270 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 14, Apert 5. °56. 
John Knox's Prophecy. — John Knox, the 
Scoteh Reformer, received the news of the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew when on his death-bed, 
and prayed that no French king might ever have | 
a son to sit on his throne. (See WCrie’s Life of 
Knox.) Has any French King since that time | 
had a direct heir ? A. M. 
Warrington. 
Judge Creswell.—Can any of your correspon- 
dents enlizhten me as to “ Mr. Serjeant Creswell,” 
who was made a judge of the Common Pleas by 
the parliament in October, 1648? (Whitelocke’s 
Memorials, p. 337.). He is also mentioned as re- 
commended for that office in the parliamentary 
propositions to King Charles, in February 1642-3 
(Clarendon's Hist., vol. iii. p. 407.). And Wool- 
rych, in his List of Judges, calls him “ John Cres- 
well, Esq.” (Woolryeh, p. 44.) I do not find any 
Serjeant of that name. 
coln’s Inn, however, was made a Serjeant in 1636 
(Rymer, vol. xx. p. 22.) Dugdale also gives that 
name, and notices him under the same name as a 
reader and governor of that Society (Origines 
Jur., pp. 255. 266.). ‘To increase the perplexity 
Sir William Jones, in recording the appointment 
of Serjeants, calls him “ Creswell” (Reports, 390.). 
It may be nothing more than a variation in the 
pronunciation of the same name; but how comes 
the Christian name to be changed to John? [I 
shall be glad, if, through your means, these odds 
may be made all even; and that I may receive 
some account of his “ birth, parentage, and edu- 
cation,” he being one of the courageous judges 
who refused to act after the decapitation of the 
king. Epwarp Foss. 
Publication of Banns. —I am told that in the 
instance of soldiers who are suddenly ordered 
upon service abroad, the marriage banns are oc- 
casionally published twice upon one Sunday, so as 
to shorten the interval a week. Is this true? 
Robert Benson, first Lord Bingley.x— Who was 
the grandfather of Robert Benson, the first Lord 
Bingley ? and whence did that nobleman derive 
his great wealth? A Yorkshire tradition says, 
that it was derived from his connexion with a 
foreign money-lender who rendered considerable 
service to the English government. His father 
was Robert Benson of Wrenthorp, near Wakefield, 
in Yorkshire, Clerk of the Assize for the Northern 
Circuit, in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. It is presumed by the querist, that the 
family had resided long in the upper part of the 
West Riding of Yorkshire, and particularly in the 
vicinity of Leeds. L. F. B. 
Richard Cresheld of Lin- | 
| 
reference only to size of paper, or form'of com- 
munication, or quantity of writing? In the time 
of dear postage, large sheets of paper were used. 
It was not usual in those days to be told by your 
correspondent, that “ your note is duly at hand.” 
Now, it is the common form of acknowledgment ; 
but, as I suppose, only because it has become the 
| fashion to write upon 8vo. paper, formerly called 
note paper. Some people say, that a note means a 
communication written in the third person; thus 
distinguishing it from a Jette in the first person. 
We hear, however, of diplomatic notes, and they. 
are sometimes very ordinary sort of letters. 
N. H. LR. 
Solomon's Judgment. — Had Solomon any imi- 
tators in his judgment, and who were they ? 
The question was propounded at the afternoon 
catechising of a church in Belgravia, but I did 
not hear that it was answered. JeAN Hunorrn. 
“ My head! my head!” —When, by whom, and 
on what occasion, was the sermon preached upon 
2 Kings, iv. 19., “ My head, my head ?” 
NortTHuanp. 
Exchange of Chap Books. — 1am in the habit 
of collecting the old and new chap books, ballads, 
and the various literary ephemera of Glasgow. I 
am desirous to have specimens of those published 
_ elsewhere. I should therefore be very glad through 
your columns to hear of any collector who is 
willing to make exchanges of duplicates, &c. 
James B. Murpocu. 
195. Bath Street, Glasgow. 
Myosotis palustris. — When did this little plant 
first obtain the name of “ Forget-me-not” in 
England ? 
Withering (Botany) says it was so applied on 
the Continent as early as 1465; but I do not find 
that our old herbalists were cognisant of its uses. 
| In Dodoneus’ Herbal, Englished by Henrie Lyte, 
1 
1578, and Gerarde’s Herbal, the forget-me-not is 
said to be one of the popular names of the ground- 
ivy; and ‘the only English name given for the 
| Myosotis is scorpion-grass. 
Spenser seems to have been aware of its appli- 
| cation, however; for, although never noticed by 
_ writers on floral poetry, it is evidently the flower 
A Note ora Letter.—TIs there any real dif- | 
ference ? 
Is the distinction arbitrary —having | 
1 
so accurately described in the following lines from 
“ The Tears of the Muses :” 
“ One flower that is both red and blew; 
It first grows red, and then to blew doth fade, 
Like Astrophel, which thereinto was made. 
And in the midst thereof a star appears, 
As fairly formed as any starre in skyes.” 
“ That pearl of some, Starlight is called by name; 
Of others, Penthia, though not so well; 
But thou, wherever thou dost find the same, 
From this day forth doe call it Astrophel.” 
Allow me to Query whether the names Star- 
re 
Tee 
~Ce 
Bees. 
