June 2. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



423 



saint, that William the Conqueror adorned his 

 sepulchre with a shrine. About a hundred years 

 after this, a.d. 1163, he was canonised by Pope 

 Alexander III., when Henry II. erected another 

 more sumptuous shrine : afterwards, King Henry 

 III., having pulled down the old church and re- 

 built it, erected a third shrine for him, and ever 

 honoured him as his tutelar saint ; and the chapel 

 of this saint was made the burial-place of our 

 kings till King Henry VII. erected the chapel 

 that bears his name for that purpose. A super- 

 stitious regard seems all along to have been paid 

 to this regalia, as the relics of the saint, and 

 being in the custody of the Church, could not be 

 violated without double sacrilege. And not only 

 the regalia, but the ceremonial of the coronation of 

 our kings, seems to be derived from this holy king, 

 for before his time there does not seem to have 

 been any determinate form. Of the fashion of this 

 ancient crown we have no memorial, unless we 

 may suppose it like that upon his great seal. What 

 became of this old crown does not appear, but it 

 must have disappeared long before the time of Ed- 

 ward IV., because the crown made to supply the 

 place of it about that time bore no resemblance 

 to the ancient one, which it certainly would have 

 done had the particular form been remembered. I 

 can account for the loss of the crown no otherwise 

 than as our kings frequently pawned their crowns, 

 by that means it might be lost or destroyed. 

 King Edward III. pawned his crown called 

 Magna Corona Regis, and at another time Magna 

 Corona Anglie, and perhaps one of these was 

 the same called at coronations St. Edward's 

 crown. We find it afterwards replaced by a 

 modern crown, without any account what became 

 of the old one. So that the honour and virtue de- 

 rived from the antiquity and identity of St. Ed- 

 ward's crown was lost, and it became merely 

 nominal, in the same manner as the robes are still 

 called St. Edward's, though perhaps none of our 

 kings wore his individual robe. Leake. 



Minor i^attg» 



Lord Byron's " Monody on the Death of 

 Sheridan." — Lord Byron's " Monody on the 

 Death of Sheridan" closes with these lines : 



" Sighing that Nature form'd but one such man, 

 And broke the die in moulding Sheridan ! " 



Was not the idea borrowed from Ariosto ? 



" Natura 11 fece, e poi ruppa la stampa." 



Orl. Fur.; Canto x. Stan. 84. 



Eeic. 



Ville-Marie. 



Bisson. — A few years ago several communica- 

 tions appeared in " N. & Q." respecting the mean- 

 ing of this word in the phrase " bisson multitude" 



in Coriolanus. I have met with the word in an 

 old book in the sense of double-tongued or fickle, 

 evidently derived from bis and sonans ; but I un- 

 fortunately neglected to " make a note" of it, not 

 being mindful of the discussion in question. 

 Bisson is the name of a family in this city. 



Uneda. 

 Philadelphia. 



Drinking Healths in New England. — The fol- 

 lowing deposition, and confession, are recorded in 

 the Court Records at Salem, Massachusetts, as 

 cited in Coffin's History of Newbury (Boston, 

 1845), p. 55. : 



" This is to certify whom it may concern, that we the 

 subscribers, being called upon to testify against William 

 Snelling for words by him uttered, affirm, that being in 

 way of merry discourse, a health being drunk to all 

 friends, he answered, 



* I'll pledge my friends ; 

 And for my foes, 

 A plague for their heels 

 And a poxe for their toes.' 



Since when he hath affirmed that he only intended the 

 proverb used in the west country ; nor do we believe he in- 

 tended otherwise. 



William Thomas. 



Thomas Milward. 

 March 12, 1651-2. All which I acknowledge, and I am 

 sorry I did not expresse my intent, or that 1 was so weak 

 as to use so foolish a proverb. Gulielmus Snelling." 



Mr. Snelling was a physician, and his Latinised 

 signature looks as if he was disposed to claim 

 " benefit of clergy." Vertaue. 



Balthazar Vigures : Error in Wood's " Athence 

 Oxonienses." — In Wood's Athena it is stated that 

 Balthazar Vigures, who was a member of Exeter 

 College, Oxford, and M. A. of St. Alban's Hall, 

 was Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, the same person 

 in fact who was generally known as "Bartholomew 

 Vigors," bishop from 1690 to 1721. I am able to 

 correct this error. Balthazar, son of Robert 

 Vigures of Parkham, Devonshire, gent., was born 

 in 1650, matriculated of Exeter College, July 9, 

 1668, and graduated as B.A. in 1672. On the 

 other hand, Bartholomew Vigors, son of the Rev. 

 Urban Vigors, Vicar of Leitrim, Diocese of 

 Cloyne, and Chaplain to Lord Broghill, was born 

 at Taunton in 1644, and entered Trinity College, 

 Dublin, May 23, 1663. He entered into priest's 

 orders, June 11, 1667; was Dean of Armagh, 

 June 29, 1681 ; and Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, 

 Feb. 27, 1690^91. The two were therefore alto- 

 gether different persons. Bishop Vigors' mother 

 was sister of Richard Boyle, Bishop of Leighlin 

 and Ferns, 1666 to 1682. See Query regarding 

 Bishop Boyle, Vol. ix., p. 494. Y. S. M. 



Miles Corbet. — It has been the fashion to extol 

 the great wisdom and high principle of the regi- 

 cides, who nevertheless succumbed to Cromwell, 



