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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. in. MA*, is, mi.

PLAISTOW AND ITS PRODUCTS. Walter White in ' Eastern England,' 1862, refers to a poem written a hundred years ago by an anonymous rimer in praise of Plaistow, Essex :

Upon a fertile spot of land

Does Plaistow, thriving Plaistow stand. Later the poet says :

Potatoes, now, are Plaistow's pride,

Whole markets are from hence supply'd.

No finer mutton can you spend

Than what our fat'ning marshes send ;

And in our farmers' yards you find

Delicious fowls of divers kind :

Whose cellars rarely ever fail

To keep a cask of nappy ale. Who thus celebrated Plaistow ?

W. W. GLENNY.

Barking, Essex.

SONNETS BY RAFAEL. In ' One Word More,' Browning says that " Rafael made a century of sonnets." Is this the fact ? Is there good authority for the statement that Rafael wrote a large number of sonnets?

E. [Unsupported by evidence.]

MILES GALE, M.A., rector of Keighley 1712, married Margaret, daughter of Chris- topher Stowes, D.D., Chancellor St. Peter's, York. Can any of your contributors give particulars of the children and grandchildren of this marriage, or indicate sources of infor- mation ? j. c. H.

MURDER ON GAD'S HILL IN 1661. W. B.

Rye has the following note (No. 63) in his 1865) :
 * England as Seen by Foreigners ' (London,

" In 1661, Gad's Hill was the scene of an atrocious murder committed on a Transylvanian Prince, named Cossuma Alhertus. He was buried with great solemnity in Rochester Cathedral."

No reference is given. I should be much obliged for any information bearing upon this subject. The Prince is totally unknown in Transylvanian history. Is there an epi- taph in Rochester Cathedral ? L. L. K.

EARLY ENGLISH BOOKBINDINGS. In the portfolio of rubbings from tjiese, which is preserved at the National Art Library, South Kensington, are two numbered 10 A and HA, which are said to have been taken, from the sides of a certain ' Histoiia Egesippi de excidio Judeorum.' The stamps are of twelfth-century character. No record of the whereabouts of this book seems to have been preserved when the rubbings were taken Can any reader tell me where it is to be found ? I may add that I am engaged in collecting particulars of old English bindings

of the twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth

centuries, and shall be glad to have advice

j of any which your readers may know of,

' other, of couise, than those mentioned in

Mr. Weale's South Kensington Catalogue.

Any photographs or rubbings that can be

lent me for the purpose of reproduction, I

should be very pleased to have the use of.

R. M. BURCH. 79A, Woodbridge Road, Guildford.

BATTLE OF BARNET : ITS SITE. In ' Battles and Battle-fields in England,' by C. R. B. Barrett, a plan is given on p. 192 showing Warwick's army drawn up on the west of the high road at Monken Hadley, and Edward's army on the slopes below the east side of the road the two armies thus facing east and west, beyond Hadley Green, with the high road (presumably the Great North Road) lying between.

In ' Edward IV.,' by Lawrence Stratford, it is stated on p. 189 :

" Contemporary accounts of the Battle of Barnet give us no clear indication of its exact site. To the north of Barnet is an open space known now as Hadley Green, part of the original unenclosed common called Gladsmoor Heath. According to one modern authority [see Plan, Oman, ' Political History,' vol. iv.], it was across this Heath that Warwick had drawn up his men, his right wing under the Earl of Oxford and the Marquis of Montagu, to the west of the High Road ; the centre, under Somerset, with its right across the road ; the left, where Warwick and Exeter had the command, further to the east, having the village of Monken Hadley in their rear."

According to this account, the armies were drawn up on Hadley Green, across the high road, facing north and south.

Can any further authorities be quoted, or references given in favour of either view ?

G. A.

DOGS AND OTHER ANIMALS ON BRASSES

AND STONE EFFIGIES. I shall be very much obliged if any one can mention where this accessory subject is dealt with at all ade- quately. The ordinary works on brasses (Boutell, Creeny, Macklin, and others) all practically ignore this accessory, but I should much like to know (1) the origin of the use of an animal under the feet of a person represented in effigy ; (2) the rule, if any such exists, as to the kind of animal, its direction and attitude, and the particular animal for particular classes of persons. It is not uncommon, for instance, to find ecclesiastics resting their feet on a lion. Why ? The lion is found, too, in the case of knights, sometimes looking to the right, sometimes to the left. In the cases of a