Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/166

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. v. FEB. 17, 1912.

S.C.L. until he had passed all the examina- tions for the degree of B.A. And I well remember Richard Michell, afterwards Princi- pal of Magdalen Hall, and of the revived Hertford College, at a breakfast in his rooms, telling us how and why the alteration had been brought about I believe, by his own agency. He said :

" It was not at all unusual to see your neigh- bour in hall one day in a commoner's gown, and the next in a fine silk one [i.e. that of the S.C.L.]. Bishops who were Cambridge men did not under- stand that such had merely passed Besponsions, and ordained them as if they were graduates."

This, I am sure, is the substance of what he said, and given almost in his own words. Of course, I know that men were sometimes ordained without a degree the canon making provision for the wearing by such of tippets instead of hoods ; but I must demur to the statement that " it was usual in the nineteenth century for men to be ordained after a short residence at Oxford University," unless proof be adduced.

E. L. H. TEW. Upham Rectory, Hants.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE TEMPLE (11 S. iv. 347, 414, 490; v. 10). That my friend MR. HUTCHINSON should find difficulty in answering his question why Drake was " not entertained and feted " by his own Inn, the Inner Temple, rather than by the Middle Temple, is surprising. The answer is simple. MR. HUTCHINSON is well conversant with the traditions and customs of the Inns of Court. He knows, therefore, that no rule is more stringently observed than that a member of an Inn of Court, however distinguished his position (with the exception of members of the Royal Family), when in the Hall of his Inn only has that precedence to which his legal seniority entitles him. At the present time the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker are both members and Benchers of the Inner Temple, but take no precedence from their official position when dining in the Inner Temple Hall, or afterwards at the Bench table in the Parliament Chamber, although they do so when they are guests elsewhere. Junior members of the Bar likewise take their places with strict regard to their seniority, reckoned from the date of their call to the Bar. When Drake visited the Middle Temple, not as a member, but as a guest, no such etiquette would prevail. That he should be " entertained and feted " there was natural, and no doubt popular, for. as has been shown, in those Elizabethan

days many Middle Templars were, or after- wards became, adventurous navigators. That there is no record that Drake was specially honoured by his own Inn, there- fore, tends to emphasize the fact, already proved by the entry in the Admission Books, that he was undoubtedly admitted and remained a student and member of the Inner Temple, and that there is nothing to show that he was ever a student or member of the Middle Temple. It is pleasant to find that the Inns of Court are anxious to claim as members those who have dis- tinguished themselves in various ways.

J. E. LATTON PICKERING. Inner Temple Library.

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNORS (11 S. v. 68). ' New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen,' by William Gisborne, second and enlarged edition, 1897, has notices of the Governors in question. At p. 185 there is a portrait of Sir George Bowen. Another may be seen at the beginning of ' Thirty Years of Colonial Government,' a selection of Sir George Bowen's letters and dispatches edited by Stanley Lane-Poole. It is not quite correct to call Lieut. Shortland and Col. Wynyard Governors. They were only interim ad- ministrators or acting-Governors.

J. F. HOGAN.

BURIAL IN WOOLLEN : " COLBERTEEN " (US. iv. 368, 498; v. 37). The following extract from Egerton's ' Memoirs of Mrs. Anne Oldfield,' 1731, p. 144, may serve as a gloss upon the lines of Pope quoted by MR. W. E. BROWNING :

" As the Nicety of Dress was her Delight when Living, she was as nicely dressed after her Decease; being by Mrs. Saundcrs's Direction thus laid in her Coffin. She had on, a very fine Brussels- Lace-Head ; a Holland Shift with Tucker, and double Ruffles of the same Lace ; a Pair of new Kid-Gloves, and her body wrapped up in a Winding Sheet."

Mrs. Saunders was an actress, a great friend of Mrs. Oldfield, with whom she lived, and a beneficiary under the latters will. Mrs. Oldfield died on 23 Oct., 1730, at a house in Grosvenor Street which belonged to her. It would be interesting if this house could be identified, and a commemorative tablet placed upon it, as its owner seems to have been undoubtedly the greatest English actress, both in tragedy and comedy, before the advent of Mrs. Siddons. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, " towards the West-End of the South-He," in close proximity to the spot where Congreve lay at rest, and it is to be hoped that her remains