Mar. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



231 



to have been only children. One of them married 

 the Prince of Stolberg, and the other the Prince 

 of Salm. One of the descendants of this family 

 was an annuitant on the estate of the Marquis of 

 Aylesbury, as recently as twelve or fourteen years 

 ago. Information on any part of this descent 

 would confer an obligation on Patonce. 



A Legend of the Hive (Vol. ix., p. 167.).— With 

 every feeling of gratitude to Eirionnach, I cannot 

 receive praise for false metre and erroneous gram- 

 mar. In the fifth line of the first stanza of the 

 quoted verse, the first of the above legend, " are" 

 is redundant : and in the first line of the next 

 stanza, " bore " should be " bare." I remember 

 that in more cases than one the printer of my 

 published rhymes has perpetrated this latter mis- 

 take. 



Suffer me to reply to a question of the same 

 courteous critic Eirionnach, in Vol. ix., p. 162., 

 about a " Christ-cross-row." This name for the 

 alphabet obtained in the good old Cornish dame- 

 schools when I was a boy. In a book that I have 

 seen, there is a vignette of a monk teaching a little 

 boy to read, and beneath 



" A Christ- Cross Rhyme. 



i. 



" Christ his cross shall be my speed ! 



Teach me, Father John, to read : 



That in church, on holy-day, 



I may chant the psalm and pray. 



ii. 

 " Let me learn, that I may know 

 What the shining windows show ; 

 Where the lovely Lady stands, 

 With that bright Child in her hands. 



m. 

 " Teach me letters one, two, three, 

 Till that I shall able be 

 Signs to know and words to frame, 

 And to spell sweet Jesu's name ! 



IV. 



" Then, dear master, will I look 

 Day and night in that fair book, 

 Where the tales of saints are told, 

 With their pictures all in gold. 



v. 

 " Teach me, Father John, to say 

 Vesper-verse and matin-lay ; 

 So when I to God shall plead, 

 Christ his cross will be my speed !" 



H. or Morwenstow. 



Hoby Family (Vol. viii., p. 244. ; Vol.ix., pp. 19. 

 58.). — Sir Philip Hoby, or Hobbie, who was born 

 in 1505, and died in 1558, was not only Gentle- 

 man of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII., but, 

 while he held that office, was attached to the 

 embassy of Sir Thomas Wyatt to the Emperor 



Charles V. in 1538. He was himself ambassador 

 to the same Emperor in 1548, being sent by the 

 Protector Somerset to replace the Bishop of West- 

 minster. It may be interesting to state that two 

 volumes of papers containing instructions and other 

 letters transmitted to Sir Philip during these em- 

 bassies, and copies of his replies, together with his 

 correspondence with some eminent reformers, were 

 in the possession of Wm. Hare, Esq., M. P. for 

 the city of Cork in 1796. An account of them, 

 drawn up by the Rev. T. D. Hincks, was read 

 before the Royal Irish Academy on December 17 

 in that year, and printed in the sixth volume of 

 its Transactions. It is probable that these papers 

 had formerly belonged to Rev. Sir Philip Hoby, 

 Bart., who was Dean of Ardfert and Chancellor of 

 St. Patrick's ; and died without an heir in 1766. 

 He was descended from Sir Thomas Hoby, younger 

 brother of Sir Philip ; who was born in 1530, and 

 died in 1566. The father of these two knights 

 was William Hobbie of Leominster. I presume 

 the two volumes of papers referred to are in the 

 possession of the Earl of Listowel, great-grandson 

 of the gentleman who possessed them in 1796. 



E. H. D. D. 



Anticipatory Use of the Cross (Vol. viii. pas- 

 sitn). — 



" It is strange, yet well authenticated, and has given 

 rise to many theories, that the symbol of the Cross was 

 already known to the Indians before the arrival of 

 Cortez. In the island of Cozumel, near Yucatan, 

 there were several ; and in Yucatan itself there was a 

 stone cross. And there an Indian, considered a pro- 

 phet amongst his countrymen, had declared that a 

 nation bearing the same as a symbol should arrive 

 from a distant country ! More extraordinary still was 

 a temple, dedicated to the Holy Cross by the Toltec 

 nation in the city of Cholula. Near Tulansingo there 

 is also a cross engraved on a rock with various charac- 

 ters, which the Indians by tradition ascribe to the 

 Apostle St. Thomas. In Oajaca, also, there existed a 

 cross, which the Indians from time immemorial had 

 been accustomed to consider as a divine symbol. By 

 order of the Bishop Cervantes it was placed in a sump- 

 tuous chapel in the cathedral. Information concern- 

 ing its discovery, together with a small cup, cut out of 

 its wood, was sent to Rome to Paul V. ; who received 

 it on his knees, singing the hymn ' Vexilla regis,' &c." 

 — Life in Mexico, by Madame Calderon de la Barca, 

 Letter xxxvn. 



E. H. A. 



Longevity (Vols, vii., viii., passim). — 



" Amongst the fresh antiquities of Cornwall, let not 

 the old woman be forgotten who died about two years 

 since ; who was one hundred and sixty-four years old, 

 of good memory, and healthful at that age ; living in 

 the parish of Gwithian by the charity of such as came 

 purposely to see her, speaking to them (in default of 

 English) by an interpreter, yet partly understanding it. 

 She married a second husband after she was eighty, 



