NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 62. 



have been with the French army in Holland in 

 1672. It is therefore difficult to accoimt for the 

 publication of the English version of the History 

 of the Sevaramljians before its publication in 

 France, upon tlie assumption that Vairasse was 

 the author. The writer of the life of Vairasse 

 (art. Allais) in the Biograpliicnl Dictionary of the 

 Society of Useful Knowledge thinks that he may 

 have been only the translator : but the f\;ets col- 

 lected by Marchand show that he claimed the 

 authorship ; and there is no trace of its composi- 

 tion by any Englishman. Besides, its prior pub- 

 lication in England is just as inexiilicable upon 

 the assumption of his being the translator, as upon 

 that of his being the author. 



Query, Is Vairasse's residence in England men- 

 tioned by any English writer ? And can any light 

 be thrown upon the authorship of the History of 

 the Sevaramhians from any English source ? L. 



ORIGIN OF PRESENT PENNY POSTAGE. 



JIany of your readers have, I doubt not, pe- 

 rused with interest the vivid sketch of the origin 

 of the Penny Postage System, given by Miss Mar- 

 tineau in her History of England during the 

 Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii. p. 425., and have seen 

 in the incident of the shilling letter delivei-ed to 

 the poor cottager, somewhere in the Lake district 



— refused by her from professed inability to pay 

 the postage — paid for by Mr. Rowland Hill, who 

 happened most opportunely to be passing that way 



— and, when opened, found to be blank (this plan 

 being preconcerted between the woman and her 

 correspondent, to know of each other's welfare 

 without the expense of postage). A remarkable 

 instance of " how great events from little causes 

 spring," and have bestowed much admiration on 

 the penetration of Mr. Hill's mind, which "wakened 

 up at once to a significance of the fact," nor ever 

 rested till he had devised and effected his scheme 

 of Post-office Reform ; though all the while an 

 uncomfortable feeling might be lurking behind as 

 to the perfect credibility of so interesting a mode 

 of accounting for the initiation of this great social 

 benefit. 



I confess to having had some suspicions myself 

 as to the trustworthiness of this story ; and a few 

 days since my suspicions were fully confirmed by 

 discovering that the leal hero of the tale was not 

 the Post-office Reformer, but the poet Coleridge ; 

 unless, indeed, which is surely out of the range of 

 ordinary probabilities, the same event, coi-respond- 

 ing exactly as to place and amount of piostage, 

 happened to two persons at separate times. 



Coleridge relates the story himself, in one of his 

 "conversations," of which memoranda are pre- 

 served in the interesting volumes publislied by 

 Moxon in 1836 (ii. ] 14.). "One day," he says. 



"when I had not a shilling to spare, I was passing 

 by a cottage at Keswick where a carter was de- 

 manding a shilling for a letter, which the woman 

 of the house appeared unwilling to give, and at last 

 declined to take. I paid the postage, and when 

 the man was out of sight, she told me that the 

 letter was from her son, who took that means of 

 letting her know thathcAvas well. The letter was 

 not to be jiaid for. It was then opened and found 

 to he blank." 



Now, while so many copies of "Notes and 

 Queries" pass through the Post-office, it is to be 

 hoped one at least may remain there, and be the 

 means of inducing jMr. Hill to inform us whether 

 Miss Martineau had any authority for fathering 

 this story upon him ; and whether the Post-office 

 Reform is really indebted to any such trivial inci- 

 dent for its original idea. E. Venables. 



red book of the IRISH EXCHEQUER. 



On one of the vellum leaves of which the Red 

 Rook of the Irish Exchecpier is composed, there is 

 depicted a pen and ink sketch of that court. In 

 the centre of the picture is ihe table, which is 

 covered (as it is at this day) with a chequered 

 cloth, whereon are placed a bag upon which are 

 the words "Baga cum rotulis," a book with a 

 clasp, five large pieces of money, and a strip of 

 parchment, upon which is written, " Ceo vous, 

 &c." The table is surrounded on its four equal 

 sides by thirteen human figures, namely, six at the 

 top of the picture, three on the left hand, three on 

 the right, and one at the bottom. Of the six 

 figures at the top of the sketch, all of whom wear 

 robes, he who is on the right hand holds a wand, 

 bears upon his head a cap, and is in the act of 

 leaving the court, exclaiming, " Ademayn." To 

 the right of this man, who is probably the crier of 

 the court, is one of the officers carrying a piece 

 of parchment, upon which is written in contracted 

 law Latin, " Preceptum fuit Vicecomiti per breve 

 hujus Scaccarii." To the right of the last-named 

 figure is another officer of the court, who is in the 

 act of examining his pen by placing its nib at a 

 short distance from his eyes ; and this jjcrson 

 carries in his left hand a piece of parchment upon 

 which are written, in like character, the words, 

 " Memorandum quod x die Maii, &c." To the 

 right of this officer, who is probably the Chief Re- 

 membrancer, is placed another officer, wearing a 

 jap, who is in the act of writing upon a piece of 

 parchment bearing the words " Henricus dei 

 gratia." The two remaining figures at the top of 

 the picture arc ajiparently conversing together : 

 to one of them are applied the words, " Eynt bre 

 vie," with another word following the last which 

 is scarcely decypherable ; and to the other the 

 word " Elgyn " seems to have reference ; such 



