Jan. 28. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



75 



ments and reasonings, and as it is scarcely possible to 

 think of the thing itself without a term expressive of 

 it. They have, accordingly, supplied this defect by in- 

 troducing into that language a word which conveys the 

 notion of justice." 



This letter is dated 14th February, 1761. Statne 

 nominis umbra ? An answer is not needed to this 

 Query. But can nothing be done to rescue from 

 destruction the previous analytical treasures of 

 Euler, now entombed in the archives of St. Pe- 

 tersburgh ? T. J. Buckton. 



Birmingham. 



False Dates in Water-marks of Paper. — Your 

 correspondent H. W. D. (Vol. ix., p. 32.) on the 

 subject of the water-mark in paper, is, perhaps, 

 not aware that, within the last few years, the will 

 of a lady was set aside by the heir-at-law, her 

 brother, on account of the water-mark, she having 

 imprudently, as it was surmised, made a fairer 

 copy of her will on paper of a later date. The 

 case will be in the recollection of the parties em- 

 ployed in the neighbourhood of the Prerogative 

 Court. L. 



eaucrtas. 



MR. P. CUNNINGHAME. 



Can any of your correspondents communicate 

 information respecting a Mr. P. Cunninghame, who 

 was employed in the Heralds' Office in the years 

 1768-69, and who appears to have left his situation 

 there in order to enter the church ? Mr. Cun- 

 ninghame, from a MS. volume of his letters now 

 before me, had friends and correspondents of the 

 names of Towne, Dehane, Welsh, Cockell, Bawd- 

 wen, Wainman, Haggard, Hammond, Neve, Ga- 

 thorne, Lines, Connor, &c, and relations of his 

 own name resided at Deal. One of his letters is 

 addressed to his cousin, Captain George Cun- 

 ninghame, General Marjoribanks' regiment, in 

 garrison at Tournay, Flanders. 



Two gentlemen of the names of Bigland and 

 Heard (probably Sir Isaac Heard, who died a few 

 years since at a very advanced age) were his su- 

 periors in the Heralds' Office at the time of his 

 being there. A former possessor of this MS. vo- 

 lume has written in it as follows ; and so warm a 

 tribute of praise from a distinguished scholar and 

 late member of this university, has induced me to 

 send you his remarks, and to make the inquiry 

 suggested by them. 



"I esteem myself fortunate in having purchased this 

 volume of letters, which I met with in the shop of 

 Mr. Robins, bookseller, at Winchester, in January, 

 1808. They do credit to the head and the heart of 

 the author. He seems to have been a man whose 

 imagination was lively, and whose mind was capacious, 

 as well as comprehensive. His remarks on different 



subjects betray reading and reflection. His mental 

 powers, naturally vigorous, he appears to have culti- 

 vated and improved by as much reading as his employ- 

 ments and his agitation of mind would allow. I wish 

 that he had committed to this volume some specimens 

 of his poetry, as it would have been more than me- 

 chanical, or partaking of common-place, for he writes 

 in a style at once vigorous, lively, and elegant, and 

 gives proofs of a correct taste. He had a manly spirit 

 of independence, a generous principle of benevolence, 

 and a prevailing habit of piety. The first of these 

 qualifications did not in him (as it is too frequently apt 

 to do) overleap the bounds of prudence, or the still 

 more binding ties of duty, as is exemplified in the ex- 

 cellent letters to his father, and Mr. Dehane. It is to 

 be hoped that he entered into that profession from 

 which he was so long and so perversely excluded ; a 

 profession suited to his genius and inclination, which 

 would open an ample field for his benevolence, and 

 which would receive additional lustre from the example 

 of so much virtue and so much industry exerted in the 

 cause of truth. It is to be hoped that he gained that 

 competence and retirement to which the wishes of the 

 interested reader must follow him, regretting that he 

 knows not more of a man, who, from those amiable 

 dispositions and those eminent talents, pourtrayed in 

 this correspondence, would indeed — 



• Allure to brighter worlds, and lead the way.' 



R. F." 



J. Macray. 

 Oxford. 



WAS SHAKSPEARE DESCENDED FROM A LANDED 

 PROPRIETOR ? 



Mr. Knight has on two occasions, the latter in 

 his Stratford Shakspeare just published, called at- 

 tention to what he concludes is an oversight of 

 mine in not drawing any conclusion from a deed 

 in which certain lands are mentioned as " hereto- 

 fore the inheritance of William Shakspeare, Gent., 

 deceased." These words are supposed by Mr. 

 Knight to imply that the lands in question came 

 to Shakspeare by descent, as heir-at-law of his 

 father. This opinion appeared to me to be some- 

 what a hasty one : believing that no conclusion 

 whatever is to be drawn from the phrase as there 

 used, and relying on the ordinary definition of in- 

 heritance in the old works on law, I did not hesi- 

 tate, some time since, to declare a conviction that 

 the lands so mentioned were bought by Shak- 

 speare himself. As the question is of some im- 

 portance in the inquiry respecting the position of 

 the poet's ancestry, perhaps one of your legal 

 readers would kindly decide which of us is in the 

 right. I possess an useful collection of old law- 

 books, but there are few subjects in which error is 

 so easily committed by unprofessional readers. In 

 the present instance, however, if plain words are 

 to be relied upon, it seems certain that the term 

 inheritance was applied, to use Coweli's words, to 



