Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/377

 n s. iv. NOV. 4, MIL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

371

lie very seriously received him ; told him it was the Prince's unhappiness & his to be absent when he did preach ; & therefore desired him that he would voutsafe a coppy of his sermon to him ; and beleeve that he would be ready to the best and utmost of his power to serve him.

" There were many other courtiers that desired coppyes of y e sermon ; and, y e court not
 * staying there, Master Preston came home to

furnish coppies. He never penned sermon word for word, but wrote what came into his mynde, And as it came, & that in no good hand, & so it was a business to provide these coppies ; w h yet, he seriously attended untill they were written faire, and then goes to court, where the Duke presents him to y e Prince ; and so he was made & admitted chaplin to y e Prince in ordinary, for as then the Prince had not compleated the number he intended, w ch was six ; these were each in- tended 1 to wayt two months by the yeare, to preach unto y e howsehold upon y c Lord's days, & p'forme such dutyes as were required of them." Ball's ' Life,' pp. 69-70.

Preston died 20 July, 1628, and is buried at Fawsley, Northamptonshire. He should not be confused with a contemporary, another John Preston, Vicar of East Ogwell, Devonshire. In the 'D.N.B.' surely "Finch- ingbrook is a misprint for Hinchingbrooke. A portrait of Preston may be found in certain editions of ' The New Covenant,' his best- known work. A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

A full list of the published works (24 in number) of this author is to be found in the ' D.N.B.,' in which an excellent account of this leading Puritan divine is given. There is also a concise biography of him in Prof. Masson's ' Life of John Milton ' (1859), which closes with the remark, " He died July 20, 1628, and left not a few writings."

The striking sermon (mentioned by L. S. M.) preached by Dr. Preston before Charles I. in 1627 (not 1630), and afterwards published, may be that referred to in the ' D.N.B.' in the following words r

" In November, 1627, Preston preached before Charles at Whitehall a sermon which was regarded as prophetic when, on the following Wednesday, news arrived of Buckingham's defeat at R6 (Nov. 8th). He was not allowed to preach Again, but considered that he had obtained a moral victory for his cause."

In 1630 was published a volume of ' Five Sermons preached before His Majestie.' From an examination of the texts of these as given in the 'D.N.B.,' I think that the one most likely to have been used on the occasion mentioned above is that on 1 Samuel xii. 20-22. THOS. F. MANSON.

[W. C. B., MB. F. J. BURGOYNE, MB. W. B. OEBiSH,and H. C. S. are also thanked for their replies.]

BAKED PEARS =" WAKDENS " : BEDFORD FAIR (11 S. iv. 309). The connexion between " wardens " and Bedford Fair is easy and natural. In the new edition (1910) of my larger ' Etymological Dictionary ' (which is immensely in advance of all former editions), I give the etymology of " warden." Briefly, the older spelling was wardon (varying to war done, wardoun, war dun), and the pear was so named from Wardon (A.-S. Weard- dun) in Beds. It is even possible that " the man named Warden " may have owed his name to the same place ; though, of course, his ancestor may have been a warden somewhere.

I add that " the arms of Wardon Abbey were Argent, three wardon-pears or." This information I gathered from Sir F. Madden' s edition of the ' Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary,' p. 272. I shall be greatly obliged if any correspondent can verify this, or say what authority Madden had for his statement.

The popular etymology of "warden," that it means a keeping pear, is not only false, as failing to explain the older spellings, but is also obviously absurd. A warden was not a man who kept himself, but one who guarded other people.

For " warden-pies " see ' Winter's Tale,' IV. iii. 48. WALTER W. SKEAT.

In Hogg's ' Fruit Manual,' 5th ed., p. 662, it is said that the name is derived from the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in Bedfordshire, the arms of which were Ar., three warden pears or, two and one ; but the counter-seal appended to the deed of surrender, preserved among the Augmentation Records, bears the abbatial arms, namely, a demi-crosier between three warden pears.

Hogg considered that the variety which gave rise to the name is now called the Black Worcester or Parkinson's Warden.

J. F. R.

" Warden," meaning a pear, is well known. ' The Century Dictionary ' defines it as " A kind of pear used chiefly for roasting or baking." Ox-cheek when hot, and wardens baked, some

cry, But 'tis with an intention men should buy.

W. King, ' Art of Cookery,' i. 541.

" Wardone, peere, volemum. Wardone tree, volemus." ' Prompt. Parv.,' p. 616.

R. VAUGHAN GOWER.

The author of ' The Ingoldsby Legends ' evidently did not consider warden pies to be commodities peculiar to Bedford. In