56 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 221. 



-with other nations has led to serious mistakes in 

 time of action. A. 



:8Sui0r Puttied. 



Serkhampstead Records. — Where are the re- 

 cords of the now extinct corporation of Great 

 Berkhampstead, co. Herts, incorporated 1618? 

 And when did it cease to exercise corporate rights, 

 and why ? J. K. 



" The secunde personne of the Trinetee " 

 (Vol. viii., p. 131.).— What does the "old En- 

 glish Homily" mean by "a womanne who was the 

 secunde personne of the Trinetee ? " J. P. S. 



St. Johns, Oxford, and Emmanuel, Cambridge. — 

 Can your readers give me any information re- 

 specting Thomas Collis, B.A., of St. John's Col- 

 lege, Oxford, ordained priest by Richard (Rey- 

 nolds), Bishop of Lincoln, at Buckden, 29th May, 

 1743 ? What church preferment did he hold, 

 where did he die, and where was he buried ? 



Also of John Clendon, B.D., Fellow of Em- 

 manuel College, Cambridge, who was presented to 

 the vicarage of Brompton-Regis, Somerset, by 

 his College, in or about the year 1752 ? His cor- 

 respondence with the Fellows of Emmanuel is 

 amusing, as giving an insight into the every-day 

 life of Cambridge a century ago. You shall have 

 a letter or two ere long as a specimen. 



Thomas Collis. 



Boston. 



" Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre." — Some years 

 ago, at a book-stall in Paris, I met with a work in 

 one volume, being a dissertation in French on the 

 origin and early history of the once popular song, 

 ".Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre." It seemed to 

 contain much information of a curious and inte- 

 resting character ; and the author's name, if I 

 remember rightly, is Blanchard. I have since 

 made several attempts to discover the title of the 

 book, with the view of procuring a copy of it, but 

 without success. Can any of your readers assist 

 me in this matter ? Henry H. Bkeen. 



St. Lucia. 



Prelate quoted in Procopius. — In the 25 th 

 note (a), chap, xl., of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, 

 there is a quotation from Procopius. Can any of 

 your readers conjecture who is meant by the 

 " learned prelate now deceased," who was fond of 

 quoting the said passage. 2. 



The Alibenistic Order of Freemasons. — Can 

 any of your readers, masonic or otherwise, inform 

 me what is meant by this order of Freemasons ? 

 The work of Henry O'Brien on the Round Towers 

 of Ireland is dedicated to them, and in his preface 

 they are much eulogised. H. W. D. 



Saying respecting Ancient History. — In Nie- 

 buhr's Lectures on Ancient History, vol. i. p. 355., 

 I find — 



" An ingenious man once said, ' It is thought that at 

 length people will come to read ancient history as if 

 it had really happened,' a remark which is really excel- 

 lent." 



Who was this "ingenious man" ? 



J. P. 



An Apology for not speaking the Truth. — Can any 

 of your correspondents kindly inform me where 

 the German song can be found from which the 

 following lines are taken ? 



" When first on earth the truth was born, 

 She crept into a hunting-horn ; 

 The hunter came, the horn was blown, 



But where truth went, was never known." 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Sir John Morant. — In the fourth volume of 

 Sir John Froissart's Chronicles, and in the tenth 

 and other chapters, he mentions the name of a 

 Sir John Morant, Knight, or Sir John of Chatel 

 Morant, who lived in 1390-6. How can I find 

 out his pedigree ? or whether he is an ancestor 

 of the Hampshire family of Morants, or of the 

 Rev. Philip Morant ? H. II. M. 



Malta. 



Portrait of Plowden. — Is any portrait of Ed- 

 mund Plowden the lawyer known to exist ? and if 

 so, where ? P. P. P. 



Temperature of Cathedrals. — Can any of your 

 readers favour me with a report from observation 

 of the greatest and least heights of the thermo- 

 meter in the course of a year, in one of our large 

 cathedrals ? 



I am informed that Professor Phillips, in a 

 geological work, has stated that the highest and 

 lowest temperatures in York Minster occur about 

 five weeks after the solstices ; but it does not ap- 

 pear that the altitudes are named. T. 



Dr. Eleazar Duncon. — Dr. Eleazar Duncon 

 was of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, D.D., anno 

 1633, Rector of Houghton Regis same year, Chap- 

 lain to King Charles I., Prebendary of Durham. 

 He is supposed to have died during the interreg- 

 num. Can any of your correspondents say when 

 or where ? D. D. 



The Duhe of Buckingham. — Do the books of the 

 Honorable Society of the Middle Temple disclose 

 any particulars relating to a " scandalous letter," 

 believed to have been written by " a Templar" 

 to George Villiers, the Great Duke of Bucking- 

 ham, in 1626, the year before his grace was assas- 

 sinated by Felton ; which letter was found by a 

 servant of the inn in a Temple drinking-pot, by 



