where they have been located since 1822. This delusion was largely promoted by the publication in the Dublin Penny Journal, on Feb. 13, 1836, of a print of the chair surmounted by that imposing canopy which has only of late years been removed. The writer, probably Petrie, says: "We cannot more appropriately conclude this notice of the residence of the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons than by presenting to our readers an engraving of the chair in which he sat, and which stands at present in the board room of the Dublin Society House." -Vel. iv. p. 261. What are the facts? The records of the Royal 49, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN'S SISTERS (6th S. v. 68). In answer to the inquiry of MISS PHILLIMORE, I write to say that Dr. Henry Brunsell (not Brunsdon), who married a sister of Sir Christopher Wren (whose name, I believe, does not occur in Parentalia), was Rector of Stretham from Aug. 14, 1662, to Feb. 23, 1678. He and his brother Samuel were both educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and both took the highest degrees, though in different faculties, on the same day, Jan. 16, 1660-Henry becoming D.C.L., and Samuel D.D. Henry Brunsell was "inducted into Stretham," according to an entry in the parish register of baptisms, Augusty fifteenth, 1662," having been collated by Bishop Matthew Wren, for this living is in the gift of the Bishops of Ely. In early life he is said to have followed "the practise of Physic." On the king's "restoration, however, laying aside that faculty [Bentham's Ely, p. 251], he betook himself to divinity, and became Rector of Clayworth, in Nottinghamshire, and Prebendary of Southwell: he was collated to a prebend of Ely, Oct., 1660," and in 1662, as I have said, he was inducted into Stretham by Bishop Wren. buried at Stretham, Nov. 21, 1665; Christopher the north wall of the chancel when the church was "Anna filia 'Xtof. Wren Dec. Windsor uxor Hen. Brunsell, LL.D., mater Henrici, 'Xtoferiq hic sepultorum, et Annæ adhuc superstitis, exiguæ quidem molis sed ge'marum instar, magni pretii et virtutis vitam egit aliis jucundissimam sibi ante' acerba' propter varios corporis dolores quos admirabili patientiâ et æquanimitate perpessa animam placidissime Deo reddidit 27° die Feb., An. Dal 1667, ætatis suæ 33°." The daughter Anne, spoken of in this epitaph (the monument must have been put up quickly) as still surviving, was herself soon cut off by death, for "Mtris Anne Brunsell, the daughter of Dr. Henry Brunsell, Rector of Stretham, was buried August ye eleventh, 1668." Three years after the death of his first wife Dr. Brunsell married again, though the marriage was not solemnized at Stretham. Still there is this entry in our register: "Docter Henry Brunsell, Rector of Stretham, and Mtris Mary Barry, of ye Parish of Hampton jay, within the county of Oxford, were marryed in the Parish Church of Hampton jay, December the seventh, in the year of or Lord 1669." No issue followed from this marriage, so far as our registers bear witness; and in 1679 Dr. Brunsell himself died and was buried in the chancel of our church: "Docter Henry Brunsell, Dr of Laws and Rector of the parish of Stretham, was buryed February the twenty sixt according to the late Act." A black marble slab within the altar rails still remains as a memorial of him, with this inscription: "Hic jacet Henricus Brunsell, LL.Dr. Prebendarius ecclesiæ Eliensis et Rector de Stretham, obiit 23 Feb., 1678, an° æt'is sum 61." His second wife survived him fifteen years, and then was buried with her husband: These last appointments, being both in the giftMtris Marey Bruncell, widow, was buryed Deof the bishop, suggest an intimacy with, if not a cember 12, 1693." relationship to, the family of Wren of at least a few years' standing. But I have not yet learnt the date of Dr. Brunsell's marriage to Anne Wren or where the marriage took place. Three children were the issue of this marriage, Henry, Christopher, and Anne. I cannot find in our register any mention of the baptism of Henry, and conclude that he was born, or at all events baptized, at some other place. Christopher was baptized at Stretham, June 24, 1666, and Anne, Oct. 7, 1667. But the life of none of them was long. Henry was I am afraid of making my communication too long, and will not enlarge upon the exhibitions which Dr. Brunsell founded at Magdalen Hall (not College), Oxford, and at Jesus College, Cambridge. I will only add that there is a small portrait of Dr. Brunsell in the Combination Room at Jesus College, Cambridge. Stretham Rectory, Ely. HUGH PIGOT. THAMES EMBANKMENTS (6th S. iii. 67).—Examination of the ground of the "Strand" bank proper into the stream. These "stairs" were generally built upon arches. In a narrative of one of the escapes from imprisonment of Lady Arabella Stuart, she is described as making her way along the shore at low water. CALCUTTENSIS. OLIVER CROMWELL'S MOTHER (6th S. v. 10).There are yet, I believe, two original portraits of her existing. The large portrait by Walker is in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich at Hinchinbrook; the other, a miniature by A. Hertocks, Mr. N. G. Clarke possesses, but that gentleman's residence I do not know; the photographs I have seen at the South Kensington Museum are connected with the Arundel Society. As the only lineal descendants (at least, our mother's father, Oliver Cromwell, was the last of the male line) we possess the original portraits from the Protector, and amongst them is a small oil painting of Oliver Cromwell's mother, which is taken from the one at Hinchinbrook and so stated at the back; she is habited in green. The Protector's mother was a Steward, or Stuart-some say, allied to James and Charles. See Oliver Cromwell, my grandfather's, life of the Protector, and Carlyle's quotations. We have the Protector's letters, state seal, and private triangular steel seal, swords, buff padded embossed steel armour, &c. Any further information I shall be happy to give. J. HENRY CROMWELL RUSSELL. must convince nearly every one that the first G. W. will find at No. 786 of "Catalogue of the First Special Exhibition of National Portraits, ending with the reign of King James the Second, on loan to the South Kensington Museum, April, 1866, Revised Edition, with Indexes, London, Printed by Strangeways & Walden, Castle Street, Leicester Square," Portrait of Elizabeth Steward, Mrs. Cromwell, painted by Robert Walker, lent by the Earl of Sandwich. Bust, white head-dress, black dress. Canvas, 29 in. by 24 in. FRANK REDE FOWKE. 24, Victoria Grove, Chelsea. EARLY APPRECIATION OF BURNS (6th S. v. 63). -The first edition of Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, by Robert Burns, was printed and published at Kilmarnock on July 31, 1786. The poet was then unknown out of the circle of his Ayrshire friends and acquaintance, but the thin octavo inspired an earlier and more remarkable criticism than that which appeared in the Lounger for December, 1786. Two months previous to that date the Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary Miscellany, a monthly publication, printed for J. Sibbald, Edinburgh, and sold by J. Murray, London, contained in the October number a review of the poems. So far as can be ascertained, this is the very first introduction of Burns to public notice, and the herald of his future fame as Scotland's gifted son. The article opens with the query:"Who are you, Mr. Burns? will some surly critic say: at what university have you been educated? What languages do you understand? What authors have you particularly studied? Whether has Aristotle or Horace directed your taste? Who has praised your poems, and under whose patronage are they published? In short, what qualifications entitle you to instruct or entertain us? To the questions of such a catechism, perhaps, honest Robert Burns would make no satisfactory answer. My good man, he might say, I am a poor countryman. I was bred up at the school of Kilmarnock, I understand no language but my own. I have studied Allan Ramsay and Fergusson. My poems have been praised at many a fire-side, and I ask no patronage for them if they deserve none. I have not looked at mankind through the spectacles of books. 'An ounce of mother wit, you know, is worth a pound of clergy.' The author is indeed a striking example of native genius bursting through the obscurity of poverty and the obstructions of laborious and sagacious, and his descriptions are lively and just. Of rustic pleasantry he has a rich fund, and some of his softer scenes are touched with inimitable delicacy." The author of the review formed such a high estimate of the poet's writings that he returned to the volume in the November number of the magazine, prints poems To a Mouse, Epistle to William Simpson, Epistle to a Young Friend, and extracts from The Vision; and in the December number, as if he had not done sufficient to proclaim the merits of the new poet, he prints the whole of the criticism from the Lounger, acknowledging his indebtedness to the weekly, for December 9. The publisher and proprietor of the Edinburgh Magazine, James Sibbald, it may be mentioned, was a well-known antiquary and bookseller, and author of a highly valued and now very scarce work, in four volumes octavo, The Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, and it is most probable he was the writer of the review; at all events, Burns was sensible of his obligation to such an authority, and in a letter to him, February 3, 1787, dated from his lodgings, Lawn Market, Edinburgh, he writes: ..The warmth with which you have befriended an obscure man, and young author in your three last magazines I can only say, sir, I feel the weight of the obligation, and wish I could express my sense of it." J. G. life. His observations on human characters are acute Registrar-General's statement of the "Registers and Records" in his care, obtainable from the office at Somerset House, it is observed (5) that among the non-parochial registers, prior to the institution of the present system, there are in his keeping "the Registers of French Protestant and other Foreign Churches in England," of which, by the Act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 92, and 21 Vict. c. 25, extracts stamped with the seal of the General Register Office are receivable_in__ evidence_in all civil cases. A History of the Protestant Refugees was published by J. S. Burn, London, 1846. ED. MARSHALL. Mr. J. S. Burn, in his History of the Foreign Protestant Refugees, 1846, p. 237, mentions this church, gives the names of its ministers, and eight extracts from the register, which begins in 1669. A reference to the Lists of Non-Parochial Registers and Records, &c., published as a Government Blue-Book in 1841, shows that this register is in the custody of the Registrar-General. J. I. DREDGE. Peter Cunningham, in his Handbook for London (1849), under the heading of "Trinity Lane, Thames Street," says: "So called from the church of the Holy Trinity destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, but united to St. Michael's, Queenhithe. A Lutheran church occupies the site of Holy Trinity Church." The church, therefore, after which F. N. R. is inquiring must have been still standing in 1849. G. F. R. B. "THE ALASTOR of Augustus" (6th S. iv. 489). -Maybe Dr. Brewer intended to refer to a paragraph in Plutarch's Life of Cicero, describing his flight, after Antony's proscription, from Tusculum to Astura,* and embarkation to join Brutus in Macedonia; and how, by a strange wavering of mind, he landed again, irresolute what course to pursue, and finally contemplated secretly entering in order to leave the guilt and curse of his blood Caesar's house, and slaying himself on the hearth, upon Cæsar's perfidy and ingratitude : διενυκτέρευσεν [c. Κικέρων] ἐπὶ δεινῶν καὶ απόρων λογισμῶν ὥστε καὶ παρελθεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν Καίσαρος οἰκίαν διενοήθη κρύφα, καὶ σφάξας ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ἑστίας, προσβαλεῖν ἀλάστορα.† WILLIAM PLATT. Callis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet. The passage occurs in Plutarch's Life of Cicero, ad fin.: GERMAN CHURCH, TRINITY LANE (6th S. iv. 489).-In Sims's Manual for the Genealogist, London, 1856, p. 368, it appears that the registers of "the German Chapel Royal and the German chapel in Trinity Lane" have been deposited with the "He passed the night in the most perplexing and Registrar-General, and that a list of all such re- horrid thoughts; insomuch, that be was sometimes ingisters is contained in the Report of the Commis-clined to go privately into Caesar's house, and stab himsioners on the State of Registers of Births, &c., self upon the altar of his domestic gods, to bring the p. 1. The date of this Report is not given; but I think it possible that it may be that which is pub-6 lished with the Census Report of 1833. In the Cicero's sea-side villa, 12 Att., 39; 7 Fam., 19; Fam., 19. † Plutarch, ed. Didot, Vita, tom. ii. p. 1056, par. xlvii. divine vengeance upon his betrayer."-The Langhornes' translation, vol. v. p. 361, Lond., 1819. ED. MARSHALL. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: "HISTORIE," EDITS. 1624, 1636 (4th S. ix. 262).—I inquired at this reference for the author of The Historie of Mary Queen of Scots, printed in 1626 and again in 1636; in the former dedicated to "His Majestie" by W. William Creyke, of Cottingham and Marton, 1533, 25 Henry VIII. 1. Catherine, dau, of Thos. Crathorne, of Crathorne, who died 1605. Strangvage, and in the latter to the same by W. SIR WM. CREYKE, KNT., OF COTTINGHAM, YORK (6th S. iv. 348).—I am enabled, by the kindness of the venerable Rector of Bolton Percy (Archdeacon Creyke), who has placed the family pedigree at my service, to answer LEOFRIC's query. Frances, dau. of Sir W. Babthorp, of Osgodby. Ralph Creyke, of Marton, 1563, 5 Elizabeth, ward to Earl of Northumberland. This Catherine was great-great-granddaughter to Ann Plantagenet, sister to Edward IV. and Richard III., thus:-Richard Duke of York married Cecily, daughter of Ralph Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, and had issue four childrenEdward IV., Richard III., Henry Duke of Exeter, and Ann Plantagenet Sir_Thos. St. Leger, and had Ann-Geo. Manners, Lord Rous, and had Catherine Sir Rt. Constable, of Everingham, and had Everild Thos. Crathorne, of Crathorne, and had Catherine Ralph Creyke, of Marton. When and why was William Creyke knighted? F. W. J. PLACE OF BURIAL OF EDMUND BEAUFORT, DUKE OF SOMERSET (4th S. xii. 29, 276; 6th S. iv. 299). Although some portions of the Lady Chapel at St. Albans have undergone and are still undergoing restoration, the wooden flooring remains untouched, so that I am at present unable to throw any additional light upon the question of the place of the duke's burial. RIDGWAY LLOYD. St. Albans. A LANCASHIRE CUSTOM: A VILLAGE MAYOR (6th S. iv. 6).-Up to a very few years ago, at the annual fair held in the village of Tarleton it was customary, and had been so since the reign of William III, to elect a mayor. It was a portion of the after-dinner proceedings. I was once present when a mayor was elected. Three persons, as was customary, were nominated, and it was the rule that each candidate on receiving a vote had to drink a glass of wine, a "bumper," to the health of the voter; so that the one elected was pretty tight" when all the company had polled, and the newly elected mayor had to be installed. WM. DOBSON. Preston. G. F. R. B. "WAITRESS (6th S. iv. 523).-This word is certainly in use for a parlour-maid. At a house where I visit in Lancashire the parlour-maid is always termed "the waitress" by my hostess (who was born in that county and has always lived in it). This struck me at first as so new that I was going to send a note of it to "N. & Q.," but I omitted to do so. JAMES BRITTEN. Isleworth. "As wise as Waltham's calf," &c, is a proverb which belongs exclusively to Essex, but is frequently applied to other places of the name of Waltham, in Berkshire and elsewhere, and varies in form. In the Brainles Blessing of the Bull, c. 1571 (Mr. Huth's vol. 335), it runs thus: "For Waltham's calves to Tiburne needes must go To sucke a bull and meete a butcher's axe." WILLIAM PLATT. Callis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet. the relics there, whereas had the whole body been found they could hardly have failed to notice it. One would like to know how far the fact of the abstraction of the body was a secret in the monastery and generally. VEBNA. COURTESY TITLES (6th S. v. 7).—The position so clearly laid down by H. W. is strictly true, and his examples are quite to the point. To a second, or courtesy, title some elasticity must be allowed; Earl Stanhope, for instance, has not "Viscount Mahon" for a second title, strictly speaking, though he is also "Viscount Stanhope of Mahon "; ST. LUKE XXIII. 15 (6th S. iv. 465, 498; v. 35). and when Lord Canning was made an earl he had-Kindly allow me to note that the word "against" no second title different from his earldom, though (ante, p. 35, 1. 2 from bottom) should have been in being, by creation, "Viscount Canning of Kil- italics, and "first," in the fourth following line, brahan," his eldest son, if he had been blessed was written "just"—"the text just quoted. with one, would doubtless have styled himself W. F. HOBSON. "Viscount Kilbrahan." THE EDITOR OF "" LODGE'S PEERAGE." 13, Great Marlborough Street, W. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. There is no authority except custom and usage; but this is so universal that it is often mentioned in the introductions to peerages. Farnborough, Banbury. "MUMPING DAY (6th S. v. 7), or "going a Thomasing," as it is sometimes called, still prevails at Peterborough, and in some few villages adjoining, as well as in parts of Kent, where the custom is known by the name of "Doleing," and the day is termed "Doleing Day." In some villages they formerly carried about a two-handled "pad," or 'gossiping-pot," begging furmety, or wheat for making it. Miss Baker tells us that her "good 6ld grandfather" always on St. Thomas's Day gave a bowl of wheat to any of the poor of the village who chose to come for it. Fosbrooke thinks the "PANIS DE HASTRINELLLO" (6th S. iii. 309, 496; iv. 258, 330; v. 36).-MR. MARSHALL'S question is easily answered-indeed I answered it in my former note. The English wastel was, according to the derivation given, brought in from France, where it was current as the name of a kind of bread or cake. It was of German origin; in some parts of France, e. g., Picardy (see Littré), it kept for a time its true form wastel, long enough to lend this form to England; but gradually it became French in shape-thus, wastel, gastel, gasteau, gâteau, with the regular changes. For w in German words becoming g in French, cf. Brachet, Dict., s.v. gacher; for -el becoming -eau, and for disappearance of s before t, cf. castel, chastel, château. Accordingly, I did not say wastel is derived from French gateau, but I wrote wastel "is the French wastel or gastel." O. W. TANCOCK. Norwich. 6: In "ALL UPON THE MERRY PIN " custom is seemingly derived from the Druids, whov. 94).-Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of (6th S. iv. 513; sent their young students from house to house Archaic and Provincial Words, explains the with the misletoe, and in his time (b. 1770, d. 1842) phrase "On the pin," as on the qui vive; small pyramids, formed of gilt evergreens, apples, and nuts, were carried about in Herefordshire for cated." He gives, however, neither authority nor a merry pin, i.e., a merry humour, half intoxipresents. instance; which is to be regretted. Grose, in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), says: WILLIAM PLATT. Callis Court, St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet. St. Edmund OF EAST ANGLIA (6th S. v. 8).— Casanova, in his Life of St. Edmund, records the to a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, "In or to a merry pin, almost drunk, an allusion tradition that when England was invaded in 1216 having silver pegs or pins set at equal distances by Lewis, son of Philip II. of France, he carried from the top to the bottom: by the rules of off the body of the saint and gave it to the church good fellowship, every person drinking out of one of of St. Saturninus at Toulouse. After this period these tankards was to swallow the quantity contained he remarks that there is no mention of any miracle between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to done by St. Edmund. This event took place only continue drinking till he ended at a pin; by this means persons unaccustomed to measure their draughts were eighteen years after the inspection of the body by obliged to drink the whole tankard. Hence, when a Abbot Samson, recorded by Jocelyn of the Brack-person was a little elevated with liquor, he was said to land. There appears to have been a tradition up have drank to a merry pin." to the present time that the body was at Toulouse, but there was a doubt which of two bodies there preserved was that of the saint. This doubt seems to be now cleared up, as a portion of the relics have lately been presented to the Roman Catholic Chapel at Bury St. Edmunds. It is remarkable that when Cromwell's commissioners visited Bury they only mentioned the paring of St. Edmund's nails among These two are weighty authorities, no doubt, on obsolete, provincial, and vernacular English; but, with submission, I cannot help thinking that the origin of the phrase suggested by them appears to be far-fetched, and has an ominous look rather of post hoc than of propter hoc. Certainly Cowper had no thought of such a sense when he applied the phrase to poor Gilpin, |