344 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2>"i S. VI. 148., Oct. 30. '38. 



the Book of Common Prayei', " The peace of God 

 which passeth all understanding," &c. ; but not 

 having met with this rendering in print, we submit 

 the Note to " N. & Q." T. W. AVonfoe. 



Brighton. 



The last of the Pigtails. — I saw the other day 

 descending from a small chariot in Cheapside a 

 venerable old gentleman with a little screw of his 

 grey locks tied behind with a short riband, the 

 expiring form of this once universal excrescence. 



S. R. P. 



To make Bread Seals. — Firsl^ prepare a wine- 

 glassful of blue or black ink, by dissolving in it a 

 quarter of an ounce of gum arable ; then take quite 

 new bread, any quantity desired (slack-baked 

 bread answers the best), and knead it in the hands 

 from four to six hours, mixing with it, from time 

 to time, during the process a little of the pre- 

 pared ink until it is of a perfectly smooth, soft, 

 and homogeneous mass. The wax impressions to 

 be copied should be as perfect as possible, and 

 quite dry. Now take pieces of kneaded bread 

 suflScient for the seals, and roll them in the hands 

 to perfectly smooth balls ; they will then shine like 

 a piece of brilliant black metal ; then press them 

 evenly and perfectly over the whole impressions, 

 shaping their superfluities to form handles. In 

 this state let them remain for a few days in a dry 

 place ; at that time they must be gently removed 

 from the impressions, and again left to dry in a 

 warm situation. In two or three days, and before 

 they are too hard, they should be trimmed with a 

 sharp penknife ; fourteen days after they are fit 

 for use. Instead of using ink for colouring, we 

 can apply gum-water and gamboge, rose-pink, 

 stone-blue, emerald-green, or any other material 

 thought fit. Wax impressions can be bought at 

 the seal-engraver's for sixpence each. 



Septimus Piesse. 



«aucrfc^. 



LETTEK TO SIE JOHN POPHAM. 



Can you give me any information concerning 

 the author of the letter of which the inclosed is a 

 copy ? It is one of a considerable number by the 

 same hand, and to judge by his fondness for quo- 

 tations, he must have been a person of some lesirn- 

 ing. I am afraid that " Xtio Bow," and " she 

 whome he never saw before," as well as that most 

 tremendous Catholic, must remain unknown. 



E. H. KiNGSLEY. 



" My honorable good Lo. — Like as a man ravished in 

 admiration of }'■■ Lp' singular and most exquisite judgem', 

 I must, with the psahnist, make proclamation Qiiam de- 

 lecta tabernacula, howe lovelye and pleasinge are yo'' 

 dwellings in the Capitoll seate of Justice, wheieunto iny 

 trewe zeale to y'' Lp I have had a longinge desyre to be 

 called, ffor the supportation of the Glorie of God, ye 



souraigntie of his Ma*'°, the securitie of ye state, and 

 saffetie of my couutrie. In everie of vi^ superintendent 

 offices I haue stronglie .iffected not to be found the last 

 or leaste, by withdrawing myself from all other private 

 contentm". At his Ma'' first coiTiinge into England I 

 began to make demonstration of my publique services as 

 by degrees I had derived ihem from privie intelligence. In 

 the first bloody treason pretended against his highness' 

 p'son by the condempned Lo. and Sir \V. Raleigh, thereof 

 I gave the first touche as I remember to my Lo. of Salis- 

 bury or the Lo. Chamberlayne. And for the accon of the 

 Lo. Gray I showed more than euer any other subiect did 

 or could bewray, how he would haue murthered the 

 kynge w'' a pistole as his Ma"" came through Newing- 

 ton first towards London. This affayres I attended all 

 Winchester tearme upon the charge of myne owne purse, 

 not expecting any recompense, as my Lo. of Salisbnrie 

 well knows to be true. So was it the happie lot I drew 

 my like intelligence to give the first apprehension of this 

 last fyerj'e Consumption, though by my then being in 

 this place, where yet I remain, I could not make such 

 speedy examion of my ....[?]. ffor this thirde pre- 

 texte, my good Lo., myne attention hath beene waighting 

 upon every obiect and occasion divulged for likke woords 

 of any stratagems to be attempted, the prosecution of 

 which is much obscured by my restraint, for that I worke 

 nowe by secondary meanes, vt^ I might more easily effect 

 by a primarie action. Mj' good Lo., I have some notice 

 from that Xtio Bow. [ ? ], that he will not be at London 

 this weeke, and that lliis is his hole Septimanye of em- 

 ploym', as M''= Rookewood calleth it, to carry and recarry 

 Sacred Palmes abroad. But this, may yt please y^ Lp«, I 

 fynde by an unexpected accydent of her cominge unto 

 me yesternight late to the Counter, whome I never saw 

 before. In confydence of the report my irreligious and 

 Catholicke brother hath made to her of me, I drewe from 

 her this presumptions, That this priestes in Mounticue 

 howse are shrunke away by a vault by the cellar; that 

 the)' ranne to the waters syde in porters ftVocke : then 

 they tooke a sculler ; they landed at Ratlief, where they 

 put themselves into an attyre more Civill : they divided 

 themselves, and appointed to meete as yesternight, being 

 Sonda}', at M'' Jo. Southcotes howse in Es ;ex ; from 

 thence to Acton, to M"' Danyells. And so on by degrees, 

 their apprehension might easily be compassed, but no 

 waies by scaringe, except by some familiar course, to 

 deale with this Catholicke, who cares for no chastizement, 

 nor feares any Racke, and that y' Lp'' will find by him, 

 that he makes no difference between summa and prcecepia, 

 for I take him to be the most resolved and firme Catho- 

 licke that this realme hath bredd this c. yeares. But as 

 I told y'" Lp% he is flexible in one kind onlye; his 

 humour is ledd by voluntary, not by constraint. But 

 my good Lo. I humbly submitt myself to 3'our deepe and 

 iuditial understanding in thys political busyness, howbeit 

 I could wishe myself an agent in a service so honWc, 

 wherein my good Lord, if I faulter, let me have my de- 

 meritt ; I shall hereby profitt my countrie, and no private 

 man can receve any prejudice by yt ; as it will app"' to y'' 

 Lp^ on examinatn. of my causes of vexaon, wherewith I 

 am no waies to be charged. I protest, my Lo., it is not 

 so much for my liberty as for the avoyding of such dan- 

 gerous projects that I desyre to be abroade. This place 

 doth much confound my memory and suppresse my 

 spirritts, which walking with my [illeg., Rey.'] would 

 helpe bothe j'e one and other, besides my disquiet in the 

 prison, where all abuses conspiring, my disturbance 

 coiiion. This 24<n, Mondaj', 1606. 



" Le Counter, Woodstrete. This in hast. 



" Y' honv' most dutifull 



" Ih. Coo. 



"As I began with the prophet so I end with the 



