Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/501

 10 s. vm. NOV. 23, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

415

in 1536, though it was refounded for a while, with its former possessions till 1540. Liss paid 61. 8s. yearly to Nunnaminster, according to a document of 1291 in the Record Office.

Liss Place was once a cell to the abbey, and the refectory and two fishponds can still be traced, not the chapel.

JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

NORMAN COURT, HAMPSHIRE : NAMELESS PORTRAITS (10 S. viii. 345). I fear that MRS. SUCKLING will have considerable difficulty in finding out anything concerning the two portraits she asks about, for the late owner of Norman Court says he knows nothing of their history, nor whom they represent. As MRS. SUCKLING does not mention Prosser's ' History of Country Seats in Hampshire,' she may not know what is said in that book about Norman

Court.

H. A. ST. J. M.

ELEANOR, LADY DRAKE OF A SHE, DEVON {10 S. viii. 271). It may help MR. BAYLEY to learn that in Vivian's ' Visitations of Devon ' Sir John Drake of Ashe, who died 1636, married Elinor, daughter and heiress of John, Lord Botler, Baron of Bromfield, -on 18 May, 1616, at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Middlesex. She died 9 Oct., 1666, buried in Holyrood Church, Southampton.

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.I. Teignmouth.

"DRIVE": "RIDE" (10 S. viii. 290). If L. B. M. will refer to the ' N.E.D.,' ' Drive,' v. 5 c, he will find a note stating the true line of demarcation between driving and riding in a vehicle ; and when he has read it, he will probably agree that there has been very little change in Eng- lish usage for thirty years, at least.

R. J. WHITWELL.

ARMS, 1653 (10 S. viii. 250). Arg., on a saltire sa. five fleurs-de-lis or, were the arms of Sir Thomas Hawkins of Kent in 1587 ; and they were borne by the family

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.I.

of that name seated at Bignor Park, Sussex.

Teignmouth.

[S. D. C. and J. J. H. also thanked for replies.]

PUBLIC SPEAKING IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY (10 S. viii. 130). Some idea of the rate of public speaking in Elizabethan times can be obtained from Shakespeare himself. The prologue to ' Romeo and Juliet ' speaks of the play as " now the two hours' traffic of our stage," and in that to ' Henry VIII.' the spectators are told that they " may see

away their shilling richly in two short hours." The allusions convey the strong impression that two hours was the average length of a stage performance of the day. There is no doubt that Shakespeare, as a practical playwright and an experienced actor, wrote according to the stage conven- tions of the time, and that he intended all that he wrote to be acted. A performance of any of Shakespeare's plays now takes three hours, and numerous omissions are made in the " acting version " to do even this. If we take what is now not acted as probably equal to the time occupied in modern scene-shifting, we are forced to the conclusion that speaking, in Shakespeare's day, must have been much more rapid than in our own. The number of lines in ' Romeo and Juliet ' is 3,002, and in ' Henry VIII.' 2,754, and in the latter play are pageants and ceremonial scenes which probably took as long then as now. EDWARD STEVENS. Melbourne.

ARCHBISHOP BLACKBURN (10 S. viii. 350). See ' D.N.B.,' Lancelot Blackburne, son of Richard Blackburne of London. Married 2 Sept., 1684, Catherine, dau. of William Talbot of Stourton Castle, co. Stafford, widow of Walter Littleton of Lichfield.

The Archbishop's will, signed in 1737, is summarized at 4 S. ix. 226. It does not mention any children, the residuary legatees being Hon. John and George Talbot and Rev. Thomas Hayter.

Curiously enough, I have in my possession two autographs of Lancelot York, on vellum with seal of see impaling Blackburn, the writing shaky ; underneath the seal, in a different hand, the date 1737, same date as will. When they were cut off the legal

R. J. FYNMORE.

documents I cannot say. Sandgate.

Lancelot Blackburne was the son of Richard Blackburne of London, whom the Archbishop claimed to have been connected with the Blackburnes of Marricke Abbey. He married Catherine, daughter of William Talbot of Stourton Castle. From her brother, William Talbot, Bishop of Durham father of Lord Chancellor Talbot is descended the present Earl of Shrewsbury, and her issue by her first husband was a direct ancestor of Lord Teynham. He was Archbishop of York from 1724 until his

death in 1743.

A. R. BAYLEY.

In the Carlisle manuscripts, preserved at Castle Howard, there are several letters