Mats. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



Z55 



them : the inscription is ch : mag : et : hen : ma : 

 brit: rex: et: reg. The reverse contains in the 

 field, Cupid mixing lilies with roses; the legend 

 being fvndit: amor: lilia: mixta: rosis. In 

 the exergue is the date 162o. The Tradescant 

 mentioned by Walton in 1653 was the second of 

 that name, not the son, as stated by Sir John 

 Hawkins. 



The editor of the last edition of Evelyn's Diary 

 (vol. ii. p. 414.) says, speaking of the Trades- 

 cants : 



" They were all eminent gardeners, travellers, and 

 collectors of curiosities. Tlie two first came into this 

 country in the reign of James I., and the second and 

 third were employed in the Royal Gardens by Charles I." 



Here is a, positive statement that the elder Trades- 

 cant and his son came into England in the reign 

 o( James I. But there is no proof of this given. 

 It is merely the writer's assertion. At the end of 

 the same note, speaking of Tradescant's Ark, the 

 editor observes : 



" It formed the foundation of the Ashmolean Mu- 

 seum at Oxford, and a catalogue of its contents was 

 printed by the youngest John Tradescant in 1556, 

 with the title of Museum Tradescantianum. He died 

 in 1652." 



It was not tha t/oun^est John Tradescant that died 



in 1652, but the oldest, the grand/atkei the first 



of that name that settled in England. 



The following is a list of the portraits of the 

 Tradescant family now in the Ashmolean Museum; 

 both father and son are in these portraits called 

 Sir John, thougli it does not appear tliat either of 

 them was ever knighted. Mr. Black, in his ex- 

 cellent catalogue of the Ashmolean Librarjj^ also 

 calls the elder Tradescant Sir John. (See p. 1266.) 



1. Sir John Tradescant, sen., three-quarter size, 

 ornamented with fruit, flowers, and garden roots. 



2. The same, after his decease. 



3. The same, a small three-quarter piece, in 

 water cf>lours. 



4. A large painting of his wife, son, and daugh- 

 ter, quarter-length. 



5. Sir John Trailescant, junior, in his garden, 

 with a spade in his hand, half-length. 



6. The same with his wife, half-length. 



7. The same, witii his friend Zythepsa of Lam- 

 beth, a collection of shells, &c. upon a table be- 

 fore them. 



8. A large quarter piece inscribed Sir John 

 Tradescant's second wife and son. 



Granger says he saw a picture at a gentleman's 

 house in Wiltshire, which was not unlike that of 

 the deceased Tradesi;ant, and the inscription was 

 applicable to it : 



" Mortuus baud alio quam quo pater ore quiesli, 

 Quam faeili frueris nunc quoque nocte doces." 



I may add, in conclusion, that several beautiful 

 drawings of the Tradeiscant monument in Lam- 



beth churchyard are preserved in the Pepysi^aft 

 library. These drawings were engraved for' the 

 Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixiii. p. 88. ,' amd 

 are printed from the same plates in the Bihliotheea 

 Topographica Britannica, vol. ii. 



Edward F. Rimbault, 



MEANIXG OF VENVILLE. 



(Vol. iii., pp. 152. 310.) 



I observe, in p. 310. of the present volume, 

 that two correspondents, P. and K., have con- 

 tributed conjectures as to the meaning and origin 

 of the term venville, noticed and explained antH, 

 p. 152. The origin of the word is of course to 

 some extent open to conjecture ; but they may rest 

 assured that the meaning of it is not, nor ever 

 has been, within the domain of mere conjecture 

 with those who have had any opportunities of in- 

 quiry in the proper quarter. The term has not 

 the slightest reference to the ceremony of deli- 

 vering possession, which P. has evidently witnessed 

 in the case of his father, and which lawyers call 

 livery of seisin ; nor is there on Dartmoor any 

 such word as van signifying peat, or Asfail, signi- 

 fying turf. No doubt a fen on the moor would 

 probably contain " black earth or peat," like most 

 other mountain bogs ; and if (as K. says) fail means 

 a "turf or flat clod" in Scotland, I think it pro- 

 bable that a Scotchman on Dartmoor might now 

 and then so for forget himself as to call peat or 

 turf by a name which would certainly not be 

 understood by an aboriginal Devonian. The 

 local name of the peat or other turf cut for fuel 

 is vaggs, and this has perhaps been confounded in 

 the recollection of K.'s informant with ven. At 

 all events, I can assure both P. and K. (who, I 

 presume, are not familiar with the district) that 

 the tenants of venville lands have no functions to 

 perform, as such, in any degree connected with 

 either turf-cutting or " fenging fields," and that 

 they do not necessarily, or generally, occupy peat 

 districts, or rejoice in 



" All the infections that the Eun sucks up \ 

 From bogs, fens, flats," &c. ; 



but, on the contrary, they are the owners of some 

 of the most valuable, salubrious, and picturesque 

 purlieus of the forest. With regard to the name 

 " fengfield," although I am pretty familiar with 

 the records of the forest extant for the last five 

 hundred years past, I do not remember that it is 

 ever so named or spelt in the muniments of the 

 manor or forest. It is so written by Risdon, and 

 in some few other documents entitled to little 

 weight, and from which no safe inference can be 

 drawn. Whatever be the etymological origin of 

 the term, it should be assumed as indisputable by 

 any one who may hereafter exercise his ingenuity 

 or his fancy upon it, that the four most prominent 



