262 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 176. 



John Thornholme, of Gowthorpe, near York, 

 to whom arms were granted Sept. 11, 1563, was 

 probably not of the same family? These arms 

 are — On a shield argent, three thorn-trees vert. 

 Crest : On a mount vert, a tower argent. Motto : 

 " Probitas verus honos." 



Any particulars as to the early and subsequent 

 history of this last-named family would also be 

 valuable. 0. 



Poisons. — What are supposed to have been the 

 poisons used for bouquets, gloves, &c., in the time 

 of Catherine de Medici, and her friend Eene ? 



H. A. B. 



Open Seats or Pews in Churches. — Mr. Barr 

 (^Anglican Church Architecture: Oxford, Parker, 

 1846) gives measurements, as by experience, found 

 most convenient for many parts of this description 

 of church fitting ; but he gives not the length of 

 each sitting, or, in other words, the space, measured 

 along the length of the bench, that should be allowed 

 for each person. Neither does he give the height 

 nor the breadth of the flat board to rest the elbows 

 on when kneeling, or to place the books upon, 

 which he proposes to substitute for the common 

 sloping bookboard. Neither does he appear to 

 have paid any attention to the disposal of the hats 

 with which every male worshipper must, I fear, 

 continue to be encumbered, and which I like not 

 to see impaled on the poppy-heads, nor piled on 

 the font, nor to feel against my knees when I sit 

 down, nor against my feet when I kneel. If any 

 of your correspondents could name a church Sn 

 the open seats of which these things have been 

 attended to, and well done, I should be much dis- 

 posed to go and study it as a model for imitation ; 

 and if satisfied with it, I should want little per- 

 suasion for commencing the destruction of my old 

 manor pew, and the fixing of open seats on its site. 



K.EGEDONUM. 



Burial of unclaimed Corpse. — In the parish of 

 Markshall, near Norwich, is a piece of land now 

 belonging to the adjoining village of Keswick. 

 Tradition states that it was once a part of Mark- 

 shall Heath ; but, at the enclosure, the parishioners 

 of Keswick claimed and obtained it, because some 

 years before they had interred the body of a mur- 

 dered man found there ; the expenses of whose 

 funeral the rate-payers of Markshall had inhu- 

 manly refused to defray. I think I have some- 

 where read a similar statement respecting a por- 

 tion of Battersea Fields. Can either of these cases 

 be authenticated ; or is there any law or custom 

 which would assign a portion of a common to a 

 parish which paid for the burial of a corpse found 

 on it? E. G. R. 



Sir John Powell — the judge who tried the 

 seven bishops. Where was he buried ? i. e. where 

 is his epitaph (which is given in Heber's Life of 

 Jeremy Taylor) to be seen ? A. C. R. 



[He was buried on September 26, 1696, in the 

 chancel of the church of Langharne, in Carmarthen- 

 shire, where there is a tablet to his memory, with a 

 Latin inscription, recording that he was a pupil of 

 Jeremy Taylor. The judge had a residence in the 

 parish,] 



"Reynard the Fox." — There was a book printed 

 in 1706 entitled The secret Memoirs of Robert 

 Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Prime Minister and 

 Favorite of Queen Elizabeth, written during his 

 Life, and now published from an old Manuscript 

 never printed ; by Dr. Drake : printed by Samuel 

 Briscoe, 1706. In his Preface he alludes to the 

 History of Reynard the Fox : 



" There is an old English book, written about the 

 time that these memoirs seem to have been, which now 

 passes through the hands of old women and children 

 only, and is taken for a pleasant and delightful tale, but 

 is by wise heads thought to be an enigmatical history 

 of the Earl of Leicester and his family, and which he 

 that compares with these memoirs, will not take to be 

 an idle conjecture, there are so many passages so easily 

 illustrable, by comparing it with these memoirs. The 

 book I mean is the History of Reynard the Fox, in 

 which the author, not daring to write his history plainly, 

 probably for fear of his power, has shadowed his ex- 

 ploits under the feigned adventures and intrigues of 

 brutes, in which not only the violence and rapacious- 

 ness, but especially the craft and dissimulation, of the 

 Earl of Leicester is excellently set forth." 



I shall feel much obliged to any of your readers 

 who can inform me of the earliest English edition 

 of Reynard the Fox, and whether others besides 

 Dr. Drake have taken the same view of the history. 



W. D. Haggakd. 



Bank of England. 



[The earliest edition of Reynard the Fox is that 

 printed by Caxton in 1481. Caxton's Translation was 

 again printed by Pynson, and afterwards by Thomas 

 Gualtier in 1550. Caxton's edition is of extreme 

 rarity ; but there is a reprint of it by the Percy Society 

 in 1844: with an introductory Sketch of the literary 

 history of this popular romance, in which our corre- 

 spondent will find a notice of the principal editions of 

 it which have appeared in the various languages into 

 which it has been translated.] 



Campvere, Privileges of. — May I ask the kind 

 assistance of any of your readers on the following 

 subject? Sir W. Davidson, who was political 

 agent or envoy in Holland under King Charles II., 

 is stated to have been " resident for H. M. king- 

 dom of Scotland, and conservator of the Scots 

 privileges of Campvere in the Low Countries," &c. ; 



