Feb. 25. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



175 



#ttuar Qutvlti fiot'tT) Qwitotrsi. 



Queen Elizabeth and the Ring. — Has the com- 

 mon story, respecting the Earl of Essex sending a 

 ring to Queen Elizabeth by the Countess of Not- 

 tingham, in order to procure his pardon, any 

 foundation in fact ? T. T. W. 



[Miss Strickland seems to have examined the tra- 

 ditionary notices of this love-token. She says : " The 

 romantic story of the ring which, it is said, the queen 

 had given to Essex in a moment of fondness as a pledge 

 of her affection, with an intimation ' that, if he for- 

 feited her favour, if he sent it back to her, the sight of 

 it would ensure her forgiveness,' must not be lightly 

 rejected. It is not only related by Osborne, who is 

 considered a fair authority for other things, and quoted 

 by historians of all parties, but it is a family tradition 

 of the Careys, who were the persons most likely to be 

 in the secret, as they were the relations and friends of 

 all the parties concerned, and enjoyed the confidence of 

 Queen Elizabeth. The following is the version given 

 by Lady Elizabeth Spelman, a descendant of that 

 House, to the editor of her great-uncle Robert Carey's 

 Memoirs : ' When Essex lay under sentence of death, 

 he determined to try the virtue of the ring, by sending 

 it to the queen, and claiming the benefit of her pro- 

 mise ; but knowing he was surrounded by the crea- 

 tures of those who were bent on taking his life, he was 

 fearful of trusting it to any of his attendants. At 

 length, looking out of his window, he saw early one 

 morning a boy whose countenance pleased him, and 

 him he induced by a bribe to carry the ring, which he 

 threw down to him from above, to the Lady Scrope 

 his cousin, who had taken so friendly interest in his 

 fate. The boy, by mistake, carried it to the Countess 

 of Nottingham, the cruel sister of the fair and gentle 

 Scrope, and, as both these ladies were of the royal bed- 

 chamber, the mistake might easily occur. The countess 

 carried the ring to her husband the Lord Admiral, who 

 was the deadly foe of Essex, and told him the message, 

 but he bade her suppress both.' The queen, uncon- 

 scious of the accident, waited in the painful suspense 

 of an angry lover for the expected token to arrive; but 

 not receiving it, she concluded he was too proud to 

 make this last appeal to her tenderness, and, after 

 having once revoked the warrant, she ordered the exe- 

 cution to proceed. It was not till the axe had abso- 

 lutely fallen, that the world could believe that Elizabeth 

 would take the life of Essex." — Lives of the Queens of 

 England, vol. iv. p. 747.] 



Lives of English Bishops : Bishop Burnet. — 

 I should be glad to know who is the author of 

 The Lives of the English Bishops, from the Re- 

 stauration to the Revolution; Fit to be opposed to the 

 Aspersions of some late Writers of Secret History : 

 London, printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible 

 and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard, mpccxxxi ? 

 The name of " Nath. Salmon, LL. B. cccc," is 

 ■written on the title-page ; but it does not appear 

 whether this is intended to indicate the author, or 

 merely a former possessor of the copy now lying 



before me. From this work, in which Burnet, 

 Kennett, and others are very severely criticised, I 

 send a curious extract relating to Burnet : 



" He puts me in mind of a petty canon of Exeter, 

 to whom he used military force upon refusal to alter 

 the prayers at his command until he should receive the 

 proper instructions. He brought a file of musqueteers 

 upon him, and crammed his amendments down his 

 throat. This man, in a journey to London, visited the 

 musical part of the Church of Salisbury, and was as 

 usual asked to sing an anthem at evening service. He 

 was a lover of humour, and singing the 137th Psalm, 

 threw out his right hand towards the bishop's stall, 

 and with great emphasis pronounced the words, ' If I 

 forget thee — if I forget thee,' repeating it so often that 

 the whole congregation inquired after the meaning of 

 it. It was from that time ordered that no strange 

 songster should come up more." — P. 229. 



E. H. A. 



[This work was written by Nathaniel Salmon, who 

 was deprived of his curacy for being a Nonjuror. He 

 afterwards settled as a physician at Bishop- Stortford 

 in Hertfordshire, where he died in 1742. See a notice 

 of him, and his other works, in Bowyer's Anecdotes, 

 p. 638.] 



Eden Pedigree and Arms. — I find in Gough 

 Nicholl's Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i. 

 p. 173., mention of a monument in All Saints' 

 Church, Sudbury, to one of the Eden family ; and 

 a pedigree painted on the east wall of Eden, much 

 defaced, with. numerous arms, date 1615. Would 

 any of your correspondents kindly give me par- 

 ticulars of this monument, pedigree, and arms ? 



Elffin ap Gwyddno. 



[The monument was commenced by the second Sir 

 Thomas Eden in 1615, and contained, some years since, 

 an inscription upon brass, a limbed picture, and upon 

 the wall, beneath the canopy, a pedigree of the mar- 

 riages of the family with those of Waldegrave, Peyton, 

 Steward, Workington, Harrys, and St. Clere. The 

 whole having fallen into ruin, it became necessary in 

 1851 to remove it. The brass being gone, the follow- 

 ing inscription upon the verge of the canopy alone was 

 visible : " This tombe was finished at y e coste of Sir 

 Thomas Eden, Knight, Maie 16, 1617." A large 

 mural monument to the memory of several of the Eden 

 family is about to be erected by its side. See the 

 Rev. Charles Badham's History and Antiquities of All 

 Saints 1 Church, Sudbury, pp. 44-46. and 162., London, 

 1852; who says that the pedigree upon the wall has 

 been preserved, but does not state where it may be 

 seen : it will, however, be found among the Harleian 

 MSS. in the British Museum.] 



The Gentleman's Calling. — Can any one tell 

 me who was the author of this book? It was 

 printed in London for T. Garthwait, at the little 

 north doore of St. Pauls, 1660. John Scribe. 



[This work is attributed to the uncertain author of 

 The Whole Duty of Man, and is included among the 

 collected works of that writer in the folio edition of 



