198 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 71. 



Mrs. Mac Leliose (Clarindd) was living in 1840, 

 in the eightieth year of her age. 



ElJWAKD F. RiMBATJLT. 



Dill St. Paul's Clock strike Thirteen ? (Vol iii., 

 p. 40.). — Yes : but it was not then at St. Paul's ; 

 I'or I think St. Paul's was then being rebuilt. 

 The correspondent to the Antiquarian Repertory 

 says : 



" The first time I heard it (the cn-cumsfance) was 

 at Wiiulsor, before St. Paul's had a clock, when the 

 soI<lier's plea was said to he that Tom of Westniinster 

 struck thiiteen instead of twelve at the time when he 

 ouglit to have been relieved. It is not long since a 

 newspaper mentioned the death of one wlio said he 

 was the man." 



About the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 this bell was removed to St. Paul's, &c. — Can any 

 of the readers of the "Notes and Queries" supply 

 the newspaper notice above referred to. The 

 above was written in 177.5. The clock tower in 

 whicli the bell was originally (and must have been 

 when the sentinel heard it) was removed in 1715. 



John Francis. 



[The story is given in Walcolt's Munnrials of West- 

 minster as being thus recorded in The Public Advertiser 

 of Friday, 22nd June, 1770 :—•' Mr. John Hatfield, 

 who died last Monday at his house in Glasshouse 

 Yard, Aldersgate, aged 102 years, was a soldier in the 

 reign of William and Mary, and the person who was 

 tried and condemned by a Court Martial for falling 

 asleep on his duty upon the terrace at Windsor. He 

 absolutely denied the charge against him, and soleinnly 

 declared that he heard St. Paul's clock strike thirteen, 

 the truth of which was much doubted by the court 

 because of the great distance. But whilst he was 

 under sentence of death, an affidavit was made by 

 several persons that the clock actually did strike thirteen 

 instead of twelve; whereupon he received his majesty's 

 ])ardon. The above his friends caused to be engraved 

 upon his plate, to satisfy the world of the trutli of a 

 story which has been much doubted, tiiough he had 

 often confirmed it to many gentlemen, and a few days 

 before his death told it to several of his neighbours. 

 Me enjoyed his sight and memory to the day of his 

 death."] 



Defence of the Execution of Mary Queen of 

 Scots (Vol. iii., p. 113.). — Among the benefits 

 conferred by " Notes and Queries" upon the 

 literary world, is the inforuuttion occasionally 

 alForded, in what libraries, public and private, very 

 rare books are deposited. Mr. Collier expresses 

 his thanks to Mr. Laing for sending to him aver\ 

 rare volume by Kyffin. Had I seen his " Ex- 

 tracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Com- 

 pnny," I should have had much pleasure in fur- 

 nishing him witli extracts, from another copy in 

 the Chetliam Library, of the tract he has de- 

 scribed. Tlie Rev. T. Corser possesses the same 

 author's Blessedness of Britain. His other works 

 are enumerated by Watt, and should be transfei-red 

 to a Bibliolheca Cambrensis. T. J. 



Metrical Psalms., ^c. (Vol. iii., p. 119.). — Arun 

 may find all the information he seeks by consulting 

 a treatise of Heyliiis on the suliject of tlie metri- 

 cal version of the Psalms, publisheil by Dr. Rich. 

 Watson, under the title of The Deduction, 8vo. 

 Lond. 1685. 



Together with this treatise, two letters from 

 Bishop Cosin to Watson are published; in the 

 latter of which, towards the end, the following 

 paragraph occurs : — 



" The singing Psalms are not adjoined to our Bibles, 

 or to our Liturgy, by any other authority than what 

 the Company of Stationers for thiir own gain have 

 ])rocutcd, either by their own ])rivate ordinances among 

 themselves, or by sonic order from the Privy Council 

 in Queen Elizabeth's time. Authority of convoca- 

 tion, or of Parliament, such as our Liturgy had, never 

 had they any : only the Queen, by her Letters Patent 

 to the Stationers, gave leave to have them printed, and 

 allowed them (did not command them) to be sung in 

 churches or private houses liy the peo))le. When the 

 Liturgy was set forth, and commanded to be used, 

 these psalms were not half of them composed : no 

 bishop ever inquired of their observance, nor did ever 

 any judge at an assize deliver them in his charge : 

 which both the one and other had been bound to do, 

 if they had been set forth by the same authority which 

 the Litur.'y was. Besides you may observe, that they 

 are never printed with the Litiu"gy or IJible, nor ever 

 were ; but ordy bound up, as the stationers please, to- 

 gether with it," &c. 



J. Sansom. 



Aristophanes on the Modern Staffe (Vol. iii., 

 p. 105.) — MoliiJre has availed himself in the 

 comedy of the Bourgeois Gehtilhoiume very libe- 

 rally of the comedy of the Clouds. The lesson in 

 grammar given to Monsr. Jourdain is nearly the 

 same as that which Socrates gives to Strepsiades. 



W. B. D. 



iHiSrcIInufatiS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



The last number of the Genthman's Magazine con- 

 tains a very important paper upon the limited accessi- 

 bility of the State Paper Oflfice to literary inquirers, 

 and the consequent injury to historical literature. But 

 not only is the present system illiberal ; it seems that it 

 has been determined by the Lords of the Treasury 

 that the historical papers anterior to 1714 shall be 

 transferred from the State Paper Office to the new 

 Record Office, which is now rising rapidly on the 

 Rolls Estate. Under present circumstances, this is a 

 transfer from bad to worse. Our contemporary shows 

 the absurdity and iiijuslice to literature of such a de- 

 termination in a very striking manner. We cannot 

 follow him through his proofs, but are bound as the 

 organ of literary men to direct attention to the subject. 

 It is most important to every one who is interested 

 — and who is not? — in the welfare of historical lite- 

 rature. 



