248 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 74. 



pages, vellum with tuck, closely written, price 

 2/. 12s. 6t/." The purchaser was Mr. Wallbran, Fall- 

 croft, Ripon, Yorkshire.] 



Closing of Booms on account of Death (Vol. iii., 

 p. 142). — I nm acquainted with a remaikahle 

 instance of tliis ciistoni. A respectable farmer 

 who resided in a parish in Bedfordshire, adjoining 

 that in which I am writing, died in 1844; leaving 

 to his daughter the fine old manor-house in which 

 he liad lived for many years, and in which he died, 

 together with about J300 acres of land. The lady, 

 with her husband, was then residing in a neigh- 

 bouring village, where the latter rented a farm, 

 ■which he has since given up, i etaining the house ; 

 but she positively refused to remove to the manor- 

 house, "because her faiher had died in it;" and 

 as she still persists in her refusal, it is unoccupied 



to this day. For Mr. is not even permitted 



to let it, except a part, now tenanted by a valued 

 fj-iend of mine, which for many years has been let 

 separately. The rooms and the furniture in them 

 remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occu- 

 pant. The lady's husband, who farms the land 

 attached to the house, is put to great inconveni- 

 ence by living at a distance from it, but nothing 

 will induce her to alter her determination. The 

 facts I have related are notorious in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Arun. 



Enigmatical Epitaph on liev. John Mawer 

 (Vol. iii., p. 184.). — On reading to a lady the ar- 

 ticle on this subject in a late Number, she imme- 

 diately recollected, that about thirty years ago 

 she had a governess of that name, the daughter 

 of a clergyman in Nottinghamshire, who often 

 mentioned that they were descended from the 

 Boyal Fainihj of Wales, and that she had a brother 

 who was named Arthur Lewellyn I'udor Kaye 

 Mawer. 



This anecdote will perhaps be of use in directing 

 attention to Cambrian pedigrees, and leading it 

 from Dr. Whitaker's " Old King Cole" to " the 

 noble race of Shenkin." J. T. A. 



Hayhands in Seals (Vol. iii., p. 186.). — The 

 practice mentioned by Mr. Lowek, of inserting 

 haybands, or rather slips of rush, in the seals of 

 feofi'ments, was common in all counties ; and it 

 certainly was not confined to the humbler classes. 

 Hundreds of feoffments of the fd'ioenth century, 

 and earlier, have passed through my hands with 

 the seals as described by ]Mr. Lower, relating to 

 various counties, and executed by parties of all 

 degrees. In these instances, a little blade of rush 

 is generally neatly inserted round the inner rim 

 of the impression, and evidently must have been 

 so done while the wax was soft. In some in- 

 stances, these blades of rush overlay the whole 

 seal ; in others, a slip of it is merely tied round 

 the label. In delivering seisin under a feoffment, 

 the grantor, or his attorney, handed over to the 



grantee, together with the deed, a piece of turf, 

 or a twig, or something plucked from the soil, in 

 token of his giving full and complete possession. 

 I have generally supposed that these strips of rush 

 were the tokens of possession so handed over, as 

 part and parcel of the soil, by the grantor ; and 

 that they were attached to the seal, as it were, 

 " in perpetuam rei memoriam." In default of 

 better information, I venture to suggest this ex- 

 planation, but will not presume to vouch for its 

 correctness. L. B. L. 



Kotes on Neu'spapers (Vol. iii., p. 164.). — John 

 Houghton, the editor of the periodical noticed by 

 your correspondent, A Collection for the Improve- 

 ment of Husbandry and Trade, was one of those 

 meritorious men who well deserve commemoration, 

 though his name is not to be found in any biography 

 that I am acquainted with. He was an apothecary, 

 and became a dealer in tea, coffee, and chocolate. 

 He was in politics a loyalist, or Tory, and was 

 admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1679- 

 80. He began to publish his Letters on Husbandry 

 and Trade in 1681. No. 1. is dated Thursday, 

 September 8, 1681. The first collection ended 

 June, 1684, and consists of two vols. 4to. In 

 November, 1691, Houghton determined to resume 

 his old plan of publishing papers on Husbandry and 

 Trade. His abilities and industry were warmly 

 recommended by several members of the lioyal 

 Society : Sir Peter Pott, John Evelyn, Dr. Hugh 

 Chamberlain, and others. The recommendation is 

 prefixed to the first number of this second collec- 

 tion. The first paper is dated AVednesday, March 

 30, 1692 ; and the second Wednesday, April 6, 

 1692; they were continued every succeeding 

 Wednesday. The concluding paper w-as published 

 September 24, 1703. There were 583 numbers, in 

 19 vols., of the folio papers. The last number con- 

 tains an "Epitome" of the 19 vols, and a "Fare- 

 well," which gives his reasons for discontinuing the 

 paper, and thanks to his assistants, "wishing that 

 knowledge may cover the earth as the water covers 

 the sea." A selection from these papers was pub- 

 lished in 1727, by Richard Bradley, F.R.S., in 

 three vols. Svo., to which a fourth was afterwards 

 added in 1728, 8vo. 



Houghton also published An Accoxint of the Acres 

 and Houses, with the proportional Tux, ^~c. of 

 each County in England and Wales. Lond. 1693, 

 on a broadside. Also, Booh of F?inds, 1694, 4to. 

 Alteration of the Coin, icith a feasible Method to it 

 1695. 4to. James CnossLEr. 



Duncan Campbell (Vol. i., p. 186.). — There 

 seems to be no doubt that Duncan Campbell, 

 whose life was written by Defoe, was a real person. 

 See Toiler, vol. i. p. 156. edit. 1786, Svo. ; Spec- 

 tator, No. 560. ; AVilson's Life of Defoe, vol. iii. 

 p. 476. His house was " in Buckingham Court, 

 over against Old ISIan's Coffee House, at Charing 



