244 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 4G. 



soners gave money to the sans-culottes for showing the 

 body. They said he was a good sans-culottc, and they 

 were going to put liim into a hole in tlie public church- 

 yard like other sans-culottes ; and he was carried away, 

 but where the body was tlirown I never heard. King 

 George IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the 

 body, but could not. Around the chapel were several 

 wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at the 

 time of the king's death, and the corpse was very like 

 them. The body had been originally kept at the palace 

 of St. Germain, from wlience it was brought to the 

 convent of the Benedictines. Mr. Porter, the prior, 

 was a prisoner at the time in his own convent." 



The above I took down from JNIr. Fitz-Sinions' 

 own mouth, and read it to him, and he said it was 

 perfectly correct. Sir W. Follett told me he 

 thought Mr. Fitz-Sinions was a runaway Vinegar 

 Hill boy. He told me tliat he was a monk. 



Pitman Jones. 



Exeter, Aug. 1850. 



FOLK LORE. 



The Legend of Sir Eichnrd Baker (Vol. ii., 

 p. 67.). — Will F. L. c<)]iy the inscription on the 

 monument in Cranbrook Church 'r" The dates on 

 it will test the veracity of the legend. In the 

 reign of Queen JNIary, the representative of the 

 family was Sir John Baker, who in tljat, and the 

 previous reigns of Edward VI. and Henry VOL, 

 had held some of the highest ollices in the king- 

 dom. He had been Recorder of London, Speaker 

 of the House of Commons, Attorney-General and 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and died in the first 

 year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His son, 

 Sir Richard Baker, was twice high-sheriff' of the 

 county of Kent, and had the houcmr of entertain- 

 ing Queen l^lizabeth in her progress througli the 

 county. This was, most likely, tlu? jierson whose 

 monument F. L. saw in Cranbrook Church. The 

 family had been settled there fr(nn the time of 

 Edward III., and seem to have been ailding con- 

 tinually to their possessions ; and at the time 

 mentioned by F. L. as that of their decline, 

 namely, in the reign of Edward VI., tliey were in 

 reality increasing in wealth and dignities. If the 

 Sir Richard Baker whose monument is referred 

 to by F. L. was the son of the Sir John above 

 mentioned, the circumstances of his life disprove 

 the legend. He was not the sole representative 

 of the family remaining at the accession of Queen 

 i\Iary. His fallier was then living, and at the 

 death of his fiither his brother John divided with 

 him the representation of the family, and had 

 many descendants. The family estates were not 

 dissipated; on the contrary, they were handed 

 down throtigh successive generations, to one of 

 whom, a grandson of Sir Richard, the dignity of a 

 baronet was given ; and Sivinghurst, which was 

 the family seat, was in the j^ossession of the third 



and last baronet's grandson, E. S. Beagham, in the 

 year 1730. Add to this that the Sir Richard 

 Baker in question was twice married, and that a 

 monumental erection of the costly and honourable 

 description mentioned by F. L. was allowed to be 

 place<l to his memory in the chancel of the church 

 of the parish in whicli such Bluebeard atrocities 

 are said to have been connnitted, and abundant 

 grounds will thence ajjpear for rejecting the truth 

 of the legend in the absence of all evidence. Tiie 

 unfortunately red colour of the gloves most likely 

 gave rise to the story. Nor is this a solitary 

 instance of such a legend having such an origin. 

 In the beautiful parish church of Aston, in War- 

 wickshire, are many memorials of the Baronet fa- 

 mily of Holt, who owned the adjoining domain and 

 hall, the latter of which still remains, a magnificent 

 specimen of Elizabethan architecture. Either in 

 one of the compartments of a painted window of 

 the church, or upon a monumental marble to one 

 of the Holts, is the Ulster badge, as showing the 

 rank of the deceased, and painted red. From the 

 colour of the liadge, a legend of the bloody hand 

 has been created as marvellous as that of the 

 Bloody Baker, so fully detailed by F. L. 



St. Johns. 

 [Will our correspondent favour us by comu'unicating 

 the Aston Legend of tlie Holt Family to which he 

 refers ?j 



Langley, Kent, Prophetic Spring at. — The fol- 

 lowing "note" upon a passage in Warliworth'' s 

 Chronicle (pp. 23, 24.) may perhnps possess 

 stdlii'ient intrrest to wan-ant its insertion in your 

 valuable little publication. The passage is curious, 

 not only as showing the superstitious dread witli 

 which a simple natural phenomenoti was regarded 

 by educated and intelligent men four centuries 

 ago, but also as aflTording evidence of the acciu'ate 

 observation of a writer, whose labours have shed 

 consideral le liuht upon "one of the darkest ]ie- 

 riods in our annals." The chronicler is recording 

 the occurrence, in the thirteenth year of Edward 

 the Fourth, of a " gret hote somere." which 

 caused much mortality, and " tinyversalle fevers, 

 axes, and the blody flyx in dyverse places of 

 Englonde," and also occasioned great dearth and 

 famine "in the southe partyes of the worlde." 



He then remarks that " dyverse tokenes have be 

 schewede in Englonde this year for amendynge 

 of mennys Ivvynge," and jiroceeds to enumerate 

 several springs or waters in various places, which 

 only ran at intervals, and by their running always 

 portended " derthe, pestylence, or grete batayle." 

 After mentioning several of these, he adds — 



" Also thcr is a pytte in Kent in Langley Parke : 

 ayens any batayle he wille he drye, and it rayne ncveyre 

 so myche ; and if thcr be no batayle toward, he wille be 

 fuUe of watcre, be it ncveyre so drye a wethyre; and 

 this yere he is drye." 



Langley Park, situated in a parish of the same 



