378 Wilts Notes and Queries. 
it was not until six more weeks had elapsed, that it was conceived 
safe to divulge to her the following narrative :— 
The hazardous anniversary day, every moment of which Dryden 
was anxious to pass with his son, had unfortunately been chosen by 
the young lord as the occasion of a great stag-hunting match, to 
which all the neighbouring gentry were invited. Dryden, having 
no wish to be thought an astrologer, joined the party with apparent 
good will as to himself, but determined if possible to keep the child 
out of harm’s way. With this view he gave him a long Latin 
lesson, with strict injunctions not to stir out of the room till his 
return. Butthough Charles might not look after the stag, fate drove 
the stag, after a long chase, back to Charlton. The affrighted 
animal, after standing some time at bay near the Court-gate, took 
to the wall and cleared it, just where little Charles was standing 
with a servant to see the sport. The dogs followed in a body, and 
the wall being very ruinous, ten yards of it fell down and covered 
the child with debris. He was immediately dug out; and, though 
considerably injured, at last recovered after six weeks languishing. 
Thus far the oracle seemed to be ratified. In the twenty-third 
year of his age, Charles fell from the top of an old tower attached 
to the Vatican in Rome, the heat of the day having occasioned a 
swimming in his head. He again recovered, but was ever after- 
wards in a sickly state of health; and in the thirty-third year of 
his age he was drowned near Windsor. He had, with a companion, 
twice crossed the river, but at the third attempt was, it is supposed, 
seized with cramp ; as he called for help, though too late. Such 
was the story of his doomed career, as taken from his mother the 
lady Elizabeth’s own mouth, and preserved in Charles Wilson’s Life 
of William Congreve. 
J. WAYLEN. 
Croru-Maxine, True or Henry VIII., 1516.—“ Charges brought 
against the Alnager-seals and Surveyor of Seals, within the counties 
of Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucester, ready to be approved” [ proved 
on oath]. 
“ Note.—They be not expert in cloth-making, according to the 
statute; [that is, the alnagers are not themselves acquainted with 
