100 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[2»>»S. IX. Feb. 11. '60. 



pier of the premises. Hitherto this agreement, 

 though occasionally mentioned, as by Mr. Jardine 

 in his Narrative, has remained unpublished. 



" MemorSnd. that it is concluded betweene Thomas Per- 

 cie of London, esquier, and Henry Ferrers of Bad- 

 desley-Clinton, in the Countie of Warwick, gentleman, 

 the xxiiii day of May, in the second yeare of the 

 reigne of o r Soverayne Lord King James. 

 " That the said Henry hath graunted his good will to 

 the sayd Thomas to enio}' his house in Westminster, be- 

 longing to the parliament house, the said Thomas getting 

 the consent of M r Wyniard, and for his offering me the 

 said Henry for my charges bestowed theruppon as shall 

 be thought fit by twoo indifferent men chosen be- 

 tween us. 



" And that he shall also have the other house that 

 Gideon Gibbons resideth in, with an assignment of a 

 lease from M r Winiard thereof, for his offering me as 

 aforesaid, and asking the now tenant's will. 



'' And the said Thomas hath lent unto me the said 

 Henry thirtie poundes, to be allowed uppon recognizances 

 or to be repaide againe at the will of the said Thomas. 



" Henry Fekrers. 

 " Sealed and delivered in the 

 presence of 



Jo. Whyte, 

 and Xryster Symons." 



{Endorsed " The Bargaine 

 by Cecil.) between Ferris and 



Percy, for y* blooddy 

 cellar, found in 

 Wynter*s Lodgings." * 



No mention is made in any other of these 

 papers of the second house, occupied by Gibbons. 

 It is generally understood that only one was used 

 by the conspirators. Gibbons was a porter, and 

 he and two other porters, " betwixt Whitsuntide 

 and Midsumer" in that year, as he tells us in his 

 examination of the 5th of November, 1605, " car- 

 ried three thousand Billetts from the Parliament 

 stairs, to the vault under the parliament house, 

 which Johnson (Fawkes) piled up." f 



The Earl of Northumberland was supposed to 

 be privy to the hiring of this house, and to have 

 sent his "servant," Sir Dudley Carleton, to try 

 and induce Ferrers to let Percy have it. When 

 the earl was suspected on account of his relation- 

 ship to Percy of being acquainted with the plot, 

 the hiring of this house is one of the points 

 touched on in the interrogatories administered to 

 him on the 23rd of November, 1605, preserved in 

 the State Paper Office, j His lordship, however, 

 asserted " that he never knew of the hiring, or 

 heard of it until this matter was discovered." 



Connected with this agreement is one other 

 document, which I think worthy of being pub- 

 lished in your columns : namely, a receipt for the 



rent of this house, as follows : — 



• 



" Receuved by me, Chrofer Symons, servant to M r 

 Henry Ferrers, the sume of v 1 to my M r '« use, from M» 

 Thomas Percy, which makes in all" xxxv 1 , which my 



* •' Gunpowder-Plot Book." No. 1. 



t Domestic Series, James I., vol. xvi. p. 15. 



j "Gunpowder-Plot Book," 112. 



said M r hath had of him in consideration of the charges 

 of his house in Westminster, which house he hath nowe 

 past over to the saide M r Percy, with condion that soe 

 much of the saide some of xxxv 1 as shall exceede the in- 

 different charges bestowed by my said M r uppon that 

 house by the indifferent Judgment of two or fore men, 

 equaly choosen, shal be repayed againe unto M r Percy at 

 the feast of St. Michael the Ark Angell, which shalbe in 

 the year of our Lord God 1605. In witness whereof, in 

 my M r '« behalf, I have subscribed mv name the xiiii" 1 

 of July 1604. 



" Christopher 

 Symons."* 



Mr. Ferrers appears to have been a gentleman 

 of good name and fortune. Baddesley Clinton, 

 where he lived, is a small parish seven miles from 

 Warwick. The living of that place, at the present 

 time, is in the gift of Lady H. Ferrers. Wynniard 

 died before the discovery of the plot, and his 

 widow afterwards married Sir John Stafford. 



w. o. w. 



Minav fiatti. 



How a Toad undresses. — A gentleman sent 

 to The New England Farmer an amusing de- 

 scription of " How a Toad takes off his Coat and 

 Pants." He says he has seen one do it, and a 

 friend has seen another do the same thing in the 

 same way : — 



"About the middle of July I found a toad on a hill 

 of melons, and not wanting him to leave, I hoed around 

 him; he appeared sluggish, and not inclined to move. 

 Presently 1 observed him pressing his elbows hard against 

 his sides, and rubbing downwards. He appeared so 

 singular, that I watched to see what he was up to. After 

 a few smart rubs, his skin began to burst open, straight 

 along his back. Now, said I, old fellow, you have done 

 it; but he appeared to be unconcerned, and kept on rub- 

 bing until he had worked all his skin into folds on his 

 sides and hips ; then grasping one hind leg with both 

 his hands, he hauled off one leg of his pants the same as 

 anybody would, then stripped the other hind leg in the 

 same way. He then took this cast-off cuticle forward, 

 between his fore legs, into his mouth, and swallowed it; 

 then, by raising and lowering his head, swallowing as 

 his head came down, he stripped off the skin underneath, 

 until it came to his fore legs, and then grasping one of 

 these with the opposite hand, b3' considerable pulling 

 stripped off the skin ; changing hands, he stripped the 

 other, and by a slight motion of the head, and all the 

 while swallowing, he drew it from the neck and swal- 

 lowed the whole. The operation seemed an agreeable 

 one, and occupied but a short time." (From the New 

 York Independent, Dec. 29, 1859.) 



Homo Sum. 

 Zeyst, near Utrecht. 



Biographical Notes from the Admission 

 Register of Merchant Taylors' School. — 

 The following extracts from Dugard's MS. Register 

 of Admissions to Merchant Taylors' School inter 

 1644 — 1661 may not be without interest to your 

 general readers, especially since Sir Bernard 



* " Gunpowder-Plot Book," No. 1. a. 



