Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/439

 ii s. VIIL NOV. 29, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

433

the name Si Lord Eduard Bruse." When opened, the case was found to contain a heart carefully embalmed in a brownish liquid.

"Some time after this discovery Sir Robert Preston caused a delineation of the case, according to the exact dimensions, with an inscription re- cording its exhumation and re - deposit, to be engraved on a brass plate, and placed upon the projection of the wall where the heart was found."

See ' Ten Thousand Wonderful Things,' by E. F. King (London, George Routledge & Sons), pp. 245-8, where the case is shown in two woodcuts. See also The Guardian ('British Essayists'), Nos. 129, 133.

J. J. FAHIE.

In Arch. Cant., x. 8, an article on Brabourne Church, by Sir Gilbert Scott, states that one of the Balliols came to Bra- bourne, and

'* Mr. James Scott's idea is ffliat that same heart was brought and enshrined here. I think that it is not unlikely. The dates agree very well. 1275 being that of the founding of the abbey [Dulee Cor], and 1295 about that of the shrine at Brabourne."

For particulars as to the heart of one of the murderers of a Becket see ' N. & Q.,' 4 S. viii. 396. It is supposed to have been en- shrined at Woodspring Prior, and afterwards at Kewstoke. R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

MATT MORGAN (US. vii. 369, 413, 454 515 ; viii. 53, 133). A newly discovered portrait in oils of Charles Dickens in the late sixties, by Matt Morgan, is reproduced, in facsimile of the original colours, as a frontispiece to the recently issued ' Odd Volume ' for 1913. WILMOT CORFIELD.

THE COLLEGE (OB KING'S) SCHOOL, GLOU- CESTER (US. viii. 85). The first Master of this school of whom anything is known is Robert Alfield (not Amfield, as Mr. Leach calls him in ' The Victoria History of Gloucester- shire,' ii. 323). He became a scholar of Eton College in 1532, and presumably went on to King's College, Cambridge, in due course. Later in the reign of Henry VIII. he was an assistant master at Eton. He was Master of the College School, Gloucester, in 1558, and was succeeded in this post by Tobias Saiidford in 1576. Harwood says that " he was eminent for his learning and piety." On 27 June, 1577, he compounded for the first fruits of the Rectory of Barns- ley, but held the living only for a very short time, as on 3 Feb., 1578/9, one Richard Morris, who had already compounded for the first fruits of this rectory, 15 May, 1574, again compounded for them. It is possible

he may have become Vicar of Somerton r Somersetshire. He was the father of the Catholic martyr Thomas Alfield, M.A., and of Father Persons's treacherous servant, Robert Alfield. See The Downside Review for 1909, at p. 19, and the authorities there cited. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

REFERENCES WANTED (US. viii. 369). Manuel Ordonnez was the " administrateur de 1'hopital " in whose service Gil Bias found his friend Fabrice.

" Des sa jeunesse, n'ayant en vue que le bien des pauvres, il s'y est attach^ ayec un zele in- fatigable. Aussi ses soins ne sont-ils pas demeures sans recompense .... en f aisant les affaires des pauvres il s'est enrichi."

Fabrice hoped that, under his master's auspices, he too might some day " se meler des affaires des pauvres."

" Je ferai peut-etre fortune aussi ; car je sens autant d'amour que lui pour leur bien." ' Gil Bias,' bk. i. chap. xvii.

DAVID SALMON.

Swansea.

OCTAGONAL MEETING-HOUSES (11 S. vii, 27, 72, 173, 238, 417 ; viii. 298, 333). The first Methodist chapel in Chester, known as the " Octagon Chapel," was erected in 1764, on a large piece of ground purchased on the Boughton side of the city. It was de- molished when the present City Road was made ; the existing English Presbyterian Chapel occupies part of the site. The diameter of the Chapel was 46 ft., and it seated 600 comfortably. This building was the centre of Chester Methodism from 1765 to 1811. It was offered for sale on 12 June in the latter year, but no purchaser was forthcoming. In 1813 it passed into the hands of the Rev. Philip Oliver, and was demolished in 1864. See 'Early Methodism in and around Chester,' by the Rev. F. F. Bretherton, B.A., 1903.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

Lancaster.

CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS, 1623-1756 : SAFFRON WALDEN (11 S. viii. 348). In 1643

" the stately Screen of copper, richly gilt, set up by King Henry VII. in his Chappel at Westminster, was by order of the House reformed, that is broken down & sold to tinkers " ; and in 1652

" it was referred to a committee to consider what Cathedrals were fit to stand or what to be pulled down, & how much as shall be pulled down may be applied to the payment of the Public Faith."

But not only cathedrals suffered : com- missioners were appointed in every county to " reform " the parish churches, and the