Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/133

 ii s. v. FEB. 10, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the Scottish Church." A keen polemic, he contributed largely to the controversies o; his time, and it is said that while in London he was prevented from publishing certain sermons " through the jealousy of the Independents." He was successively a parish minister in Fife and in Edinburgh, and he was Moderator of the General Assembly in the year of his death.

In writing his note Masson may have confused Sir Alexander M'Coll M'Donald (Colkitto) with his father Coll MacGillespick M'Donald, called Coll Keitache, or left- handed, whose activity did not bring him within Milton's purview.

THOMAS BAYNE.

THE COVENTRY SHAKESPEARES. The fol- lowing letter from Samuel Franldand, master of the Coventry Free School, is without superscription ; but was evidently addressed to the mayor of the city and others in whom, by the terms of William Wheate's will, dated 27 Jan., 1615, was vested the appointment to an exhibitioner- ship, worth 6?. a year, tenable for four years, to be divided between two poor scholars towards their maintenance at the University (' Coventry Charities,' pp. 145-6). John Shakespeare (see ante, p. 24) was at the time of the writing of this letter (1654) eleven years old. He matriculated at St. John's, Oxford, on 18 Oct., 1662, took his degree from St. Mary's Hall, and became in 1670 Vicar of Austrey, co. Warwick, a living he held until 1689 (Dugdale, ' Warw.,' 1123).

The letter is transcribed from Coventry Corp. MS. A. 79, p. 255, back :

WoR n GENTLEMEN*,

Whereas I am given to understand that Mr. Wheate will not pay any more money to Henry Hurt of his schoole-Exhibition by reason of his discontinuance from the University, I make bold (being by the last Will and Testament of Mr. Wheate impowred thereunto) to recommend to your consideracion John, the sonne of Thomas Shakespeare, for that preferment, concerning whome I have this to say, that for an absolute good scholar in whatever belonged to schoole he is not inferiour to the best that ever I sent out of this schoole, since I first came here to serve you in it. and for sweetnes of disposition in all respects answerable, and (which I humbly con- ceive may more render him an object of your lharity herein) is willing to undergoe any hardship chat he may but stick in a Colledge, whereby he givt-s great hopes that in revolucion of time he will become a creditt and ornament both to your srhoole and Citty. This is certified and attested by SAMUEL FRANKLAXD,

master of vour free schoole.

Frankland's recommendation is confirmed by Richard Baylie, President of St. John's, Oxford, 6 June, 1654.

M. DORMER HARRIS.

OMAR KHAYYAM. Lovers of Omar Khay- yam will read with interest the account given by Prof. A. V. W. Jackson, in his new book ' From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam,' of a visit he paid to the tomb of the poet, some four miles from Nishapur. Few of his countrymen know of him at all, and then merely as "Doctor Khayyam " the astronomer ; as a poet he is disregarded :

" His very name recalls the hated Sonni caliph Omar and the Arab conquest ; and his wine- bibbing verses, except when given a strained mystical and allegorical interpretation by the Sufis, are taken literally ; while his freedom of thought in expressing his attitude towards the One Eternal Being is looked upon as little less than blasphemy."

The grave adjoins the mosque of the Imam Zadok Mahruk, and in describing it Prof. Jackson recalls Omar's prophecy that "his grave would be where flowers in the spring- time would shed their petals over his dust."

" Upon reaching the arched portal of the entrance a mass of emerald bushes and yellow flowering shrubs came into view. It was [says the Professor] a truly Persian garden, with roughly outlined walks and stone-coped watercourses, and with shade trees and flowers on every hand. The sarcophagus stands beneath the central one of three arched recesses, its niche measur- ing about 13 ft. across, while the flanking arches measure about 10ft. each and are empty. A couple of terraced brick steps lead up to the flooring where it rests. The oblong tomb is a simple case made of brick and cement, the poet's remains reposing beneath. A. N. Q.

BATH ABBEY ARMS. At 9 S. viii. 221 MR. ARTHUR J. JEWERS had occasion to refer Catherine, attached to the parish of Bath- ?aston, near Bath, and to transcribe from he east window thereof an inscription wh ch le gives thus :
 * o the quaint and ancient church of St.

Orate pro anima D'ni Joh'is Cantelow quonda Prioris hanc cancella fieri fecit Ao: D:

MCCCCLXXXXVm.

He soundly rates Collinson ('History of Somerset ') for copying the inscription

ncorrectly. Now it is clear that they who correct the

alleged) errors of others should be immune

rom similar charges themselves. I have not seen Collinson's rendering of the inscnp-

ion, which he (like Nash in his ' History of