Mat 3. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



West Chester. — In maps of Cheshire, 1670, and 

 perhaps later, the city of Chester is thus called. 

 Why is it so designated ? It does not appear to 

 be so called now, Passing through a village only 

 six miles from London last week, I heard a mother 

 saying to a child, " If you are not a good girl I 

 will send you to West Chester." " Go to Bath" 

 is common enuugh ; but why should either of 

 these places be single 1 out ? The Cheshire threat 

 seems to have been in use for some time, unless 

 that city is still called West Chester. 



John Francis X. 



The Milesians. — "With respect to the origin of 

 the Milesian race little seems to be known, even 

 by antiquaries who have given their attention to 

 the archa2ology of Ireland, the inhabitants of 

 which country are reputed to have been of Mile- 

 sian origin. The JMilesian race, also, is thought to 

 have come over from Spain, a conjecture which is 

 rather condrmedby the etymology of the names of 

 some Irish towns, where the letters gV;, as in 

 Drogheda and Aghada, if so convertible, have the 

 same pronunciation as the Spanish j in Aranjuez 

 and Badajoz, and also by the expression and cast 

 of features marked in many of the peasants of the 

 south-west of Ireland, which strikingly resemble 

 those of the children of Spain. 



There is also another subject of antiquity in 

 Ireland, and closely connected with her early his- 

 tory, of the true origin of which the world seems 

 much in ignorance, viz. her Hound Towers. 

 Possibly some of yoiu- able correspondents will 

 kindly supply some information on one or both of 

 these subjects, W. il. M. 



Round Eohhin. — In Dr. Ileylin's controversy 

 with Fuller on his Church History, the following 

 quotation * occurs : 



" That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but 

 a piece of bread, or a little predie round robbin." - 



In the East Riding of Yorkshire the term is 

 designative of a petition, in v.diich all the names are 

 signed radiating from a centre, so as to render it 

 impossible to discover who was the first to sign 

 it. What is the derivation of it ? II. W. E. 



Cor. Chr. Coll., Cambridge. 



-What is the origin of 

 N.B. 



information concerning Bactriana, under the Scy- 

 thian kings? I also want a guide to the Gra;co- 

 Bactriau series of coins. Blowbn. 



Experto crede Roberto.- 

 this saying 'i 



Captain Howe. — 



" Ca])tain Howe, tlie Kin;,;'s (George II.) ncpliew 

 >)y an illegitimate source." — Pictorial Hiatory of Eiiy- 

 iaiid, iv. 597. 



Can you inform me how this captain was thus 

 ix'latcd to George II. ? F. B. Helton. 



liuctria. — Can you refer nic to a work worthy 

 the name of The Ilistu7-y of Bactria, or to detached 



• Appeal of Injured Innocence, p. 462. 



Mcplt'c^. 



TUE FAMILY OF THE TBADESCANTS. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 119. 28G.) 



The family of the Tradescants is involved in 

 considerable obscurity, and the period of the 

 arrival of the first of that name in England is 

 not, for a certainty, known. There were, it 

 seems, three of the Tradescants at one time in this 

 country — grandfather, father, and son. Jolia 

 Tradescant (or Tradeskin, as he was generally 

 called by his contemporaries) the elder was, ac- 

 cording to Anthony Wood, a Fleming or a Dutch- 

 man. He probabl)' came to England about the 

 latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, f)r in the be- 

 ginning of that of James the First. He is reported 

 to have been a great traveller, and to have pre- 

 viously visited Barbary, Greece, Egypt, and other 

 Eastern countries. Upon his first arrival here he 

 is said to have been successively gardener to the 

 Lord Treasurer Salisbury, Lord Weston, the Duke 

 of Buckingham, and other noblemen of <lisiinction. 

 In these situations he remained until the office of 

 roval gardener was bestowed upon him in 1629. 



To John Tradescant the elder, jiosterity is mainly 

 indebted for the introduction of botany in this 

 kingdom. "He, by great industry, made it mani- 

 fest that there is scarcely any plant existing in the 

 known world, that will not, with proper care, 

 thrive in our climate." In a visit made by Sir 

 W. Watson and Dr. Mitchell to Tradescant's gar- 

 den in 174t), an account of which is inserted in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlvi. p. 160., it 

 appears that it had been many years totally ne- 

 glected, and the house belonuing to it einjity and 

 ruined; but though the garden was quite covered 

 with weeds, there renuiiued among them manifest 

 footsteps of its founder. Tlicy Ibiind there the 

 liorago latifolia scnipervirens of Caspar L'auhine; 

 Pobji^onatum vidgare latifolinnu C.B. ; Aristolochia 

 clcmatitis rcclu, C.B. ; and the Dracoutium of Do- 

 doens. There were then remaining two trees of 

 the Arlmlus, which from their being so long used to 

 our winters, did not sulFcr fitim the severe cold 

 i of 1739-40, when most of their kind were killed 

 in England. In the orchard there was a tree of 

 tlie Rliamnus catharticus, about twenty feet high, 

 and nearly a foot in diameter. Tljere are at 

 present no traces of this garden remaining. 



In the Ashmolean Library is jireserved (No. 

 14()1.) a folio manuscri])t (|)robably in the hand- 

 writing of the elder Tradescant) which ])urp(irls 

 to be " Tlie Tradescants' Orchard, illustrated in 

 tiixly-five coloured diawings of fruits, exhibiting 

 variovis kinds of the apple, cherry, damson, date, 



