50 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°* S. VI. 133., July 17. '58. 



subject ? and what day of the year the cleansing 

 of it, which was celebrated as a holiday, took 

 place ? W. H. 



Ghost Story of Colonel Bloviherg. — In a 

 little book, entitled The Unseen World (Burns, 

 1847), there occurs a ghost-story regarding 



a Colonel B , the father of a dignitary of 



the church then living. The Colonel being cut 

 (iff in an expedition amongst the Indians of North 

 America, his spirit appeared to two brother officers 

 at iiead-quarters, and requested them, on their 

 return to London, to seek in a particular place he 

 ))ointed out for a paper important to the interests 

 of his infant son, and to present this paper along 

 with the son to Queen Charlotte, who would be the 

 making of his fortune. It is added that all was 

 done as the shade requested, and that young 

 B did prosper accordingly. 



I have heard this story in society, and been in- 

 formed that the person whose fortunes were ad- 

 vanced in so extraordinary a way was the Rev. 

 Frederick William Blomberg, who died in March, 

 1847, aged eighty-five. Chaplain in Ordinary to 

 the Queen, and Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's. 

 The obituary notice of Dr. Blomberg, in the 

 Geutlemaiis Magazine, says nothing of the ghost- 

 story, but gives a fact in conformity with it, 

 namely, that the doctor was a member of a family 

 which had long been attached to the court, and 

 was educated in intimate association with the 

 children of Geoi-ge III. ; it also exhibited a series 

 of preferments such as falls to the lot of few, and 

 amply justifies the prediction of the paternal sprite, 

 if any such prediction was ever made. 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." give exact and 

 reliable information regarding this alleged spiri- 

 tual visitation, the proper designation of Colonel 

 Blomberg, the date and circumstances of his death, 

 the names of the two brother officers, the nature 

 of the paper deposited in London, &c. Candidus. 



Richard Midcaster. — In AVilson's History of 

 Merchant Taylors' School, part i. p. 86., is the fol- 

 lowing extract from Queen Elizabeth's payment 

 for plays : — 



" 18 March, 1573 — 4, to Richard Mouneaster for two 

 plays presented before her on Candlemas-day and Shrove 

 Tuesday last, 20 marks; and further for his charges, 20 

 marks. 



•'11 March 1575 — 6, to Richard Mouneaster for pre- 

 senting a play before her onjBhrove Sunday last, 10 

 pounds." 



Query 1st. What were these plays ? Were they 

 translations of the classic drama, and do any of 

 them exist now ? Shakspeare was only ten years 

 of age at this time. Mulcaster also assisted to ar- 

 range the pageants at KenilwortU Castle, and I 



am disposed to think that he was present himself, 

 and personated the " olde mynstrel of the Northe 

 Countrie." Ke certainly composed the verses. 

 See a description of his dress in Percy's Reliques 

 of Antieid Poetry, p. Ixxi. 



Query 2nd. Was Mulcaster present at Kenil- 

 worth on this occasion ? R. M. 



[Mulcaster appears to have been early addicted to dra- 

 matic composition, and his name occurs, as our correspon- 

 dent has shown, among those who assisted in the play.s 

 performed before Queen Elizabeth iu 1572 and 1576. In 

 1575, when Elizabeth was on one of her progresses at 

 Kenilworth, Mulcaster produced some Latin verses, wliicli 

 were spoken before her, and printed in Gascoyne's 

 Princely Pleasures at Kenilwortli, and iu Nichols's Pro- 

 gresses of Queen Elizabeth, i. 493. In 1580, he prefixed 

 some commendatoiy verses to Ocland's Anghrum Prcelia, 

 and others, two years afterwards, to his Eip^jrapxia. He 

 likewise addressed some verses to Elizabeth on her skill in 

 music, printed in T.illis and Bird's Discantus CaStioues, 

 &c., 1575, 4to., and inserted by Ballard in his Memoirs of 

 Queen Elizabeth. His separate works were, his Positions, 

 tvlierein those primitive Circumstances be examined which 

 are necessarie for ttie training up of Children, cither for 

 Sliill in theire Book, or Healtli in their Bodie. Lond. 1581, 

 1587, 4to. To this a Second Part was promised, which 

 seems to have been completed in 1582, by the publication 

 of Tlie First Part of the Elementarie, which entreateth 

 chefeli/ of the right writing of tlie English Tung. In 

 IfiOl, he published his Catliechismus Paulinus, in usum 

 Scliolce Paulina: conscriptus. Most biographical dictiona- 

 ries contain notices of Mulcaster; consult also his Life bj' 

 Sir Henry Ellis in Gent.'s 3Iag. Ixx. 419. 511. 003; Wil- 

 son's History of the Merchant Taylors' School; Knight's 

 Life of Coto ; Wartoa's History of Poetry ; and fuller's 

 IForthies. ] 



Mountery College, Wells. — This college was 

 founded by Bishop Ralph Erghum about A. d, 

 1400 (or rather by his directions, by his execu- 

 tors) for fourteen priests, who, it is presumed, 

 had duties to perform in the cathedral. Any in- 

 formation, from Dugdale, or elsewhere, as to this 

 institution, will be very acceptable ; and (if it can 

 be obtained) a copy of or extracts from the 

 bishop's will, or the foundation deed, or any other 

 document connected with the college ; also, its 

 revenues at the Dissolution, and the exact period 

 when it was dissolved. Ina. 



Wells, Somerset. 



[Tanner (^iS^otitia, edit. 1787) gives the following ac- 

 count of this College : — " Ralph Erghum, liishop of Bath 

 and 'Wells, who died a. d. 1401, appointed by his will his 

 executors to build in the street then called La Mountery, 

 since College Lane, houses for the fourteen chantry priests 

 officiating in the Cathedral of W^ells, and a hall for them 

 to eat in Common, which were called Mountrey or 

 Moundroy College ; valued 26 Hen. VIII. at 120/. Is. 4d. 

 per annum, in the whole, as Sancroft's MS. Valor ; at 

 83/. 16s. as Dr. Archer; and at 11/. 18s. M. as Dugdale 

 .and Speed (which last is said to be the clear value in 

 Sancroft's MS.) and granted, 2 Edw. VL, to John Ayl- 

 worth and John Lacy." Tanner then adds in his notes, 

 that " this society was styled ' Societas presbyterorura 

 aunuellarmii Nov;e aulse Wellens.' (t)r. Hutton e regist. 

 Wells.) Their number probably increased before the Re- 

 formation ; for in .\. D. 1555, there were seventeen who 



