April 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



409 



name in the list of Cambridge graduates. Still, if 

 he was of neither university, it seems difficult to 

 account for his having had the successive prefer- 

 ments of Chaplain to the Princess of Denmark, 

 Almoner to the Duke of Gloucester, Clerk of the 

 Closet to the Queen, and in 1706 Dean of Ro- 

 chester. He died in 1728, aged seventy-one. 

 Merchant Taylors'. 



Portrait of Franhlin. — I have heard of a story 

 fo the effect that when Franklin left England, 

 he presented a portrait of himself, by West, to 

 Thurlow. I am exceedingly anxious to know if 

 there is any foundation for this, as during the last 

 week I saw in a shop near the chapel here, a por- 

 trait of the philosopher which I rather suspect to 

 be the one alluded to. H. G. D. 



Knightsbridge. 



*' Enquiry into the State of the Union.'' — A book 

 of much importance has fallen into my hands, en- 

 titled — 



"An Enquiry Into the State of the Union of Great 

 Britain. The past and present State of the public 

 Revenues. By the Wednesday's Club in Friday Street. 

 London : printed for A. and W, Bell, at the Cross 

 Keys, Cornhill ; J. Watts, in Bow Street, Covent 

 Garden : and sold by B. Barker and C. King, in 

 Westminster Hall ; W. Mears arid .T. Brown, without 

 Temple Bar; and W. Taylor, in Paternoster Row. 

 1717." 



Can any of your correspondents throw a light 

 upon this Wednesday's Club, in Friday Street? 

 Was it a real club or fictitious ? 



By so doing you would greatly oblige me, and 

 afford important information to this office. 



James A. Davies. 



National Debt Office. 



Bishop of Oxford in 11 64. — Among the names 

 of the bishops who signed the Constitutions of 

 Clarendon I see " Bartholomeus Oxoniensis Epis- 

 copus." How is this signature accounted for ? 

 There are no other signatures of suffragan or in- 

 ferior bishops attached. W. Fraser. 



Tor-Mohun. 



[Clearly a misprint for Bartholomeus Exoniensis 

 Episcopus, the celebrated Bartholomew Iscanus, the 

 opponent of Thomas a Becket. Our correspondent 

 should have given the title of the work where he found 

 the signatures, as they are not appended to the ♦' Con- 

 stitutions" in Matthew Paris, Spelman, or Wilkins.] 



Roman Inscription found at Battle Bridge. — I 

 shall be very much obliged if any one of your 

 numerous readers or correspondents will be so 

 kind as to furnish me with an authentic copy of 

 the inscription on the Roman stone which in July 



1842 was found at Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, and 

 also state where the original stone is to be seen. 

 The account of the discovery of the stone is men- 

 tioned in a paragraph which appeared in The Times 

 newspaper of the 30th July, 1842, in the following 

 manner : 



" Antiquities discovered. — A Roman inscription 

 has within these few days past been discovered at Battle 

 Bridge, otherwise, by an absurd change of denomina- 

 tion, known as King's Cross, New Road, St. Pancras. 

 This discovery appears fully to justify the conjectures 

 of Stukeley and other antiquaries, that the great battle 

 between the Britons under Boadicea and the Romans 

 under Suetonius Paulinus took place at this spot. 

 Faithful tradition, in the absence of all decisive evidence, 

 still pointed to the place by the appellation of Battle 

 Bridge. The inscription, which in parts is much obli- 

 terated, bears distinctly the letters ' leg. xx.' The 

 writer of this notice has not yet had an opportunity 

 personally to examine it, but speaks from the inform- 

 ation of an antiquarian friend. The twentieth legion, 

 it is well known, was one of the four which came into 

 Britain in the reign of Claudius, and contributed to its 

 subjugation : the vexillation of this legion was in the 

 army of Suetonius Paulinus when he made that vic- 

 torious stand in a fortified pass, with a forest in his rear, 

 against the insurgent Britons. The position is sketched 

 by Tacitus, and antiquaries well know that on the 

 high ground above Battle Bridge there are vestiges of 

 Roman works, and that the tract of land to the north 

 was formerly a forest. The veracity of the following 

 passage of Tacitus Is therefore fully confirmed : — • 

 ' Deligltque locum artis faucibus, et a tergo sylva 

 clausum ; satis cognito, nihil hostium, nisi in fronte, et 

 apertam planitiem esse, sine metu insidiarum.' He 

 further tells us that the force of Suetonius was com- 

 posed of ' Quartadecima legio cum vexillariis vicessi- 

 mariis et e proxlmis auxiliares.' " 



S. R. 



[A sketch of this fragment of stone, discovered by 

 Mr. E. B. Price, Is given In the Gentleman's Magazine 

 for August, 1842, p. 144.] 



Blow-shoppes. — 



" Wild bores, bulls, and falcons bredde there in times 

 paste ; now, for lakke of woodde, blow-shoppes decay 

 there." — Leland's Itin., Hearne's edit., vol. vii. p. 42. 



What is the meaning of blow-shoppe f J. B. 



[Leland appears to refer to blacksmiths* forges, which 

 decayed for lack of wood.] 



Bishop Hesketh (Vol. vii., p. 209.). — There is 

 evidently an error in your note respecting the 

 death of Bishop Hesketh, but it is one common to 

 all the lists of Manx bishops to which I have 

 access. You state that he died in 1510: it is 

 certain that he was living in 1520. 



He was a son of Robert Hesketh, of Rufford, 

 CO. Lane, and his brother Richard Hesketh, 

 " learned in the lawe," and who is stated by Kimber 

 to haye been Attorney-General to King Hen.VlII.» 



