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He may so painted with the juice of Vines, Turn his Invectives to the praise of Wines; Love is a pitteous God, and Honour's grown To such a hight it is almost unknown; Immortal beauty drown'd in quiet lies, And spends all its charms on its owners Eyes;

But Wine do's now the Poets breast inspire, Wine that doth kindle all our youthful fire Wine, that makes Ot-y write and Fools admire.

In reading this we recall the lengendary Otway carousing with Plymouth, but the assault comes strangely from Shadwell. He continues with a sneer, at The Poet's Complaint,' that ends:

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lewd

Thon hast the art to please the multitude;
The claping rable that on your third days
Come to extol and clap your silly plays.
Poetess Afra though she's damn'd to day
To morrow will put up another Play;
And Ot-y must be Pimp to set her off,
Lest the enraged Bully scoul and scoff,
And hiss, and laugh, and give not such
applause

To th' City-heresie as the good old Cause.
You're baulkt worse then at a City Feast
To part with stolen half-Crown for no
jest;

Sham treats you may have paid for o're ant o're.

But who e're paid for a Sham-Play before?

The animus behind this particular attack is a bit difficult to explain upon purely personal grounds, unless by Aphra's friendship for Otway. The real cause was probably in her violent display of partisanship in The Round heads or, The Good Old Cause,' staged at the end of 1681, and her City Heiress,' in the first quarter of 1682. To the latter Otway had contributed an epilogue with an allusion to the feast, prohibited April, 1682, in celebration of "the pro

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vidential escape of the nation from the hellish designs of the Papists":

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Sham-Plots you may have paid for o're and o're;

But who e're paid for a Sham-Treat before? Less curious is the attack upon D'Urfey's Jockey Muse." It was D'Urfey who had satirized Shadwell, his lute and his fat, in the portrait of Sir Barnaby Whigg, September, 1681, not long after Shadwell in the pride of virtuosity had indited a panegyric to his master, Signior Pietro Reggio, the Italian composer for the London stage. The libel is brief enough to quote entire:

D-fy comes next in Verse ten thousand strong,

A Devillish Poet for a bawdy Song;
Begot when lecherous Planets rul'd the skies,
And Madam Venus bright did tyranize :
When Civil Wars produc'd a monstrous
Birth,

And dismal Discord triumph'd o're the
Earth;

For pray, what vice atchiev'd by Cains curst Stem,

Or deadly Sin, that is not found in him; As Toads spue poyson he doth Libels vent, Of Villany the very Excrement;

A brave Court mixture, for he is at once, A Debauchee, Buffoon, a Knave, a Dunce.

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A single line is alloted Ravenscroft, for he had not so personally aggrieved Shadwell; several couplets hiding behind anonymity laud the author himself and Settle, particularly the latter's "incomparable Absalom Senior'"; but the major part of the poem is dedicated to the vituperation of his archenemy. And for this Dryden was shortly to repay him in masterly fashion with the second part of Absalom and Achitophel.' Of this attack, length precludes any but the briefest impression. Its charges are similar to those of The Medal of John Bayes.'

He the black Paths of Sin had travell❜d o're And found out Vices all unknown beforeDryden's wife suffers under the customary abuse of the time. One comparatively mild line may be quoted:

An ill, deformed, senceless earthly load,
And he the Monster of the Muses road.
You shall not find through all the buzzing

Town

So Ungentile, Unmannerly a Clown: Though ugly, yet he vents a pleasing strain For Nature never made a thing in vain.

The thin praise comes grudgingly enough, to give place only a moment later to a diligent muck-raking of Dryden's ill-advised panegyrics of Cromwell and, subsequently, of both the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth.

Elsewhere he levels the charge of wholesale plagiarism:

Read Dr- -ns plays, and read Corneille's too,

You'l swear the Frenchman speaks good

English now,

Whereat Shadwell unctuously solaces himself with the further reflection:

That wit upon the Stage cry'd up to day, To morrow in the Closet's thrown away. 'The Tory Poets' is not an extraordinarily brilliant satire. It bears the obvious impress of Shadwell from its inevitable allusion to Ben Jonson in the choice and graded virulence of the attack. Again and again he reverts to the ridiculous Whiggish armies that in various disguises of Spanish Pilgrims in Wales, or what not, threatened the peace of mind of Dryden and Otway. He plays over the vices of his enemies under the screen of anonymity as one long accustomed to deal in such counters, and his charges of dulness he throws so dully that, did we not know his excellent plays, we might agree with Dryden's couplet:

The Midwife laid her hand on his Thick Skull.

With this Prophetick blessing-Be thou Dull.

As a poem it is but one more of the libels of the period. However it is saved for us by reason of its being rather richer than most in its biographical implications. ROSWELL G. HAM.

Yale University. THE COFFIN OF JAMES II. AT ST. AT ST. DENIS.-Madame Lavergne affirms in Les Stuarts en France,' and gives her authority, that the body of James II. at Saint Germain shared the fate of the French kings at St. Denis-was exhumed by French revolutionaries and thrown into the common ditch, the lead coffin being needed for bullets. When the tomb was repaired by Queen Victoria, it was perhaps unknown to be empty. E. L. PONTIFEX.

LI ITERARY INN SIGN.-Inn signs with a definite literary dedication" are sufficiently rare to induce me to put on record in these columns the opening on Dec. 16 of the Forest Folk at Blidworth, Notts. The name is taken from the novel by the late James Prior, a Notts author, the scenes in the book having been taken from the surroundings of Blidworth. The oak-panelled memorial parlour contains the table and chair used by the late author in writing Forest Folk.' A. L. Cox.

REL

Readers' Queries.

ELIGIOUS ORDERS AND FIRES.Readers of Mme de Sévigné will remember that in her description of the fire at the house of the Comte de Guitaut (Letter of Feb. 20, 1671) she says that "Des capucins, pleins de charité et d'adresse, travaillèrent si bien qu'ils coupèrent le feu." In Monmerqué's edition a note tells us that the first fire-engines were introduced in 1705, and that whilst there was no fire-brigade the Capuchins acted as firemen avec un zèle et une charité admirables." Was this the case only in Paris, or only in France? Could I be referred to other instances of this activity? Did any other Religious Order take upon themselves this charitable work? I should be particularly glad of English examples, if there are any.

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C. E. H.

DICKENS HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.-Bruce Barton, in his book entitled The Book Nobody Knows'

says:

I

And Charles Dickens, writing to his son: put a New Testament among your books for the very same reason and with the very same hopes that made me write an easy account of it when you were a little child-because it is the best book that ever was or ever will be in the world, and because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature who tries to be truthful and faithful can possibly be guided.

I should be very glad if anyone could give me details of this children's version of the New Testament by Charles Dickens. H. E. ALEXANDER.

MIDDLETON. I shall be obliged if any contributor can give me information on the following, or tell me where I may be able to get it.

Was there a Mr. Middleton, wealthy and possibly a landowner in Yorkshire and Ireland about 1817. He may have been about Malton, Birdsall, York or Richmond, and may have had something to do with he die? racing establishment. When and where did

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Is there any record of one of his daughters marrying against her father's wish and being disinherited. Was the man named Thompson, and did he work in racing stables?

Any information on the subject would be welcome.

M. I. D.

DESC

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ESCENDANTS OF COL. JOHN JONES THE REGICIDE.-This subject has been discussed, but without completely satisfactory results, in earlier numbers of N. and Q.(see 4 S. ix. 426, 430; x. 138, 317, 382; 8 S. xii. 101, 172, 273, 394; 11 S. viii. 234). I wish to establish the descent of the Rev. William Jones of Nayland (17261800) from Col. Jones. The only information that I can give in addition to that appearing at the above references and the

authorities there referred to is as follows:

1. The fact that Col. Jones had issue by his first wife Margaret Edwards (who is not mentioned in the D. N. B.') is clearly established by his letters printed in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society for 1860-1. In his letters to Morgan Llwyd of Wrexham, the puritan divine, he always speaks of his son (in the singular), and of the boy's position in the event of Col. Jones's re-marriage: but this of course does not exclude the possibility of his having had other children who were not under Llwyd's care.

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2. In the Kalendars of Gwynedd' by Edward Breese, p. 76, the John Jones of Uwrchlawrcoed who was appointed sheriff of Merionethshire on Dec. 29, 1687, is described in the footnote as "eldest son and successor of Col. John Jones the regicide." 3. A mural tablet commemorating Jones of Nayland in Nayland Church is said to give his arms as, Gules, a chevron or guttée de poix, between 3 choughs proper (Suffolk Church notes in Topographer and Genealogist i. 170). On the hatchment in Gestingthorpe Church, Essex, of Edward Walker of Overhall, Gestingthorpe, who married Jones of Nayland's daughter, Margaretta, the Jones arms are, I think, the same except that the field is or and the chevron

sable.

I should be grateful for any further light on this problem.

M

R. R. A. W.

ACCLESFIELD'S EARLIEST

to "St. Mary de Maclisfeld " and since this mentions Edmund de Lascy, Constable of Chester, who held that office from 1240 to 1257, when he died, it is clear that the church previously mentioned was not the first established there.

Witnesses to the deed are Thomas Horeby, Bailiff of Macclesfield, Robert de Downes John his brother, Richard de Mottram Birtles (Byrchlis), (Doneys), Henry de (Mottrum), Sewale de Tytherington (Tyderenthon), Adam de Crawnach, Clericus. Can the date be fixed? CHAS. BESWICK.

Newthorpe Street, Manchester.

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BISHOPSTONE

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H. W. CRUNDELL. CHURCH, SALIS

An

BURY. Against the south transept of this cruciform-shaped church stands a cloister-like stone erection, "which has been variously called a Lich-ward, a tomb, and an almonry ('Some Account of Bishopstone Church,' by O. C. Carter, Wincheslate thirteenth and early fourteenth century, ter, 1845). The church dates from about and the erection referred to is, apparently, contemporary with the church, but its purancient stone tombstone now rests within it, pose or object is still undetermined. but the Rector informs me that this was removed from the church to its present position, and it was not there originally. The interior measurements of this edifice are, length 11ft. 10дin., width 5ft. 5in., and the four open doorways are each 3ft. lin. wide. I should be glad to have the opinion of an expert in such matters as to its probable purpose.

C. S. C. (B/C).

CHURCH.-Writers up to the present REG
EGIMENTS SENT TO IRELAND C.

time have stated that the first church at
Macclesfield was that (All Saints', now St.
Michael's) founded by Queen Eleanor, and
that the first actual mention of a church
there is the deed of foundation, 25 Jan. 1279
(Record Office).

In British Museum Add. Ch. 37242 Grant by Phinianus de Davenport a legacy is made

1798. The Irish rebellion commenced proper May 4, 1798. An ancestor of mine was pressed into service and sent to Ireland in 1797. Could any reader tell me the names of any regiments sent to Ireland about that time, and also the exact dates when they were sent?

ANDREW ARRICKE.

SUICER.-The following occurs in Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, c. v. "II The Trinity, v. Suicer." Who or what is Suicer?

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PERTINAX.

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THE MILLIONAIRE BOY.- The Millionaire Boy by Walter Christmas, translated from the Danish by W. J. Alexander Worster, was published by Eveleigh Nash in London in 1914. In this English version the action takes place in London, the characters are English and mostly have English names; but one or two foreign names suggest the possibility that the story has been translated in more senses than one, and that in the original the scene was Copenhagen. Can any reader say if this is so? If the story has been transferred from Denmark to England, the work has been done remarkably well.

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Replies.

KNIFE AS A MARK OF ATTESTATION.

(cli. 405, 446).

CONFIRMATION is required for

the

ever

It

The use of such

statement that knives were attached to deeds in place of seals. is well known that they were used in the symbolic delivery of property, but it was as evidence of investiture, of livery of possession (seisin), and not of attestation or sealing of a written document. symbols as knives, rings, hasps and suchlike, long preceded the charter or deed in which, eventually, the delivery imported in the phrase Signed sealed and delivered" represented the ancient physical or symbolic handing over of the property.

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In the History of the English Law,' etc. (ii. 85-90) Maitland, in drawing a picture of the ancient German form of conveyance of land, mentions the meeting of the parties on the land and the production of a knife with which a sod of the turf was cut or a twig broken of a tree on the land, the sod or twig being handed to the donee as a symbol of the land. The knife might also be handed over and kept by the donee as evidence of the gift, the point perhaps being broken or the blade twisted to distinguish it from others. (See Baildon, 'Select Civil Pleas,' xv.).

The next development was when the transaction did not take place on the land but elsewhere. Here the knife, with sod and

twig, might be placed upon the shrine, or the twig planted in the garden, of the religious house to which the land was given. We are here told that when the Conqueror gave English land to an abbot, he did it by giving a knife, and playfully made as though he were going to dash the point "That's through the abbot's hand, saying the way to give land" (Ita terra dari debet). Numerous examples are found where land was symbolically put upon the altar by a In the thirteenth century, a charter of a gift might be read in the chapter house and then carried into the church and offered upon the altar with knife or rod. (Maitland op cit.) Maitland mentions that charters are preserved which still have knives attached to them, and in some cases a memorandum of the gift is scratched on the haft. According to the Selby Coucher Book,' ii.

knife. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

THE REV. THEODORE WILLIAMS.A bibliomaniac of extensive tastes who had a fine library. Ana about him will be esteemed. Who and what was he, and what are the dates and place of his birth and death?

ANEURIN WILLIAMS.

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325, the knives attached to the charters at Durham are stated to be tied on to the deeds by strips of parchment. Another Durham charter mentioned once had a ring tied to it by a slit, apparently in the strip of parchment from which the seal itself was pendant. I think it is certain these symbols did not take the place of seals, but were physically attached to the deeds so as to keep both together as evidence of the transaction. The charter itself might well be drawn up at a later date and the knife then attached to it.

R. STEWART-BROWN.

In the Index Rerum to Dr. Round's 'Calendar of Documents Preserved in France illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland, A. D. 918 to 1206,' there are ten entries under Gift by a knife.' G. H. WHITE. M ARTIN LLEWELYN (RECTIUS) LLUELYN), M.D. (cli. 389, 427).— Dr. Martin Lluelyn (this appears to be the most usual spelling of his name) was Mayor of High Wycombe in 1671/2 (24 Car. II.), and died, as the Latin inscription on his tomb in Vicar's aisle of the Parish Church of High Wycombe attests, in the 66th year of his age (which has been wrongly translated aged 66). From his Oxford days, when he was the Lieutenant of a Company of students, throughout his life his Royalist sympathies were very pronounced, and no doubt had much influence over the Puritan spirit which had long been very marked in the Borough of Wycombe. His residence in Easton Street is still a very noteworthy feature of the main street, and is now tenanted by R. Wheeler, Esq., J.P., of Wheeler's Breweries. We doubt if Dr. Lluelyn was quite so accomplished or famous a poet as his epitaph would lead us to believe, but in addition to the book already mentioned, 'Men-Miracles,' he was the author of a satirical poem entitled Wickham wakened, or the Quaker's Madrigal,' persecution of the Quakers in Wycombe and South Bucks being very stringent at the time he took up his residence here (c. 1664). That he should have been elected to the mayoralty in so short a space of time is somewhat remarkable, and suggests a curious change of public opinion in the town. He is, I believe, the only professional man to have held this office in this borough.

In 1681, consequent to the feeling aroused in the country with regard to the Exclusion

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Bill and supposed Popish machinations, a congratulatory address was sent by the Borough to the King, which is somewhat remarkable for the extravagance of its language. It is very probable that the composition is by the loyal doctor. In his capacity of alderman he delivered it to the King at Windsor on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1681. (See Kingston's Wycombe' p. 192 opp.). He died March 17, 1681/2. In the same grave is buried his last is buried his last surviving daughter, Martha Crosse, who died in 1767 at the age of 93. His grandson, Richard, became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Rector of Saunderton, Co. Bucks, April 22, 1751, and died Dec. 25, 1770, and is buried near his father and grandfather. Parker says that his great-granddaughter Mrs. Bowles, preserved the gloves that Charles I wore on the day of his execution, a gift no doubt which as King's physician Dr. Lluellyn may have received from Charles II. I append a copy of the Latin inscription with translation. It will be noticed that Mayor" is Latinised as Praetor," and J.P. by an ingenious Greek fabrication, "Irenarcha.” His arms were: A lion rampant crowned, impaling a lion rampant inter 8 crosslets with a bordure charged with ermine.

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MS.

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Hic jacet Martinus Lluelyn,
Eruditus Medicine Doctor,
Ex Aede Christi olim Alumnus
Saeviente Civilis Belli Incendio
(Dum Oxonium Praesidio muniebatur)
Cohorti Academicorum fideli Praefectus erat
Adversus ingruentem Rebellium ferociam
Postea quam serenissimo Carolo Secundo
inter juratos medicus

Et Collegii Medicorum Londiniensis Socius
Aulae Sanctae Mariae dudum Principalis
Dein hujusce comitatus Irenarcha
Nec non Municipii hujus semel Fraetor
Regiae Authoritatis et Religionis Ecclesiae
Anglicanae legibus stabilitae
Strenuus Assertor

Inconcussus Amator
Celeberrimus et Insignis Poeta

Qui res egregias et sublimes pari ingenio
et facundia depinxit
Bino matrimonio felix septem liberos
superstites eliquit
Laetitiam et Martinum ex priore, Georgium,
Ricardum, et Mauritium ex posteriore
Nuper Amantissimo Conjuge
Nunc Maestissima vidua Martha Georgii
Long de Penn gen: filia.
Heu quam caduca corporis humani fabrica
Qui toties morbos fugavit. Ipse tandem
Morbo succumbit anhelus,
Doctorum et proborum maximum desiderium
Obit XVII Martii MDCLXXXI annoque
aetatis LXVI.

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