2»J S. IX. Mar. 17. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 17. 



18G0. 



No. 220.— CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — Sessions of Parliament in 1610, 191— Ancient 

 Ballad, 193 — Curious Strove Tuesday Custom at Westmin- 

 ster School, 194 — English Bibles, lb. 



Misoe Notes: — On the Use of Torture — Drinking foun- 

 tains — Babington Family — Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Pro- 

 gress " — Labels for Books — Taylor Club, 195. 



QUERIES : — The Scarlett Family, 193 — Sarah, Duchess of 

 Somerset — Heraldic — Bishop Horsley's "Sermons on S- 

 Mark vii. 26" — Carnival — Books of Common Prayer, 

 1679 — Frances Lady Atkyns — Cushions on Communion 

 Table — Grace Macaulay — Ancient Poisons — London 

 Riots in 1780 — Blackwell : Etheridge — Shakspeare's Jug 

 — Tyrwhitt's Opuscula — Political Pscudonymes — Smitch 



— " Additions to Pope's Works ' ' — Heraldic — The Border 

 Elliotts and Armstrongs — Poetical Periodicals — Order of 

 Prayer in French — Initials of an Artist, 197. 



Queries with Answers : — " Emerald Isle " — Mose, Mo- 

 selle, Muswell — Plutarch — Fonda — Plate — Dogs, 199. 



REPLIES: — "Prugit," 200 — The Society of Dilettanti, 201 



— Heraldic Engraving, 203 — Burial of Priests, 204— Eudo 

 de Rye — " Pigtails and Powder " — John Bradshaw's Let - 

 ter — " Cat " — Marriage Law — Chalk Drawing — Epigram 

 on Homer — Baisels of Baize — The Prussian Iron Medal 



— Hornbooks — Cut your Stick — The Nine Men's Morris 



— The Land of Byheest — Passage in Grotius — Matthew 

 Scrivener — Blue Blood— The Young Pretender — Samuel 

 Daniel, 205. 



Monthly Feuilleton on French Books, &c. 



SESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT IN 1610. 



I should be glad to know whether attention has 

 ever been drawn to a small MS. in the Museum 

 library (Sloane MS., No. 4210.), by the help of 

 which a lost page may be restored to our parlia- 

 mentary history. 



It is well known that at the close of the Long 

 Session, which was brought to an end by the pro- 

 rogation on July 23, 1610, the House of Com- 

 mons had agreed to provide the king with a sum 

 of 200.000?. per annum, on condition of his sur- 

 rendering the profits arising from the feudal 

 tenures, and that the members left Westminster 

 with the understanding that a session was to be 

 held in the autumn for the purpose of taking into 

 consideration the best method of levying the 

 money. 



It is also well known that this session com- 

 menced on Oct. 16, and that Parliament had not 

 been long sitting when a quarrel broke out be- 

 tween the Icing and the House of Commons which 

 brought about a prorogation on Dec. 6, which 

 WflB speedily followed by a dissolution. 



This quarrel is the more important, because it 

 may fairly be regarded as the commencement of 

 the long struggle which only ended at the Revo- 

 lution. Yet of this important session absolutely 

 nothing is known. The Commons' Journals are a 



blank, and the Lords' Journals give no informa- 

 tion of any importance. "What little we do know 

 is derived from a letter of John More in Win- 

 wood's Memorials, from a series of letters of Sir 

 Thomas Lake, preserved in the State Paper 

 Office, and from a short sentence in La Boderie's 

 Despatches. But all that, can be gained from 

 these sources relates to the latter part of the ses- 

 sion, when the quarrel was already raging, and 

 gives us no help towards any knowledge of the 

 causes of the estrangement. 



This deficiency is supplied by the little volume 

 which I have mentioned. It formerly belonged to 

 the collection of Dr. Birch, and bears upon its back 

 the unpromising title, " Money and Trade." The 

 title by which it is described in the Catalogue is 

 more to the purpose, but it covers under an " &c." 

 the part of the volume which gives it its real im- 

 portance. 



The MS. is a copy, taken in the handwriting of 

 the period, of some notes of a member of the 

 House of Commons, who sat through both the ses- 

 sions of 1610. From the manner in which addi- 

 tions and interlineations are introduced, it 6eems 

 probable that the person who originally took the 

 notes was himself the copyist, and that on reading 

 over the MS. at a subsequent time, he added a 

 few words here and there as his memory might 

 suggest them. 



Even the reports of the earlier session are ex- 

 tremely valuable. They do not profess to give 

 every debate, but confine themselves almost ex- 

 clusively to those which were connected with the 

 great contract for tenures, and the principal 

 grievances of the Commons. Whatever is re- 

 ported, however, is given with much greater ful- 

 ness than anything else which we have of this 

 session. The great debate on the impositions, of 

 which there is no trace upon the Journals, which 

 take no note of discussions in committee, is recor- 

 ded in these notes. 



The main interest, however, of the book lies in 

 the last few pages. Of the first fortnight of the 

 autumn session no information is given. This 

 part of the MS. commences as follows : — 



" Wensday. 



«' Ult. Oct*' 



" Wee were before his raaV at Whyte hall, at what 

 tyme he made a speech unto us blaming us for our slack- 

 ness & many delnyes in tlie great matter of contract by 

 meanes whearof his debts did dayley swell & his wants in- 

 crease upo hym. And therefore he requyred us up5 our 

 next meeting to review the memorial agreed upo the end 

 of the. last sessiO And tliereupO to resolve & to send him 

 a resolute & a speedy answer whither wee would proceed 

 with the contract yea or noe. And tliearin he sayd he 

 should be beholden unto us thne wee did deny to proceed 

 because then he might resolve upo seme other course to be 

 taken for supplio of his wants, for he sayd lie was re- 

 solved to cutt his coate according to his cloathe w c l» he 

 could not doe till he knewe what cloath he should have to 

 make it of. 



" H^ toM a dory of the frenchmS :hat thanked the 



