Aug. 31. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



215 



mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beacb- 

 Icy adjacent, and of Lbxnllowell. 



George Okmerod. 

 Sedbury Park, Chepstow. 



Omnibuses. — It may be interesting to your 

 readers at a future time to know wlien these 

 vehicles, the use of wliichis daily extending, were 

 introduced into this country ; perhaps, tlierefore, 

 you will allow me to state how the fact is. Mr. 

 C. Knight, in his Volume of Varieties, p. 178., ob- 

 serves : — 



"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four 

 horses and six wheels ; but we refused to accept it in 

 any shape till we imported the fashion from Paris in 

 18:50." 



And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the in- 

 ventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evi- 

 dence before the Board of Health on the general 

 scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally 

 mentions that he 



" Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular 

 transit, having originated and est:iblishcd tlie Omnibus 

 in England." — lieport, p. 124., 8vo. ed. 



Arun. 



HavocJi. — Havock is a term in our ancient En- 

 glish military laws : the use of it was forbidden 

 among the soldiery by the army regulations of 

 those days ; so in the Ordinances des Batailies in 

 the ninth year of Eichard II., art. x. : 



" Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur 

 peine d'avoir la teste coupe." 



This was properly a punishable offence in sol- 

 diers ; havock being the cry of mutual encourage- 

 ment to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, 

 that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on 

 '• The office of the constable and Mareshall in the 

 tyme of W'arrc," contained in the black book of 

 the Admiralty, has this passage : — 



" Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon 

 peyue that he tliat is begyiiner shall he deede therefore : 

 and the remanent tliat doo the same, or follow, shall 

 lose their horse ami harneis . . . and his body in prison 

 at the king's will." 



And this appears to answer well to the original 

 I term, which is taken from the ravages committed 

 by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., fall- 

 ing on a Hock of sheep. But sonic think it was 

 originally a hunting lerin, ini|)orting the letting 

 loose a pack of hounds. Sliakspeare combines 

 both senses : — 



" Cry havock ! and let slip the dogs of war." 



In a copy of Johnson's Dicliomirtj before me, 

 I (ind — 



"Havock (liainc. Sax.), waste; wide and general 

 devastation." S/iiinstr, 



" IIavoik, iiUcrj , a word of encouragement to 

 t slauglitcr." Shaltsjicare. 



" To Havock, v. a., to waste ; to destroy ; to lay 

 waste." Spenser. 



Jarltzberg. 



Schlegel on Church Property in England. — 

 Fr. Schlegel, in his Philosophij of History, says, 

 p. 403., " in Englan<l and Sweden church property 

 remained inviolate:" what the case may be in 

 Sweden I do not know, but it appears strange that 

 a man of such general knowledge as F. Schlegel 

 should make such an assertion as regards Enn;land. 



^S. N. 



caurrtc^. 



r. MATOIEU S LIFE OF SEJAN0S. 



In a letter from Southey to his friend Beelford, 

 dated Nov. 11, 1821 {Life and Corre'ipondence, 

 vol. V. p. 99.), he desires him to inform Gifford 

 that — 



" In a volume of tracts at Lowther, of Cliarles I.'s 

 time, I found a life of Sejanus by P. M., by which 

 initials some hand, apparently as old as the book, had 

 v/ritten Philip IMassinger. I did not read the tract, 

 being too keenly in pursuit of other game ; but I be- 

 lieve it had a covert aim at Buckingham. I have not 

 his IMassinger, and, therefore, do not know whether he 

 is aware that this was ever ascribed to that author ; if 

 lie is not, he will be interested in the circumstance, 

 and may think it worthy of further inquiry." 



As Others may ba led by this hint to enter on 

 such an imjuiry, I would suggest that it may save 

 much trouble if they first satisfy themselves that 

 the Life of Sejanus by P. jM.a.tuieu may not have 

 been the tract which fell in Southey's way. It is 

 to be Ibund in a volume entitled 



" Unhappy Prosperity, expressed in the History of 

 jElius Selauus and Philiijpa the Cutanian, with ob- 

 servations upon the fall of Sejanus. Lastly, Certain 

 Considerations upon the Life and Services of MDnsievr 

 ViUeroy, translated out of the original [French] by 

 S"' T. H. [ciwhins'], second edition, 12°. London, 1639." 



This was just eleven years after Buckingham met 

 his fate at the hand of Felton. How long the 

 interval between the first and this, the second 

 edition, may have been, I cannot tell. Nor do I 

 know enough of the politics of the time to deter- 

 mine whether anything can be inferred from the 

 fact that the translation is dedicated to William 

 Eail of Salisbury, or to warrant me in saying that 

 these illustrations of the fate of royal lavouritcs 

 may have been brought before the English public 

 wiih any view to the case of George Villiers. A 

 passage, however, in Mathieu's dedication of the 

 original "to the king," seems to render it not im- 

 probable, certainly not inapplicable : — 



" You (Sir) shall therein [in this history] behold, 

 that a prince oiiy/it to be vcri/ cjrefiiU to conxcrrc Ills 

 autliorily entire. Great ones [court Aivourltes] here 

 may tearne, it is not good to play with the generous 



