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NOTES:-The Fifteenth Century Effigy of unknown Lady at Ledbury, Co. Hereford, 219 Thomas Cross, shorthand author and engraver, 220 The King's Ships, 222-" Cobber "-The Rev. Dr. Joseph Priestley, F.R.S.: a question of descent, 224.

QUERIES:-Bustle-Seal legends-Trophy money -Wooden Ship-building "When Nelson gets his eye again" - Boiling to death as capital punishment, 225-The Gender of Souls Two pamphlets of French interest-" Draught"-Sir William Slingsby Boys' Eton Jackets-Nib's Pound-Slickman's Folly-Richard de Meopham -Lucius Concannon-The Fayette-Burton, composer-The Book of the Dun Cow, 226-Giacinto Achilli-James Stewart, matross, Edinburgh, 1780-The Victoria Tower, Westminster-Poem on Melville and Coghill - Author of quotation wanted, 227.

REPLIES:-Proverbs and Phrases of the Dairy, 227 - Strength of the English Feudal Levy, temp. Edward I-Le Roi Soleil-Solicitors of Bath, 229-" To Gralloch "-Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, 230 Dictionaire in English and Latine-Old Flower-name.: Fluellin -Adamnan's 'Vita St. Columbae '-'Naomi,' 231Arms of Lyme Regis-Heraldry: draped armsThe Moon and mushrooms-Eighteenth century school at Hoxton-Pre-history on the Downs "You and I" for "You and Me" Author wanted, 232.

THE LIBRARY:-'The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. I'- L.C.C. Survey of London. Vol. XII. Parish of All Hallows, Barking. Pt. i. The Parish Church '-' Open-air Studies in Australia.'

NOTES & QUERIES.

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NOTES AND QUERIES is published every Friday, at 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks (Telephone: Wycombe 306). Subscriptions (£2 2s. a year, U.S.A. $10.23, including postage, two half-yearly indexes and two cloth binding cases, or £1 15s. 4d. a year, U.S.A. $8.61 without binding cases) should be sent to the Manager. The Office is at 14, Burleigh

Street, W.C.2 (Telephone: Temple Bar 7576),

where the current issue is on sale. Orders for back numbers, indexes and bound volumes should be sent either to London or to Wycombe; letters for the Editor to the London Office.

Memorabilia.

N the current number of the Revue des

Idee Mons Mundre Belge is conduct ing an enquiry into the spirit of modern literature. Part of the instalment of this number is devoted to "humour" (which, the S.P.E. has no doubt observed, has, in French, to be called by its English name). M. Berge concludes his discussion of humour, as now manifested, by saying that though doubtless humour, wit and fun of all types are to be found all about more or less, it is curious to observe how indirectly it is their way to slip into literature now-a-days. It is not now possible to describe humour as a mode of viewing the world or as an attitude taken up towards life. The smiling scepticism of Anatole France, for example, is now beyond our ken. It is not that we have acquired certitude about more things than he had; it is that we are no longer capable of his elegant," his pretty indifference; indeed, this is displeasing to us above all things. To be able to turn some minute idea in such a way as to make a witticism out of it is an art which possesses no interest at all for writers of our generation. We consent to tolerate humour if it is thrown in; but we do not set ourselves to seek it. Modern humour may be delicate and sly after Proust's fashion; but it is also very apt to be violent, even rough at times, and often united with a kind of distress. Never or almost never does it reveal true indifference; and, to sum the whole thing up, it is almost always empty of any gaiety. M. Berge finds in our use of the comic to express feelings or ideas which have nothing whatever comic about them, one of the characteristic marks of our epoch. Beneath it all he finds, more and

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hostilitystudy the

enterprise will find a lengthy account of it in the Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association for July of this year. Till now the expedition has been regarded as principally punitive in character. It cleared great tracts of good land for settlers, who swarmed out to occupy it, believing that the dislodgment of the Indians was simply that which they had deserved for their to the frontiersmen. However, contemporary documents already known, and the accession also of fresh material, have somewhat modified old views about the movement. An important factor in the situation were the Tories or Loyalists. At the moment when the Declaration of Independence had compelled every man to take his side for or against the Revolution these men had chosen for King and Empire. They formed themselves into companies, acted in concert with the Indians, and gave to the Indian frontier warfare something of the character of civil war. The Sullivan-Clinton campaign was thus not merely directed against the Indians. Mr. A. C. Flick, who contributes the account of these matters to the Quarterly, further shows what has been largely overlooked that the territory fought for was important as a source of food supplies for the British army, and on that account a very proper objective for an American expedition. But, more than this-Washington, in 1779, believing that peace was not far off, and foreseeing that the terms of peace might restrict America to the strip of land beside the Atlantic which was all the new nation then held, devised the campaign as a means of assuring claims on western territory while yet the way to do so lay open. It is in the light of this purpose, above all, that the history of the expedition should be read. The argument of the paper rests, among other things, upon a questionnaire of Washington's, written in his own hand and now printed for the first time, which shows both his methods of acquiring data concerning the nature of unexplored territory, and the kind of data he esteemed useful.

IT is of some little poetical importance to three Years in the Dutch Eaft-India Com

know whether dew falls or rises. Maxnight at Cumnor Hall which Sir Walter

welton braes and the verse about the summer

Scott could not weary of reciting will be but distorted joys if we have to admit that the dew does not really fall 1t does. In a recent book about 'Weather

as they say

(Messrs. E. E. Free and Travis Hoke, chapt. xiii.) it is maintained that dew rises. We are glad to see a letter in last week's Nature from our correspondent Sir Herbert Maxwell controverting not only this contention, but also, from his own express observation, a curious statement to the effect that dewdrops on leaves and blades of grass are to be found on the undersides! No doubt Sir Herbert Maxwell is right in supposing that the authors are treating of dew before it is formed. The name so dear and full of mean

ing to poets is not Mr. Alfred Noyes conspicuous in this regard?-belongs not to the ascending vapour but to the precipitated drops formed where the warm moisture-laden air rising from the earth encounters the cold of night or early morning.

CLANCING through the September number of the Journal of Education and the School World, we found our eye caught by a remark about the recent pamphlet of the S.P.E.-priced 3s. 6d.-dealing with the recommendations of the B.B.C. for the pronunciation of doubtful words. The writer of the paragraph complains of the price, supposes it to be explained by two plates of ancient faldstools included in the pamphlet, and then says: Why they were included we were at some pains to discover." phrase should surely mean that the reason was eventually discovered, after the taking of those pains, but as this is not given and the writer passes on to discuss and explain the B.B.C.'s concern for pronunciation, we suspect he meant to write "we were at a loss to discover." Or is the phrase were at some pains" undergoing a change of use?

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Two Hundred Years Ago.

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From the Weekly Journal: or the British Gazeteer. Saturday, September 27, 1729.

LONDON. September 27.

Some Days ago Capt. Hannibal, in the Sloop Cornelius, brought over as Paffengers from Rotterdam the two famous English Divers living at Weymouth, having been

pany's Service, and had been fent to fish upon the Wrecks of fome Ships of theirs in

India: They first gave a Specimen of their Skill before the Governor and Directors at Middleburgh in Zealand, by Diving in fix

Fathom Water, and staying at the Bottom three Quarters of an Hour, bringing up fome

Gravel in their Hands: the Directors after

wards entered into a Contract with them, agreeing to give them 61. per Cent. for the Treafure they should recover, and fo for other Goods in Proportion to their Value. The first Trial they made was upon the Wreck of a Dutch Eaft-India Ship that had been loft off Cape Coaft in fix Fathom Sea, in which they fucceeeded so well that they rought up at feveral Times 360001. in Silver: They dived alfo upon another Wreck in eight Fathoms, and brought up fome Bars of Silver and Gold, and feveral Brass great Guns: When one went to the Bottom, his Companion stay'd on Board to pull him up as Occafion offer'd, for they would trust no Foreigner; Their Diving Engine they contriv'd themselves in England, which was made

of Wood, 600 Weight of Lead being affix'd

to Bottom it, and less would not do; the Glaffes before their Eyes were three Inches thick and their Hands were at Liberty to grope and faften Hooks to Chefts and fuch other Things as they had a Mind to get up: Notwithstanding the Largeness of the Engine, which terrify'd most of the Inhabitants of the Deep, there was one large Fish that would often make at them; but to guard against him they carried in one Hand a little sharp Lance with which they prick'd him, then he fcour'd off: They never dived but in the Summer Time, and then only on calm, ferene and Sunshiny Days: They relate what is very remarkable that the Bottom of the Sea where they had been, look'd like a fine Garden, abundance of Things (which they wanted a Name for) growing in it resembling short Plants, and branching out from the main Stalk divers Ways, being white, hard and rugged, but did not appear to be of the white Coral Kind; they brought up some Pieces with them, which, after they were exposed to the Sun, but not before, yielded a most flagrant Smell; one little Branch thereof is now in the Poffeffion of the aforefaid Capt. Hannibal, and is look'd upon as a very great Curiosity: When the Cheft in which the Pieces were repofited were opened at the Custom-house Key, a fine Scent was diffufed round about, which pleased and furprized all that were prefent.

2

E

Literary and Historical

Notes.

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY EFFIGY OF AN UNKNOWN LADY AT

LEDBURY, CO. HEREFORD.

RECESSED within the left wall of the North aisle and facing the choir of Ledbury Church (St. Michael), stands the canopied table-tomb of the hitherto-unknown lady whose graceful effigy still lies upon it, although much of the hooded canopy-tracery that has protected it during five centuries has perished, together with the two terminal finials.

The face of the table below her is sculptured in seven relieved arches each containing a shield once painted with bearings : gs: the significance of which we may presently be able to conjecture. The two sides (E. and W.) and rear-wall of the tomb above are sculptured

with the repeated three shields of Le Strange,

of Blackmere; Giffard, of Brimsfield (easily and usually mistaken for England (royal)); and the three lions (two and one) rampant, hitherto attributed to Pauncefote, a family that was very closely connected with the former chantry of St. Anne here. These, however, we shall hope to shew, are really for the Talbot baronia of Blackmere, near Whitchurch (Co. Salop), and it is these arms that should prove the identity of the personage buried and represented here.

The costume, though beautiful, nowhere
John Giffard of Brimsfield (d. 1299)

fails with any aggressive or excessive elaborations. The figure, with eyes open, is praying, holding her hands vertically uplifted from her breast and pressed together. Of course, every trace of the rich and delicate distemper patterns that once enriched the tunic and supertunic, and delighted the eye, have long disappeared. The folds thereof, collected at the foot, project over the side of the slab precisely in the manner used by the artist of the lovely tomb of the Joan Lady Mortimer at Much

Marcle, hard-by. The neatly-parted hair is firmly embound with a jewelled metal band from beneath which descends her veil.

It may be best, perhaps, now to suggest the identity of the lady represented, and give the reasons pointing her to have been Ankaret (1) sole heiress of John, Lord Lestrange, of Blackmere, granddaughter of Alianore, dau. and co-h. of John Giffard, Lord of Brimsfield (near Painswick, Glos.), whose husband had been Fulk Le Strange (3rd Baron) of Blackmere, near Whitchurch. For, that she was a Lestrange heiress is manifest by the leading shield: Arg. two lions passant gules; and to bear, next, Gules three lions passant in pale arg., which represents Giffard of Brimsfield, points to a direct Giffard descent.

the immediate

Only that lady, therefore (or, just possibly, her unmarried granddaughter Ankaret (2), d. 1421) could thus represent such combined heiress-ships as oldest (?) descendant of John Giffard of Brimsfield (d. 1299), namely: Ankaret, sole heiress of John Lord Lestrange of Blackmere (4th baron), himself, son of Alianore de Giffard and Fulk Lord Lestrange (3rd baron) of Blackmere, viz.:

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Ankaret (2)

d. unm. Dec., 1421,

leaving her uncle her heir.

=

(1st) Sir Rich. Talbot: Lord Talbot (4th Baron) summoned as Lord Talbot of Blackmere in her right, in his father's lifetime: 1384. He d. 1396.

Gilbert, Lord Talbot, K.G. John Talbot, Lord Furnival and

(b. 1383; d. 1419).
(5th Baron)

Strange of Blackmere, and later (1443) 1st Earl of Shrewsbury.

It is necessary here to notice that Ankaret (1) Lady Talbot and Lestrange married secondly, Thomas Lord Furnival, who d. 1406, and was buried at Worksop with his first wife, Joan de Furnival. She herself died June (?) 8, 1413, perhaps at Goodriche Castle, Co. Hereford. Her being accompanied by the early Talbot arms (?) Arg. three lions ramp. purp., instead of the usual Gules a lion ramp.within a bordure engrailed, we may thus regard as adopted for Talbot of Blackmere. A point here arises which will help to explain her burial in Ledbury: i.e., her name Ankaret which she transmitted to her granddaughter. Her great-aunt Katherine, Lady Audeley, widow of Nicholas, Lord Audeley (d. 1299) lost her eldest son Thomas (b. 1288) in 1307, and became an anchoress at Ledbury, where she still was living thus in 1325/6 having also lost her second son (1316) Nicholas, Lord Audeley, who had m. Joan, widow of Henry de Laci, Earl of Lincoln. Perhaps we have here the full explanation for the family favour for the name Ankaret. She possessed Whitchurch and Blackmere at her decease and, be it recollected, that being summoned as Lord Talbot of Blackmere before he became Lord Talbot upon his father, Sir Gilbert's decease (1387), a separate coat-of-arms was called for and (temporarily) adopted. Doubtless the lower set of (painted) shields shewed her other illustrious alliances, Clifford, Longespée,

Arundel, Furnival, etc.

If the main conclusion arrived at here be correct, this tomb at Ledbury commemorates no less a personage than the mother of the greatest of the Talbots" the great Alcides of the field" (cf. ' Henry VI'), the trust-deed (September, 1425) for whose second marriage with Margaret Beauchamp, dau. of Richard, Earl of Warwick, signed at Painswick by its Vicar, as the last witness, you were good enough to print for the present writer, who discovered it, some five years ago.

ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

THOMAS CROSS, SHORTHAND
AUTHOR AND ENGRAVER.

IF a prolific output of portraits and titlepages were the sole criterion, Thomas Cross would rank high among English engravers of the seventeenth century. Competent judges, however, agree that his style shows little attempt at artistic refinement, and no less an authority that Sir Sidney Colvin, while conceding as his best quality "the aim at

a certain rough grip and veracity in portraiture," dismisses him as "a botcher. "1 Unskilful in execution though his work may have been, Cross is at least entitled to the credit of having endeavoured to render faithfully the lineaments of those he portrayed. His portraits are in some cases the only ones we possess, and they are, as Mr. Lionel Cust has pointed out in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' a valuable contribution to the history of the period.

For the shorthand bibliophile Cross has a twofold interest: as the engraver of a number of early manuals of the art and portraits of some of the most popular shorthand teachers of his day, and as the author of a system or systems of his own. Thomas Ratcliff's 'New Art of Short and Swift Writing without Characters,' first published in 1688, prepared for the press by Thomas Cross, who boasted in the preface to that work of fifty years' experience of this New and Secret Art and declared that he had engraved more of Short-hand Books than all the

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was

Gravers in England." Those books he proceeded to enumerate as follows:

Mr. Metcalfs, Mr. Sheltons first, and his Psalm-Book, Mr. Ratcliffs of Plimouth, Mr. Job Everards, Mr. Rich's Table, Psalm-Book, and his New Testament, Mr. Farthings, etc.. besides Mr. Elisha Coles's, and three contriv'd by my self.

Nearly all the books here mentioned are extant and can be readily identified, as well as portraits of Shelton, Metcalfe and Rich engraved by Cross; but as to the three works on stenography which he claimed to have

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contriv'd," historians and bibliographers of shorthand are silent or sceptical. Cross's name does not appear in Elisha Coles's 'Newest, Plainest and the Shortest Shorthand,' 1674, although Coles was at some pains to give a complete list of the shorthand authors who had preceded him. There is no word of Cross in Philip Gibbs's 'Historical Account of Compendious and Swift Writing,' 1736, nor in the historical preface to John Angell's 'Stenography' (1758). The latter was, however, taken to task for sins of omission and commission in a postscript to the fourth edition of Thomas Gurney's Brachygraphy' (c. 1760), and among the omissions Gurney specified "Mr. Thomas Cross's Short-hand published in 1645." The name of Cross thereafter figured in lists of shorthand authors printed by Lyle, 1762, and

1 Early Engraving and Engravers in England, 1905, р. 127.

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