NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 88. 



■soon found themselves impelled round tlie per- 

 former so rapidly and mysteriously, that they 

 would all fain have rested. But when they essayed 

 to retire, they found, to theii- consternation, that they 

 were moving faster and faster round their diabolical 

 musician, who had now r^jsumed his original shape. 

 "Their cries for mercy were unheeded, until the 

 first glinunerino; of day warned the fiend tiiat he 

 must depart. AVith such rapidity had they moved, 

 that the gay and sportive assembly were now re- 

 duced to a ghastly troop of skeletons. " I leave 

 you," said the fiend, " a monument of my power 

 and your wickedness to the end of tmie:" which 

 saying, he vanished. The villagers, on rising in 

 the morning, found the meadow strewn with large 

 pieces -of stone, and the pious piper lying under a 

 Ledge, half dead with fright, he having been a 

 witness to the whole transaction. 



David Stevens. 

 Godalming, May 10. 18,)1. 



Minar ^attS. 



The Hon. Spencer Perceval. — Being on a tour 

 through the AVest of England some years ago, I 

 found myself one morning rapidly .idvancing up 

 the river Tamar, in the gig of " the Captain of the 

 Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the 

 noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of 

 which a good modern house has been erected, and 

 in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing 

 collection -of antiquities. 



As we proceeded up the river, the gallant cap- 

 tain related the following anecdote in reference to 

 the then proprietor of Trematon: — 



It is well known that in the afternoon of the 

 12th May, 1812, the Hon. Spencer Perceval, tlie 

 then prime minister, fell by the hand of Belling- 

 bam in the lobby of the House of Commons ; the 

 cause assigned by the murderer being the neglect 

 of, or refusal to discharge a supposed claim he had 

 u])on the government. 



On the same night the gentleman above alluded 

 to, and residing at Trematon, had the tragic scene 

 60 minutely and painfully depicted in his sleep, 

 that he could not resist the desire of sending the 

 particulars to a friend in town, which he did by 

 the lip rnail^ which departed a few hours after he 

 had risen on the following morning. 



He informed his friend that his topographical 

 knowledge of London was very meagre ; and that 

 as to the House of Commons (the old one), he had 

 seen only the exterior : he went on to state, that, 

 dreaming he was in town, he had a desire to hear 

 the debates in Parliament, and for this purpose 

 enquired his way to the lobby of the House, tlie 

 architectural peculiarities of which he minutely 

 described ; he gave an exact description of the few 

 officials and others in the room, and especially of a 

 tall, thin man, who seemed to watch the opening 



of the door as any one entered with wild and rest- 

 less gaze : at length Mr. Perceval arrived, whose 

 person (although unknown to him) and dress he 

 described, as also the manner in which the horrid 

 deed was done : he further commiuiicated the 

 words uttered by the victim to the effect " the 

 villain has murdered — ;" how the wounded man 

 was treate<l, and the person of the medical man 

 who was on the instant called in. 



These, with other particulars, which h.ave escaped 

 my memory, were thus recorded, and the first news- 

 paper he received confirmed the accuracy of this 

 extraordinary dream. M. W. B. 



An Adventurer in 16.32. — I transcribe from a 

 manuscript letter now before me, dated "Tuesday, 

 AVhitsun-week, 1632," the following passage. Can 

 you or any of your correspondents give me (or 

 tell me where I am likely to find) any further in- 

 formation of the adventurer there named ? 



" Heer is much Speacli of the Brauery of a Porter 

 y' hath taken a Braue House, and hatli his Coach & 

 4 Horses. Y" Lord IMayor examined liim how he gott 

 yt Wealth : he answered nothing. Then y" Lords of 

 y° Council gott out of him, that he being the Pope's 

 Brother Borne in Essex, Goodman Liiiges Sonnes, 

 was maintained by him, and tempted much to have 

 come over to liim : tliese 2 Brothers being Ship Boyes 

 to a French pirate, the porter gott meanes to come 

 againe into England, but y* other being a Witty Boy 

 was sould to a Coortier in Paris, who trauelling to 

 Florence, thear bestowed his Boy of a Great Man, 

 who when he dyed tooke such affection to this Boy, 

 y' changeing' his name to his owne left his estate to 

 him : and so in time grew a Florentine, a Cardinall, 

 & now Pope, &. y' greatest linguist for the Latine y' 

 ever was." 



C. DE D. 



[MalTeo Barberlni (Urban VIII.) was the Roman 

 pontiff between 1623 and 1644, and is said to have 

 been liorn at Florence in 1568, of a noble family. He 

 was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin poet. 

 One charge brought against him was his weak par- 

 tiality towards his nephews, who abused liis old age and 

 credulity. It is probable some of our correspondents 

 can throw some light on this mysterious document.] 



Almanacs. — A friend of mine, in taking down 

 his old rectory house last year, found under one 

 of the floors a book almanac, of which the follow- 

 ing is the title given : 



" A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened to- 

 gether, declaring the Dispocission of the People, and 

 also of the Wether, with certaine Electyons and Tymes 

 chosen both for Pliisicke and Surgerye, and for the 

 Husbandman. And also for Hawekylng, Huntying, 

 Fyshing, and Foulylnge, according to tlie Science of 

 Astronomy, made for the yeare of our Lord God 

 M.D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke, and prac- 

 ticed by Anthony Askam." 



At the end of the Almanac : 



" Imprynted at London, in Flete Strete, at the Signe 



