Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/83

 10 s. VIL JAN. 26, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

63

to create a broad fairway into the harbour.

The shoals in question were the Gristle, Bone, Glutton, Cod, Altar Flat, and Altar Bank, all lying nearer to the Suffolk than the Essex side of Harwich harbour that is, of old Orwell Haven.

When dredging these shoals, the engineers reported on 8 January, 1851 :

" In the removal of the north end of the Glutton Shoal, a considerable number of short oak piles were met with, from four to five inches square, arid from three to live feet long, with pointed ends, and apparently connected together by wales [horizontal pieces] and ties. Their removal has been a difficult and expensive operation."

The next reports mention that slow progress had been made owing to a con- siderable quantity of sandstone rock having been met at the Glutton Shoal, which might require blasting.

On 6 July, 1853, the engineers report that in the Bone " Shoal a number of oak piles have been met with ; they are about five feet in length, and six to eight inches square, pointed at the lower ends." The sandstone rock on the Glutton had to be blasted. As regards the Bone Shoal, another report (17 Jan., 1853) states that " a considerable number of timber piles have been met with at a depth of about 12 feet below low water .... about 4 feet long and 5 ins. square, pointed at one end," as on the upper part of Glutton Shoal.

All these quarterly reports were addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, and pub- lished as Parliamentary papers on ' Harbours of Refuge.'

As regards Landguard Point the engineers' reports show that a long prevalence of easterly winds invariably caused the spit to extend in the direction of its length ; in one instance (first quarter of 1855) the in- crease was 100 feet in a south-easterly (? south-westerly) direction. The point w r as then " above high water for about 100 feet to the westward of the line of the two light- houses in one " which was supposed to guide vessels safely into the harbour. Between May, 1845, and October, 1856, there had been a total extension of 560 feet, or about 50 feet per annum ; and as the length of the point had increased, its width had diminished, and it was 70 feet less in 1856 than in 1845. A report in 1853 men- tions the washing away of land on the sea side, especially near the Ordnance burial- ground.

A prevalence of westerly winds, on the other hand, had always checked the growth of the point.

Mr. John B. Redman, in a foot-note to< a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in January, 1864, reports that " the rate of progress still continues, the westerly tendency increasing."

Researches in the muniment rooms of Harwich and Ipswich may perhaps throw further light on the question of the ancient history of Orwell. L. L. K.

MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL AND

THE 'D.N.B.' (See 10 S. iv. 21, 101, 182, 244, 364 ; v. 22, 122, 284, 362 ; vi. 2, 104, 203.)

I CONTINUE my notes from Benjamin Rogers, the musician.

Sir William Scroggs (1652 ?-95), lawyer. Son of Lord Chief Justice of same names ;. Chorister ; treasurer, Gray's Inn ; K.C.

John Shepherd (1521 ?-fl. 1550), musician. Chorister of St. Paul's ; in 1542 appointed Instructor of Choristers and organist at Magdalen ; resigned next year, but resumed post in 1545 ; in 1547 paid 81. as teacher of boys for one year, and other sums for repairing organ, vestments, &c. ; then again resigned, but in 1548 supplied twelve music- books for 5s. ; Fellow 1549-51 ; probably then entered Edward VI. 's Chapel Royal ; in April, 1554, supplicates for degree of Mus.Doc.Oxon, but his petition apparently not granted ; reappears in Magd. records for 1555. Having dragged a boy " in chains " from Malmesbury to Oxford, probably for impressment as a chorister, and having represented himself on the journey as "the principal officer of the College after the President," the odium of his proceedings had fallen upon the Vice-President, where- fore he was " sharply admonished for his impudence " ; but the custom of pressing boys for service in the choir of the Chapel Royal existed as far back as the time of Richard III., and at Whitehall, out of eight choristers it was usual, after 1597, to send six at one time to be trained at Blackfriars Theatre ; but an order was made in 1626, while Dr. Nathaniel Giles (see 10 S. vi. 3) was Master in Song and Organist, to pacify the Puritans,

"that none of the Choristers or Children of the Chappell, soe to be taken by force of this Com- mission, shalbe used or imployed as Comedians or Stage players, or to exercise or acte any Stage plaies, interludes, Comedies or Tragedies." Shepherd is classed by Morley among famous English composers.

Thomas Sherley or Shirley (1638-78), physician in ordinary to Charles II. Lived