104 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 196. 



latter marriage was Charles Ileveningbam of 

 Lichfield (ob. 1782), who married a daughter of 

 Kobinson of Appleby, and John Heveningham. 



A Chip of the Old Block. 



Lady Percy, Wife of Hotspur (Dauglder of 

 Edmund Mortimer, Earl ofMarcK). — Upon what 

 authority does Miss Strickland say {Lives of the 

 Queens of England, vol. iv. p. 300.) that it is 

 stated "by all ancient heralds" that this lady died 

 without issue ? What herald can say this without 

 bastardising the second Earl of Northumberland ? 

 This assertion is a very sweeping one, and I have 

 sought in vain for the statement said to be made 

 by all heralds. G. 



Shape of Coffins. — It would be interesting to 

 ascertain in what localities any peculiar form of 

 coffin is used ? 



In Devonshire, particularly among the farmers 

 and poorer classes, the ridged coffin is very ge- 

 neral, the end being gabled. The top, instead of 

 being flat with one board, is made of two boards, 

 like the double roof of a house ; in other respects 

 the shape is of the common form. The idea is, 

 that such coffins resist much longer the weight of 

 the superincumbent earth ; but there can be no 

 doubt that it is a very ancient shape. _ Many years 

 ago I heard that in some parish in this county the 

 coffin was shaped like a flat-bottomed boat ; the 

 boat~shape is known to have been an old form. 



H. T. Ellacombe. 



Clyst St. George, 



St. George Family Pictures. — In Gough's Sepul- 

 chral Monuments, vol. iii. p. 77., it is mentioned, 

 with reference to the estate of Hatley St, George, 

 in county of Cambridge, that, at the sale of the 

 house in 1782, "The family pictures were removed 

 to Mr. Pearce's house at Cople, Bedford." Can 

 any one tell me if the family pictures here spoken 

 of were those of the St. George family (which in- 

 habited the house for six hundred years) ; and if 

 so, what has become of them ? R. A. S. O, 



Ceylon, June 11, 1853. 



Caley (John), ^^Ecclesiastical Survey of the Pos- 

 sessions, Sfc. of the Bishop of St. David's,'' 8vo. 

 1812. — The above is said, in a bookseller's cata- 

 logue, to be privately printed. It is unknown to 

 the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Black. Can 

 any of your readers give any information about it? 



John Maetin. 



Froxfield, 



Adamson's '■'■ Lusitania Illustrata.'" — Is there any 

 prospect of Mr. Adamson continuing his Lusitania 

 niustrata ? Could that accomplished Portuguese 

 student kindly inform me if there is any better 

 insight into Portuguese literature than that con- 

 tained in Bouterweck's Geschichte der Poesie und 

 Beredsamkeit? W. M. M, 



Blotting-paper. — When did blotting-paper first 

 come into use, Carlyle, in his Life of Cromwell^ 

 twice repeats that it was not known in those days. 

 Is not this a mistake ? I have a piece which I 

 am able to refer to 1670. Speriend. 



Poetical Versions of the Fragments in Athenmus. 

 — Can any of your correspondents inform me of 

 the locus of any of these, in addition to Blackwood^. 

 xxxvi., and Eraser's Magazine ? 



P. J. F. Gaktillon, B. a,. 



Hcpltc^* 



BOBEET DEURY. 



(Vol. v., p. 533. ; Vol. vii., p. 485.) 



Under the conviction that Robert Drury was a 

 real character, and his Madagascar a true narra- 

 tive of his shipwreck, sufferings, and captivity, I 

 crave your permission to give a few additional 

 reasons why 1 think he should be discharged from 

 the fictitious, and admitted into the catalogue of 

 real and bona fide English travellers. 



I have before stated that Drury did not skulk in- 

 the background when he published his book in 1727.; 

 but, on the contrary, invited the public to Tom's 

 Coffee-house, where he engaged to satisfy the in- 

 credulous, and resolve the doubting. By the 3rd 

 edition of Madagascar, 1743, it farther appears 

 that he continued "for some years before his 

 death" to resort to the above-named house; "at 

 which place several inquisitive gentlemen received 

 from his own mouth the confirmation of those 

 particulars which seemed dubious, or carried with 

 them the air of romance." The period was certainly 

 unpropitious for any but a writer of fiction, and 

 Drury seems to have anticipated no higher rank 

 for his Treatise, in point of authenticity, than that 

 occupied by the several members of the Robinson 

 Crusoe school. He, however, positively affirms it 

 to be " a plain honest narrative of the matter of 

 fact;" which is endorsed in the following terms 

 by " Capt. William Mackett :" 



« This is to certify, that Robert Drury, fifteen years 

 a slave in Madagascar, now living in London, was re- 

 deemed from thence and brought into England, his 

 native country, by myself. I esteem him an honest 

 industrious man, of good reputation, and do firmly be- 

 lieve that the account he gives of his strange and sur- 

 prising adventures is genuine and authentic." 



Mackett was a commander in the E. I. Comp. 

 service ; and the condenser of Drury's MSS., after 

 showing the opportunities the Captain had of as- 

 suring himself upon the points he certifies to, 

 characterises him as a well-known person, of the 

 highest integrity and honour : a man, indeed, as 

 unlikely to be imposed upon, as to be guilty of 

 lending himself to others, to carry out a deception 

 upon the public. 



