500 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2nd s. vi. 155., Dec. la '58. 



Sir Francis Seymour. — Cau any of tlie readers 

 of " N. & Q." inform me of the date of the birth 

 of Francis Seymour, third son of Edward Lord 

 Beauchamp? Was he born in 1615 ? If so, it was 

 thirty- three years after the marria<;e of his parents. 

 If not, which son of Lord Beauchamp was born 

 in that year? Sir Francis was created Baron 

 Seymour of Trowbridge, co. Wilts, 1641, and died 

 1664. John Maclean. 



Hammersmith. 



Bullingers Sermons. — Who is H.?!., the trans- 

 lator of the Fiftie Godlie Sermons of Henry 

 Bullinger ? And when were those Sermons first 

 published in England ? B. H. C. 



" The Land where Gold groweth." — The sub- 

 stance of the present Query was forwarded before, 

 but it never appeared. I am induced to repeat it, 

 in order to provoke discussion, which ever elicits 

 information. In the second chapter of Genesis, 

 verses 10, 11, and 12 : i- 



" And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water 

 Paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. 

 The name of the one is Phison : that is it which com- 

 passeth all the land of Hevilath where gold groweth. 

 And the gold of that land is very good ; there is found 

 bdellium and the onyx-stone." 



Is there anything incompatible with the physi- 

 cal appearance of the antediluvian 'world, and the 

 geographical position of the present, to prevent us 

 tracing the river Phison round the present Aus- 

 tralia ? In my mind I think it can be so traced. 

 It is worth having the opinion of learned geolo- 

 gists. S. Redmond. 



Liverpool. 



Cromwell's Letter in Defence of the Pi'otestants 

 of Piedmont. — Why is one of the most interesting 

 of the Letters of Cromwell omitted, in all collec- 

 tions of them that I have ever met with ? 



It is that beautiful one, written by Milton at 

 the dictation of Cromwell, in defence of the Pro- 

 testants of Piedmont. It may be found in a 

 small book in the British Museum, 12mo, London, 

 1694, entitled,— 



" Letters of State, written by Mr. John Milton to 

 most of the Sovereign Princes, and Republics of Europe, 

 from the year 1649 till the year 1659." 



At page 133. is a letter headed : — 



" Oliver, Protector, &c. to the most Serene Prince, 

 Immanuel, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piemont, greet- 

 ing." 



« Dated, Whitehall, May, 1655." 



Is not there any modern edition of this book to 

 be met with ? It seems extraordinary that, in 

 these times, more attention should not be be- 

 stowed on such a subject, more particularly when 

 a few years ago it was represented in a painting 



by Mr. Newenham, which was afterwards en- 

 graved. F. R. 



[What authoritj' has our correspondent for stating that 

 this particular letter, more than others of those contained 

 in the Letters of State, was dictated bj' Cromwell ? It 

 was written, like the others, by Cromwell's authority, 

 but what evidence have we that it was written from his 

 dictation ? These " Milton Oliver Diplomacies," as Carlyle 

 calls them, are reprinted in the various editions of Mil- 

 ton's prose works; and it is in a great measure upon 

 these very Letters that Milton has received the praises 

 of scholars for the elegance of his Latinity. This Letter, 

 with an English translation, will also be found in Sir 

 Samuel Morland's History of the Protestant Churches in 

 the Valleys of Piedmont,-^. 572. Folio. 1658.] 



Allusions in Ben Jonson. — In an epigram on 

 the small-pox, included among the Underwoods : — 



" She ne'er had, nor hath 

 Any belief in Madam Bawdbee's Bath, 

 Or Turner's oil of Talc. 



Who was Madam Bawd-bee, and what was oil 

 of Talc ? Turner, I suppose, is the notorious Mrs. 

 Turner. 



Who is Skogan mentioned in the Masque of the 

 Fortunate Lsles and their Union in connexion with 

 Skelton ? 



Are Elinor Rumming, Mary Ambree, and 

 Westnxinster Meg fictitious characters ? and what 

 is their story ? Libya. 



[" Talc is a cheap kind of mineral which this county 

 (Sussex) plentifully aftbrds, though not so fine as what 

 is fetched from Venice. It is white and transparent like 

 chrystal, full of strekes or veins, which prettily scatter 

 themselves. Being calcined and variously prepared, it 

 maketh a curious whitewash, which some justify lawful, 

 because clearing, not changing the complexion." — Fuller's 

 Worthies. 



Henry Scoggin lived in the time of Henry IV., and, as 

 Stow says, sent a ballad to the young prince (Shakspeare's 

 Hal) and his brothers, " while "they were at supper in the 

 Vintrj% amongst the merchants." This is the ballad- 

 rogtie of which our poet speaks .... If moral Skogan 

 (for this was his usual appellation) wrote any things of 

 this nature, they were probably religious pieces, IMyste- 

 ries and Moralities. (Gifford.)— See "N. & Q.," 1st S. 

 xi. 167. 



Elinor Bumming is the heroine of Skelton's Ballad so- 

 called. Mary Ambree is likewise an apocryphal charac- 

 ter mentioned in an old ballad, commencing, " When 

 Captains courageous," &c. Vide Percy's Religues, vol. ii. 

 p. 218. With respect to Westminster Meg, Gifford saj's: 

 " There is a penny story-book of this tremendous virago, 

 who performed many wonderful exploits about the time 

 that Jack the Giant-Killer flourished. She was buried, 

 as all the world knows, in the cloisters of Westminster 

 Abbey, where a huge stone is still pointed out to the 

 Whitsuntide visitors as her grave-stone." Consult also 

 " N. & Q.," 1st S. vols. ii. iii. and v. Madam Bawd-bee 

 must remain a query.] 



Catechism, for Housholders. — At the beginning 

 and end of Musculus' Common Places (London, 

 1563), I have written a copy of a catechism, with 

 the following title and subscription : — 



" A briefe Catechisme contayninge a decl'ation of the 

 true waye to life ev'lastinge, verie meete to bee knowne 



