418 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. [2=^ S. VI. 151., Nov. 20. '58. 



alliance with Delamore is recorded in the pedi- 

 gree of the kindred family of Vaux of Catterlen, 

 20 Edward IV., originating very probably from 

 the previous one. The position of a family tomb 

 at Brampton, Tryermaine being in the parish of 

 Lanercost, and the manor of Brampton having 

 for some time been the property of the Dacres, 

 and after them of the Howards, may be accounted 

 for by the fact of the Tryermaine family having 

 also from an early period been in possession of it. 

 Sir Roland de Vaux, temp. John, the first of the 

 line, is recorded in the pedigree as being " Lord 

 of the manors of Brampton and Tryermaine and 

 the appurtenances, by gift of his brother Robert" 

 (of Gillesland). Frecheville L. B. Dtkes. 



p. M. A. C. F. 



(2"« S. vi. 279.) 



The paragraph in which these letters occur 

 runs thus in the old broadside * relative to the 

 death of King Charles TI. : — 



" P. M. a C. F. came to the D. upon the Doctor's telling 

 him of the state of the K., and told him that now was the 

 time for him to take care of his brother's soul, and that it 

 was his duty to tell him so. The D. with this admonish- 

 ment went to the K." &c. &c. 



A correspondent (F. C. H.), in 2'"» S. i. 247., 

 says that P. M. a C. F. stand for "Pere Mansuete 

 a Capuchin Friar," and quotes a passage from Me- 

 moirs of the Rev. John Huddleston in proof; but 

 even if there were such a person as Pore Mansuete 

 about the court at the time, I cannot see how the 

 statement can be reconciled with M. Barillon's 

 dispatch f to the French King, written directly 

 after Charles II. died, from which it appears that 

 about noon on Thursday the 5th February [the 

 day before the lying's death], he was informed 

 from a good quarter that there was no longer any 

 hope, and that his physicians did not think he 

 could survive the night. He immediately went to 

 Whitehall and saw the Duke of York, with whom 

 he seems to have been very intimate, and who had 

 given orders to the ofiicers who kept the door of 

 the antechamber to allow him to pass at all hours. 

 Barillon remained in the king's antechamber till 

 five o'clock, the Duke of York inviting him 

 several times into the room and conversing with 

 him. Barillon retired for some time to the 

 apartments of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and 

 found her overwhelmed with grief, the physicians 

 having deprived her of all hopes ; but, instead of 

 speaking to him of her sorrow and of the loss she 

 was about to sustain, she led him into a closet, 



* Reprinted in The Phemx, vol. i. pp. 566-7., but it does 

 not appear when or by whom written. 



t A copy of the original dispatch, and a translation of 

 it, are in the appendix to Fox's Reign of James II. 



and said to him : " Monsieur Ambassador, I am 

 going to tell you one of the greatest secrets in the 

 world, and if it were known, would deprive me of 

 my head." She then told him that at the bottom 

 of bis heart the king of England was a Catholic, 

 and conjured him to go to the Duke of York, and 

 advise him to think on what could be done to save 

 the king's soul ; stating why she could not go her- 

 self. Barillon immediately returned to the Duke 

 of York, and told him what the Duchess of Ports- 

 mouth had said to him. The Duke " seemed as if 

 he had awaked from a dream, and said, ' You are 

 right ; there is no time to lose. I will sooner 

 hazard everything than not do my duty on this 

 occasion.' " Arrangements were then made for the 

 admission of Hudelston, a Roman Catholic Priest 

 (who happened te be in the palace) to administer 

 to the king absolution, the communion, and ex- 

 treme unction : Hudelston having been previously 

 instructed by " a Portuguese bare-footed Carme- 

 lite " what to say to the king on such an occasion. 



Barillon's account of the king's last illness and 

 death, and the attendant circumstances, is very 

 clear and particular, and therefore very interest- 

 ing, but it is much too long for " N. & Q." It 

 would certainly seem from Barillon's dispatch that 

 he was the person who went to the Duke of York, 

 and advised him about taking care of his brother's 

 soul ; but then the initials do not agree with those 

 in the old broadside. I can, therefore, only sup- 

 pose that, if the initials are intended for some per- 

 son, the writer of the broadside must have been 

 mistaken in the person. In the other particulars 

 the accounts in the main agree. 



I have searched the indexes at the British Mu- 

 seum, and inquired of several booksellers for 

 Huddleston s Memoirs, but without effect ; nor is 

 the work mentioned in Lowndes. W. H. W. T. 



STANDARD SILVER. 



(2°" S. vi. 373.) 



The Act which regulates the proportion of 11 oz. 

 2 dwt. of fine, and 18 dwts. of alloy in the standard 

 of silver, is 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 1 . (a.d. 1695), and it is 

 remarked by Ruding {Annals of Coinage, i. 1 7.) that 

 " it is a striking circumstance in the history of our 

 coinage, that the fineness of the silver money has 

 preserved its integrity unbroken from the reign of 



Henry II , a period of more than 600 years;" 



from which, however, must be excepted the twenty 

 years of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, till 

 Elizabeth restored it ; for the standard had been 

 debased to 3 oz. fine and 9 oz. alloy by Edward 

 VI. The second section of the above Act recog- 

 nises the prerogative of the crown to determine 

 the weight and fineness of coins ; and the Master 

 of the Mint is, therefore, the crown's constitutional 

 adviser thereon (6 & 7 Will. III. c. 17. ss. 2—4.) 



