Oct. 22. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



389 



and occasion of its first public performance, will be 

 welcome to Philo- Handel. 



Edmund Spenser and Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. — 

 As I believe myself (morally speaking) to be 

 lineally descended from tbe former of these cele- 

 brated men, and collaterally from the latter, may I 

 request that information may be forwarded me, 

 either throu^xh your columns or by correspon- 

 dence, regarding the descendants of the great poet 

 iind liis ancestry ; and also whether, among the 

 many thousand volumes bequeathed by Sir Hans 

 to the nation, some record does not exist tending 

 to prove his genealogical descent ? At present I 

 linow of no other pedigree than that Mr. Burke has 

 given of him in his Extinct Baronetage. I shall feel 

 •CKceedingly gratified if any assistance can be given 

 ine relating to these two families. 



W. Sloane Sloane-Evans. 



Cornwortby Vicarage, Totnes, 



The Ligurian Sage. — In Gifford's Mceviad, 

 lines 313-316, I read,— 



" Together we explored the stoic page 

 Of the Ligurian, stern tho' beardless sage ! 

 Or trac'd the Aquinian thro' the Latin road, 

 And trembled at the lashes be bestow'd." 



The Aquinian is of course Juvenal ; but I must 

 •confess me at fault with respect to the Ligurian. 



W. T. M. 



[The Ligurian sage is no doubt Aulas Persius 

 Placcus, who, according to ancient authors, was born 

 at Volaterra; in Etruria ; but some modern writers 

 conclude tliat he was born at Lunce Portus in Liguria, 

 Trom the following lines (Sat. vi. 6.), which seem to 

 relate to the place of his residence : 



" Mibi nunc Ligus ora 

 Intepet, hybernatque metim mare, qua latus ingens 

 Dant scopuli, et multa littus se valle receptat. 

 Lunai portum est operas cognoscere, cives." 



"When approaching the verge of manhood, Persius be- 

 came the pupil of Cornutus the Stoic, and his death 

 "took place before he had completed his twenty-eiglith 

 year.] 



Greseh'ok in YorTishire. — Can you or any of 

 jour correspondents give me any information as 

 to what part of Yorkshire the manor of Grese- 

 brok lies in ? In Shaw's History of Staffordshire 

 (2 vols, folio), there is a " Bartholomew de 

 ■Gresebrok" mentioned as Avitness to a deed of 

 Henry III.'s time, made between Robert de Gren- 

 don. Lord of Shenston, and Jno. de Baggenhall ; 

 which family of Gresebrok, it is said, " probably 

 took their name from a manor so called in York- 

 shire, and had property and residence in Shen- 

 £tone, from this early period to the beginning of 



the century, many of whom are recorded iu the 

 registers from 1590 to 1722." 



The above is quoted by Shaw from Sanders's 

 History of Shenstone, p. 98., and perhaps some of 

 your correspondents may possess that work, and 

 will oblige me by transcribing the necessary in- 

 formation. 



Any particulars of the above family will much 

 oblige your constant reader 'Hpa\5j/cos. 



[According to Sanders, the family of Greisbrook 

 was formerly of some note at Shenstone. He sajs that 

 " Greisbrook, whence the family had their name, is a 

 manor in Yorkshire, which, in the reign of Henry III,, 

 was in the great House of Mowbray, of whom the 

 Greisbrooks held their lands. Roger de Greisbrook 

 (temp. Henry II.) is mentioned as holding of the fee 

 of Alice, Countess of Augie, or Ewe, daughter of 

 William de Albiney, Earl of Arundel, by Queen Alice, 

 relict of Henry I." T'.ien follow some particulars of 

 various branches of the family, from the year 1580 to 

 the death of Robert Greisbrook in 1718. Sanders's 

 History is included in vol. i\.oi Bihliotheca Topographica 

 Britannica.'^ 



Stillingfleet's Library. — The extensive and 

 valuable library of Edward Stillingfleet, the 

 learned Bishop of Worcester, who died in 1699, 

 is said to be contained in the library of Primate 

 Marsh, St. Patrick's, Dublin. Can any of your 

 correspondents state how it came there ? Was 

 it bequeathed by the bishop, or sold by his de- 

 scendants ? He died at Westminster, and was 

 buried in Worcester Cathedral. 



J. B. Whitbobnb. 



[Bishop Stillingfleet's library was purchased by 

 Archbishop Marsh for his public library in Dublin. 

 A few years since Robert Travers, Esq., M. D., of 

 Dundrum near Dublin, was engaged in preparing for 

 publication a catalogue of Stillingfleet's printed books, 

 amounting to near 10,000 volumes. The bishop's 

 MSS. were bought by the late Earl of Oxford, and 

 are now in the Harleian Collection. See The Life of 

 Bishop Stillingfleet, 8vo., 1735, p. 135., and Biog. Brit. 

 s. v.] 



The whole System of Law. — On December 26, 

 1651, the Long Parliament, stimulated by Crom- 

 well to various important reforms in civil matters, 

 resolved, — 



" That it be referred to persons out of the House to 

 take into consideration what inconveniences there are 

 in the law, and how the mischiefs that grow from the 

 delays, the chargeableness, and the irregularities in the 

 proceedings of the law, may be prevented ; and the 

 speediest way to reform the same." 



The commission thus appointed consisted of 

 twenty-one persons, among whom were Sir Ma- 

 thew Hale, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and John 

 Rushworth. They seem to have set to work with 

 great vigour, and submitted a variety of impor* 

 tant measures to Parliament, many of which were 



