Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/407

 ii s. iv. NOV. is, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1911.

CONTENTS. No. 99.

NOTES : Bevis Buhner, 401 Unknown Picture of Ponte fract Castle Burial Inscriptions at St. John's, West minster, 403 James Caldwall, Artist King's Theatre (Opera-House), Hay market Crystal Palace Tickets, 405 Long's Hotel, Bond Street Dud Dudley Fire-papers 406.

QUERIES : William Hone -Rev. Henry Grey Turners of Sussex Sir Walter Ralegh's House at Youghal Japanese .Gods Nicolay Family 'The Intelligencer,' 407 Major H. Bowyer Lane " Resurrection Men" 'Old Morgan at Panama' Capt. Edwardes=Forster Manzoni's 'Pro- messi Sposi ' " Rydyng aboute of victory " Authors oJ Quotations Hoi worthy Portrait T. Raynsford of Little Compton ' Cockles and Mussels ' Dr. Johnson and ' The Pilgrim's Progress,' 408 Dry Weather in Nineteenth Century Surrey Institute Burgh-on-Sands ' Diary of a Blase ' ' Slang Terms and the Gipsy Tongue,' 409 King's Bench Prison, Southwark J. Addenbrooke F. T. Egerton H. F. Jadis "Fent," Trade Term Ambrose Gwinett and ' The London Gazette,' 410.

REPLIES : " Peter Pindar," 410 ' Comus ' at Covent Garden, 411 Baron de Waller Jane Austen's 'Per- suasion 'Pronunciation of "Cb," 412 -C. Elstob P. Courayer on Anglican Orders Wood Engraving and Process Block Military Executions Filey Bay Custom, 413 Nelson : " Musle "Sir Francis Drake Mary Jones's Execution Authors Wanted Grosvenor Square, 414 "Old Clem," 415 Col. Gordon in 'Barnaby Rudge' Burial Inscriptions Jessie Brown and the Relief of Lucknow, 416 Norris Surname Hardwicke's Shropshire Pedigrees Bagstor Surname, 417 History of England with Riming Verses Thackeray : \Vray, 418 Pope on Swift Fielding and the Civil Power Pirates on Stealing Wymondley Tradition, 419.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' Recollections of a Long Life';

' Weever's Epigrammes ' ' Greenes Newes.' .'Notices to Correspondents.

BEVIS BULMER.

Did I not tell you I was bred in the mines Under Sir Bevis Bullion ?

Ben Jonson, ' The Staple of News.'

BULMER was the first Englishman to obtain any reputation as a mining engineer. His name does not occur in the ' D.N.B.,' but it figures somewhat prominently, in con- nexion with mining and other industrial projects, in our records between the years 1586 and 1610.

The Lansdowne MSS. contain a letter, No. 26(11), from Gawin Smith to Lord Burghley, written apparently from the North of England, in which it is stated that Bulmer had been engaged by Foulis, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, to work a mine in Scotland. This is the earliest mention of tfiis name which has been discovered so far. The document, which is undated, has been assigned to the year 1578, but, since there is reason for .thinking that Foulis had not

embarked upon mining work much before 1592, this date is probably some years too early.

In 1584 Buhner figures with Sir Julius Caesar in a grant of a patent for lighthouses (Add. MS. 12497). In 1586 he was engaged in lead-mining in the Mendip Hills (Acts of the Privy Council). Twenty years later he was still working mines in that district (State Papers, .Dom.). About 1587 he commenced mining and smelting silver lead at Combmartin, Devonshire. He presented a cup made from silver produced here to the Earl of Bath (Westcote's ' Devon ' : Fuller's 'Worthies')

In 1588 Bulmer obtained a patent for an invention of a machine for slitting iron bars; this was renewed in 1605, sub- sequently transferred to Clement Daw- beney, called in in 1612, and regranted to Dawbeney in 1618 for twenty- one years. There is no evidence that Bulmer himself worked the patent, but it is clear that it was of considerable value.

In 1593 Bulmer obtained from the Corpora- tion of London a lease permitting him to erect on Broken Wharf a machine for pump- ing up Thames water for a public supply. The machine consisted of a chain pump worked by horses ; it was completed in 1594-5. The tower is shown in Hollar's ' View of London,' 1647 (Stow's ' Survey,' 1603 ; Strype's ' Stow,' 1720 ; Stow's ' Annals,' Howe's ed., 1615 ; Sharpe, ' London and the Kingdom '). As a record of this under- taking Bulmer presented the Lord Mayor with a cup made of Combmartin silver, bearing an inscription, which, together with that on the cup referred to above, was given in ' N. & Q.,' 7 S. vii. 101. The Lord Mayor's cup has been melted down and made into three separate cups, which are still at the Mansion House, with inscriptions
 * o the effect that they are the gift of Bevis

Bulmer. The fate of the other cup is not known. Coming on to 1597, we have clear evidence that Bulmer was in partnership with Foulis in lead mines in Lanarkshire Reg. Privy Council of Scotland). The ETatfield MSS. contain letters from him in reference to the farm of wines and of tin coinage in 1599-1600.

In 1599 he was granted the farm of a
 * ax on sea coal.

Upon the accession of James I. the !alendars of State Papers show that Bulmer received several grants in reference to gold and silver mining in Scotland. In 1603 several rivers were assigned to him to search or gold and silver, and in 1606 he received