422 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 292. 



originally cratch-cradle, the manger which held 

 the Holy Infant as a cradle : 



*• Cracche, or manger (Praesepium, Promptorium Parv.') ; 

 Cratche, for liorse or oxen (^Creche, Palsg.); Creiche, a 

 cratch, rack, oxe-stall, or crib (Cotgr.). Cf. St. Luke, ii. 

 7. 12. 16., in Wiclif's version, a.d. 1380: 'And sche bare 

 hir first borun sone and wlappid hym in clothis: and 

 leide hym in a cracche, for ther was no place to hym in 

 no cbaumbre.' " 



The Geneva version of 1557 gives the passage : 



" And she broght forth her fyrst begotten sonne and 

 wrapped him in swadlj'ng clothes, and layd him in a 

 cretche, because there was no rowme for them with in the 

 ynne." 



But what confirms Nares' suggestion the most, is 

 a passage from Bishop Andrewes' Sermon on the 

 above passage in St. Luke, No. XII., " preached 

 before King James at Whitehall, on Friday the 

 25th of December, 1618 :" 



"We may well begin with Christ in the cratch; we 

 must end with Christ on the cross. They that write de re 

 rustica describe the form of making a cratch cross-wise. 

 The scandal of the cratch is a good preparative to the 

 scandal of the cross." 



Any additional illustration will be gladly re- 

 ceived by E. S. Taylor. 

 Ormesby, St. Margaret, Norfolk. 



EDWIN S HALL, THE RESIDENCE OF ARCHBISHOP 

 SANDYS (1519—1588). 



There are few objects more pleasing to the an- 

 tiquary than the abodes of old English worthies 

 long since passed away. Their memories haunt 

 the places which once heard their voices, but 

 which now know them no more. The old palace 

 of Archbishop Sandys, for example, calls up a 

 thousand recollections. 



It stands in the parish of Woodham Ferrers, 

 about nine miles from Chelmsford. The moat, 

 which once surrounded it, has been recently filled 

 up ; and the appliances of the modern farm-house 

 are in ill-keeping with the aged magnificence of 

 the episcopal palace. Nevertheless much of the 

 old building remains. The great hall and the re- 

 ception-room ai'e still there. One wing has fallen, 

 which sadly mars the general effect ; but both 

 interior and exterior speak volumes of Sandys. 



In the ancient church of Woodham Ferrers is 

 a handsome monument to Cecilia, the second wife 

 of Sandys. The design and carving are elaborate, 

 and are in fair preservation. The long Latin in- 

 scription on it describes her as having been worthy 

 of the pious archbishop. 



Thinking that it may interest some of your 

 readers to have the character of Sandys, as drawn 

 by the Rev. Mr. Willmott, in his charming Life 

 of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, I here insert it : 



"Unlike Hooker, who had formed his style upon the 



classic models introduced by Boccaccio into Italy, Sandys 

 anticipated some of the harmony and ease of our simplest 

 English. He excels all his cotemporaries in transparency 

 of diction. His stream of thought may not be broad and 

 deep, but the eye can always look down into the channel, 

 and ascertain the quality and value of the deposit. Mar- 

 montel's eulogy of IMassilon might be transferred to 

 Sandys. Few sentences require a second perusal. His 

 periods rarely wind into what have been called the semi- 

 colon paragraphs of Taylor, and never jingle into the 

 chimes of metre which Atterbury so earnestly admonished 

 his son to avoid." 



J. Virtue Wynen. 

 1. Portland Terrace, Dalston. 



REMARKS ON CROWNS, AND MORE PARTICULARLY 

 ON THE. ROYAL OR IMPERIAL CROWN OF GREAT 

 BRITAIN. 



(From the Autograph MS. of Stephen Martin Leake, Esq., 

 Garter.) 



(^Concluded from p. 401.) 



The church of Westminster had the custody of 

 the royal regalia for the coronation of our kings by 

 divers charters (from the Confessor) according to 

 the Liber Regalis, whereby it was granted to be 

 " Locus institutionis et Coronationis Regiaj et re- 

 positorium Regalium insignium in perpetuum," at 

 which time it is supposed he gave to that church 

 the regalia which was afterwards used at the coro- 

 nation of our kings ; and certain it is that, from 

 the time of the Confessor, all our kings have been 

 crowned at the abbey of Westminster, except 

 King Henry III., who in the Barons' Wars was 

 crowned at Gloucester, and King Edward V., 

 who was never crowned. The place where the 

 regalia was kept (at least for a considerable time 

 back) was in the arched room in the cloisters in an 

 iron chest, where they were secured till the Grand 

 Rebellion, when, a.d. 1642, Harry Martyn, by 

 order of the then Parliament, broke open the 

 chest and took out the crown called St. Edward's 

 crown, and sold it, together with St. Edward's 

 sceptre. Wherefore, after the Restoration, another 

 crown and sceptre was made for the same purpose, 

 and called St. Edward's in commemoration of those 

 which had been taken away. We may reasonably 

 suppose this new crown was made after the 

 fashion of the old one ; and the fashion of it must 

 have been well known to many persons of the 

 Restoration, especially to Sir Edward Walker, 

 Garter ; and the fashion of the present crown of 

 St. Edward differs not in the form from the im- 

 perial crown of state ; and this being the case, that 

 ancient crown before the Rebellion could not by 

 the fashion of it be older than Edward IV. 



As to the crown of St. Edward, with which Ed- 

 ward II. was crowned, it was probably as ancient 

 as the Confessor, if not his ; for he was so greatly 

 esteemed for his sanctity before he was made a 



