Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/189

 io> s. i. FEB. 20, i9w.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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oldest baronial dwellings near the city, and by far the most picturesque, and was encrusted with armorial bearings, heraldic devices, inscriptions, &c. One of the dates upon it was 1339; and an inscription ran "In Domino confido 1400." In the Herald, 6 April, 1799, a notice of its purchase appeared for a site for Gillespie's Hospital; and in 1800 its demolition was achieved, but not, by the way, without a spirited remonstrance from the Edinburgh Magazine. The mansion in which the historian of 'The Douglas Family' spent part of his childhood was erected later than the year 1645, and, as he has stated, "stands to this day." For an illustration of " Wrychtis-housis," and for one of Warrender House, see ' Old and New Edinburgh,' vol. iii. pp. 36 and 48.

HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

M. N. G. is unfortunate in referring to the Charlestown "event" in illustration of the opinion that " it does not seem improbable that escaped nuns were buried alive." The facts of the case afford a monitory lesson to swift witnesses in cases of immurement. "She was captured, taken back to the nunnery, and demands for her release were refused." "The nun was never afterwards heard of."

An Ursuline nun, Sister Mary St. John, overwrought and nervous, mentally un- balanced, strayed away from the convent to a neighbouring farmhouse : this was the escape. Her brother, living in Boston, was sent for, and, in company with Bishop Fenwick, he brought her back to the convent : this was the capture. As to the demands for her release, the reply of Cardinal Wiseman, in the Connolly case in England, could be made here : " The door is open, she can walk out if she wishes."

" The nun was never afterwards heard of." In this she differed from the " Escaped Nun " of our day, who is ofcen heard of. The Charlestown nun was heard of : 1. When the Selectmen of the town visited the convent in a body, and were shown over the house and grounds by Sister Mary St. John. 2. On the night of the burning, when she accom- panied the girls in their flight from the mob. 3. When the committee of twenty repre- sentative citizens of Boston investigated the "event," and declared in their report that as to the

"supposed muitler or secretion of Miss Harrison, it is only necessary for the committee to recapitu- late the facts already before the public, with the further assurance that the relation has been person- ally confirmed by her to some of them, who were well

acquainted with her before the destruction of the convent, and have repeatedly seen and conversed with her since." (Italics theirs.)

4. At the ancient Ursuline Convent of Quebec, where she lived after the catastrophe at Charlestown. Finally, when she appeared as a witness at the trial of the rioters.

This is a good illustration of the opinion that "nuns were immured alive." Authori- ties for 1, 3, 5, Bishop England's 'Works,' vol. v. pp. 232-347, ' Documents relating to the Charlestown Convent '; for 2, ' The Burning of the Convent, as remembered by one of the Pupils,' Boston, Osgood & Co., 1877 j for 4, ' Records Am. Cath. Hist. Soc.,' vol. v. pp. 476-9. EDWARD I. DEVITT.

Georgetown College, Washington, D.C.

JOHN LEWIS, PORTRAIT PAINTER (10 th S. i. 87). The portrait of Henry Brooke by Lewis is in my possession. It is unsigned, and was touched up by another hand about forty years ago. I also have portraits of his father, Rev. William Brooke (painter unknown), and his brother Robert, painted by Robert him- self. Lewis probably painted the portrait when on a visit to Sheridan at Quilca, be- tween whom and the Brookes of Rantavan there was a cousinhood. The name ' The Farmer,' under Miller's mezzotint, is derived from the ' Farmer's Letters,' by Henry Brooke, who was better known as the author of the novel ' The Fool of Quality.' According to an article in the Dublin University Magazine, November, 1852, 'A Pilgrimage to Quilca,' Lewis was a London man. Can any genealo- gist give me any particulars of the Brooke- Sheridan relationship? HENRY BROOKE.

5, Falkner Square, Liverpool.

"MoosE" (9 th S. xii. 504). The present writer has no knowledge of Indian languages, but he offers the following extracts in the hope that they will enable MR. PLATT to reach a definite conclusion as to the deri- vation of "moose." It will be seen that Smith mentioned the moose earlier than 1624.

" Moos, a beast bigger then a Stagge." 1616, Capt. J. Smith, ' Description of N. England,' p. 29. (Smith reached the coast of what is now Maine in 1614.)

" There is also a certaine Beast, that the Natiues call a Mosse, he is as big bodied as an Oxe." 1622, 'A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plan- tation of N. England,' p. 26. (This pamphlet was reprinted in 1625 by Purchas in his 'Pilgrimes,' iv. 1831, and in 1890 by J. P. Baxter in his 'Sir F. Gorges and his Province of Maine,' i. 230, and recounts events from as early as 1607. )

" Also here are seuerall sorts of Deere, & a

great Beast called a Molke as bigge as an Oxe." 1630, F. Higginson, ' Xew - Englands Plantation,' B4b. ("Molke" has always been regarded as a printer's error for " Moose " or some similar form.)