April 15. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



two vols, folio, at Venice in 1692, at Cologne in 1621, 

 and at Ilouen in 1650, which is reckoned the best 

 edition. A summary account of his works is given in 

 Mackenzie's Lives and Characters of Writers of the 

 Scots Nation, vol. i. p. 147., edit. 1708.] 



St. Blase. — In Norwich, every fifty years, the 

 festival of Bishop Blase is observed with great 

 eeremony. What connexion had he with that 

 city ? W. P. E. 



[Norwich formerly abounded with woolcombers, 

 who still esteem Bishop Blase as their patron saint, 

 probably from the <£0mhe flf fj?rtll with which he 

 was tortured previously to his martyrdom. " No other 

 reason," says Alban Butler, " than the great devotion 

 of the people to this celebrated martyr of the Church, 

 seems to have given occasion to the woolcombers to 

 choose him the titular patron of their profession ; on 

 which account his festival is still kept by them with a 

 solemn guild at Norwich."] 



3ReuIts£. 



LEICESTER AS BANGER OP SNOWDOU. 



(Vol.ix., p. 125.) 



In a note to Parry's Royal Visits and Progresses 

 in Wales, p. 317., I find the following allusion 

 to the circumstances mentioned in Elffin ap 

 Gwye-dno's Query regarding Leicester's Ranger- 

 ship of Snowdon, and the patriotic opposition 

 offered to his oppressions. I regret I am unable 

 to afford the desired information respecting the 

 imprisonment of the Welsh gentleman in the 

 Tower. Could not this be furnished by some of 

 your readers who have access to public documents 

 and records of the period ? This imprisonment 

 is not mentioned either in the account I append, 

 or in a longer one to be found in Appendix XVI. 

 vol. iii. of Pennant's Tour in Wales : 



" Among the Welsh nobility who formed a part of 

 her Majesty's household, were Sir Richard Bulkeley, 

 Bart., and Mrs. Blanche Parry, both of whom seem 

 to have been brought up in the court from their in- 

 fancy, and, consequently, in great esteem with her 

 Majesty ; so much so, that the Earl of Leicester, the 

 Queen's favourite, began to be jealous of Sir Richard : 

 and with a view of having him removed from court, he 

 made an attempt to have him accused, upon false evi- 

 dence, of treason. With this wicked design, the Earl 

 of Leicester informed her Majesty that the council had 

 been examining Sir Richard Bulkeley, and that they 

 found him a dangerous person ; that he dwelt in a 

 suspicious corner of the world, and should be com- 

 mitted to the Tower. ' What 1 Sir Richard Bulke- 

 ley !' said the Queen ; 'he never intended us any harm. 

 We have brought him up from a boy, and have had 

 special trial of his fidelity ; ye shall not commit him.' 

 * We have the care of your Majesty's person,' said the 

 Earl, * and see more and hear more of the man than 

 you do : he is of an aspiring mind, and lives in a re- 



mote place.' 'Before God!' replied the Queen ; 'we 

 will be sworn upon the Holy Evangelists, he never 

 intended any harm.' And then her Majesty ran to the 

 Bible, and kissing it, said : ' You shall not commit 

 him ; we have brought him up from a boy.' Sir 

 Richard, however, was too high-minded to suffer such 

 an imputation to be laid to his character. He insisted 

 on an inquiry; during which it appeared, that Lord 

 Dudley, Earl of Leicester, had been appointed a ranger 

 of the Royal Forest of Snowdon, which, in the Queen's 

 time, included some portion of Merioneth and Angle- 

 sey. This nobleman's insolence to the inhabitants of 

 the forest was more than could be brooked. He tried 

 to bring many freeholders' estates within the boundary ; 

 juries were empannelled, but the commissioners rejected 

 their returns as unfavourable to the Earl. Those 

 honest jurors, however, persisted, and found a verdict 

 for the country. But in the year 1538, he succeeded 

 by a packed jury, who appeared in his livery, blue, 

 with ragged staves on the sleeves ; men who, after 

 this nefarious act, were stigmatised with the title of 

 ' The Black Jury who sold their country.' Sir Richard 

 Bulkeley, who, with Sir William Herbert and others, 

 superseded a prior commission, resisted this oppression 

 with great firmness, and laid those odious grievances 

 before the Queen, whose regard for her loyal subjects 

 in Wales was evinced by the recalling of the first com- 

 mission, by proclamation at Westminster, in 1579. 

 The Earl being worsted, sought the life of Sir Richard 

 by having him charged as above. But this generous 

 and patriotic nobleman, by his excellent and manly 

 conduct, overthrew every malevolent design of his 

 enemy ; and came out of this fiery trial as clear as the 

 pellucid crystal of Snowdon." 



R. E. G. C. 



INMAN FAMILY. 



(Vol. ix., p. 198.) 



A Subscriber having challenged me by name 

 to assist him in resolving his " historic doubts," 

 I hasten to afford him what information I possess, 

 conscious at the same time that I can add little or 

 nothing that will materially aid him in his investi- 

 gation. 



First, then, as to Owen Gam. This name 

 savours strongly of the leek, both Christian and 

 surname being unequivocally British. Gam, in 

 Welsh, signifies the "one-eyed;" we may con- 

 clude, therefore, that this gentleman, or one of his 

 progenitors, had lost an eye in one of the frays 

 common in bygone days, and so acquired the ap- 

 pellation of Gam. A Subscriber has omitted to 

 give dates with his Queries, and thus leaves us in 

 the dark as to the precise period he refers to ; 

 still, it may interest him to know that David Gam, a 

 landed proprietor of some importance in Hereford- 

 shire, temp. Henry IV. and V., who had married 

 the sister of Owen Glyndwr, was discovered in 

 an attempt to assassinate his brother-in-law, the 

 royal chieftain ; and was, in consequence, arrested 



