220 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 228. 



east corner of "Warwickshire) connected with 

 •which is a tradition that Charles I., after the 

 battle of Edge Hill, which is not far distant, 

 secreted himself in an oven there. This oven is 

 preserved for the inspection of the curious. 



B. H. C. 



Coincidences between Sir Thomas Browne and 

 Bishop Ken. — Sir Thomas Browne wrote his Ite- 

 ligio Medici in 1533-5 ; and in it suggested some 

 familiar verses of the " Evening Hymn " of his 

 brother Wykehamist Bishop Ken. The lines are 

 as follows : 



Sir Thomas Browne. 



" Guard me 'gainst those watchful foes, 

 Whose eyes are open, while mine close ; 

 Let no dreams my head infest, 

 But such as Jacob's temples blest: 

 Sleep is a death : oh, make me try, 

 By sleeping, what it is to die ! 

 And as gently lay my head 

 On my grave, as now my bed. 

 Howe'er I rest, great God, let me 

 Awake again at last with Thee." 



Bishop Ken. 



" Let no ill dreams disturb my rest ; 

 No powers of darkness me molest. 

 Teach me to live, that I may dread 

 The grave as little as my bed : 

 Teach me to die, that so I may 

 Rise glorious at the awful day. 

 Oh, may my soul on Thee repose, 

 And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close; 

 Sleep that may me more vigorous make, 

 To serve my God when I awake." 



I have never seen this curious coincidence 

 noticed by any of the good bishop's biographers, 

 Hawkins, Bowles, or Mr. Anderdon. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



The English School of Painting. — In a note to 

 a volume of poems by Victor Hugo, published in 

 1836, occur these remarks : 



" M. Louis Boulanger, a qui ces deux ballades sont 

 dediees, s'est place bien jeune au premier rang de 

 cette nouvelle generation de peintres, qui promet 

 d'elever notre ecole au niveau des magnifiques ecoles 

 d'ltalie, d'Espagne, de Flandre, et d'Angleterre." 



Does this praise of the English school of paint- 

 ing show a correct appreciation of its claims to 

 distinction ? or am I in error in supposing, as I 

 have done, that our school of painting is not en- 

 titled to the pompous epithet of " magnifique," 

 nor to be named in the same category with the 

 Italian, Spanish, and Flemish schools ? I am 

 aware of the hackneyed and somewhat hyperbolical 

 employment, by French writers and speakers, of 

 such terms as magnifique, superbe, grandiose; and 

 that they do not convey to a French ear the same 

 idea of superiority, as they do to our more sober 



English judgment ; but making every allowance 

 on this score, I confess I was not a little startled 

 to find such a term as magnifique, even in its 

 most moderate acceptation, applied to our efforts 

 in that branch of art. Magnifique, in truth, must 

 be our school, when the French can condescend 

 to speak of it in such language ! 



Henry H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia. 



" A Feather in your Cap." — My good friend 

 Dr. Wolff mentioned in conversation a circum- 

 stance (also stated, I fancy, in his Journey to 

 Bokhara) which seemed to afford a solution of the 

 common expression, " That's a feather in your 

 cap." I begged he would give it me in writing, 

 and he has done so. " The Kaffr Seeyah Poosh 

 (meaning the infidels in black clothing) living 

 around Cabul upon the height of the mountains 

 of the Himalaya, who worship a god called 

 Dagon and Imra, are great enemies of the Mu- 

 hamedans ; and for each Muhamedan they kill, 

 they wear a feather in their heads. The same is 

 done among the Abyssinians and Turcomans." 



Has the feather head-dress of the American 

 Indian, and the eagle's feather in the bonnet of 

 the Highlander, any connexion with keeping a 

 score of the deaths of the enemies or game they 

 have killed ? Alfred Gatty. 



H&UCtitS. 



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : LICENCES TO CRENEL- 

 LATE. 



Previous to the publication of the second volume 

 of the Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, 

 you were kind enough to insert some Queries for 

 me respecting existing remains of houses of the 

 fourteenth century, which elicited some useful 

 Notes, partly through your columns and partly 

 from private friends who were thus reminded of 

 my wants. I am now preparing for the press the 

 third and concluding volume of that work, com- 

 prising the period from the reign of Richard II. 

 to that of Henry VIII. inclusive. I shall be glad 

 of information of any houses of that period re- 

 maining in a tolerably perfect state, in addition to 

 those mentioned in the Glossary of Architecture. 

 I have reason to believe that there are many; and 

 one class, the halls of the different guilds, seem to 

 have been generally overlooked. 



With the kind assistance of Mr. Duffus Hardy, 

 I have obtained a complete list of the licences to 

 crenellate contained in the Patent Rolls, and some 

 other records preserved in the Tower. Most of 

 these have the name of the county annexed ; but 

 there are a few, of which I add a list, in which no 

 county is mentioned, and local information is ne- 

 cessary in order to identify them. Perhaps some 



