Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/230

 188 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io<" s. iv. SEPT. 2,1905. 'VlLLIKINS AND HIS DlNAH.'—I shall be greatly obliged if any of your correspondents will inform me where I can obtain a copy of this song, which was very popular in London some thirty or more years ago. I have it only in a Greek version, made by my old friend Dr. Littledale—an admirable work of its kind, and I much doubt whether any but a few friends are aware of its existence. If you know any one who would care for it I will do my best to copy it for him; but my Greek is rather rusty after so many years' disuse. It is the Doctor's own MS, and I much doubt whether any other copy exists. F. N. 7, Edith Road, W. [The author of 'Villikins and his Dinah' was inquired for in 'N. & Q.1 in 1855 (1" S. xii. 183), several replies appearing. In 1883 MB. HENRY MAYHEW, the author of ' The Wandering Minstrel,' sought information concerning the original author of the song, saying (6th S. viii. 67): ''As Mr. Rpbson sang the song, the "words were those originally given by Mr. Mitchell, the first low comedian who appeared in the part, A.M. 1831. He brought the country version to me, and 1 had to condense and interpolate it, so as to make it 'go' with a London audience." FATHER FRANK, writing from Birming- ham, replied (6th S. viii. 94) that the song was written by Harry Horton, a native of Birmingham, and was popular there before it was heard in London.] HAROLD II. AND THE ROYAL HOUSES OF ENGLAND, DENMARK, AND RUSSIA.—At the time of the Duke of Edinburgh's wedding it was said in one of the daily papers that, through a child (son or daughter?) of our Harold II., these three royal houses were descended from him. I shall be much obliged if any one can tell me if this is so; if so, how : and what authority (if any) there is for tin1 statement. HELQA. LADY STANNUS.—What was the maiden name of the wife of Sir Ephraim Stannus ? Burke's 'Landed Gentry' states that Sir Ephraim married, on 16 October, 1829, Mary Louisa, the widow of James Gordon, Esq., a younger branch of the Gordons of Newton, co. Aberdeen. I find that a James who would correspond with this had married, in 1819, Mary Louisa Fraser. Was Lady Stannus's name Fraser ? The ' D.N.B.' simply repeats Burke. J. M. BULLOCH. 118, Pall Mall. INDEX OF PROBATES.—The Principal Pro- bate Registry distributes among the District Probate Registries a printed Index of Grants of Probate and Administrations, giving the date of grant, the names and adaresses of the deceased and of their executors or ad- ministrators, and the amounts of the estates. Is there any reason why more copies should not be printed and circulated among such libraries as are willing to pay for them ? G. D. LTJMB. BACON'S CIPHER. — In the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. xxxvii. p. 64, article 'Sir Tobie Matthew,' it is stated that in 1609, when Matthew was in Madrid, Bacon sent him "the key to his famous cipher, about which he requests secrecy." Where can I obtain authority for, and further particulars about, these statements ? H. PEMBERTON, Jun. Phila., Pa., U.S. ST. BRELADE. — I am anxious to know who he was and when he lived. One of the twelve parishes in Jersey is named after him. Jean Poingdestre (1609-91), in his ' Cresarea or A Discourse of the Island of Jersey ' (Harl. MS. 5417, published by the Societe" Jersiaise in 1889), wrote :— " While I am vpon the subiect of Religion, two other Jersey Saints offer themselues to be spoken of in this place. The first sine die <fc Consult : for I could neuer learne either t he yeare or the age be liued in, or what he did to deserue that name, eaue that he was a holy man & had a Cell in that place where a Church of his name stands at present, t that is St Brelads Church, in a retired place called St. Brelads Bay, close by the Sea. As for the other called St. Helery," &c. It should be possible to discover something further about St. Brelade. CHAS. A. BERNAU. Pendeen, Bowes Road, Walton-on-Thames. RIGHT TO ARMS. — Is it the modern practice of the College of Arms to refuse all prescrip- tive right to arms? The following extract shows it was not so : — " If ye usuage of arms for sixty years be sufficient by the Lords Commissioners oraers to warrant the provinciall King at Arms to make entry thereof and allow the same in their visitations the Right Hon. the Lord Marshall may with more reason where the arms have been generally born by ye several branches of a family for a much longer time signifie his pleasure for confirming and allowing ye arms. Earl Marshall's warrant dated 21 July, 1711, for confirmation of arms to Edmund Dunmer of N. Stoneham, Southampton." — British Museum, Stowe MS. 714. GERALD FOTHERGILL. 11, Brussels Road, New Wandsworth, S.W. PAGING PROFESSOR."— I desire an explanation of this title, given to certain theologians in the fifteenth century. _ Was it a degree conferred in some foreign uni- versity? or does it indicate that its holder was a professor, in the present sense of the term, and delivered statutory lectures on Holy Writ (I presume that is the meaning of