April 26. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



317 



{ authority for the word, to this very line in 

 j question of " The Marchante's Tale ! " 

 ! Nor does tlie proof, against him in particular, 

 end even there ; lie further shows that his atten- 

 tion must have been especially drawn to this 

 garden scene by his assertion that Pluto and 

 Proserpine were the prototjpps of Olierfin and 

 Titania; and yet he failed to notice a circum- 

 stance that would have added some degree of 

 plausibility to the comparison, namely, that 

 Chaucer's, as well as Shakspearc's, was a Mid- 

 summer Dream. 



It is, perhaps, only justice to Urry to state that 

 he appears to have been aware of the error that 

 would arise from attributing such a situation of 

 the sun to tiie month of July. The manner in 

 which the lines are printed in his edition is 

 this : — 



" ere the d;iyis eight 

 Were passid, er' the month July befiU." 



It is just possible to twist the meaning of this 

 into the eighth of the Kalends of Jidy, by which 

 the blunder would be in some degree lessened ; 

 but such a reading wouhl be as foreign to Chau- 

 cer's astronomy as the lines themselves are to his 

 poetry. A. E. B. 



Leeds, x\pril 8. 1851. 



THE ACADEMIES OF SIR FRANCIS KTNASTON AND 

 SIR BAiTHAZAR GERBIER. 



Among the many interesting associations con- 

 nected with old Covent Garden and its neigh- 

 bourhood, we ought not to overlook Sir Francis 

 Kynaston's " Museum Minervaa." 



In the year 1635, King Charles the First granted 

 his letters patent to bir Francis Kynaston, " Es- 

 quire of the body to his Majesty," whereby a 

 house in Covent (harden, which Sir Francis had 

 purchased, and furnished with books, manuscripts, 

 musical and matiiematical instruments, paintings, 

 statues, antiques, &c., was approjiriated for ever 

 as a college lor the education of the young no- 

 bility, and others, under the name of the " Mu- 

 seum ^linerva;." Sir Francis Kynaston was made 

 the governor with the title of "regent;" Edward 

 M:iy,Tlioinas Hunt, Nicholas Phiske, John Spidell, 

 Walter Salter, Michael Mason, fellows and pro- 

 fessors of piiilusophy and medicine, music, astro- 

 nomy, geometry, languages, &c. They had power 

 to elect professors also of horsemanship, dancing, 

 painting, engraving, &c. ; were n)ade a body cor- 

 porat"', were permitti'd to use a common seal, and 

 to possess goods and lands in mortmain. (Pat. 11 

 Car. pt. 8. No. 14.) In the following year, 1636, 

 was published, dt.'dicated to the " Regent and 

 Professor.'!," The CimstilntioiiH of the Museum Mi- 

 neri)fe ; giiniig an Account of an Acadcmij for 

 teaching chiejiy NaoigutioH, Hiding, Fortification, 



Architecture, Painting, and other useful Accom- 

 plishments. 



The "Museum" seems to have been highly pa- 

 tronised, for we find that on the 27th February, 

 1635 (the year of its foundation). Prince Charles, 

 the Duke of York, and the Lady Mary their 

 sister, honoured it with their presence to witness 

 a masque, entitled " Corona MinervEe," which was 

 written and prepared for the occasion by Sir 

 Francis Kynaston. This masque was, I believe, 

 printed in the year of its jiroduction, but I do 

 not find it mentioned in the last edition of the 

 Biographia Drumatica. 



Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook of London, 

 mentions (p. 42.) that 



" Sir Francis Kynaston, the poet, was living in 

 Covent Garden in 1 636", on the east side of the street 

 towards Berrie" (Bedfordbury). 



And ajrain. in his notice of Bedford Street (p. 44.), 

 he says, Sir Francis resided " on the west side in 

 1637." Both these entries refer to the same resi- 

 dence — a noble mansion, built in the year 1594, 

 which, after being inhabited by several important 

 families, finally passed into the possession of Sir 

 Francis Kynaston, who altered and adapted it 

 (rebuilding some portions) as the college of the 

 " Museum MinervfB." The ground plan, which is 

 now before me, exhibits a well-arranged and com- 

 modious building with two fronts, one in what is 

 now Bedfordbury, and the other (jirobably added 

 by Sir Francis) in the street now called Bedford 

 Street. The building, when Sir Francis Kynaston 

 purchased it in 1634, stood in the centre of a 

 large garden. The surrounding streets, — King 

 Sti-eet, New Street, Bedford Street, Chandos 



; Street, Henrietta Street, and Bedfordbury, were 

 not commenced building until the year 1637. 



The " Museum Minervse " is not named in Mr. 

 Cunningham's excellent Handbook; but when we 

 take into consideration the enormous amount of 

 information required for a work of the kind, we 

 ought not to blame the author for a few trifling 



1 omissions. 



j Sir Balthazar Gerbier, an enterprising projector 

 of the same century, by profession a painter and 

 an architect, but now scarcely remembered as 



, either, seems to have imitated the " Museum 

 Minervie" in an academy opened at Bethnal 

 Green in 1649. Here, in addition to the more 

 common branches of education, he professed to 

 teach astronomy, navigation, architecture, per- 

 spective, drawing, limning, engraving, fortifica- 

 tion, fireworks, military discipline, the art of well 

 speaking and civil conversation, history, constitu- 

 tions and nnixims of state, and paiticular dispo- 

 sitions .)f nations, " riding the great horse," &c. 

 Once in each week, at three o'clock in the after- 

 noon. Sir iialthazar gave a public lecture gratis 

 on the various sciences. The lectures were gene- 



