Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/159

 ii s. i. FEB. 19, 1910. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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He was perhaps born at Ditcham Park, near Petersfield, Hants, the property and home of Charles Coles, his father. His mother was F. Elizabeth Barwell, daughter of William Barwell, of Chertsey Abbey, Sur- rey ; and this William Barwell was, I imagine, the William Barwell who is men- tioned in the ' D.N.B.,' iii. 350, as father of Richard Barwell, " the Nabob of Stan- stead.' 2 Between 1821 and 1831 there were three Barwells at the College as Com- moners. They were probably the Nabob's grandsons, but I have not yet been able to identify them satisfactorily. Charles Coles is said to have married F. Elizabeth Bar- well about 1782. Their sons were Charles Barwell Coles (the eldest), the Rev. John Coles, J.P. (born 14 Feb., 1787), and Major- General William Cowper Coles.

For reasons of which I ajn ignorant, C. B. Coles would seem to have been a " dis- carded son," as his younger brother the Rev. John Coles apparently succeeded to Ditcham Park. This brother who was Rector of Silchester, a living that he held from 1812 until his death on 16 April, 1865 (Gentle- man's Magazine] married, as his first wife, Marianne Goodhead,* daughter of Capt. Josias Rogers, R.N. Henry Thomas Coles, the barrister, and Capt. Cowper Phipps Coles, R.N., whom MB. THOMAS mentions, were younger sons of this marriage. The eldest son was Josias Rogers John Coles, a Winchester Commoner (1826-32), who, after leaving Oxford, entered the Army, saw service in India, became Lieutenant-Colonel (of the 9th Lancers), and died on 13 Oct., 1866 (Gentleman's Magazine). Col. J. R. J. Coles had a sister who became wife to Admiral Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, brother of Dr. James John Hornby, the late Provost of Eton. The basis of the fore- going statements is the account of ' Coles of Ditcham l in Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' 5th ed. (1871), which may be consulted for some further details. See also Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses (1715-1886) ' p. 277 Nos. 3, 8, and 12.

May I take this opportunity of pointing out that the phrase " educated at Win- chester,' 1 when applied to men (like C. B. Coles) who were schoolboys in the latter part of the eighteenth century or the earlier years of the nineteenth, does not necessarily mean that they were at the College ? During that period the Hyde

1 he Gentleman's Magazine recording her death on 4 JJec., 1832.
 * Or Mary Anne Goodhew, as she is called in

Abbey School was a flourishing concern at Winchester, first under the Rev. Reynell Cotton (who died in 1779), and next under his son-in-law, the Rev. Charles Richards. Dean Gaisford, in whose memory the Gais- ford Prizes were founded at Oxford, was a member of that school.

A still worse trap for the unwary was set by the 'D.N.B.,' Suppl., i. 81, with the statement that Sir John Dugdale Astley, the sporting baronet who died in 1894, was " educated at Winchester and Eton.'* It appears from another source that his " educa- tion at Winchester '' was with a clergyman living there, who privately prepared him for Eton. His grandfather, however, John Dugdale Astley, who was created baronet in 1821, was a Commoner at Winchester College in 1793. H. C.

MOHAMMED AND THE MOUNTAIN (11 S. i. 89). According to the legend, the followers of the prophet desired of him a miracle in evidence of his divine commission. Moses and Jesus, they pointed out, had performed wonders in proof of the high calling which they exercised, and it would be well that he too should signalize his supernatural quality in a similar manner. To this at first Mohammed prudently de- murred. " It would," said he, " be tempting God to do so, and bring down His anger, as in the case of Pharaoh." This reasonable attitude failing to give satisfaction to those that looked for a sign, he presently com- manded Mount Safa to come to him, and straightway turned his ineffectual order to homiletic account. " God, 12 he exclaimed, "is merciful. Had it obeyed my words, it would have fallen on us to our destruction. I will therefore go to the mountain, and thank God that He has had mercy on a stiff-necked generation.' 1 THOMAS BAYNE.

Bacon in his essay on ' Boldness l says : " Nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled ; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again ; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.' If we cannot do what we will, we must do what we can."

J. HOLDEX MACMlCHAEL. [Mi*. A. R. BAYLEY also thanked for reply.]

MASTER STEPHEN AND HIS HAWK (11 S. i. 87). The play referred to is Ben Jonson's ' Every Man in his Humour.' Tine passage