ERBYSHIRE IrCH^OLOGICAL 



AND 



ATURAL Ml STORY lOCIETY. 



Supplemental i^otcs on ti^e IClmstonsc of 

 IBltjatictl), Countess of SljrrUJslJuvp. 



By H. E. CuRREY, M.A. 



HE Devonshire almshouses, as they are generally called, 

 were founded by Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, 

 in 1599, after the death of the Earl, her fourth hus- 

 band. The present houses, erected about the year 

 1777, were the subject of a characteristic criticism by Hutton."'^' 

 As these buildings, with the original site, are about to be sold in 

 furtherance of a new scheme made by the Charity Commissioners 

 in 1889 for the administration of the charity, it may be well to 

 supplement with the following notes such particulars as have been 

 hitherto published : — 



Of existing muniments the earliest are the Letters Patent sealed 

 at Westminster with the great seal of Queen Elizabeth on 

 3rd March, 1597. Their old box has been over-run by, I think, 

 Niptus hololeucus and its larva. Perhaps some member of the 

 Natural History section can suggest a remedy. The Letters are 



* " History of Derby, 1791," p. 52. 



