April 26. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



323 



M. or N. .(Vol. i., p. 415. ; Vol. ii., p. 61.).— 

 There have been several suggestions as to the 

 origin of the use of these letters in the services 

 of the church, but I do not think that any cor- 

 respondent has hit upon the very simple one 

 whicli I have always considered to be most pro- 

 bably the true explanation; which is, that as these 

 services were compiled when algebra stood much 

 higher in the rank of sciences than it does at 

 present, it is by no means unlikely that these two 

 letters should be used to signify indefinite and 

 variable names, as they are in algebra to represent 

 indefinite or variable uumhers, in the same manner 

 as A. B. C. are as signs of known or definite, and 

 X. Y. Z. of unknown sums. E. H. Y. 



Henry VITI. and Sir Thos. Ciiricen. — The 

 following quaint extract from Sandford's MS. 

 History of Camherlaud, now in the library of the 

 Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, exhibits that 

 " reknowned king," Henry A^III,, in so good- 

 natured a light, that I think, if yoii can find a 

 corner for it, it may amuse some of your readers. 

 That the good knight and " excelent archer" 

 should have been so outwitted by his son-in-law 

 is a matter of some regret to one of his de- 

 scendants : — 



" Sir Thos. Curwen, Knight, in Henry the Eight's 

 time, an excelent archer at twelvescorc merks ; and 

 went up with his men to shoote with ttiat reknowned 

 King at the dissolution of abbe)'.s : and the King says 

 to him, Curwen, wliy doth thee begg none of these 

 Abbeys? I wold gratify thee some way. Quoth the 

 other. Thank yow, and afterward said he wold desire 

 of him the .\bbie of ffurness (nye unto him) for 20'^ 

 one yeares. Saves the King : take it for ever: quoth 

 the other, it is long enough, for youle set them up 

 againe in that time : but they not likely to be set up 

 againe, this Sir Tho. Curwen sent ]\Ir. Preston, who 

 had married his daughter, to renew the lease for hini ; 

 and he even rennewed in his own name ; which when 

 his father-in-law questioned, quoth Mr. Preston, you 

 shall have it as long as you live ; and I think I may as 

 well have it with your daughter as another." 



After some descents, this family of Preston, of 

 the manor of Furness, terminated in a daughter, 

 who married Sir AVilliam Lowther, whose grand- 

 son left his estates in Furness and Cartmell to 

 Lis cousin, Lord George Cavendish, through 

 whom they are inherited by the Earl of Bur- 

 lington. As Hurry the Eighth's good intentions 

 towards Sir Thomas Curwen have been frustrated, 

 his descendants must console themselves by know- 

 ing that the glorious old ruin of Furness could 

 not be in better hands than his lordship's. II. C. 

 Workington. 



Periodical Literature, 1707. — 



" The author of the Observntor is IVIr.. Uidpatu, y* 

 autlior of the Flijinrj I'oU. Tlie base author of the late 

 paper, which has been some time since dropp'd, viz. 

 r/ie OOservalor Ilevivd, was one Pearce, an exchange 



broker, some time since concerned in the paper called 

 Legion's Address, and forced to tiy on that account into 

 Holland. The publisher of the Phcetiix is a Presby- 

 terian bookseller, named J. Darby, in Bartholomew 

 Close, who has told me that he was chiefly assisted 

 therein by the famous RIr. Collins, the supposed 

 author of The Use of lieason in Propositions, &c., and 

 Dr. Tindal's familiar acquaintance." — Original Letter 

 of the Rev. Itohert Watts, M.A., dated London, Feb. 6. 

 1707-8. 



P. B. 



Archbishop Sancroft. — It is well known that 

 Dr. AVilliam Dillingham, blaster of Emanuel Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, publibhed, in 1678, a vohnue of 

 Latin poems, partly translations from George 

 Herbert, partly pieces of his own, willi some few 

 added from other sources. But it is not known 

 that most of the pieces in this volume were cor- 

 rected by the hand of Archbishop Sancroft, and 

 that one certainly was from his own pen. It oc- 

 curs at p. 155. of the octavo volume alluded to, 

 and is entitled " Ilippodromus." This is a trans- 

 lation from an epigram by Thomas Bastard, first 

 printed in 1598, and beginning : 



" I mett a courtier riding on the plaine." 

 Th.at it is Archbishop Sancroft's is proved from 

 an original letter addressed to him by Dillingham 

 in 1677, and preserved in the Bodleian. P. B. 



Sir Henry Slingshy. — This g.illant cavalier, who 

 was murdered (as Lloyd says in his Memuiis') by 

 Oliver Cromwell in 1658, wrote an account of the 

 scenes in which he bore a part, from 1638 to 1648, 

 which he called " Commentaries, containing many 

 remarkable occurrences during the Civil AVars." 

 Can any of your correspondents tell me where the 

 original manuscript is to be found, and whether it 

 was ever printed ? I have seen aii indifferent 

 transcript, beginning, " The chappel at Bed House 

 was built by my father. Sir Henry Slingsby." If 

 it has never been published, it would be an ac- 

 ceptable contribution to the historical memoirs of 

 the times, and worth the attention of the Camden 

 Society. P. B. 



Origin of a Surname. — Martha Denial, widow, 

 aged seventy-five, was bui'ied in Ecclesfield 

 churchyai'd, 3rd February, 1851. Her husband, 

 Joseph Denial, told the parish clerk that his 

 grandfather was found when an infant deserted 

 in a church porch ; and that he was snrnamed 

 Denial, as one whom all deny ; and was christened 

 Daniel, which is composed of the same letters. 

 This is the tradition of the origin of a surname 

 now common in this parish. A. G. 



Eccleslield. 



Maddens Reflections. — Madden's Bcflecf ions and 

 Resolutions for the Gentlemen of Ireland. In the 

 preface to the reprint of this work we meet with 

 the following jiaragraph : 



" The very curious and interesting work which is 



