Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/264

 258

NOTES AND QUERIES. in s.x. SEPT. 26,191*.

than one, for Priscilla Johnson married the Rev. James Broome, Vicar of Cheritoii, Kent, who died in 1719. His daughter Margaret married Richard Marsh of Acrise, Kent, and their son Richard Marsh, Vicar of Faversham (d. 1778), was the father of the Right Rev. Herbert Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough.

The Bishop's sister Elizabeth Thomasina married James Edward Watson of the Inner Temple (d. 1837), and their daughter Frances Elizabeth, who in her time was con- sidered to be the belle of Kent, was my grandmother. G. D.

" BABRING-OTTT " (11 S. viii. 370, 417, 473, 515 ; ix. 55). ST. SWITHIN'S memory (viii. 515) that Maria Edgeworth's story ' Barring Out ' is one r of several tales, among which are ' Lazy Lawrence ' and ' Old Poz,' is correct, but the book is called ' The Parent's Assistant.' My copy is " A New Edition in one Volume," 1854.

In the Preface the author protests against certain opinions expressed by Dr. Johnson, e.g. :

" Endeavouring to make children prematurely wise is useless labour."

" Babies do not like to hear stories of babies like themselves ; they require to have their imaginations raised by tales of giants and fairies, and castles and enchantments." She expresses a hope that

" the magic of Dr. Johnson's name will not have power to restore the reign of fairies."

As to ' Barring Out ; or, Party Spirit/ she remarks :

" The errors to which a high spirit and a love of party are apt to lead have been made the subject of correction ; and it is to be hoped that the common fault of making the most mischievous characters appear the most active and the most ingenious, has been as much as possible avoided."

There are seventeen tales in ' The Parent's Assistant,' i.e., if ' Old Poz ' and ' Eton Montem,' being plays, can be so called. Preceding the latter is an " Extract from the Courier, May, 1799," giving an account of that year's Montem, with the names of those who were prominent in it.

There appears to have been an intimate connexion between ' The Parent's Assist- ant ' and ' Moral Tales,' for at the end of ' Mademoiselle Panache,' pt. L, in the former is an announcement that the second part is given in ' Moral Tales.'

The two books, however, are advertised separately in ' Early Lessons,' by Maria Edgeworth, vol. i., sixteenth edition, 1845: ' Moral Tales,' in 2 vols. ; ' The Parents' [sic] Assistant,' in 3 vols.

It is interesting to note that in the Preface- above quoted the author writes regarding slang : " The term is disgracefully natural- ized in our vocabulary."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

Calendar of the Patent If oils preserved in the Public? Record Office. Edicard III. Vol. XV. A.D, 1370-1374. (Stationery Office.)

PEW volumes of this series offer more varied and interesting matter than the one now before us- The period, it is true, shines not with any national glory, and, with but few exceptions, it* greater characters put in no appearance here ;. but the English life of the time naturally on its- more violent or anxious" side depicts itself in, these papers with considerable vividness and in. entertaining detail.

A large number of the documents are pardon* for homicide in self-defence. Other pardons may strike the reader as somewhat rashly conferred*. Thus in June, 1373, William Wokking, member of a gang of horse-thieves, whose operations are shown to have been pretty extensive and suc- cessful, received pardon after having " in a full field of Smethefeld, London," vanquished in- due! three of the accomplices whom he had " appealed," and been wounded by a fourth. A more dangerous character met with equal 1 clemency : one John de Thorlay of Barton, who on the Monday before St. Barnabas, 1373, as- sembled a number of men to lie in wait in his- house to kill, with swords, staves, axes, and knives, William Brian of Barton and Robert de Legburn. According)^, when these two arrived,, there ensued a desperate fight, in which Alice, wife of John de Thorlay, busied herself with handing weapons, and Robert was so badly wounded that he died " confessed " the following Monday ; while a certain Thomas Tyddeman r coming up with the constable " to parify the debate," was knocked on the head by William,. John de Thorlay 's son, and then dispatched by John himself, dying " unconfessed " there and then for all which murderous behaviour John de Thorlay, at the intercession of John of Gaunt, nevertheless obtained the King's pardon. A. clever rogue evidently was Hugh Spryngafeld, porter of the castle of Mourhende, whose sly depredations are recounted at length, and include, having taken by extortion thirty peacock's^ feathers, and having " met a stranger, name un- known, passing along Watlyngstrete in the said forest [Whittlewood], and by colour of his office imprisoned him in ' I^e Mourhende ' in the same year until he made fine with him at his will." Adam de Beleby and Henry de Ireton were fighting once " in a chance medley " at Ash- bourne " in the Peek," when Henry, Adam's son,, came up and struck Henry de Ireton with a knife called a " baselard," and killed him ; where- upon father and son fled to the clmrch of St. Oswald in Ashbourne, and abjured the realm for which two offences, the manslaughter and the abjuration, we have here their pardon. Two other pardons we may mention are that of Henry Fuller of Fobbyng, " shipman," for the slaying of