Dec. 28. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



507 



hill, on the confines of Warwickshire, he remained 

 with Sir Thomas, as his guest, from the 15 th to 

 the 17th of October (vide Slauley's Itei- Carolinum, 

 Gutch's Collectanea, a'oI. ii. p. 425.) ; and a closet is 

 still pointed out to the visitor where he is said to 

 have been concealed. A neighbouring eminence 

 is to the present day called " King's Standing," 

 from the fact of the unhappy monarch having stood 

 thereon whilst addi'essing his ti'oops. By his acts 

 of loyalty, Sir Thomas Holt acquired the hostility 

 of his rebellious neighbours ; and accordingly we 

 learn that on the 18th of December, 1643, he had 

 recourse to Colonel Leveson, who " put forty mus- 

 kettiers into the house" to avert impending dan- 

 gers ; but eight days afterwards, on the 2Cth of 

 December, "the rebels, 1,200 strong, assaulted 

 it, and the day following tooke it, kil'd 12, and 

 y' rest made prisoners, though w*'' losse of 60 

 of themselves." (Vide Dugdale's Diary, edited by 

 Hamper, 4to. p. 57.) The grand staircase, de- 

 servedly so entitled, bears evident marks of the 

 injury occasioned at this period, and an ofiending 

 cannon-ball is still preserved. 



Edward, the son and heir of Sir Thomas, died 

 at Oxford, on the 28th August, 1643, and was 

 buried in Christ Church. He was an ardent sup- 

 porter of the king. The old baronet was selected 

 as ambassador to Spain by Charles I., but was 

 excused on account of his infirmities. He died 

 A. D. 1654, in the eighty-third year of his age. His 

 excellence and benevolence of character would 

 afford presumptive evidence of the falsehood of 

 the tradition, if it were not totally exploded by 

 the absurdity of the hypothesis tijjon which it is 

 grounded. Sir Thomas was succeeded in the 

 baronetcy by his grandson, llobert, who in com- 

 pliance with his will built an almshouse or hospital 

 for five men and five women. It is unnecessary to 

 pursue the fiimily further, excepting to state that 

 nearly at the close of the last century the entail 

 was cut off: the family is now unknown in the 

 neighbourhood, excepting in its collateral branches, 

 and the hall has passed into the possession of 

 strangers. Its last occupant was James Watt, Esq., 

 son of the eminent mechanical philosopher. He 

 died about two years ago, and the venerable 

 mansion remains tenantless. 



With reference to the ancient fiimily residence 

 of the Holts, at Duddeston, it will be sufficient to 

 observe, tliat in the middle of the last century the 

 house and grounds were converted into a tavern 

 and ])leasure gardens, under the metropolitan title 

 of Vauxhall: and fur a century they continued to 

 aflbrd Ileal thful reci-eation and scenic amusement 

 to the busy inhabitants of Birmingham. The 

 amazing increase in the size and population of the 

 town lias at length demanded this interesting site 

 for Ijuiiilitig purposes. AVithin the last three 

 months the house and gardens have been entirely 

 dismantled, a range of building has already jjeen 



erected, and old Vauxhall is now numbered 

 amongst the things that were. J. Goodwin. 



Birmingham. 



" Bloody Hands" at Stoke d''Abe7~non, Surrey. — 

 The legends of Sir Richard Baker (Vol. ii., pp. 67. 

 244.) and of a member of the Holt family (Vol. ii., 

 p. 451.) recall to my mind one somewhat similar, 

 connected with a monument in the church of 

 Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, the appearance of a 

 " bloody hand " upon which was thus accounted 

 for to me : — 



" Two young brothers of the family of Vincent, the 

 elder of whom had just come into possession of the 

 estate, were out shooting on Fahmile Common, about 

 two miles from the village ; they had put up several 

 birds, but had not been able to get a single shot, when 

 the elder swore with an oath that he would fire at 

 whatever they next met with. They had not gone 

 much further before the miller of a mill near at hand 

 (and which is still standing) passed them, and made 

 some trifling remark. As soon as he had got by, the 

 younger brother jokingly reminded the elder of his 

 oath, whereupon the latter immediately fiied at the 

 miller, who fell dead upon the spot. Young Vincent 

 escaped to his home, and by the influenceof his family, 

 backed by large sums of money, no effective steps were 

 taken to apprehend liim, and he was concealed in the 

 ' Nunnery ' on his estate for some years, when death 

 put a period to the insupportable auffuish of his mind. 

 To commemorate his rash act and his untimely death, 

 this • bloody hand ' was placed on his monument." 



So runs the story as far as I remember ; the 

 date I cannot recollect. The legend was told me 

 after I had left the church, and I had paid no par- 

 ticular attention to the monument ; but I thought 

 at the time that the hand might be only the Ul- 

 ster badge. I shall be obliged to any of your 

 readers who will throw further light upon this 

 matter. A pilgrimage to Stoke d'Abernon, whose 

 church contains the earliest known brass in Eng- 

 land, would not be uninteresting even at this 

 season of the year. Aeun. 



VONDEL S I.UCIFEE. 



I have to complain of injustice done by a cor- 

 respondent of " Notes and Queries " to the 

 Dutch poet Vondel. To the question mooted by 

 F. (Vol. i., p. 142.), whether my countryman's 

 Lucifer has ever been translated into English, 

 IIekmes answers by a passage taken from the 

 Foreign Quarterly Review for April, 1829; and 

 subjoins a list of the dramatis persona "given from 

 the ori'ginul Dutch before him." The tragedy itself 

 is condensed by your correspondent into a simple 

 " &c." Now, if Heuimes, instead of referring to 

 a stale review for a coni])arison between Vondel's 

 tragedy and the Paradise Lost, without showing 

 by anj/ proof that Milton's justly renowned epic 



