NOTES AND QUERIES:

A

Medium of Intercommunication

FOR

LITERARY MEN, GENERAL READERS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."-CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

ELEVENTH SERIES.-VOLUME XI.

JANUARY-JUNE, 1915.

STANFORD LIBRARY

LONDON:

PUBLISHED AT THE

OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.
BY JOHN C. FRANCIS AND J. EDWARD FRANCIS.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1915.

CONTENTS.-No. 262.

NOTES:-An Analogy to Sir Thomas Browne, 1-The
Literary Frauds of Henry Walker the Ironmonger, 2—
Holcroft Bibliography, 4-The Prologue to Eastward
Hoe,' 5-Printing at Pontypool-"From China to Peru,"
6-Poem attributed to Dr. Johnson-The Founder of the
Hulme Trust "The Day "-" Cousamah," 7
QUERIES:-Name of Play Wanted, 7-William Thompson,
d. 1775-Botolph Lane-Nathaniel Cooke-Sir Everard
Digby's Letters Saluting the Quarter-deck Bishop
Douglas's Virgil: The Sibyl, 8- Oliver Cromwell of
Uxbridge - Henry Crownfield Old Etonians-"The
Piræus mistaken for a man" - East Anglian Families:
Elizabeth Stainton-Newnham Family-Luke Robinson,

M.P.-Williamson of Annan, 9.

REPLIES:-Lieut. Col. Thomas Carteret Hardy, 10-The
Kingdom of Fife-Beszant Family-Detectives in Fiction,
11-Fielding's 'Tom Jones': its Geography - Medallic
Legends-The Titled Nobility of Europe'-Heraldry of
Lichfield Cathedral Fire and New-Birth, 12-Author

Drury"-"We'll go to Kew in lilac time"-Kentish
Tokens-Baptism of Clovis, 18.
NOTES ON BOOKS:-Whitaker's Almanack and Peerage
-Papers of the Hampshire Field Club- The Library

Journal'- Winter's Pie'-'The Cornhill.'
Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

them a deposita "great lump of an heavy crusty substance." This substance might very probably be the remains of the body of a buried person, which the action of the water had changed into the form of crust.

Upon exploring further, it was found that the square had three successive floors about two feet below one another. Pots were discovered in some of these floors.corresponding to the one described above, although some of them were found to be entirely empty. Sir Thomas Browne makes no conjecture as to what race these pots belonged to, orin what period they were placed in position, He simply says that "what work this was we must as yet reserve unto better conjecture."

It is at this point that I bring in my Wanted - Borstal-The Height of St. Paul's-Shake- peculiar coincidence. While on a visit to speariana: "Hallooing "-Alphabetical Nonsense, 13- New Orleans, Louisiana, some four years age; "Holy Thursday "-Modern Advocate of Druidism-De Tassis, the Spanish Ambassador temp. James I.-Regent the one custom that appeared to me very Circus, 14-Scots Guards: Regimental Histories-Wild strange was the method of burial there Huntsman- Early Steam - Engines, 15 George IV.'s Natural Children-Timothy Skottowe, 16- Quotations practised. Instead of interring the dead Wanted - Moyle Wills-"Thirmuthis," 17 - O'Neill - below the surface of the ground, as has been "Spiritual members "-" Sound as a roach "--" Madame the custom of the majority of Christian peoples throughout modern times, they bury their dead in a wall built around the outside of the cemetery. This wall is about six feet in width, and, besides encompassing the burial-ground, also crosses the cemetery through the centre. It is divided into sections, each section being about two feet square at the mouth, and about as deep as the wall itself. When a person dies they place the corpse in a copper casket, tapering at both ends, with a top that can be opened. When the corpse is within, the casket is hermetically sealed, and placed in the section of the wall belonging to that particular family, and then the mouth of the section is cemented up. When another member of that family dies the section is broken open, the casket removed and opened, the bones of the preceding corpse dumped out on the floor of the section, and the second corpse buried in precisely the same manner as was the first. This continues for years, until finally the section contains nothing but the bones and dust of many a victim of death. When the section is full it is closed up, never to be opened, and another section is designed for the use of that family.

AN ANALOGY TO SIR THOMAS
BROWNE.

FOR those attracted by the works of Sir Thomas Browne the following coincidence may prove of interest. In the essay which forms a sort of supplement to his 'Urn Burial,' Browne relates that while certain persons were digging in the vicinity of Brampton, England, they came upon a curious method of burial. About three-quarters of a yard below the surface of the ground was found a square, about two yards and a half on each side, surrounded by a brick wall. This wall measured a foot through, and was coloured red, although there was no masonry of any kind visible. The square was of the same substance as the wall; in fact the square and wall evidently consisted of one solid piece, which had been burnt into the correct shape. On this wall there were thirty-two holes about 2 in. in diameter, on two of which were found pots, mouth downwards. In these pots, however, nothing was discovered beyond a quantity of water, and in one of

This is done because the Mississippi River often overflows, as a result of the spring rains and floods, and submerges the city with several feet of water. Obviously, if people were buried sub terra, the cemetery would become a breeding-ground for diseases of all kinds, and terrible results might ensue.