a»« S. IX. Mar. 31. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



253 



matic Poets, SfC, 8vo. 1752. The compiler of this 

 acknowledges great obligations to Chetwood, and 

 under his name, besides the usual works ascribed 

 to him, says "he wrote several pieces of enter- 

 tainment, particularly Faulknei''s ,. Boyle s and 

 Vaughan's Voyages." Lowndes only notices the 

 Falconer of 1724, leading to the conclusion that 

 it was then first published. This was, however, 

 the second edition : the first, in my possession, is a 

 goodly octavo, with a frontispiece by Cole, repre- 

 senting the Indians preparing to burn a prisoner 

 tied to a tree, printed for W. Chetwood, 1720, 

 marking it as the earliest imitation of Defoe's 

 Crusoe. The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. 

 Robert Boyle is usually described as an octavo of 

 1724. I have that impression of the book, with a 

 frontispiece by Vandergucht, but it bears on the 

 face of it second edition. When was it originally 

 published? And, finally, while upon the subject 

 of these fictitious voyages, who wrote The Hermit; 

 or, the Unparalleled Adventures of Philip Quarll*, 

 octavo, with a fine frontispiece of the Hermit and 

 Beaufidell, Westminster, 1727, also in my library ? 

 There is a great family resemblance in all the 

 books I have named ; but, as the latter has been 

 the most popular, there seems no reason why 

 Chetwood should ignore it as one of his progeny. 



J. O. 



Book of Common Prater, 1679 (2 nd S. ix. 



107.) — The passage quoted by M. seems to be 



in part at least a misprint. As I have it in 1685, 



it reads : 



" That it may please Thee to bless and preserve our 

 gracious Queen Mart, Cathrine the Queen Dowager, 

 their Royal Highnesses 3Iary Princess of Orange, and the 

 Princess Anne of Denmark, and all the Roj-al Family." 



In the copy quoted by your correspondent, the 

 printer appears to have transposed the words 

 Mary and Katherine, and to have substituted 

 Mother for Dowager. There is but one difficulty 

 connected with this explanation, and it is the re- 

 petition of the blunder in the other prayers for 

 the Royal Family. 



With regard to the other point, the confusion 

 of dates, I have a volume containing the Old and 

 New Testaments and the Book of Common Prayer. 

 The Old Testament is dated 1638, the New 

 tment 1664, and the Prayerbook and Psalms 

 1713. The latter date is no doubt correct ; but 

 the New Testament is printed on the same paper 

 and with the same type as the Old. The volume 

 is throughout uniformly ruled with red lines. 



B. H. C. 



The Judge's Black Cap (2nd S. viii. 130. 193. 



406.; ix. 132.)— That the question of the 



black cap worn by judges on special occasions is 



-till undecided.appears by a recurrence to the same 



authorship of this work was inquired after in 

 our V S. v. 37:!.- Ki>.] 



subject in " N. & Q.," aud it appears strange it 

 should remain so, as you must have many lawyers 

 among your numerous readers — some of whom as 

 antiquaries ought to be capable of settling all 

 doubt concerning it. I believe that no explana- 

 tion hitherto advanced has any proper bearing ou 

 the matter ; but many years since I received an 

 explanation which appears satisfactory from a 

 gentleman, the author of the History of East and 

 West Looe in Cornwall, who had been bred to 

 the law, and who also was one of the best anti- 

 quaries of his day. This gentleman chanced to 

 be in a court of law, I think in Westminster Hall, 

 when a nobleman made his appearance for the 

 purpose of executing some legal process ; and 

 when the noble lord was announced to the judge, 

 the latter proceeded to take his black cap from its 

 case and place it on his head, wearing it so long 

 as the nobleman remained in court. This remark- 

 able action atti'acted my friend's notice and led to 

 inquiry, from which he learnt that the cap was not 

 a special emblem of death to a culprit ; that it 

 formed a portion of the full dress of legal function- 

 aries : the particular reason for putting it on 

 when the awful sentence is pronounced being, 

 that in performing such a solemn duty, it would 

 be considered unbecoming to show anything short 

 of the highest respect, by failing to be clothed in 

 the fulness of official dress. The fact of wearing 

 the hat in Jersey by the jurats is consistent 

 with this explanation, although it may also refer 

 to the practice of covering the head as a sign 

 of mourning, as practised in some countries. 



Video. 



Among the various reasons which have been 

 given for this practice, no allusion had been made 

 to whnt appears not unlikely to be the true one ; 

 simply that the judge in assuming to himself the 

 highest function of power, that of taking away 

 life, covers his head in token of then putting on 

 the full dignity of the crown, whose representa- 

 tive he is. There seems some analogy between 

 this custom and that of the highest powers of the 

 universities, the vice-chancellor and proctors, 

 remaining covered when seated in Convocation ; 

 and perhaps one may add that of the members of 

 the House of Commons remaining covered while 

 seated. It is curious that the proctors, when they 

 "walk" at the conferrimr of a degree, uncover 

 their heads as soon as they rise, (at least such is 

 my recollection) just as members of Parliament 

 do on leaving their seats. Vebna. 



Groom: Hole of South Tawton (1 st S.v. 57.) 

 — If your correspondent, Mr. E. Davis Pro- 

 theroe, will kindly favour me with his address, I 

 believe I shall be able to afford him some inform- 

 ation respecting the Devonshire families in which 

 he is interested. C. J. Botjinson, Clerk. 



Sevenoaks. 



