Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/7

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the extracts from the 'Calendars of State Papers (Domestic)' given by the late J. J. Powell, at 5 S. viii. 494, the tract 'Good News from Rome' is mentioned, and the same source is used for the reference to it in the article on Ralph Wallis in the 'D.N B.,' written by Rev. Alexander Gordon, who tells me he had not seen a copy. The tract is not, so far as I am aware, referred to elsewhere, but it is almost certainly the same as 'Rome for Good News; Or, Good Newes from Rome,' and it may be of interest to give more precise information relating to this—probably the scarcest of Wallis's writings—and incidentally suggest an earlier publication for his other works than extant copies imply. Lowndes mentions a pamphlet entitled 'Newes from Rome,' 1641, but this is, I feel confident, earlier by twenty years than anything Wallis wrote. Lowndes also records 'Rome for Good News,' but treats it as anonymous. Neither Watt, Allibone, nor Halkett and Laing mentions it, while the authorities of the British Museum were unaware of its authorship until I informed them.

The pamphlets known to have been written by Wallis are:—

The second of these would suggest that an earlier work had been written, and the following is the full title of the tract now under notice:—

{{smaller block|"Rome for Good News, | Or | Good Newes from | Rome: | In a Dialogue between a Seminary | Priest, and a Supposed Prote- | stant, at large. | An Exhortation to Bishops. | Whereunto | Is also annexed a Discourse between | a poor Man, and his Wife. | London, Printed for ths [sic] Author."||

The book is small quarto, its collation being as follows: Title, one leaf; the Epistle Dedicatory, signed "Your very effectionate [sic] Husband, Consilio Iuvans," two leaves; 'Rome for Good Newes,' pp. 1-26. In the Epistle is the following curious reference to Canada, which seems to have been placed in the Wrong latitude:—

{{smaller block|"A Traveller told me that he was in a place called Canida some part of the West Indies where the Beares all the Winter when the Ground was frozen hard did lye in their Dens."}}

From the same Epistle we learn that Wallis had four children, and that his wife would neither let him keep inns (of which several were offered him) nor become a preacher, though he had

{{smaller block|"many small calls to the Pulpit, some of them not exceeding eight pounds per annum, some 26l. nay 30l. per annum, with my dyet, and the use of a Study of Books."}}

Keeping an inn and becoming a preacher were to Wallis "the two last shifts many men undertake."

The first part, pp. 1-11, of 'Rome for Good Newes' consists of a dialogue, in verse, between a Protestant and a Priest; then follow 'An Exhortanion [sic] to Bishops,' pp. 11-12. and the Discourse between the husband and wife, pp. 13-26.

Like its successors, this tract is a scurrilous production directed against the Church of Rome, and alleges Romish practices in the Church of England. Though published anonymously and without date, there is ample evidence to identify its authorship