588 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 210. 



Col. Edw. Coke, and INIr. Hen. Firebracc. With the 

 Character of tliat Blessed Martyr, by the Reverend 

 Mr. John Diodati, Mr. Alexander Henderson, and the 

 Author of tlie Princehj Pelican. To which is added, 

 the Death- Bed Repentance of Mr. Lentlial, Speaker 

 of the Long Parliament ; extracted out of a Letter 

 written from Oxford, Sept. 166-i. London : printed 

 for Robert Clavell, at the Peacock, at the West-end of 

 St. Paul's, 1702." 



The " Advertisement to the Reader " states that, 

 " there having been of late years several Memoirs 

 printed and published relating to the life and actions 

 of the Royal Martyr, King Charles I., of ever-blessed 

 memory, it was judged a proper and seasonable time 

 to publish Sir Thomas Herbert's Carolina Threnodia, 

 under the title of his Memoirs, there being contained in 

 this book the most material passages of the two last 

 years of the life of that excellent and unparallel'd prince, 

 which were carefully observ'd and related by the author 

 in a large answer of a letter wrote to him by Sir Wil- 

 liam Dugdale. In the same book is printed Major 

 Huntington's relation made to Sir William of sundry 

 particulars relating to the King ; as also Colonel Edw, 

 Coke's and Mr. Henry Firebrace's narratives of seve- 

 ral memorable passages observed by them during their 

 attendance on him at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, 

 anno '48. All these were copied from a MS. of the 

 Right Reverend the Bishop of Ely, lately deceased ; 

 and, as I am credibly informed, a copy of the several 

 originals is now to be seen amongst the Dugdale MSS. 

 in Oxford library. To these Memoirs are added two 

 or three small tracts, which give some account of the 

 affairs of those times, of the character of K. Charles I., 

 and of his just claim and title to his Divine Meditations. 

 These having been printed anno 1646, 48, 49, and very 

 scarce and difficult to procure, were thought fit to be 

 reprinted for publick service. As to the letter which 

 gives an account of Mr. Lenthal's carriage and be- 

 haviour on his death-bed, it was printed anno 1662, 

 and the truth of it attested by the learned Dr. Dicken- 

 son, now living in St. Martin's Lane This I 



thought fit to advertise the reader of, by way of intro- 

 duction, that he might be satisfied of the genuineness 

 of the respective pieces, and thereby be encouraged to 

 peruse them with confidence and assurance."] 



" Liturgy of the Ancients." — Who was the 

 author of a thin 4to. book entitled The Liturgy 

 of the Ancients represented, as near as may he, 

 in English Forms, Sfc, " London, printed for the 

 Authour, 1696." He added to it "A Proposal of 

 a compleat work of Charity." T. G. Lomax. 



Lichfield. 



[Edward Stephens is the author of this Liturgy, who 

 describes himself as " late of Cherington, co. Glouces- 

 ter, sometime barrister-at-Iaw of the Hon. Society of 

 the Middle Temple, and since engaged, by a very 

 special Divine Providence, in the most sacred employ- 

 ment." He farther informs us, that " when it pleased 

 God to discharge him from the civil service, his first 

 business in public was a gentle and tacit admonition of 

 the neglect of the most solemn and peculiar Christian 

 worship of God in this nation ; accompanied by such 



public acts in the very heart of the chief city, as made 

 it a most remarkable witness and testimony against 

 them who would not receive it, but rejected the counsel 

 and favour of God towards them." Stephens's Liturgy 

 has been republished by the Rev. Peter Hall, in his 

 Fragmenta Liturgica, vol. ii., who thus notices the 

 author : — " Stephens was the leader of a class by no- 

 means contemptible, though himself as odd a mixture 

 of gravity and scurrility, learning and trifling, pietism 

 that could stoop to anything, and liberalism that stuck 

 at nothing, as Englisii theology affords." Some ac- 

 count of Edward Stephens will be found in Leslie's 

 Letter concerning the New Separation, 1719 ; and in An 

 Answer to a Letter from the Rev. C.Leslie, concerning what 

 he calls the New Separatio7i, 1719. Stephens advocated 

 the practice of daily communion.] 



"Ancient hallowed Dee." — AVhat is the his- 

 torical, traditional, or legendary allusion in this 

 epithet, bestowed by Milton on the river Dee ? 



J. W. T. 



Dewsbury. 



[Dee's divinity was Druidical. From the same 

 superstition, some rivers in Wales are still held to 

 have the gift or virtue of prophecy. Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis, who wrote in 1188, is the first who men- 

 tions Dee's sanctity from the popular traditions. In 

 Spenser, this river is the haunt of magicians : 



" Dee, which Britons long ygone 

 Did call DIVINE." 



And Browne, in his Britannia's Pastorals, book ii. § 5., 

 says, 



" Never more let holy Dee, 



Ore other rivers brave," &c. 



Much superstition was founded on the circumstance of 

 its being the ancient boundary between England and 

 Wales ; and Drayton, in his tenth Song, having re- 

 cited this part of its history, adds, that by changing its 

 fords it foretold good or evil, war or peace, dearth or 

 plenty, to either country. He then introduces the- 

 Dee, over which King Edgar had been rowed by eight 

 kings, relating to the story of Brutus. See more on 

 this subject in Warton's note to line 55. in Milton's 

 Lycidas : 

 " Now yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream."] 



Who was True Blue? — In the churchyard of 

 Little Brickhill, Bucks, is a table monument bear- 

 ing the following inscriptions : 



" Here lieth y° body of True Blue, who departed 

 this life January y" 17th, 1724-5, aged 57. Also y^ 

 body of Eleanor, y'' wife of True Blue, who departed 

 this life January 2'lst, 1722-3, ageed (sic) 59." 



AVho was "True Blue?" If it were not for 

 his wife Eleanor, one would take him to be some 

 kin to "Eclipse" or " Highflyer." Lysons makes 

 no mention of such a person ; nor, I am assured 

 by a friend who has made the search for me, does 

 Lipscomb ; although another friend referred me 

 there under the conviction that he was not only 

 named, but that his histoi'y was given. The kind 



