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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. SEPT. 13, 1913.

WOMEN AND THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF LONDON. In our review on August 30th of Letter-Book L reference was made to Ihe application by a widow for the free- dom of the City. Through the courtesy of DR. SHARPE, I have been informed by MR. PERCY O. PICKERING, the Clerk of the Chamberlain's Court, that widows and spinsters are eligible for admission to the Freedom of the City, but subsequent mar- riage immediately nullifies the admission. Mrs. Mary Ann Wickham, who made applica- tion at the meeting of the Court of Common Council on the 17th of April, was successful in her application, and was duly admitted to the Freedom. JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

"PARTY" AS " PARTI." In the (un- published) Parish Registers of 4irkmichael, Banff shire, during the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth, the word " party " is used constantly for the mother of an illegitimate child, thus: "Jean McM. Hardy, party of James Farquharson, Glen- fouket, a son natural, James, baptized July 24, 1812." I have never seen the word so used in any other Scottish register. In one case only we get a variation : " Ann,

daughter of Harry Gordon in and Janet

Gordon his correspondent, born Sept. 8, 1784." J. M. BULLOCH.

123, Pall Mall, S.W.

AN ECHO OF THE " FORTY-FIVE." The following was found among certain of the Court Rolls of Skerton which have recently been discovered :-

A Warrant sent to the Constable of Skerton to search for cannon and small arms on Board the ships lying in the river Lone within ye township of Skerton. 1745.

Lancashire, to witt, To the Constable of Skjrton in the sd County, As there is a Rebellion allready begun aganst His Majesty's Person and Govern- ment in Scotland and there is a great Probability that the Rebels may come into England and pass through your town and Whereas we are credibly informed there is a large Quantity of Cannon Gun- powder and small arms in your Town and on board the Ships lying in the River adjoining thereto We therefore whose names are hereunto subscribed being Deputy Lieutenants for this County desire you the Constable of Skirton afore- said to take effectual care that all the said canixon Gunpowder and small arms within the said ships and your town be forthwith so secured as not to fall into the hands of the said Rebels if they happen to come to your Town or any neighbouring Part of this County. Wittness our Hands this 5 th day of October 1745. W. HOGHTON.

R. MOLYNEUX.

WM. SHAWE.

W. CLEMENT KENDALL.

A FAMILY OF SEXTONS. Two small tablets over a workshop in Chapel -en -le- Frith, Derbyshire, read as follows : Joseph Bramwell Monumental Mason near the Parish Church Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Peter Bramwell for 52 years sexton at the said church, his son 40, his grandson 38, his great-grandson 50, his great- great-grandson 43, his great- great-great-grandsons 39.

1631-1893.

This family record seems worthy of a place in ' N. & Q.' MARGARET LAVINGTON.

[A note on this family of sextons, bringing their history down to 1908, appeared at 10 S. x. 246, but the above tablets were not mentioned.]

DE LA BEAUMELLE (1726-73). This little work was first published in Copenhagen in 1751, a reprint being issued in Berlin in the same year, of which I have a copy. This first edition consists of 240 pensees. Que- rard describes it as tres -recherche, valued at 42 fr. a copy, suppressed by the police, and at first attributed to Montesquieu (' La France Litteraire,' ed. 1830, iv. 331). Other editions appeared subsequently, the author enlarging the work from time to time. Voltaire was so seriously offended by a personal allusion to himself that a lifelong- estrangement was the consequence.
 * MES PENSEES ' : LAURENT ANGLIVIEI.

The Morning Post of 8 Jan., 1902, con- tained an article by Mr. Harold Begbie, giving a most interesting account (with copious extracts) of a volume (formerly in the possession of Mark Pattison) which he had " picked up " about ten years before in Booksellers' Row, bearing the following title :

" Reflections of ***** Being a Series of Political Maxims, Illustrated by General History, as well as by a Variety of authentic Anecdotes (never published before) of Lewis XIV. Peter the Great, William III. K. of Prussia, The Cardinals Richlieu, Mazarine, Fleury, And of most of the eminent Personages, in the last and present Century. London : Printed for D. Wilson, and T. Durham, at Plato's Head, near Round Court in the Strand.

MDCCLIII."

There is no copy of this book in the British Museum. Mr. Begbie took it to be an original work, and it was by the merest chance that I discovered that it is a trans- lation of the first edition of La Beaumelle's ' Pensees.' Ever since the appearance of Mr. Begbie 's article I have been on the look- out for a copy, and now, after eleven years, I have found one.

The translation is an excellent piece of work, and it is curious that the translator