12 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'»J S. IX. Jan. 7. '60. 



offered for a small wager to ascend the spire ; to 

 take with him his tools and a watch ; to takethe 

 watch to pieces on the very top of the spire; 

 to clean it properly, and bring it down in less 

 than an hour. He accordingly climbed the spire, 

 fixed his back against the stem of the weather- 

 cock, completed his task, and descended within 

 the given time. This is so curious a circumstance 

 in the annals of horology, I should be glad of the 

 exact date, if any readers of " N. & Q." could 

 furnish it. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Accident ox the Medway. — A correspondent 

 in the Maidstone Journal (Dec. 24, 1859) in 

 describing an ancient camion lately found in the 

 river at Gillingham Reach, says that whilst 

 making inquiries respecting the discovery, he was 

 informed of a singular occurrence which is re- 

 lated to have happened some sixty or seventy 

 years since, and which is believed to be unnoticed 

 in any of the Kentish annals : — 



" At the period in question, the captain of a ship of 

 war lying in the Medway, at no great distance from the 

 Gun Wharf, gave a hall on board, and whilst the fes- 

 tivities were at the highest, the vessel suddenly sank, 

 and but few escaped a watery grave. Our informant said 

 he had heard his grandmother frequently relate the 

 anecdote, and her vivid recollection of seeing the ladies 

 and officers brought out of the river in full dress and 

 laid upon the Gun Wharf." 



Can any of the readers of " X. & Q." furnish 

 any information respecting this catastrophe ? 



Alfred J. Dunkin. 

 Dartford. 



Temple Bar Queries. — If any of your cor- 

 respondents could give me any information con- 

 cerning the early history of Temple Bar, I should 

 feel greatly obliged, especially with reference to 

 the following points of inquiry. Who built the 

 present Bar ? The City or the Government ? — 

 Was the former Temple Bar of wood or of stone ? 

 If the latter, when was it built ? — When were the 

 rails and posts removed, and the first bar erected 

 across the street? — Was that bar removed in 

 James I.'st reign? — Have there been three bars? 

 Answers to any of these Queries would greatly 

 oblige me, or any communications privately ad- 

 dressed. J. A. G. Gutch. 



52. Upper Charlotte Street, 

 Fitzroy Square. 



Translations mentioned by Moore. — Ir 

 reading, lately, Moore's Memoirs and Journal, 1 

 found in the latter, under date 2nd Sept. 1818, 

 mention made of " a collection of translations 

 from Meleager, sent to me with a Dedication to 

 myself, written by a Mr. Barnard, a clergyman of 

 Cave Castle, I think, Yorkshire. They are done 

 with much elegance. I had his MS. to look over." 

 Can you or any of your readers state whether 

 such a work was ever published, and when and 



where? and if a copy of the book is now procura- 

 ble, at what price, and from whom ? 



I would ask the same questions as to another 

 passage in the same Journal, under date 22 ud 

 Aug. 1826, wherein the poet acknowledges re- 

 ceipt of " a letter from a Mr. Smith sending me a 

 work {Translations from the Greek) by Leopold 

 Joss." What was the title of this work, by whom 

 published, and where now to be got ? Senex. 



Bishop preaching to April Fools. — Full 

 fifty years ago, before you had taught us to make 

 a note, I had an old story book, square, and with 

 many woodcuts. One story was : " How a Ger- 

 man Bishop, after the manner of Howlglass, did 

 preach to a Congregation of April Fools." The 

 bishop was represented with a crozier in his hand, 

 and a sword by his side. Can any reader of " N. 

 & Q." oblige me with the story, which I have 

 completely forgotten, as well as the name of the 

 book ? P. J. T. 



The Yea-and-Nay Academy of Compli- 

 ments. — Lately I picked up at the stall of a 

 "flying stationer" an imperfect copy of a book, 

 which has verified the saying, " A groat's worth 

 of wit for a penny." The running title of it is, 

 " The Yea-and-Nay Academy of Compliments." 

 It appears to me a cleverly written performance, 

 and curiosity induces me to inquire of the Editor 

 of " N. & Q." who was its author ? 



From numerous local references, it looks to be 

 the production of a London scribe. Its entire 

 object is to shoiv up through a variety of phases of 

 character the Friends or Quakers, named the 

 " Bull-and-Mouth people," and who seem to have 

 been under considerable obloquy and persecution 

 for their principles. 



A jocular anecdote, related at p. 28. of " Friend 

 B. a Quakering vintner," who had sold some wine 

 to the king — a " prince of very excellent humour" 

 — but which wine Friend would not deliver till 

 he had obtained an interview with the king as to 

 its payment, makes me think that the allusion is 

 to the " merry monarch," and that the book may 

 date some time in the reign of Charles the Second. 



G.N. 



Ballad of the Gunpowder Treason. — Can 

 any of your correspondents supply a copy of the 

 real original ballad of the gunpowder treason ? 

 Every one almost can give you a couplet or so, 

 and there it stops. Few would imagine how very 

 difficult it is to obtain the entire ballad as sung 

 on the 5th of Nov. a century ago. M. H. 



Dispossessed Priors and Prioresses. — Have 

 any biographies at any time been published of the 

 priors and prioresses who were deprived of their 

 monasteries by Henry VIII. ? I wish to ascer- 

 tain the subsequent fate of Agnes Sitherland, who 

 was the last prioress of the Nunnery of Grace- 

 Dieu at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and surrendered it 



