Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/437

 n s. IIL JUNE 3, MIL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of England. In this, as in all our civil wars, the question of right has been decided by an appeal to arms ; and the victorious party has claimed the privilege of branding the vanquished with the stigma of rebellion. It is a wise remark of the patriotic Fletcher, that ' as the most just and honourable enterprizes, when they fail, are accounted in the number of rebellions ; so all attempts, however unjust, if they succeed, always purge themselves of all guilt and sus- picion.' Posterity, however, are bound to do justice to the character of those men who devoted their lives to what they conceived to be the just cause ; their fidelity and loyalty have a double claim on our respect, when we consider that they were our ancestors our countrymen ; and that they were denounced as traitors only because they were unsuccessful.

One of the best bits of writing in the book, this is at once vigorous and sensible, and there is not a jot of internal evidence to prove that it is not absolutely fresh and original. When we read, however, Joseph Ritson' s dissertation prefixed to his ' Scottish Songs ' of 1794, we are surprised at the hardi- hood of the Cromek sponsor as we there encounter these observations :

" The rival claims of Stewart and Brunswick are not more to the present generation than those of Bruce and Baliol, or York and Lancaster. The question of RIGHT has been submitted to the arbitration of the SWORD, and is now irre- vocably decided ; but neither that decision, nor any other motive, should deter the historian from doing justice to the character of those brave men who fell in a cause which they, at least, thought right, and which others, perhaps, only think wrong because it was unsuccessful."

Ritson appends in a note the " wise remark of the patriotic Fletcher," which is embodied in the text of his courageous successor. Had he lived till 1810, instead of passing away in 1803, Ritson would un- doubtedly have made stirring and pungent comments on the ' Remains ' in general, and the author of the Introduction in particular. Meanwhile, since the contributor could thus utilize without acknowledgment a vir- tually contemporary prose essay, one can- not but conclude that he may have been extremely deliberate in handling, and even appropriating traditional ballads and songs. THOMAS BAYNE.

BISHOP KEN (US. iii. 248, 290). I am greatly indebted to MB. ELKIX MATHEWS and the other two correspondents for further particulars of the Bishop. MB. MATHEWS says that he was the youngest son, but MB. E. MABSTOX states that in ' Thomas Ken and Izaak Walton,' pp. 7 and 8, satisfactory proof is given that he was the third son by the second wife. If Thomas Ken, sen., was

married to Martha Carpenter in December, 1625, all the children baptized at St. Giles s, Cripplegatc, were her offspring, and the Bishop would be the third son by the second wife, there being one younger, named Martin, baptized in 1640.

How many children did the Bishop s father have by his first wife (Jane Hughes), and where were they baptized ? There is said to have been another Thomas by the first marriage. I know of only two others : Anne, afterwards Mrs. Walton, and Jane, who was married before 1651.

Izaak Walton's first wife was named Floud ; she was descended on her mother's side from Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canter- bury, the brother of Archbishop Cranmer,

In the ' Angler ' two poems are addressed to Izaak Walton by John Floud, M.A., and Robert Floud, both of whom call Izaak Walton their dear brother. His first wife's Christian name is said to have been Rachel.

In the life of Bishop Ken by the Rev. W. L. Bowles the descent is traced as below :

ibisl

Archbishop Cranmer

Edmund Cranmer,

Archdeacon of

Canterbury

Thomas Cranmer, gent., :

of St. Mildred's,

Canterbury

Susanna=p Floud

I

John Floud, M.A.

Robert Floud

...Floud^Izaak Walton

Can any reader supply further particulars of Izaak Walton's first wife and her parents ?

L. H. CHAMBEBS. Amersham.

FIBST HALFPENNY NEWSPAPEB (US. iii. 366). As MB. ROBBINS shows, the claim put forward in The Times on behalf of The Dundee Courier as " the first half penny- daily newspaper in the United Kingdom " cannot be maintained. In Scottish Xotes and Queries, 1890, iii. 137, it was pointed out by Mr. A. C. Lamb, in the course of a series of interesting articles on the ' Biblio- graphy of Dundee Periodical Literature,' that The Dundee Courier was first issued as a halfpenny daily on Monday, 17 Sep- tember, 1866. " This date, it will be observed, is later than that of The Shields Daily Gazette, which appeared as a halfpenny journal on 2 January, 1864.