April 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



405 



Uncle Sam has lately announced collections of 



Dr. Maginn's and De Quincey's scattered Essays, 



for which we owe him our most grateful acknow- 



. ledgments. . J- M. B. 



Tunbridge Wells. 



Odd Mistake. — 



«« One of the houses on Mount Ephraim formerly 

 belonged to Judge Jeffries, a man who has rendered 

 his name infamous in the annals of history hy the cruelty 

 and injustice he manifested in presiding at the trial of 

 King Charles I." — Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge 

 Wdls, by John Britten, F.S.A., p. 59, 



Voila comment on fait I'histoire ! 



J. M. B. 

 Tunbridge Wells. 



Thomas Shakspeare. — In the year 1597 there 

 resided in Lutterworth in Leicestershire, only dis- 

 tant from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth- town 

 of Shakspeare, a very few miles, one Thomas 

 Shakspeare, who appears to have been employed 

 by William Glover, of Hillendon in Northampton- 

 shire, gentleman, as his agent to receive for him 

 and give an acquittance for a considerable sura of 

 money. 



Having regard to the age in which this Thomas 

 Shakspeare lived, coupled with his place of resi- 

 dence, is it not probable he was a relative of the 

 great Bard ? Chablecote. 



Early Winters. — I heard it mentioned, when in 

 St. Petersburg very lately, that they have never 

 had so early a commencement of winter as this 

 last year since the French were at Moscow. 



1 find in accounts of the war, that the winter 

 commenced then (1812) on November 7, N. s., with 

 deep snow. Last year (1852) it commenced at 

 St. Petersburg on October 16, s. s., as noted in 

 my diary, with snow, which has remained on the 

 ground ever since, accompanied at times with very 

 severe frost. 



Query : Can November 7, n. s., be the correct 

 date ? If it is, this last winter's commencement 

 must be unprecedented ; as I have always heard 

 it remarked, that the winter began unusually early 

 the year the French were at Moscow. 



I may mention as a note, that by the last ac- 

 counts from Russia, they say the ice in the Gulf of 

 Finland was four and a half feet thick. J. S. A. 



Old Broad Street. 



SATIRICAL PLATING CARDS. 



I have lately been much interested in a pack of 

 cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and 

 suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth 

 at the Hague, and representing the chief per- 

 sonages and the principal events of that period. I 



have been able, by reference to historical authori- 

 ties, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broad- 

 sides in the British Museum, forming the collection 

 presented to the nation by George IIL, to explain 

 the whole pack, with the exception of two. These 

 are " Parry, Father and Sonne," and " Simonias 

 slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The 

 former simply represents two figures, without any 

 thing to offer a clue to any event ; the latter gives 

 the representation of six Puritans, forming an 

 assembly, who are being addressed by one of the 

 body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to 

 whom such a name has been applied, in any of the 

 Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. 

 Probably some of your readers can help me in this- 

 matter. Of these cards I can find no notice : they 

 are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have 

 escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatta.- 

 They were purchased at the Hague, more than 

 thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are • 

 exceedingly curious : indeed they form a bundle 

 of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal per- 

 sons of the time figure in some characteristic 

 representation, and the private scandal is also 

 recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found 

 under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert ; Sir 

 Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which 

 his own corrects him ; and he is also being beaten 

 by a footboy, — which event is alluded to in Butler's 

 Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom 

 your pages have given some interesting inform- 

 ation, is represented as " The Knight of the Golden 

 Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal 

 with a pension to Holland, where he is known to 

 have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have 

 drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope 

 this communication may enable me to complete 

 my account of these cards, the explanation of 

 which may probably throw light upon some of the 

 stirring events of that extraordinary period of our 

 history. T. J. Pettigrew. 



Saville Row. 



MOVABLE METAL TYPES ANNO 1435. 



A vellum MS. has lately come into my posses- 

 sion, containing the Service for the Dead, Prayers, 

 &c., with the tones for chanting, &c , in Latin, 

 written for a Cerman Order, apparently about the 

 year 1430. 



This tome, which is in small 4to., is very re- 

 markable and valuable on account of the binding. 

 This is red leather, stamped with double lines 

 forming lozenges, and powdered with additional 

 stamps. Or, a lion, a fleur-de-lys, an eagle, and a 

 star. The whole is on the plain leather, without 

 any gilding. 



But in addition hereto, a full inscription runs 

 along each back, at top and bottom and each side, 

 stamped with movable metal types applied by hand, 



