

 reign of King Henry VII., viz. that five of the said 

 Gentleman Pensioners shall attend constantly every 

 day in the antechamber of the palace where His Ma- 

 jesty shall be resident, from ten in the forenoon till 

 three in the afternoon, the usual time of His Majesty's 

 retiring to go to dinner ; and on every Drawing Room 

 night from eight to twelve." — Weekly Journal, Jan. 4, 

 1735. 



E. 



Marlborough ; Curious Case of Municipal Op- 

 position to County Magistracy. — Shortly after the 

 invasion of the elder Pretender, the corporation 

 of Marlborough so far defied the royal authority 

 as to drive Ihe quarterly county sessions from the 

 town ; and high legal opinions were not wanting 

 to fortify the position thus assumed by the bo- 

 rough, on the ground, namely, of its municipal 

 charter, which secured to the town a court of its 

 own. 



Now, we all know that in early times a bo- 

 rough's court-leet exempted the burgesses from 

 the jurisdiction of the sheriff's " tourn," and that 

 up till the period of the Municipal Reform bill, 

 many charters still existed, verbally sustaining 

 such right of exemption ; but the Queries which I 

 wish to put are the following. First, Though the 

 crown's representative had no jurisdiction, had he 

 not a right to enter, and sit on cases foreign to the 

 borough? Secondly, What are the earliest in- 



fetances of county quarter sessions sitting in inde- 

 pendent boroughs ? Thirdly, Were the cases nu- 

 merous of similar acts of resistance at the period 

 alluded to, viz. the reign of George I. ? 



I take this occasion to state that I am drawing 

 to conclusion a history of Silkely Hundred, which 

 includes Marlborough and Lord Ailesbury's seat ; 

 and shall feel grateful for any information relating 

 to the Pretender's influence in that district. That 

 it must have been considerable may be argued from 

 the Ailesbury alliance by marriage with the young 

 Pretender. J. Watlek. 



Devizes. 



Wet Season in 1348. — Accidentally looking into 

 Holinshed a few days ago, I found that our pre- 

 sent unusually wet season is not without a pa- 

 rellel, indeed much exceeded ; as on that occasion 

 the harvest must have been a complete failure, 

 and dearth and disease consequently ensued. Pro- 

 vidence, however, has kindly blessed us with an 

 average harvest ; and, exclusive of the disasters 

 attendant upon storms and floods, I trust we shall 

 escape any further visitation. I annex an extract 

 of the passage in Holinshed : 



" In this 22 yeare [of Edward III., a.d. 1348], from 

 Midsummer to Christmasse, for the more part it con- 

 tinuallie rained, so that there was not one day and night 

 drie togither, by reason whereof great flouds insued, 

 and the ground therewith was sore corrupted, and 

 manie inconueniences insued, as great sickenes, and 

 other, insomuch that in the yeare following, in France, 

 the people died wonderfuUie in diverse places. In 

 Italia also, and in manie other countries, as well in 

 the lands of the infidels as in Christendome, this 

 grieuous mortalitie reigned, to the great destruction of 

 people. About the end of August, the like dearth 

 began in diuerse places of England, and especiallie 

 in London, continuing so for the space of twelue 

 moneths following. And vpon that insued great 

 barrennesse, as well of the sea as the land, neither of 

 them yielding such plentie of things as before they had 

 done. Wherevpon vittels and come became scant and 

 hard to come by."^ — The Chronicles of Raphaell Holin- 

 shed, fol., vol. iii. p. 378 (black letter). 



General Wolfe. — It may interest many of your 

 readers to know that a portrait of General Wolfe, 

 by Ramsay, 1758, is to be sold by Messrs. Christie 

 and Manson, at their rooms, 8. King Street, St. 

 James's Square, on Saturday, February 12. 



The picture is marked No. 300 in the catalogue 

 of the first two days' sale. It formed part of the 

 collection of a gentleman lately deceased, whom 

 I had the pleasure of knowing. C. Fobbes. 



Temple. 



