64 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. IX. Jan. 28. '60. 



what the French call, a claqueur ; or of showing 

 that such persons were ever employed in ancient 

 theatres : and can your readers refer me to any 

 other passage where such an office as " dux the- 

 atralium operarum " is mentioned ? C. C. T. 



" Thinks I to Myself." — It seems the au- 

 thorship of this clever and amusing little book 

 was much controverted at the time of its ap- 

 pearance. A friend of mine, the lamented L. J. 

 Lardner, Esq., told me on the best authority, as 

 he had it from the author himself, that it was the 

 production of a Mr. Dennys. The work, from its 

 humour, merits a republication. 



J. H. van Lennep. 



Zeyst, near Utrecht, June 4, 1860. 



Hooper, the martyr-bishop, had a brother 

 named Hugh, who, settling in Jersey, became the 

 source of a family now in existence there. I am 

 greatly in want of genealogical details respecting 

 him : of what family he came ; the names of his 

 father, brothers, sisters, &c, and what his ances- 

 tral (not episcopal) arms were. -Also, the resi- 

 dences of his descendants, if any. 



J. Berteand Patne. 



Ballad against Inclosures. — I shall be much 

 obliged to any one who can furnish me with the 

 words of a song very popular among the Lincoln- 

 shire peasantry during the last twenty years of 

 the eighteenth century — the period of the great 

 inclosures. It consisted principally, I believe, of 

 a bitter invective against landlords and lords of 

 manors. 



The following words are all that I ever heard : 



" But now the Commons are ta'en in, 

 The Cottages pulled down, 

 And Moggy's got na wool to spin 

 Her Lindsey-woolsey gown." 



Edward Peacock. 



Bottesford Manor, Brigg. • 



Robert Keith. — Who was Robert Keith, the 

 translator of a small edition of the Imitation of 

 Jesus Christ in four books, by Thomas a Kempis, 

 printed at Glasgow, for R. and A. Foulis, 18mo., 

 1774? X. A. X. 



Baptismal Font in Breda Cathedral : 

 Dutch-born Citizens of England. — In the 

 Biographical Notice of Professor L. G. Visscher 

 (born, March 1, 1799, ob. Jan. 26, 1859,)* it is 

 said that Visscher, by way of a joke, used to call 

 himself a citizen of London, because baptism had 

 been administered to him at the font of Breda 

 cathedral, to which King William III. of England 

 had attached the privilege of London citizenship. 

 The Professor's father, Teunis Kragt Visscher, on 



* See Handelingen der Jaarlijksche Algemeene Verga- 

 riering van de Maatfchappij der Nederlandsche Letter- 

 kunde te Leiden, gehoaden den 10"' Junij, 1859, pp. 66, 67. 



Sept."! 9, 1799, was killed by a British bullet near 

 Schoorldam, as he was in the act of lifting up his 

 battalion's colours, of which the stick had been 

 shot in two, and nourished them over his head 

 that again they might be conspicuous to all. The 

 ball threw him from his horse, when he had already 

 passed the bridge ; and the scared animal would 

 have carried the flag, which had entangled itself 

 into the reins, towards the English, if Sergeant 

 Westerheide had not rescued it from the midst of 

 the enemy's fire. 



I suppose the privilege, on which Visscher 

 jokingly prided himself, will have been settled 

 upon the Breda font, because of the English 

 troopers residing in this stronghold under Wil- 

 liam III. 



But I want to ask a question : — Are the chil- 

 dren of parents, one of whom — the mother, for in- 

 stance — is English, when born under un-English 

 colours, still considered as citizens of your country? 



How long does descent from English blood give 

 a right of English birth ? Does it extend to 

 grandchildren ? J. H. van Lennep. 



Zeyst, near Utrecht. 



" Antiquttates Britannic^: et Hibernics:." 

 — In the year 1836, the Royal Society of Northern 

 Antiquaries announced their intention of publish- 

 ing by subscription Anliquitates Britannicce et 

 Hibemicte, or a collection of accounts elucidating 

 the early history of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 extracted from early Icelandic and Scandinavian 

 MSS. Was this intention completed ? and if so, 

 where is the'work to be purchased or consulted ? 

 I always thought it extreme carelessness that the 

 editors of the Monumenlum Historicum Britannicum 

 should have overlooked the great store of matter 

 connected with the early history of this island con- 

 tained in the early writers and MSS. of Scandi- 

 navia and Iceland. C. W. 



Noah's Ark. — What foundation is there for 

 the traditional form of Noah's ark ? With the flat 

 bottom and gable roof, it is by no means calcu- 

 lated for a safe voyage, although from the dimen- 

 sions given in Holy Writ it is generally considered 

 to have been the perfection of naval architecture. 



W. (Bombay.) 



British Society or Dilettanti. — I am de- 

 sirous to be made acquainted with the history of 

 this society, existing about the middle of the last 

 century, and which encouraged and assisted Mr. 

 James Stuart and Mr. Nicholas Revett in their 

 arduous labours, the result of which was that in- 

 valuable work The Antiquities of Athens. I am 

 desirous to know who were the president and 

 principal promoters of this scientific association ; 

 where in London their meetings were held ; if 

 they published their " Transactions ; " and if the 

 society is still extant. I have heard it intimated 

 that the above had merged into the Society of Arts, 



