2"'S. VI. 136., Aug, 7. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Ill 



pliical account of the author, besides that con- 

 tained in bis narrative. Bertrand du Guesclin. 



'■'■Dans voire lit." — Between fifty and sixty 

 years ago, in the social days of an early dinner, 

 an agreeable family rubber, and a light supper, I 

 can well remember the pleasant custom of a 

 cheerful song from many of the company before 

 the final break up of the innocent domestic party 

 assembled. Amongst many other songs, at that 

 period obtaining, there was a fashionable little 

 canzonet called " Dans votre lit !" 



In those cheerful days this little madrigal was 

 ])rominent ; but time has rendered it obsolete, 

 and I cannot find any one who can tell me the 

 words of the two stanzas following the first verse. 

 I'erhaps some one of your numerous readers (of 

 the olden time) might happen to remember them. 

 The first verse I remember was — 



" Dans votre lit, that bright parterre, 

 Where blooms the rose and lily fair, 

 A smiling jonquil I would be, 



To bloom sweet tlower, beside of thee, 

 Dans votre lit, dans votre lit," Sfc. 



I should be much pleased at the revival of my 

 early recollection. W. R. 



The Cromvmll Family. — Who were the Crom- 

 wells so frequently to be found in lists of Drainage 

 Commissioners for Lincolnshire in the fourteenth 

 and succeeding centuries ? Dugdale, in his Em- 

 hiinhnent and Drainage, mentions these among 

 others. 



Robert de Crumwell, a.d. 1375, who sat on a 

 Commission connected with Skegnes and Grimsby. 



Sir Ralph Crumwell, a name appearing in 

 several lists of such Commissions for the parts of 

 Lindsey from a.d. 1379. to a.d. 1452. 



Sir William Cru7mvell, who appears in the same 

 Commission with Sir Raphe Crumwell, a.d. 1425. | 



Lord Cromwell, in one for the south of Lin- ' 

 colnshire, a.d. 1462. 



Oliver Cromicell and Robert Cromwell (proba- 

 bly father to the regicide), a.d. 1605. 



Sir Oliver and Mr. Henry Crormvell, a.d. 1618. 



Gough, and other writers, do not go farther 

 back than Henry VIIL's Vicar-general, when 

 tracing Oliver's origin. J. H. B. 



Chapel Scalu Cell. — In the will of Alice Nicoll, 

 widow, of Kingston, Surrey, dated July 12, 1515, 

 given in the Collections of the Surrey Archaeolo- 

 gical Society, p. 181., is a bequest of five masses 

 of the five wounds of our Lord, " in the chapell 

 of Skaly Celi at Westmynster." Where was this 

 chapel ? It is not stated to be in the Abbey, but j 

 simply at Westmmster. The author, or editor, in i 

 a note says, — | 



" In the conventual church of the Augustine Friars, or 

 l>einiteH, at Korwich, the place of the greatest profit was ' 

 Ibe chapel of our Lady called Scala Celi .... being the j 



only chapel (except that of the same name at Westmin- 

 ster, and another of our Lady at St. Botolph's church at 

 Boston) which enjoyed equally extensive privileges with 

 the chapel of Scala Celi at Rome." 



The author would very much oblige if he would 

 kindly give his authorities for these statements. 

 By the chapel Scala Celi I suppose is understood 

 that at Rome, exactly opposite the Lateran, which 

 is more commonly called the " Scala Santa," or 

 the chapel " Sancta Sanctorum." In this are 

 twenty-eight steps or stairs of white marble, said 

 to be those taken from Pilate's house, and which 

 our blessed Saviour is supposed to have ascended. 

 The privileges granted are to those who go up on 

 their knees repeating certain prayers, and are said 

 to be the extensive indulgence of a thousand 

 years. Unfortunately there is a rival in Ger- 

 many, claiming to be the genuine staircase. How- 

 ever neither of them fit the place at Jerusalem 

 from whence they are said to have been taken, as 

 has been proved by the personal measurement of 

 a friend, and fellow F. S. A. 



^mar «auertc^ tDt'tfi '^ni'iazxi. 



Wad Mines in Cumberland. — Where can I pro- 

 cure the most complete account, historical and 

 otlierwise, of the celebrated black lead or Wad 

 mine at Borrowdale, in Cumberland ? When was 

 it first discovered, and if the mine is still at work ? 



S. R. 

 [No particular history has been written, we believe, of 

 the famous black-lead or wad mines in Cumberland. 

 According to the Parliamentary Gazetteer, once a year 

 the mine in Borrowdale is opened, and a sufficient quan- 

 tity of plumbago is extracted to supply the market dur- 

 ing the ensuing j'ear. The whole annual produce, valued 

 at 3,000?., is carried to London, where it is exposed to 

 sale at the black-lead market, held in a public-house in 

 Essex Street in the Strand. For the fullest particulars of 

 the wad mines, consult Hutchinson's History of Cumber- 

 land, vol. ii. pp. 212 — 220. inclusive. The Borrowdale 

 mine was originally opened in 1710, and having been inge- 

 niously plundered a few years later, the legislature passed 

 an Act (25 Geo. II. c. 10.) making it felony "to break 

 into any mine or wad-hole of wad or black-cawke, com- 

 monly called black-lead, or to steal any from thence." The 

 Act also recites, "that the same halh been discovered in 

 one mountain or ridge of hills only in this realm, and that 

 it hath been found by experience to be necessary for divers 

 useful purposes, and more particularly iti the casting of 

 bomb-shetls, round-shot, and cannon-balls .'"3 



James Chambers, Itinerant Poet. — A volume 

 printed at Ipswich in 1820, entitled The Poetical 

 Works of James Chambers, Itinerant Poet, with a 

 Life of the Axithor, being in my possession, but 

 wanting pp.7, 8., also 17, 18, 19, and 20. of the 

 " Life," I should feel obliged by getting permis- 

 sion from the owner of any perfect copy to make 

 a transcript of those pages, or to have the same 

 done for me, directed to 7. Fisher Street, Red 

 Lion Square. I shall also be glad of some parti- 



