hint that the Cambridge registers might in their turn be published. hostels or boarding-houses which were as populous as the Colleges, and frequented, it would appear, by the youths of higher social position. So far as is now known none of their books has been preserved, and it seems improbable that any of the lists of names belonging to them will now be recovered. For the most interesting names-those of the earliest times, search had to be made in many quarters. Episcopal Registers naturally yielded a good deal: and the compilers point to one class of information contained in these which is of peculiar interest the occasional leave of absence from his parish granted by a bishop to a clerk to enable him to study for a certain length of time at a university. College Accountbooks; Patent and Close Rolls, Papal Letters and other public records, as well as lists of ordinations and institutions to livings will present themselves to most readers' minds as sources to be investigated, and a consideration of the labour thereby involved will occur as a matter of course. It is greatly to be regretted that the compilers found their work obstructed in some quarters. It seems extraordinary that so heavy a fee as six shillings and eight pence an hour should be charged for examination of an Episcopal registry when the research was for a purely historical purpose. It would be difficult to exaggerate our manysided indebtedness to Foster and to Colonel Chester before him, but it must be conceded that the compilers of the Cambridge Register have both encountered greater difficulties and achieved more. The Alumni Oxonienses' go back but to 1500; the first Alumni Cantabrigienses' date from 1261. Yet again, Foster had the Oxford matriculation records in a complete transcript to form his basis: the Cambridge matriculation records from their inception in 1544 had not been so prepared. Moreover, for the earlier years they are but scanty and the business of supplementing them brought a new complication to light. Students were found duly entered at a College who had never matriculated. It became clear that the matriculation records were far from representing the whole of the men who had passed through the university; and further, that the men unrecorded in them tended to be specially youths of some social or political importance. Hence it was seen to be necessary to search the Admission Registers of all the Colleges, and no fewer than 3,000 additional names were thereby obtained. It must be conceded that this suggests the desirability of making similar investigations at Oxford. The name of Oliver Cromwell, as the Preface points To turn from the Preface to the list itselfout, is the monumental instance to this purpose. this is arranged substantially on the plan of the He appears on the Register of Sidney and resided ́Alumni Oxonienses,' minor alterations in the for a year, but neither matriculated nor graduated. spelling of well-known names being ignored in A most interesting section of the Preface is the alphabet. The biographical notices frethat describing the University Records. The quently contain points of curious interest. dislike of writing things up seems ineradicable-Those who make a study of names will discover not to be overcome save by compulsion. The instances worth noting-while the systematic Registrary for 1590-1601 was, in that respect, a person of such negligence that he recorded no matriculations at all. This would not be possible at the present day, but was easy enough according to the old system, by which the boys' names, with other requisite particulars, were sent in to the Registrary by prelectores-College officers in charge of the youth-for him to copy into his book. These prelectors' lists have been kept, and recourse has been had to them to supplement and correct the errors and omissions of the official scribe: and it is interesting to observe that these exemplify the not uncommon inverse proportion between the importance of a document and its legibility. The Grace Books form a continuous series from 1454 to the present day; and in the Ordo Senioritatis Cambridge possesses a nearly unique" Honours list." A third list,, that of the Supplicats, completes the records of Degrees. The Grace Books go furthest back; for about two centuries of university history anterior to these search has to be made elsewhere. Four of the Colleges have published their records. The best of them is that of Gonville and Caius, but Trinity possesses, in the names of udents of King's Hall, the earliest continuous list of scholars in existence. These "King's Scholars were assisted by payments from the Exchequer, and the list has been extracted from the records of the Exchequer. Published or anpublished, all the College records have been worked through, but even so finality is not to be reached. Up to about the middle of the sixteenth century there abounded at Cambridge genealogist needs no recommendation to send Measure for Measure. (Cambridge University in our opinion, express very happily, and with Sir Arthur's usual freshness and sureness of handling, the judgment formed by most plain readers who know and love Shakespeare well without being inspired or compelled to find something new to say of him. Not, however, in these matters does he find the cause of failure, though he reminds us that the play belongs to the mysteriously troubled period of Shakespeare's life when his view of the relations between man and woman shows itself dark and bitter. Our critic agrees with Walter Pater in taking the idea of the play to be poetical justice; but he urges that Pater reports aright not what Shakespeare succeeded in doing but only what he intended to do. A criticism of the character of Isabella leads him to the heart of the puzzle to the radical inconsistency which damns the play as unrealized. We think he bears too hardly on Isabella in the matter of Mariana, and makes too little of the pre-contract. After all a solemn betrothal could be annulled only by a papal dispensation, without which the parties were not free to marry elsewhere. Perhaps Sir Arthur "forgot to remember the tedious business between John Paston and Anne Haute. The intervening century would count for little as regards stories. On the other hand, more emphasis might well have been laid on the inconsistency of Isabella's easy consent to marry the Duke. Her rebukes to Claudio, as they stand, are impossibly rough in wording, but at least they convey, in addition to the anger of an honest woman, detestation of the suggested violation of her vows; they carry on the note struck in the scene in the nunnery, that of the " thing enskied and sainted." The character in fact splits in two; being, as we find her, so nobly a nun, the Isabella of the first part could not, without a struggle of some sort, have renounced her calling. In fact, in such a person, the breakdown of a vow would itself be matter for a play. Here it is treated with a carelessness which, from the dramatic point of view, ruins the character. Who is to say what Shakespeare himself did or intended in Measure for Measure'? We have nothing but the folio text, in which appear plainly numerous inaccuracies to be imputed to careless transcribing, and also at least two processes, of abridgment and expansion, in a working over of the text. Mr. Dover Wilson, after discussing these processes makes an important contribution to the question of the date of the play, confirming the entry in the Account Books of the Revels Office, by which this is now accepted as Dec. 26, 1604. He points out that the "black Masques "which" proclaim an enshield beauty" are a compliment, in advance, to Ben Jonson and his " Masque of Blackness," which was given at Court on Twelfth Night, 1605. In this the masquers were placed in a great concave shell devised by Inigo Jones. The allusion falls in happily with those already noted by students to James I.'s dislike of crowds. The discussion of the copy used for the play as printed in 1623an excellent handling of an intricate matter works out to the conclusion that a prompt-copy was the basis of it, and that not a copy made from the original MS. but one from an abridgment made for the occasion in 1604, and existing largely as a set of players' parts. Mr. Child summarizes skilfully the stage-history of the play, which was brilliant enough during the eighteenth century and the period of the great actors and actresses. More even than most of Shakespeare's plays it depends for its true effect on being seen upon the boards, and its very faults serve as opportunities to the genius of the player. We have received the following letter, which will be read with interest by all old readers of N. & Q.' : Mollington Vicarage, Banbury, Feb. 25, 1922. Dear Sir, -Owing to the death of my mother, I am having to dispose of the whole of MR. W. J. THOMS's collection of papers on "Longevity," also a great many wonderful engravings of Centenarians. They are to be sold by auction shortly by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson of Leicester Square. If you would kindly insert this letter in your next issue your readers would have the opportunity of seeing them before the sale. Yours faithfully, (MRS.) CICELY DUMMELOW. PRESENTATION TO THE ROTHAMSTED LIBRARY. -The library of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, has recently been enriched by a rare volume (believed to be the first printed book on agriculture in France), given by Lady Ludlow. It is entitled 'Le livre des prouffitz champestres et ruraulx,' and was printed by Pierre de Sainte-Lucie at Lyons in 1539. It is of special interest in view of the influence exerted by the French agricultural authors of a somewhat later period on the Elizabethan agricultural writers in this country, whose influence in turn lasted almost to Victorian times. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses immediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the contribution in question is to be found. ANEURIN WILLIAMS. (1) Edward Ellerker Williams, son of John Williams, a captain in the East India Company's army; b. 1793; d. 1822. A short life of him by Richard Garnett will be found in the D.N.B.' (2) Archdeacon Stephen Phillips, D.D.; b. 1638; d. 1684. Married Mary Cook, daughter of his predecessor at Bampton. See article on his son in 'D.N.B.' LONDON, MARCH 11, 1922. CONTENTS.-No. 204. NOTES:- The Assumption of the Virgin,' by Botticini (?). in the year 1470. The great affinity of the art of Botticelli with that of Botticini speaks for a close relation between the two. In the National Gallery catalogue of 1921 We are given no choice, Botticini being named alone. Thus our cherished faith is shattered by the modern expert. To go back to the catalogue of 1906. It contains in a note a remarkable account QUERIES:-Stroud Green. 188-John Planta's Spinning of the painting, written, I think, originally wheel-Sir Charles Cox, M.P.- Othello '-Non-juring Clergy: Baptismal Registers-The House of HusbandryBernasconi-William Milburn-Sir T. Phillips, 189 by Sir Frederic Burton, director 1874-94, of which I will now give an abstract. The Gregor" of the Mosquito Coast-William Meyler-Richard Assumption' was executed perhaps about Abbott-Knaves Acre, Lambeth-General Cyrus Trapaud: 1472 for Matteo Palmieri, and placed in Reynolds Portrait-Files of Old Newspapers wanted- the family chapel in S. Pietro Maggiore, Sorency's "-Daniel Race-Heather Family-A Kensington Florence. That distinguished man, who Tapestry, 190-Jacobo d' Zsenaco Menardus Benjamin rendered important services to the Republic, Havene-Sir Hans Fowler-Burr-walnut-Book-plate of D. in Kent and its Owners, 195-Blue Beard-Adah Isaacs British Settlers in America-Portraits of Coleridge and -Unidentified Arms-Gezreel's Tower-Author wanted, 199. NOTES ON BOOKS:- The General Eyre'-'A Volume of Oriental Sturlies." Notices to Correspondents. Notes. · THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN,' BY BOTTICINI (?). UNDER this title there is a large and beautiful picture at the National Gallery, numbered 1126 in the catalogue of 1921, originally on wood, afterwards transferred to canvas, about which I venture to make the following remarks. First as to the painter. Vasari mentions it as being by Sandro Botticelli, or, as the learned call him, Filipepi, and it is so described in Bryan's 'Dictionary' (1898), in the abridged National Gallery catalogue, 1901, and in the catalogue of 1906, where, however, we are told that it "is now attributed by critics of the modern school to Botticini, of whose life little is known." The compiler quotes from Uhlmann as follows: It may well be that Botticelli had had from Palmieri the Commission for the picture of the Assumption, and have designed only the comition and left the working out to Botticini, with whom, having probably known him at some bamer time in Verocchio's studio, he worked was also a profound__theologian and an entitled 'La Cictà (Città) della Vita,' is Palmieri, author of the poem which inspired in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence. this great painting, and here Botticelli A copy is, or was, in the Strozzi Library; may have been his guest. Boccaccio makes the Ambrosian Library at Milan contains this the abode of the tellers of the stories the only other known copy. in his Decamerone' during the plague of 1348. In 1892 it was the home of the widowed Lady Crawford and her daughters, LAMBERT FAMILY. In the National Gallery catalogue of 1921, p. 32, the compiler gives an accurate though concise account of the main portions of the picture, but in his reference to the "landscape background showing the Arno and Florence left,' " he makes rather a serious error. In fact, the scene was described with much detail by that accomplished lady the late Miss Margaret Stokes, honorary member AT 6 S. x. 436, a query appears as to the of the Royal Irish Academy and Associate family of Ralph Lambert, Bishop of of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, Meath. It does not appear to have been whom I met in Florence many years ago. answered. Having made some_research as She had a photograph of the " landscape to the kinsfolk of this bishop, I venture to background to the left of the group of send the result to N. & Q.' as a contribution apostles round the Virgin's tomb, armed to Irish genealogy, repeating the question with which she determined to find out the of your correspondent of 38 years ago point of view of the great artist, whoever who was Robert Lambert, otherwise Robert he may have been. The results of her search Lambert Tate, father of Lady Annesley? are described and illustrated in a volume His wife was a descendant of the Lambert entitled Six Months in the Apennines,' family, as will appear below, but he himself published 1892. She tells us how, starting is described as Robert Lambert Tate in his from Fiesole, she crossed the bridge over the marriage entry in 1750. There does not Mugnone, a picturesque tributary of the Arno, and walked uphill towards the Villa family and that of the Earls of Cavan, whose appear to be any connexion between this Salviati. Then, standing among the ruined name is spelled Lambart. As will be seen terraces of an ancient garden, she saw at later on, several references to this family in her feet the very scene depicted by the published pedigrees are erroneous. painter the wide horizon reaching from San Domenico and the Apennines beyond Monte Moro, Scala, and Monte Maggio, round the whole Val d'Arno to San Lorenzo The Rev. THOMAS LAMBERT, Ordained and the northern boundary of Florence." priest by Theophilus, Bishop of Llandaff, She traced out all the details, and in her March 15, 1625; Chaplain in H.M.'s Army volume the scene is reproduced from the Vicar of Dromiskin 1633-61, and Vicar of picture, and also from her own drawing, Dunany, both in Co. Louth; died 1661. made at the time of her visit. The two Prerogative will proved Feb. 1661-2, having views are surprisingly alike. The Arno is not visible. The Mugnone, flowing with devious course from the immediate foreground towards Florence, has been narrowed and straightened somewhat. In the picture it is crossed by a bridge of three arches, where there is now one of a single span. GEORGE LAMBERT of Dundalk, Co. Louth, The old walls of the city have been swept m. Alice, sister of the Right Rev. William away, but various delightful buildings re- Smyth, Bishop of Kilmore, and dau. of main almost unchanged, and of these Miss Capt. Ralph Smyth of Ballymacash, near Stokes gives a list. I will only refer to two Lisburn, Co. Antrim, High Sheriff Co. of them. On high ground to the extreme Antrim 1680, by Elizabeth Hawkesworth left stands the Badia of Fiesole, its façade his wife, and by her, who was buried at unfinished as in the fifteenth century. The Lisburn Cathedral, Aug. 16, 1715, had five villa that rises amid tall cypress and olive sons and four daughters (order of age trees on the height above the Mugnone uncertain) :— beyond the bridge, is the house of Matteo A note (2 S. viii. 10), regarding the first known was published in 'N. & Q.' ancester, who was : had four children : : I. James Lambert. II. George, of whom immediately. I. George Lambert of Downpatrick and Dunlady, Co. Down, High Sheriff Co. Down Co. Cavan, by Jane, dau. of Thomas Trotter, 1720, m. Elizabeth, dau. of the Rev. Henry M.P., Judge of the Prerogative Court, and Jenny, D.D., Archdeacon of Dromore, had issue. and d., will dated July 27, 1723; proved Prerog. Feb. 18, 1723-4. IL. RALPH, of whom presently. (3) Isaiah Corry of Ballytrain, Co. Monaghan, m., first, Catherine, widow of George Scott, of Legacorry, Co. Monaghan, and dau. of Lancelot Fisher; and, secondly, III. Hawkesworth Lambert, b. Dundalk ; entered Trin. Coll., Dublin, May 18, 1687, Dec. 8, 1778, Barbara, dau. of the Rev. aged 16; scholar 1688. IV. William Lambert. V. Robert Lambert of Dunlady, Co. Down; will dated May 7, 1750; proved Prerog. Nov. 6, 1751; left a dau., Mary Lambert. I. Elizabeth Lambert, m. William Brabazon of Rath House, Co. Meath, grandson of Sir Anthony Brabazon, son of the first Lord Ardee, and brother of the first Earl of Meath, and had issue. II. Alice Lambert, m. Thomas Dawson of Gilford, Co. Down, son of William Dawson of Lisveagh, Co. Armagh, and brother of Ralph Dawson of Dawson's Grove, Co. Armagh. By him, whose will, dated May 5, 1729, was proved Prerog. May 26, 1729, she appears to have left no issue. III. Mary Lambert, m. at Lisburn Cathedral, Nov. 8, 1696, the Rev. William Skeffington, B.A., son of Richard Skeffington of Co. Armagh, and had at least two sons : i. George Skeffington, mentioned in will of George Lambert. ii. Lambert Skeffington, b. Co. Meath; entered T.C.D. June 21, 1728, aged 17. Andrew Nixon of Nixon Lodge, Co. Cavan, and had issue by both marriages. Monaghan, m. Mary, dau. of John Ruxton (4) James Corry of Shantonagh, Co. of Ardee, Co. Louth, M.P., and was ancestor of the Fitzherbert family. Dublin, June 30, 1750, Robert Lambert Alice Smyth was :- 6 of Dromore 1717-26, and of Meath 1726THE MOST REV. RALPH LAMBERT, Bishop Aug. 13, 1681; Scholar 1683; B.A. 1686; 31; born in Co. Louth; entered T.C.D. M.A. 1696; B.D. and D.D. 1701; Rector of Kilskyre, diocese of Meath, 1703-9; Prediocese of Armagh, 1706-9; Dean of Down centor of Down 1703-6; Vicar of Dundalk, aged 40; tablet in Dundalk Church. (Burke's 1709-17. His first wife, Sarah, died 1707, of Gaybrook,' says she was the only dau. 'Landed Gentry,' 1846, sub tit. Smyth of Smythe Kelly, who was son of Capt. Kelly, by Judith, dau. of John Smyth, uncle of William, Bishop of Kilmore.) i. George Vaughan (Rev.), Rector of marriage licence, July 14, 1716, Elizabeth Bishop Lambert m., secondly, Prerogative Dromore, ancestor of Vaughan of Quilly Rowley of (see Burke's Landed Gentry,' which is Clonmethan. (He is said, incorrect in its reference to his sister, Montgomery MSS., to have been a brother erroneously, in the notes to p. 361 of the Mrs. Corry). of Mrs. Ann Hall of Strangford. He was her brother-in-law, as she had been Ann Rowley.) Ralph Lambert died Feb. 6, 1731-2, and was buried at St. Michan's, Dublin, having had by his first wife two sons and three daughters : IV. Anne Lambert, m. May 23, 1710, the Rev. John Vaughan, Rector of Dromore, Co. Down, son of the Rev. George Vaughan, Treasurer of Dromore, and had, with other issue, a son and a daughter : i. Alice Vaughan, · m. the Rev. John Corry of Rockcorry, Co. Monaghan, son of Isaiah Corry, High Sheriff Co. Monaghan 1712, and died Nov. 23, 1791, having had, with other issue : (1) John Corry, of Sport Hall, Co. Monaghan, High Sheriff Co. Monaghan, 1759, m. Feb. 26, 1762, Catherine Coote, sister of Charles, 1st Earl of Bellamont, and d.v.p. 1770, 8.p.m. I. Thomas Lambert, b. Co. Down; ent. T.C.D. April 24, 1716, aged 16; buried at Lisburn Aug. 14, 1718. II. MONTAGUE, of whom presently. (2) Thomas Corry, of Rockcorry, High I. Alice Lambert, m. Dublin, marr. lic. Sheriff Co. Monaghan 1782, m. Nov. 1780, July 2, 1739, Nathaniel Preston of SwainsRebecca, only dau. of William Steuart of town, Co. Meath, M.P. for Navan 1713-60. Bailieborough Castle, Co. Cavan, M.P. II. Susanna Lambert, m. first, at St. |