286 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 177. 



after making every deduction for an apparent 

 effect in this matter, I confess I am disposed to 

 think that the notion is not an erroneous one. Can 

 any of your correspondents account for it on phi- 

 losophical principles, or disprove it experimentally ? 



C. W. B. 



DenmarTi and Slavery. — Dr. Madden, in A 

 Twelve Months' Residence in the West Indies, 1834, 

 says, in allusion to a remark of Mr. Brydges, to 

 the effect that England was the last European 

 power to enter into the slave trade, and the first 

 to abandon it, " This is inaccurate: to the honour 

 of Denmark be it spoken, the slave trade was 

 abolished by her five years before England per- 

 formed that act of tardy justice to humanity" 

 (vol. il. p. 128.). The object of the present com- 

 munication is neither to question nor disparage the 

 merit here claimed for Denmark, in reference to 

 "the slave trade:'''' it concerns the abolition of 

 slavery itself by that power. I shall therefore be 

 obliged to any reader of " N. & Q." who will inform 

 me when freedom was granted to the negroes in 

 the Danish island of St. Thomas, in the same 

 manner as to those of the British West Indian 

 colonies in 1838 ? And also in what work I can 

 find any detailed account of such act of manu- 

 mission? L. L. 



Spontaneous Combustion. — Is there such a thing 

 as spontaneous combustion ? H. A. B. 



Sucks, most ancient and honourable Society of. — 

 A candid inquiry into the principles and practices 

 of this society, with its history, rules, and songs, 

 was published in 1770. It appeared that there 

 were at that time thirteen lodges of the society in 

 London, and a few in other places. Do any lodges 

 of this society still exist ? Did they issue any 

 medals ? Do they, or did they, wear any badges? 

 Who wore them, officers only, or all members ? 

 How many varieties were there, and of what sizes ? 

 The book I have, and two varieties of Avhat I sup- 

 pose may have been worn as badges. 



Edw. Hawkins. 



Lines quoted by Charles Lamb. — There are some 

 lines quoted by Charles Lamb in one oi the. Essays 

 of Elia : I am very anxious to know whose they 

 are : 



" Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines, 

 Curl me about, ye gadding vines, 

 And oh ! so close your circles lace 

 That I may never leave this place. 

 But, lest your fetters prove too weak, 

 Ere I their silken bondage break, 

 Do you, oh briars ! chain me too, 

 And courteous brambles nail me through !" 



L. M. M. R. 



Descendants of Dr. Bill. — Are there any re- 

 cords extant of the family or descendants of Dr. 



Bill, whose name is first on the list of those who 

 drew up the Prayer-Book, tempus Edward VI. ? 

 He was also Lord Almoner to Queen Elizabeth. 

 Dr. Bill's only daughter and heiress, Mary Bill, 

 was married to Sir Francis Samwell : had she any 

 family, and did they assume the name of Bill ? 



Did a branch of the family settle in Stafford- 

 shire, and where ? A. R. M. 



" The Rebellious Prayer.'" — Can any of your 

 readers inform me whether some stanzas entitled 

 " The Rebellious Prayer " have ever yet appeared 

 in print, and, if so, in what collection of poems they 

 are to be met with ? The opening lines are as 

 follows : 



" It was a darken'd chamber, where was heard 

 The whisper'd voice, hush'd step, and stifled sounds 

 Which herald the deep quietness of death," &c. 



They describe the anxious watchings of a wife at 

 the sick couch of her husband. In her agony she 

 prays that his life may be spared, at whatever cost: 

 her prayer is granted, and her husband is restored, 

 but bereft of reason. J. A. 



Ravenshaw and his Worhs. — Can any of your 

 readers give me information, or refer me to any 

 works, of John Ravenshaw, who was ejected from 

 Holme-Chapel* under the Act of Uniformity ? He 

 is described by Calamy as having been a good 

 scholar, and possessing a taste for poetry. B. 



Yolante de Dreua (Vol. vi., pp. 150. 209.). — 

 J. Y. has given this queen's second marriage, but 

 not the date or the names of her issue. I am 

 aware that her husband Arthur II. (not I.) was 

 Duke of Bretagne, 1305-12, and that her only 

 son John III., born 1293, succeeded ; but the 

 names and marriages of her five daughters still 

 remain unnoticed, as also any notices of her father 

 the Count of Dreux, or of her mother. A. S. A. 

 ' Wuzzeerabad. 



[The names of the five daughters of this lady and 

 their alliances are as follow : — 1. Johanna, born 1294, 

 married to Robert of Flanders, Lord of Cassel. 2. 

 Beatrix, born 1295, married Guido X., Baron of 

 Laval, in 1315, died 1384. 3. Alisa, born 1297, mar- 

 ried, 1320, Burchard VI., Count of Vendosme, died 

 1377. 4. Bianca, died an infant. 5. Mary, born 1302, 

 became a nun, and died 1371. The father of Yolante 

 de Dreux was Robert IV., Count of Dreux, Braine, 

 Montfort, and I'Amaury, and died November 14, 1282. 

 Her mother was Beatrix, daughter and heiress of John 

 Count of Montfort, I'Amaury, and Lord of Rochefort, 

 married in 1260. This is given on the authority of 

 Anderson's Royal Genealogies, table 378, p. 620.] 



[* Or Church-Holm, in Cheshire.] 



