Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/309

 10 S. VII. MARCH 30, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the executioner, or perhaps by the piety of friends soon after death, in order to furnish memorials of the unhappy King." ' An Account of what appeared on opening the Coffin of King Charles

the First on the first of April MDCCCXIII. by

Sir Henry Halford, Bart., F.K.S. and F.A.S., London, 1813. Pp. 8, 9.

Appendix No. II. is an " Extract from Wood's ' Athense Oxonienses,' folio edition, vol. ii. p. 703. Printed for Knaplock, Mid- winter, and Tonson, 1721." It contains the account given by Mr. Herbert (Groom of the Bedchamber, and faithful companion) of the burial of the " White King " in the vault in St. George's Chapel, where were two coffins, supposed to be those of Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour. There is nothing about the personal appearance of the King. The reference in the new ed., 1820, is vol. iv. col. 36.

Those who were present at the opening of the coffin of King Charles were the Prince Regent, the Duke of Cumberland, Count Munster, the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin Charles Stevenson, Esq., and Sir Henry Halford. The discovery of the coffin in- scribed " King Charles, 1648 " agreed so exactly with the details given by Mr. Herbert that there remained only three points for investigation, viz., had the corpse in the coffin been embalmed ? had the head been severed from the body ? did the face resemble the well-known face of King Charles as presented on the coins, the busts, and especially the pictures by Vandyke, although it had lain buried for 165 years ? These three questions appear to have been an- swered in the affirmative. It cannot be supposed that Sir Henry Halford and his companions had any doubt as to the por- traits being faithful likenesses.

[ROBERT PIERPOINT.

The portrait of King Charles I. in the first two editions of ' Reliquiae Wottonianse ' (1651, 1654) differs from that given in the last two (1672, 1685), but they approximate to the Van Dyck type. Sir Henry Wotton's Latin address is also omitted from the first two editions, only the English translation being given. It is probable that King Charles resembled his father in some respects for the likeness was occasionally referred to by the lampoonists of the time. In Mr Andrew Clark's edition of Aubrey's ' BrieJ Lives ' there is reprinted a copy of some Latin verses by John Hoskyns, of which an English version seems to have been made by John Reynolds, of New College, Oxford In this version the following stanza will be found (o.c., ii. 52) :

Prince Henry cannot idly liven, Desiring matter to be given

To prove his valour good. And Charles, the image of his father, Doth imitate his eldest brother

And leades the noble blood. In this ' Convivium Philosophicum,' as the poem was called, the term " imago patris " was not used in an uncomplimentary sense. As a matter of fact, James I. was not a bad- ooking man, though his son Charles was- a better. See also ' Brief Lives,' i. 171. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Further contemporary corroboration of our old belief in the grave dignity of the King's countenance may be found in a tract entitled ' Satyra Manneiana ; a M. V. M.,' printed, without place, in 1650, 4to. There we read, respecting a supposed appearance of the Martyr's umbra or manes to the writer :

' Talem in modum caput amputatum, faciem r lineamenta perscrutor. Erat nasus subaduncus, os subplenius ; oculi ravi, grandiusculi ; capilli, fluidi, et in nodum decoriter contorti ; vultus plane modestus, puleher, decens."

W. D. MACRAY.

HORNSEY WOOD HOUSE : HARRINGAY HOUSE (10 S. vii. 106, 157, 216). A lengthy article, written by myself, in The Islington News for 16 Feb., 1878, was entitled ' Chatter about Islington.' Therein I drew the follow- ing picture of Hornsey Wood House and the equally well-known Sluice House (situated within about half a mile of each other) as I remembered them circa 1850 :

"Where is the Sluice House, adjacent to the- New River, with its traditional little tea-gardens in front of it, where, in sylvan-like arbours, we used to enjoy eel-pies, all hot, whenever our pocket money ran to tneir very nominal expenditure? And what of Hornsey Wood House ? In the early 50's what a famous place of resort it was ! Who was there then, who had not enjoyed a row upon its lake? After every half dozen strokes of the oars, the boats had to be put about, or they grounded at one end or the other. And then there- was Hornsey Wood itself close by. That wood and the minor ponds it contained were a feast of reason for us schoolboys, as well as for all other young inquiring minds. There were numerous rare; plants to be collected and classified ; tadpoles and] other reptiles to be caught, and cai-efully placed in tin cans for future study ; and never shall I forget the delight I experienced when I once caught a live snake there, and took my trophy home securely tied up in a red pocket-handkerchief. The neigh- bourhood at that time was often the haunt of bad characters. Once, when going up Cut-throat-Lane, which, it will be remembered, led directly tc- Hornsey Wood, I came across a man wearing a.

Sidded mask, carrying a hedge-stake in his hand, e turned me up, and after shaking me, when he found I possessed no money put me down with an oath. That very day a gentleman was ill-used