April 7. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



267 



Parish of Alberburj', in the County of Shropshire, who 

 was born in the Reign of King Edward IV., and is now 

 living in the Strand, being aged 152 years and odd months. 

 His manner of Life and Conversation in so long a Pil- 

 grimage ; his Marriages, and his bringing up to London 

 about the End of September last, 1635." According to 

 Taylor, in the lifetime of his first wife. Parr having been 

 detected in an amour with " faire Catherine Milton," at 

 the age of 105 : 



" 'Twas thought meet, 

 He should be purg'd, by standing in a sheet ; 

 Which aged (he) one hundred and five yeare 

 In Alberbury parish church did weare." 



Thomas, Earl of Arundel, " a great lover of antiquities 

 of all kinds," brought Parr to London ; and Taylor thus 

 describes him in the last stage of life : 



" His limbs their strength have left. 

 His teeth all gone (but one), his sight bereft, 

 His sinews shrunk, his blood most chill and cold. 

 Small solace, imperfections manifold : 

 Yet still his spirits possesse his mortal trunk. 

 Nor are his senses in his mines shrunk ; 

 But that his hearing's quicke, his stomach good, 

 Hee'll feed well, sleep well, well digest his food. 

 Hee will speak heartily, laugh and be merry ; 

 Drink ale, and now and then a cup of sherry ; 

 Loves company, and understanding talke. 

 And (on both sides held up) will sometimes walke. 

 And, though old age his face with wrinkles fill, 

 Hee hath been handsome, and is comely still ; 

 Well fae'd ; and though his beard not oft corrected, 

 Yet neat it grows, not like a beard neglected. 

 From head to heel, his body hath all over 

 A quick-set, thick-set, natural hairy cover." 



It may not be generally known that his grandson, 

 Robert Parr, bom at Kinver, 1633, died 1757, lived to the 

 age of 124. We believe the fact of Henry Jenkins' lon- 

 gevity is not authenticated, as in the case of Old Parr: 

 see notices of him in Caulfield's Characters of Remarkable 

 Persons, and Gent. Mag., Jan. 1822, p. 35.] 



Screw Plot. — Under this head, in the Lounger's 

 Commonplace Booh, vol. iii. p. 163., is given an 

 account of a conspiracy against Queen Anne, 

 who was to have been crushed to death in St. 

 Paul's; the screws of some part of the building 

 being loosened beforehand for the purpose, and 

 intended to be removed when she should come to 

 the cathedral, and thus overwhelm her in the fall. 

 Thus the Lounger. I have looked in histories of 

 the time for some notice of this plot, but have not 

 been able to meet with the merest mention of it. 



Was there in truth such a plot ? and if so, 

 where can I meet with an account of it ? 



Pelicanus Americanus. 



[Notices of this imaginary plot will be found in Bo3'er's 

 Annals of Queen Anne, Nov. 9, 1710, and in Oldmixon's 

 Hist, of England, p. 452. The latter states, that " Mr. 

 Secretary St. John had not been long in office before he 

 gave proofs of his fitness for it, by inserting an adver- 

 tisement in the Gazette of some evil-designing persons 

 having unscrewed the timbers of the west roof of the 

 cathedral. Upon this foundation, Mrs. Abigail Masham 

 affirmed that the screws were taken away that the cathe- 

 dral might tumble upon the heads of the Court on the 

 Thanksgiving-day, when it was supposed her Majesty 

 would have gone thither. But upon inquirj', it appeared 



that the missing of the iron pins was owing to the neglect 

 of some workmen, who thought the timber sufficiently 

 fastened without them ; and the foolishness, as well as 

 malice, of this advertisement made people more merry 

 than angry."] 



Huguenot Colony at Portarlington. — I shall feel 

 obliged for references to any sources of inform- 

 ation relating to the distinguished Huguenot 

 colony which was settled in Portarlington, Queen's 

 County, about the year 1694. Refugee. 



[The colony of French and Flemish Protestant refugees 

 was settled at Portarlington by Gen. Rouvigny, created 

 Earl of Galway by William III. The earl's estates were 

 taken from hi'm by the English act of resumption ; yet 

 the interest which the new settlers had acquired by lease 

 was secured to them by act of parliament in 1702, and 

 they were made partakers of the rights and privileges of 

 the borough. In the petition they presented to the House 

 of Commons, it is stated, " There are about 150 families, 

 English and French Protestants, planted in the lands of 

 Portarlington, the forfeiture of the late Sir Patrick Trant, 

 who have laid out their whole substance in purchasing 

 small leases now in being ; which lands were part of the 

 grant of the Earl of Galway, who hath thereon erected an 

 English and French church, and two schools, and en- 

 dowed them with pensions, amounting to near 100/. per 

 annum, which hath been constantly paid till the said 

 lands were vested in us."] 



Lyndes '■'■Via Tuta" and " Via Bevia." — Can 

 you inform me what modern reprints of Sir Hum- 

 frey Lynde's Via Tuta and Via Devia, whole or 

 in part, have appeared ? When, where, and by 

 whom edited and published ? Where may I look 

 for a biographical sketch of the author ? Abhba. 



[In the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1819, p. 194., it is stated, 

 that Sir Humfrey Lynde's Via Tuta and Via Devia 

 were reprinted at the expense of the Society for the 

 Defence of the Church. The London Catalogue (1816 — 

 1851) also notices an edition of these works published by 

 Stockdale, in 8vo. They have also been reprinted, with 

 A Case for the Spectacles, in the new edition of Gibson's 

 Preservative, vols. iv. and v., 1849. Sir Humfrey Lynde 

 was born in Dorsetshire, 1579, and resided at Cobham, in 

 Surrey, in the latter part of his life ; and dying June 8, 

 1636, was interred above the steps of the chancel in the 

 parish church; when Dr. Featley preached his funeral 

 sermon, which was published. Most of the biographical 

 dictionaries contain notices of him, as well as Wood's 

 Athenie, vol. i. c. 603., and Brayley's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 408.] 



BOUNDLES. 



(Vol. xi., pp. 159. 213.) 

 Mr. Haresfield has supplied your readers with 

 the " ungallant inscriptions " on a set of (twelve) 

 beechen roundles found in the quaint old house of 

 the Garnetts at Kendal; perhaps those on another 

 set (often), which in 1793 were "in the posses- 

 sion of Charles Chadwick, Esq., of Mavesyn- 

 Ridware, Staffordshire," may prove interesting. 

 I extract them from the Gentleman's Mag., May, 



