Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/404

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY u, 1910.

' Aldermen of London, 5 vol. i. p. 398. I have dealt with the question of aldermanic knights at pp. 255-8 of that work.

ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

THE FEAST OF THE Ass (11 S. i. 329). N. M. & A. will find all about the Feast of the Ass in Hampson's ' Medii ^Evi Kalendarium,' i. 140 sqq. He says that it was instituted about 990, and did not entirely cease until about the end of the sixteenth century. He gives instances of similar things in Great Britain. JOHN R. MAGBATH.

Queen's College, Oxford.

The registers of the Cathedral of Autun show that from 1411 to 1416, in the Feast of Buffoons, an ass was led in procession with a chasuble thrown over him, and to the usual chorus of "He, sire ane, he ! n sung by lay-clerks in masquerade costume. See Lacroix, ' Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and Renaissance,* Lond., 1878, p. 243, where Ass customs at Sens, Beauvais, and Rouen are also referred to". The words and music of the " Prose of the Ass,' ? sung on these occasions, are given from a MS. of the thirteenth century in the Sens Library, figs. 174, 175. The bright and beautiful melody to hymn 447 in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' " Soldiers, who are Christ's below," attributed in the Index to R. Redhead as "Composer of Tune,' 4 is the same as the thirteenth-century tune referred to above, which would seem incredible without MS. evidence. The " Prose n begins " (Mentis partibus adventavit asinus. n

J. T. F.

Durham.

For a considerable amount of interesting information upon this subject N. M. & A. should consult Du Cange, ' Gloss.,' torn. iii. col. 426, 427, and Thos. Warton, 'Hist. Eng. Poetry, 2 1788, vol. ii. pp. 360, 368-70.

John Brady, ' Clavis Calendaria,' 1815, also refers to the custom, vol. ii. pp. 86-7, and to the Palm Sunday worship of the ass, vol. i. p. 279.

Warton (vide supra) says the festival originated at Constantinople, and was instituted by Theophylact, Patriarch of that place, about 990 A.D. JOHN HODGKIN.

Chambers's 'Book of Days,' i. 112-13, gives an account of this festival.

W. SCOTT.

Some account of this festival is to be found in ' Curiosities of Popular Customs,' by W. S. Walsh, 1898, pp. 73-5. The cere- mony seems to have had similar features

to the Feast of Fools. It was prohibited in the fifteenth century, but was not fully suppressed till much later.

W. B. GEKISH.

An account of this festival by Mr. G. Silva of Verona will be found in the April issue of Work and Witness, published at 57, Berners Street, W. HARRY HEMS.

[We have forwarded to the querists the extracts, sent by MR. HEMS.]

THE HON. JOHN FINCH (11 S. i. 249, 297). To speak strictly, he was not "killed "' on 29 June, 1777 ; for, though he died that day, his death was due to wounds received in a skirmish that had taken place on 26 June. The following "Extract of a letter from camp at Middle-brook, June 28, ? * will be read with interest :

" I must not omit to mention a little affair that happened in the late engagement. The fire grow- ing hot, and our men beginning to retreat, a British officer singly rode up to a cannon that was playing on the enemy, and with his pistols and hanger forced every man from it, then seeing Lord Stirling, he cried, ' Come here, you damned rebel, and I will do for you.' Lord Stirling answered him, by directing the fire of four marksmen upon him, which presently silenced the hardy fool, by killing him on the spot." The Pennsylvania Evening Post, 3 July, 1777, iii. 351.

He lived, however, for three days.

Will F. DE H. L. kindly give his authority for stating that the Hon. John Finch was " the fourth son of Heneage Finch, third Earl of Aylesford " ? According to Burke, that nobleman had seven sons, but John is not among them. The following was printed in The Pennsylvania Journal of 16 July, 1777 :

" The person who was killed in attempting to take the cannon hi the affair of Lord Stirling, was the Honorable Mr. Finch, son of the Earl of Winchelsea, who came out this spring as a volun- teer. After he fell, his horse came over and was taken by our army. Finch was buried with great pomp by General Howe." In F. Moore's ' Diary of the American Revolution,' i. 451.

The then Earl of Winchelsea was George Finch, ninth Earl ; but as he was born in 1752, obviously the Hon. John Finch could not have been his son. Could the Hon. John Finch have been the son of Daniel Finch, the eighth Earl of Winchelsea ? so, he must have been illegitimate ; for otherwise he would have succeeded to the title on the death of the eighth Earl in 1769 Of course the report in the American paper as to the parentage of the Hon. John F may have been an error.

ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

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