Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/215

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the number df 5ts monumental effigies and the persistence of its succession in the male iline for twenty generations, with only one reversion each to a brother, a nephew, and a grandson, down to the death of the fifth earl in 1810, when disputes unfortunately arose about the successor to the title.

A. S. ELLIS. Westminster.

IVEATS'S " ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE ' (11 S. Sv. 507; v. 11, 58, 116). If Keats had any particular * Arabian Nights ' tale in his miind, it might have been ' The History of the Third Calender ' ; though I rather fancy \vhat the poet really gives in the lines quoted is one of the impressionist pictures which a general reading of c The Arabian Nights ' shaped in his mind. In the third Calender's tale there are " perilous seas " and " fairy lands forlorn," and towards the end of his adventures he arrives at a palace of gold and precious stones, where dwell forty beautiful young women. With these ladies he passes a year ; then they have to leave him for forty days, and to relieve his solitude during their absence, they give him the keys of a hundred doors. On opening the third of these hundred doors, he finds

fine and uncommon colour's. The trellis-work was made of sandal-wood and wood of aloes* It contained a vast number of nightingales, gold- finches, canary birds, larks, and other rare singing birds, and the vessels that held their seed were of the most sparkling jasper or agate."
 * a large aviary, paved with marble of several

I cannot say from personal experience whether nightingales sing in captivity, but


 * Chambers 's Encyclopaedia ' says :

" The song of the male ceases to be heard as soon as incubation is over. In captivity, however, it is often continued through a more .considerable period."

W. H. PINCHBECK.

L.AIRDS OF DRTJMMINNOR (11 S. iv. 527 ; v. 116). Referring to the extract given from Wood's ' Douglas's Peerage ' at the latter reference, I may point out that Wood edited this work nearly a hundred years ago, and that, since then, further investigation and the publication of nume- ' rous public and private records have thrown -considerable light on many doubtful pedi- grees, and among them that of the Forbes family. According to the account in vol. iv. of Sir James Balfour Paul's ' Scots Peerage ' (Edinburgh, 1907), the first of the name on historical record is Duncan Forbeys, who had a charter from King Alexander III. about 1271 of the holding or tenement of

Forbeys. The next of the name on record, though his relationship to Duncan has not been proved, is John Forbes, who was followed by a Sir Christian de Forbes, and he in turn by John de Forbes, dominus efusdem. There is some reason for sup- posing that the three last-mentioned persons may perhaps have been of the family of del Ard, but ihe evidence is far from com- plete. Be that as it may, the John de Forbes last named is the first from whom undoubted descent of the family can at present be proved. He died before 20 Aug., 1387, and was described as " a gude man, wise, mychty, and manly in his tyme. : ' He was the father of Sir John de Forbes, Knight, who died between May and Novem- ber, 1406, having married Elizabeth ,(o? Margaret) Kennedy of Dunure. They hac? four sons : Alexander, who was created Lord Forbes between October, 1444, and July, 1445 ; William, who was ancestor of the Lords Pitsligo ; John, ancestor of the Tolquhoun family and others ; and Alaster, ancestor of the Forbeses of Brux. now represented by the families of Skellater and Inverernan, FELIS.

THE JENNINGS CASE (11 S. v. 49). The last phase of the Jennings (or, more correctly, the Jennens) case was the arrival in England of a new claimant from Canada, a Mr. David Jennings, but I pointed out to him that the last of the male line of the Jennings is buried at Nether Whitacre Church, Warwickshire. The inscription on the tomb there distinctly says he was last of the line. Mr. David Jennings claims to belong to a Staffordshire branch of the family, but only those de- scended from Humphrey (the Merry), of Erdington Hall, Warwickshire, can have any right to the property.

No one who has studied the case disputes that the present Lord Howe and the other possessors of the property are not descend- ants of this Humphrey ; but when William Jennens (the Rich) died intestate and a bachelor, certain of the next-of-kin divided the property, and ignored the claims of another child of Humphrey, a daughter.

The inscription, too, on the magnificent marble tomb of William the Rich (who was godson to King William III.), now in Acton Church, Suffolk, describes the father Robert as the son of Humphrey Jennens of Erding- ton Hall, Warwickshire. Mr. David Jen- nings thought that the inscription had been tampered with ; but this is impossible, as the marble is too large to have been carried away and altered. Furthermore, the arms