Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/313

 io' s. in. APRIL i, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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born about 1078 ; he would only be sixteen years of age in 1094, and about seventy-four years old when he died circa 1152-3. It is therefore an utter impossibility that Alan, a boy of about sixteen, could have had a married daughter with children in 1094, the year in which King Duncan II. was slain.

D. M. R.

May I ask D. M. R. what is his authority for an Alexander de Moravia (1089-1150) ? No such person is on record. M.

_ GREAT HOLLOW ELM AT HAMPSTEAD (10 th S. iii. 187). I am very much surprised that such a good topographer as my friend MR. GEORGE POTTER should wonder in which Hampstead the Hollow Elm of Hollar was situate. He quotes Park as saying in his ' History of Hampstead ' that he (Park) had not ascertained the situation of it ; but what Park meant was its whereabouts in Harap- stead, Middlesex. If MR. POTTER will read the verses surrounding this print, many of which are reproduced in Park's book, he will find undoubted proof that the tree flourished in our Hampstead of the Northern Heights. In one of these, entitled 'Of the Height and Hollownesse of the Great Elme at Hamp- sted,' descriptive of the view to be seen from the top, are the following lines :

Essex Broad-Oake (which twenty miles we see And more) it [is] but a twig compar'd to thee ;

Six neighbouring Counties do on tip-toe all

Gaze on thy mighty limbs, and seem to call

Unto thy patient Greatnesse, when to wait

To pay thee homage for thy nobler height,

But only Harrow on the Hill plaies JRex

And will have none more high in Middlesex.

Arid yonder the familiar Thames (the more

To grace thy prospect") rolls along the shore

Her crystal treasures, and doth seem to me

Softly to murmur 'cause so far from thee.

See how the ships, in numerous array,

Dance on her waves, and their proud wings display.

But what, amongst these various objects, what Is that which so much takes my eyes?

'Tis not smooth Richmond's streams, nor Acton's

Mill,

Nor Windsor's Castle, nor yet Shooter's-hill ; Nor groves, nor plains, which further off do stand, ILike landscapes pourtray'd by some happy hand : But a swift view, which most delightful shows, And doth them all, and all at once, inclose.

From where else but Hampstead, Middle- sex, could all these places and shipping be seen at once ? I am fortunate in possessing an impression of this rare print (which formerly belonged to the late Mr. Julian Marshall), and I should be extremely glad to know where there are any others (except in the

British Museum). Any information on the subject would be most welcome.

E. E. NEWTON. 7, Achilles Road, West End, Hampstead, N.W.

Anent MR. GEORGE POTTER'S renewed inquiry as to where this tree actually flourished, it may not be inappropriate to mention that there is a Hampstead spelfc " Hamstead " in some maps in the Isle of Wight also. This one is situate between Yarmouth and the village of Shalfleet, to the north-west of the island and near the Bouldnor Cliffs which overlook the Solent.

CECIL CLARKE.

The exact locality of this tree is a matter of doubt, says ' Old and New London,' vol. iv. p. 440 ; but from the rest of the information given, the probability is that it flourished at Hampstead in Ossulstone Hundred in Middlesex. JOHN UADCLIFFE.

JOHN BUTLER, M.P. FOR SUSSEX (10 th S. ii. 129). Mr. John Butler, of Worminghurst, M.P. for Sussex, was born on 19 March, 1707, and buried on 3 January, 1767. (See the paper by the late George Slade Butler, F.S.A, of Rye, on the Harl. MS. in the British Museum, Cod. 358, p. 188, Art. 47.) I should be glad if your querist H. C. could tell me what, if any, connexion there was between the M.P. and the Butlers of Rye, who appear in the registers 1541 to 1882.

HENRY E. FRANKS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Abstracts of Wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at Somerset House, London, England : Register Soame, 1620. Edited by J. Henry Lea. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass.)

A LIFETIME spent in genealogical investigation, the last twenty years of which have been devoted exclusively to English research, has convinced Mr. Lea that the methods adopted in dealing with the unparalleled treasures in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury by Col. Joseph L. Chester and Mr. Henry F. Waters, the most cele- brated of American genealogists, were wrong. Each of these most careful, expert, and successful of workers had his own method, and though the results obtained by their labours have won un- grudging recognition and have greatly enriched genealogical research, they have done little to spare subsequent writers, who have been compelled to go again over the same ground. A great waste of time and money has thus been involved. The method of Col. Chester that of making in the Indices or Act Books exhaustive search for the names of families whose pedigrees it was sought to establish was generally followed, among those by whom it was accepted being Mr. Lea