Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/325

 ii s. xii. OCT. 23, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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living opposite informed me that he had seen inside the chapel, since the demolition began some (perhaps twelve) urns which apparently contained ashes of cremated bodies. I inquired from the " housebreaker " about this. He knew nothing except that there were some urns in his possession, which any- body might buy from him. They contained nothing, and had no names on them. He regarded them as " specimen " urns. The others, if the neighbour was correct, had names on them or on attached labels. These, however, had gone where, he did net know. ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

DATING BY A KING'S REIGN AFTER HIS DEATH. (See ante, p. 272.) Having made notes from time to time of instances of the above, my attention was specially attracted by the statement that a grant was made in the names of King Francis and Queen Mary on 3 July, 1561, the king having died on 5 Dec., 1560. But the date is clearly a blunder, probably of the person who copied the document in Sir James Ramsay's pos- session. A charter was issued in the name of the queen alone on 17 April, 1561 (' Re- gister of the Great Seal of Scotland,' A.D. 1546-80, p. 313), so that the death of Francis was certainly known then, and prob- ably a good deal earlier. I have not yet had an opportunity of seeing Sir James Ramsay's ' Bamff Charters,' but the con- jecture may be hazarded that the charter in question is that to David Lindsay, son and heir of David, Earl of Crawford, dated 3 July, 1559 (loc. cit., p. 300)^

There is, however, evidence that docu- ments were dated in the joint reign of Francis and Mary after the former's death, as might have been expected from the distance the news had to travel. The only document so dated in the printed * Register of the Great Seal ' is of 9 Dec., 1560, but an examination of the original would doubtless show later entries.

I have instances of similar d at ings in the case of two English kings. Edward I. died at Burgh-on-Sands, near Carlisle, on 7 July, 1307, but the fact was unknown in London on 27 July (' Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London,' Letter-Book B, p. 196). Similarly Henry V. died on 31 Aug., 1422, at Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, and before the news had reached London the City Cor- poration granted a lease dated 3 Sept., 10 Henry V. (Letter-Bock I, p. 270).

Such instances are worth noting as a warning against too great confidence in drawing inferences from dated documents.

In the particular cases quoted the dates o death are too well ascertained to admit of dispute, but in dealing with the history of a country like Egypt, where the direct record of a king's death is rare, it would be extremely easy to fall into error.

F. W. READ.

IVY BRIDGE. Mr. Clark in his edition of the Shirburn Ballads states that he is unable to find Ivy Bridge on the old maps of London. The ballad in question is entitled '' A doleful dittye of five unt'ortunat persons that were drowned in their drunknes in crossing ever the Thames neare Ivy Bridge." The Ivy Bridge mentioned was situated in the Strand >. and was destroyed by the extension of the Cecil Hotel. Mr. Clark mentions that there was and still is an Ivy Lane in Newgate- Street. That the Ivy Bridge in the Strand: is the scene of action is proved by the follow- ing verse in this same ballad :

The which were neighbours in the Strand,

Of good account and credit all ; But, following not the Lord's command,

Did into carelesse courses fall.

MAURICE JONAS.

AN EARLY ALLUSION TO 'N. & Q.' I find this in Punch for 2 March, 1850,. p. 82/2, in an item entitled 'The Limbo of Greatness,' alluding to the exhibition of Madame Tussaud. The writer of it says :

" As the dangling black doll indicates though, wherefore, we must write and ask the editorial* conjuror of Notes and Queries, to know that rags, are purchased within, so," &c.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

EPITAPH. Sir Lees Knowles, Bart., has within the last few days copied in the church- yard of Killanin, County Galway, the follow- ing interesting epitaph :

Sacred to the memory of Major Thomas William. Poppleton of the 53rd Regt., an officer eminently distinguished as a brave accomplished and Chris- tian soldier. He served in India in Egypt and on the Peninsula and was Honored by the esteem of Napoleon who was under his personal charge for two years in St. Helena.

Obiit October the 9th, 1827. Aged 52 years.

Here lies the body of Margaret Poppleton wife of Major Poppleton and third Daughter of Nicholas Martin who died August 1818 aged 50.

HENRY BRIERLEY.

" EPICOSMECALOSOMATIST." -' N. & Q.' generally records special coinage of words,, so I would refer to the above, which ap- pears in Lord William Pitt Lennox's ' My Recollections from 1806 to 1873 ' (vol. iL p. 102), published in 1874. He gives it ia