July 16. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



55 



Some of the things which seem to be indubitable 

 respecting the original work are these : — 1. That 

 it was first printed in 1535. 2. That, consequently, 

 Bishop Burnet (Hist, of Re/., Part I. b. iii. p. 166. : 

 Dublin, 1730) was mistaken in representing it as 

 having been written in reply to Cardinal Pole. 



3. That there was an octavo edition published at 

 Strasburg in 1536, and that Goldastus followed it. 



4. That there was an additional reprint of the 

 tract at London in 1603. (Schelhornii, Amoen. 

 Hist. JEccles., torn. i. pp. 15. 849.) But I am 

 anxious to make three inquiries relative to this 

 really important document and its fictitious pre- 

 face. 



1. The Roane volume, certainly the earliest in 

 English, professes to have been printed by " Mi- 

 chal Wood" in 1553. Can we not determine the 

 place of its origin by the recollection of the fact, 

 that Bishop Bale's Mysterye of Iniquyte, or Con- 

 futation of Ponce Pantolabus, was printed at Geneva 

 by "Mychael Woode" in 1545 ? 



2. With regard to the typographical achieve- 

 ments of the Brocards, is it not rather an apropos 

 circumstance, that " IBiliosus Balaeus," as Fuller 

 calls him, was the author of a Historia Divi Bro- 

 cardi? (Ware's Works, ii. 325.) 



3. May not Bale (or Baal, according to Pits) 

 be suspected to have been the composer of the 

 Bonnerian Preface ? He might have reckoned it 

 among the many Facetias et Jocos which he de- 

 clares that he had put forth. It is observable that, 

 while the writer of this Preface designates Bishop 

 Gardiner as the " common cutthrot of Englande," 

 the same title is bestowed upon Bonner in the 

 Foxian Letter addressed to him by " an unknown 

 person" (Strype's Memor. iii., Catal. p. 161.: Lon- 

 don, 1721), and which, from internal evidence 

 taken from the part relating to Philpot, must be 

 referred to the year 1555. The style of these per- 

 formances is similar ; and let " gaie Gardiner, 

 blow-bole Boner, trusti Tonstal, and slow-bellie 

 Samson " of the Preface be compared with " glo- 

 rious Gardiner, blow-boUe Bonner, tottering Tun- 

 stal, wagtaile Weston, and carted Chicken." (Bale's 

 Declaration of Bonner' s Articles, fol. 90. b., Lon- 

 don, 1561.) R. G. 



Lord Byron. — What relation to the poet was 

 the Lord Byron mentioned in the Apology for the 

 Life of George Ann Bellamy ? Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



Curious Custom of ringing Bells for the Dead. 

 — In Marshfield, Massachusets, it has been cus- 

 tomary for a very long period to ring the bell of 

 the parish church most violently for eight or ten 

 minutes, whenever a death occurs in the village ; 

 then to strike it slowly three times three, which 



makes known to the inhabitants that a man or 

 boy has expired, and finally to toll it the number 

 of times that the deceased had numbered years of 

 existence. 



The first settlers of Marshfield having been 

 Englishmen, may I ask if this custom ever did, or 

 does now, exist in the mother country ? W. W. 



Malta. 



Unpublished Essay by Lamb. — Coleridge is 

 represented in his Table Talk (p. 253. ed. 1836), 

 to have said that " Charles Lamb wrote an essay 

 on a man, who had lived in past time." The 

 editor in a note tells us he knows " not when or 

 where." I do not find it in the edition of his 

 works published in 1846, nor have I been able to 

 discover it in any of the journals, to which he 

 contributed, that have fallen in my way. Have 

 any of your correspondents met with it ? 



R. W. Elliott. 



Peculiar Ornament in Crosthwaite Church. — On 

 lately visiting Crosthwaite Church, Cumberland, 

 I was exceedingly struck with the great peculi- 

 arity of a carving, pointed out to me by the sexton, 

 on the left jambs of all the windows in the north 

 and south aisles, both inside and out. It is in the 

 form of a circle with eight radiations, and always 

 occurs about half-way between the shoulder of the 

 arch and the sill. During the late restoration of 

 the church, it has been covered with plaster in 

 every case in the interior, save one in the north 

 aisle, which Is left very distinct. It does not 

 appear on any of the windows at the east end or 

 in the tower. I noticed a similar figure over the 

 stone door-way of the old inn at Threlkeld, with 

 the letters C G inscribed on one side, and the 

 date 1688 on the other. The sextonsaid, he had 

 never been able to obtain any intelligence as to 

 its symbolical meaning or , history, although he 

 had inquired of nearly every one who had been 

 to see the church. Can any of your correspon- 

 dents throw a light upon the subject? 



R. W. Elliott. 



CromwelVs Portrait. — In the Annual Register, 

 1773, " Characters," p. 77. ; in Hughes's Letters, 

 ii. 308. ; in Gent. Mag., xxxv. 357. ; and in 

 Noble's Hotise of Cromwell, i. 307., is a statement, 

 originally made by Mr. Say, of Lowestoft, in his 

 account of Mrs. Bridget Bendish, importing that 

 the best picture of Oliver which the writer had 

 ever seen, was at Rosehall (Beccles), in the pos- 

 session of Sir Robert Rich. Where is this por- 

 trait ? Has it ever been engraved ? S. W. Rix. 



Beccles. 



Governor Brooks, about a century since, was 

 governor of one of the West India Islands. I have 

 heard Cuba named as his government ; and it 

 might have been that, the short time Cuba was in 



