iOO 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 200. 



tionless, held their sovereip;n in check, and stub- 

 bornly persisted in the defence of their charge 

 against the attacks of their queen and mother. 

 Besides this disproval of the incapacitation of bees 

 by the emission of a sound, another from the ex- 

 periments of Huber himself may be mentioned. 

 He introduced a SpJiynx atropos into a hive in the 

 daytime, and it was immediately attacked and 

 killed by the workers. Query, Might not the 

 explanation of the robbery of hives by this moth 

 be, that the darkness of night incapacitates the 

 bees, while it is the time nature has provided for 

 the wanderings of the Sphynx ? Tee Bee. 



MILTON S WIDOW. 



^Vol. vii., p. 596. ; Vol. viii., pp. 12. 134.) 



A contribution of mine to the miscellaneous vol. 

 'of the Chetham Society's publications having been 

 introdiiced to your readers by the handsome no- 

 tice of Mb. Hughes, I feel bound to notice the ob- 

 jection raised by your correspondent Garlichithe 

 (Vol. viii., p. 134.), who has confounded Randle the 

 grandfather and Randle the son of the writer of 

 theseletters quoted by Mr. Hunter. Richard Min- 

 shuU, who was the writer of these letters in 1656, 

 and died in the following year, had several sons, 

 of whom the eldest, Randle, correctly described 

 by Mr. Hughes as the great-great-grandson of 

 the MinshuU who first settled at Wistaston, had 

 seven children, of whom Elizabeth, the widow 

 of Milton, was one. She was baptized at Wistaston 

 on the 30th Dec. 1638. In 1680 (about six years 

 after her husband's death), by means of a family 

 arrangement with Richard MinshuU of Wistaston, 

 frame-work knitter, who, there can be little doubt, 

 was her brother, evidenced by a bond in my posses- 

 sion, she acquired a leasehold interest in a farm 

 at Brindley, near Nantwich. On the 20th July, 

 1720, by her name and description of Elizabeth 

 Milton, of Nantwich, widow, she administered to 

 the effects of her brother, John MinshuU, in the 

 Consistory Court of Chester ; and her will, the 

 probate of which is also in my possession, is dated 

 22nd August, and proved 10th October, 1727. Mr. 

 Hughes having given a reference to the volume 

 where this information will be found in detail, a 

 reference to it might have saved Garlichithe 

 the trouble of starting an objection, and sliown 

 Lira that, so far from the facts stated being' irre- 

 concilable with Mr. Hunter's tract, that gentle- 

 man's reference to Randle Holme's Correspondence 

 w.as suggested by a communication of my own to 

 The Athenceum, and in its turn furnished me with 

 the clue from which I eventually ascertained the 

 particulars of Mrs. Milton's birth and parentage. 

 I am sorry to say that I have wholly failed in 

 finding the register of her marriage : it is not in 

 the register-book of her native place. It might 



be worth while to search the register of the 

 parishes in which Milton's residence in Jewin 

 Street, and Dr. Paget's in Coleman Street, are 

 situate. There is no uncertainty as to the date, 

 which Aubrey tells us was in " the yeare before 

 the sicknesse." 



Though Cranmore (Vol. v., p. 327.) is said to be 

 a deserter from the ranks of " N. & Q.," I hope he 

 is known to some of your readers, and that they 

 will convey to him a hint that he is under some- 

 thing like a promise to furnish information, which, 

 as regards Dr. Paget's connexion with the poet's 

 widow, will still be welcome. J. F. Marsh. 



Despite his acknowledged infidelity, I must 

 tender my thanks to Garlichithe for his oblig- 

 ing reference to Mr. Hunter's tract ; albeit there 

 is, I may be permitted to suggest, no position 

 assumed in my note upon Milton's widow which 

 that tract in any way contravenes or sets aside. 

 The fact is, Garlichithe, in the outset, entirely 

 misapprehends the nature of my argument ; and 

 so leads himself, by a sort of literary " Will-o'- 

 the-wisp," unconsciously astray. 



It was not Randle the grandfather of Richard 

 MinshuU, writer of the two letters transcribed by 

 Mr. Hunter, but Randle the eldest son of this 

 Richard MinshuU to whom I referred as the father 

 of Elizabeth Milton. Nor is it possible that this 

 Elizabeth could have " died in infancy," seeing 

 that I possess a copy of a bond (the original is 

 also extant) from her brother Richard, then of 

 Wistaston, where he was baptized April 7, 1641, 

 secured to her as Elizabeth Milton^ dated June 4, 

 1680. 



As to the marriage itself, it may have taken 

 place in London, where the poet resided ; or, 

 which is more probable, at or near the residence 

 of their mutual friend. Dr. Paget. Milton was 

 certainly not over-careful about ritual observances, 

 and it is not therefore unlikely that the rigid 

 Puritan preferred a private, or what is termed a 

 civil marriage, to one religiously and properly 

 conducted in the church of his forefathers. 



T. Hughes. 



PECULIAR ORNAMENT IN CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 



(Vol. viii., p. 55.) 



It is probable that these circles with eight ra- 

 diations are the original dedication-crosses of the 

 church. Such crosses are still to be seen painted 

 on the piers of the nave in Roman Catholic 

 churches. Durandus, describing the consecration 

 of a church, says : 



" In the meanwhile within the building twelve 

 lamps be burning before twelve crosses, wliich be de- 

 picted on the walls of the church Lastly, he 



[the bishop] anointeth with chrism the twelve crosses 



