Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/275

 ii s. m. APRIL s, ion.] NOTES AND QU ERIES.

269

TONY LUMPKIX AND HIS UNCLE. In the sixties an old family dependent usec to repeat to us children a set of verses abou Tony Lumpkin, who came to London t< find his uncle. Forgetting the latter' s name he nevertheless asked where he lived, bu on being shown into a pawnbroker's shop received scant civility at the proprietor' hands, which led him to ejaculate :

Talk o' Lunnon ! nay, give me blind Ball and th

cart ; Such hard-hearted uncles will break my poor heart

Can any of your readers supply the author 's name ? I believe the first lines are :

From a nate little village in Zummerzetshire To find out my uncle they zent me up here ; So I, Tony Lumpkin, in Lunnon's great town, At ' The Cow and Two Calves ' from the wagon gets down.

Allowance must be made for the originai reciter's possible inaccuracy and the taxing of my memory after 45 years and more.

ALGEBNON WABBEN.

MACHYN'S DIABY.-^! have often seen extracts from this in books on old London. Can you tell me who Machyn was, and if his Diary has ever been published ?

T. F. B.

[There is a life of Henry Machyn in the ' D.N.B. His Diary, 1550-63, was edited by J. G. Nichols for the Cam den Society in 1848. We are not aware of any reprint.]

CITY LANDS :. ANCIENT TENUBE. To what " certain City Lands " does the follow- ing paragraph refer ?

"On Monday Sir Richard Hopkins and Felix Feast, Esq., two of the new Sheriffs, went to West- minster, and were sworn at the Exchequer-Bar, before the Lord Chief Baron and the rest of the Barons of that Court. At the same time the usual Ceremonies of cutting Withies, and counting Horse- nails, were perform'd, for the Tenure of certain City Lands." Weekly Journal, Oct. 25, 1723.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

ROSAMOND SPONG: "OBTA CABOLO REGE." On a mural tablet in Aylesford Parish Church to the memory of Rosamond Spong (nee Walter or Walters), who died 1840, aged 92, the above inscription occurs. Can any of your readers supply me with the connecting links of that lady's descent ?

RECTOK. Over Worton, Steeple Aston, Oxon.

" VEXATION GIVES UNDEBSTANDING." Bp. Hall in his contemplation on Manasseh, King of Judah, says : " How true is that word of the prophet ! " Can your readers give me his name ? M.A.OxoN.

[See Isaiah xxviii. 19.]

MANSEL BBANSBY was admitted to West- minster School in January, 1718/19, aged 8. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning his parentage and career.

G. F. R, B.

WILLIAM BBESSEY was admitted to West- minster School in January, 1727/8, aged 8. Can correspondents of ' N. & Q.' give me any information about him ?

G. F. R. B.

ARTHTJB BBETT was admitted to West- minster School in June, 1723, .aged 8. Particulars of his parentage and career are desired. G. F. R. B.

" PUT A BEGGAR ON HOBSEBACK AND HE

WILL BIDE TO THE DEVIL." Shakespeare gives another reading of the old saying (' 3 Henry VI.,' Act I. sc. iv.) :

Unless the adage must be verified,

That beggars mounted run their horse to death.

Can any one give an earlier use of this pro" verb ? HENRY FISHWICK.

" NEVEB SWAP HORSES WHEN CBOSSING THE STREAM." This is given as a " proverb," without reference to any source, in ' Cassell's Dictionary of Quotations ' by Benham, but I cannot find it in Bohn's ' Diet, of Proverbs ' (1855) or W. C. Hazlitt's ' English Proverbs * (1882). Is anything known of its origin ?

C. F. H. [Generally attributed to Abraham Lincoln.]

" SKOLPYNE." What sort of fish is a " skolpyne " (Exeter, temp. Ed. IV.) ?

E. L.-W.

BOOTHBY FAMILY QUARTEBINGS. In Grlover's ' Derbyshire,* ii. 41 (octavo edition), s depicted a shield of the arms of Boothby,

Baronet, of Ashbourne Hall, with twenty- bur quarterings. Of these, Nos. 3 to 24

seem to have been brought in by the marriage f Sir William Boothby with Hill, daughter

and coheiress of Sir William Brooke, K.B. nephew of Henry, Lord Cobham). I ihould be glad to know to what families the

fifth and ninth quarterings belong. They

appear to be : Ermine, on a chief three Ducks' heads cabossed ; and A fesse

dancette or between ten cross-crosslets,

five in chief and five in base.

The twenty -four quarterings seem to

belong to these families: 1. Boothby,

2. Hayes, 3. Brooke, 4. Cobham, 5 [?],

-. Braybrooke, 7. Ledet, 8. Foliot, 9 [?], 0. Delapole, 11. Peverel, 12. St. Amand, 3. Braye, 14. Braye, ancient (or Longvale),