Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/589

 io>s. IL DEC. 17.19M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

Plowman,' Chaucer, and Hoccleve, have lycence or licence ; so that this spelling is five hundred years old. Most of the trouble arises from the insubordination of later writers, who prefer their own ways to all authority and usage. That is really why no spelling reform is possible. If it were pre- scribed with never so much care, it would soon be deviated from in the future just as it has been in the past. Passing fashions have their sway. Just now connection is much in vogue, though both French and Latin use the x ; and people cannot distinguish between the ct in the L. affectio and the x in the L. con- nexio, though one is from a base fac- (with- out t) and the other from a base nect-.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

THOMAS HOBBES. A volume (Cd. 784, 1901) of the Hist. MSS. Commission entitled "Report on Manuscripts in Various Collec- tions, Vol. I.," contains a summary of the " records of quarter sessions in the county of Wilts." Under the date of 1612 is entered (p. 85) "a printed passport for Thomas Hobbes, who had served in the Low Countries, to pass to his friends in the county of Wilts, signed by Sir W. Waad and Robert Branthwaite, 16 May." With this there is Sir Horace Vere's certificate of the discharge of Tho. Hobbes, " gentleman," dated at the Hague 13/23 March, and another certi- ficate in Dutch signed and sealed by Count Maurice de Nassau. The papers bear memo- randa of relief given to Hobbes on his journey, and a letter on his behalf from Waad bears a note that a pension of 53s. 4d. was allowed. At p. 129 occurs

" indenture of apprenticeship of Robert Hobbes, son of Thomas Hobbes of Westport, Malmesbury, with the assent of his father, to Giles Clarke, cord- wainer, for seven years 20 Oct., 1651 ; he is dis- charged from his apprenticeship in this year [1654] because his master had run away for debt."

I do not find that these documents are referred to in the last volume on Hobbes the philosopher, but they would seem to relate to him. He went on the Continent in 1610 with William Cavendish, afterwards second Earl of Devonshire. Hobbes died unmarried, but he is said to have had an illegitimate daughter. He was born at Westport, now a part of Malmesbury. W. P. COURTNEY.

" SIR JOHN I'ANSON, BART., OF EPSOM." So styled in a Fyler pedigree in Hutchius's ' Dor- set.' But G. E. C., ' Complete Baronetage ' (Exeter, Pollard, 1903), iii. 13, only says, " He presumably succeeded to the baronetcy in Nov., 1799," the date of the death of

Rev. Sir John Bankes PAnson, Bart., rector of Corfe Castle, and nephew of "Sir" John of Epsom. .G. E. C. adds: "On his death, presumably shortly after 1799, or possibly on the death of his predecessor, the baronetcy became extinct." So the writer of a good article on the I'Anson baronetcy in Herald and Genealogist, iv. 281, seems to have no knowledge of the date of the death of "Sir" John. His mural inscription in Tun- bridge parish church shows that he survived his nephew, and succeeded to the baronetcy, but makes it doubtful whether he claimed it. It runs thus :

"Also the body of Mrs. Mary Fyler the wife of Samuel Fyler of Lincolns Inn, Esq., Barrister at law and only child of the said John FAnson by Mary his first wife who died April 3rd 1794 aged 30. Also the body of the above named John I'Anson who died 3rd of March 1800 Aged 66."

H. J. F.

MAJOR MOHUN, THE ACTOR. In a petition to Charles II. for restitution of theatrical rights, made in November, 1682 (vide the Athenceum for 8 September, 1894), Michael Mohun sets forward that he had served both his Majesty and his father of sacred memory "48 yeares in the quality of an Actor, and in all the Warrs in England and Ireland, and at the seige of Dublin was desperately wounded, and 13monethes a prisoner, and after that yo r pet r served y r Ma ti9 in the Regiment of Dixmead in Flanders, and came over with y or Ma tic into England when y r sacred pleasure was that he should act againe," &c.

According to this Major Mohun must have been living abroad for some few years before his return to England in the spring of 1660 ; but a letter written by General Ludlow from Duncannon Fort to Arthur Hazelrigg, M.P., on 8 January in that year, seemingly makes reference to the actor's recent presence in Ireland. From the copy of the letter given in the * Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1647-60,' I cite the interesting postscript :

" P.S. The reason many of the officers give, why they refused to engage with those at Dublin for the Parliament, is their doubt whether there were a reality in the thing, knowing the persons were all for a single person's interest except two ; one whereof was Col. Kempston, whose hand they put to it against his mind, and Major Moon whom they have since imprisoned."

It may be, of course, that this Major Moon was not the sturdy little actor-soldier, but the coincidence is striking. W. J. L.

COLISEUMS OLD AND NEW. Contempla- tion of the huge structure in St. Martin's Lane, now about to be opened to the public, carries the memory back to former like- places of amusement and instruction in the metropolis notably, to that building