Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/371

 ii s. VIIL NOV. s, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

365

only 20 ounces from England, Scotland, and Wales.

" In the pre-Christian era the foundations of these crafts were laid, but it would seem as if the inspiration necessary to bring out the best in the workers was wanting till the preaching of St. Patrick turned a whole people towards nobler ideals than the pagan priests had preached. The choicest examples of Irish metal-work the Cross of Cong, the Ardagh Chalice of the ninth or tenth century, the Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell were produced, under religious influence ; the illuminated Gospels are our finest manuscripts, and in later times the noblest buildings that adorned the land were the temples of the new religion."

Minister must have been famous for its metal workers from the title of " King Cellachun of the lovely cups " ; and the golden case that enclosed the Gospel of Columcille in 1000 was, for its splendour, " the chief relic of the \\'estern World."

There were schools for carvers eminent for skill, such as that of Holy Island on Lough I) erg. One of the churches may date from the ninth century, five others from the tenth; finely sculptured grave- stones commemorate saints and scholars ; and the high cross, a monolith 10 ft. high, was set up as a memorial to King Flonn, about 914. JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To le concluded.)

HUGH RICH, FRANCISCAN, OB. 20 APRIL, 1534. Having recently had occasion to consult Sir Sidney Lee's article on Elizabeth Barton in the ' D.N.B.,' I was surprised to find the statement that " Rich did not suffer the final punishment." He was Guardian of the Friary at Richmond, and I can find no evidence that he did not suffer. On the contrary, all the evidence seems the other way.

It is true that one of those condemned to death with Elizabeth Barton by the Act of Attainder, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 12, was pardoned ; but he was Richard Master, Rector of Aldington, Kent (see ' Letters and Papers Hen. VIII.,' vol. vii.). It is curious that a similar error was made when a cata- logue of those who suffered under Henry V ill. was sent to Rome, only in that case the omitted name was that of Richard Risby, formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Guardian of the Observant Friary at Canterbury. Mr. Gillow, in his ' Biblio- graphical Dictionary,' wrongly calls Rich Guardian of Canterbury Friary, and says that Master was executed. There seems to

be no doubt that both Franciscan Obser- vants suffered in the company of Elizabeth Barton, and of two Benedictine monks. Edward Bocking and John Bering, and one secular priest, Henry Gold, parson of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, London, and Vicar of Hayes, Middlesex, on 20 April (though The Grey Friars' Chronicle gives the date as 5 May), 1534. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

A LETTER OF CHARLOTTE CORDAY. Readers of Mr. Austin Dobson's ' Four Frenchwomen ' will remember the touching letter which the heroine addressed to her father on the eve of her execution, and which is reproduced in full in Mr. Dobson's paper ' Charlotte Corday.' An earlier letter will be offered for sale when the second portion of the wonderful Napoleon collection of Mr. William Latta of Philadelphia is dis- persed at the Anderson Galleries, New York, during the current month of November. This letter is described in the following extract from The Morning Post of 26 Oct. last :

" It was written on the morning of July 9,. 1793, just before leaving her home at Caen for Paris to assassinate Marat, and so, as she hoped, save her country from the terrible effect of the decree of May of that year. In it she tells her father, to whom it is addressed, that she is going, to England ; her real purpose she confided in no- one. In her wallet were some toilet articles and money, a volume of Plutarch, and her Bible. She arrived in Paris by stage on July 11, and on the 13th, contriving to get admittance to Marat, she stabbed him dead. On the 17th she was exe- cuted, having the previous day written to her father from the Conciergerie the letter, now in the archives of France, beginning ' Forgive me- my dear Papa, for having disposed of my exist- ence without your permission,' the references in> which to deceiving him were not understood until the present letter was discovered."

It may be hoped that this letter, which is- justly described as being of extraordinary interest, may find a permanent resting-place by the side of its companion.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

H. S. ASHBEE : " Pis ANUS FRAXi." In an earlier volume of ' N. & Q.' (9 S. vi. 494) MR. RALPH THOMAS, writing on the late Henry Spencer Ashbee, the well-known bibliographer, tentatively described his now de guerre as " some play upon his own name." If the origin of " Pisanus Fraxi " eluded so careful an observer as MR. THOMAS, it is clearly not obvious to all. Ashbee turned the two syllables of his surname into Latin as Fraximis Apis (an ash and a bee are displayed in a book-plate of his), and then formed the anagram " Pisanus. Fraxi." EDWARD BENSLY.