266 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 14., Apri 5. 56. 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF MACAULAY. 
Landing of the French in 1690 (2° S. i, 133.) 
— Burnet, in his History, sub anno 1690, says 
that the French fleet lay for some days in Torbay, 
and before they left the coast — 
' “Made a descent on a miserable village called Tin- 
mouth :; they burnt it and a few fishing boats that be- 
longed to it. But the inhabitants got away, and as a 
body of militia was marching thither, the French made 
great haste back to their ships. The French published 
this in their gazettes with much pomp, as if it had been 
a great trading town that had many ships, with some 
men of war in port. This both rendered them ridiculous 
and served to raise the hatred of the nation against them : 
for every town on the coast saw what they must expect 
if the French should prevail.” 
Tt seems, however, that this was a more serious 
affair than the bishop was willing to acknowledge, 
for the inhabitants of Teignmouth and the village 
of Shaldon petitioned the lord-lieutenant and 
magistrates of the county for relief, stating, that 
on Saturday the 26th of July, the French, to the 
number of about a thousand, landed and burned 
the dwellings of 240 persons, plundered them 
of their goods, defaced the two churches, and 
burned ten ships, besides fishing-boats, nets, &c. 
The magistrates in sessions thereupon certified 
to the king and queen as to the facts, and that 
the damages amounted to 11,0307. 6s. 10d. The 
inhabitants also, 680 in number, petitioned the 
crown detailing the circumstances, and a brief 
was in consequence granted on the 13th Nov., 
1690, for a collection throughout the realm. It 
seems that the full amount was obtained, and this 
probably was the event respecting which your 
correspondent J. K. inquires. The names of Tre- 
maine and Hatch do not appear in the documents 
above referred to, but they are those of Devon- 
shire families at that period, and the parties seem 
to have obtained a separate brief, or at least to 
have made an independent appeal for themselves. 
J.D.S. 
History of William III, (2° 8, i. 243.) — At 
the moment when public attention is so strongly 
drawn to King William, the old biographies of 
that monarch have more than usual interest. 
Among others who have made the life and acts 
of Macaulay’s hero the subject of panegyric is 
Charles Povey, and I shall feel obliged if you, 
or any of your correspondents, will assist me in 
identifying his Life of William, as well as that of 
Queen Anne, alluded to in the following : 
“JT writ the Acts of King William the III.; and upon 
the demise of Q. Anne, I drew up 65 Articles of that 
reign; which said work inspir’d the Spirits of the People 
throughout G. Britain and Ireland, and gave life to all 
the Protestant Churches in Europe. This latter Piece 
was then declared by the Privy Council, and in both 
Tlouses of Parliament, to be of the highest consequence 
to the nation. K. George 1. sent the Lord Stanhope to 
my house at Hampstead (Belsize), to tell me in his name 
he approved of that work, and had published a Procla- 
mation offering One Thousand Pounds reward to discover 
the Author that writ the answer to the said sixty-five 
articles.” — Virgin in Eden, 5th edit., 1767. 
These works I have not been able to meet with. 
The author seems to have been an extraordinary 
character, and in his English Inquisition, 1718, 
speaking of his extensive contributions to litera- 
ture, says; ‘The large quarto and octavo vo- 
lumes, with other small pieces I have writ, exceed 
six hundred in number.” When surveying this 
mass, at the age of fourscore, the poor old man 
puts us in mind of Littleton’s compliment to 
Thomson : 
“ Not one immoral, one corrupted thought, 
One line which, dying, he could wish to blot.” 
For although mostly penned under the heat of 
political excitement, while badgered by the wits of 
the day, imprisoned for defending King William, 
persecuted for keeping the Romish Host out of 
the Church of England, &c., he complacently 
says: “ My writings will do me honour in the 
sight of men and angels, when I am gone to si- 
lence, and returned to my original dust.” Alas, 
for the visionary author! Who now knows even 
the name of the voluminous Povey? ‘The British 
Museum contains but four of his pieces, only two 
or three of which were known to Watt. Povey 
published mysteriously : I have only met with one 
of his books bearing his name on the title, others 
bear internal evidence of their paternity ; some 
may be identified by the Povey arms ostentatiously 
displayed on the title; but the greater number 
can only be recognised by the unmistakeable 
Povian vein in which they are writ. And in these 
several ways I cannot, with certainty, say that I 
have traced over ¢en of the six hundred books of 
the prolific Povey. J.O. 
Mr. Macaulay and the Editor of the Sidney 
Papers.—Speaking, in a foot-note (vol. iv. p. 440.), 
of Sunderland’s celebrated narrative, Mr. Macau- 
lay says: “His wife’s letters are among the 
Sidney Papers, published by the late Serjeant 
Blencowe.” Here are two mistakes: the editor 
of the Sidney Papers is still alive and well, to the 
joy of a wide circle of friends and Sussex neigh- 
bours; and the popular ’squire of the Hook 
neither is a serjeant, nor ever was a member of 
any branch of the legal profession. D. Rock. 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NAMES, 
“ Over.” —“ Over” is used as a prefix and ter- 
mination in names of Roman situations: as in 
Overton, Overley, Overbury, Condover. I have 
not been able to trace an Anglo-Saxon, Frisian, 
or Flemish root, indicating the-meaning. It is 
