Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/546

450 NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. v. JUNK s, 1912. —Who was, or is, Count Dillon, the supporter of General Boulanger in 1888-9? Was it to him that Mr. Hurlbert referred when he spoke of

F. H. C.

, 1561.—He was son of Robert and grandson of Richard Shakespeare. Was he related to the poet, whose grandfather was Richard? A. C. H.

.—This is an old Essex or Sussex family. I should be greatly obliged for any information as to its origin or fate.

immediate ancestors of Sir Henry Irving resided at North End, near Glutton, Somersetshire, and at High Littleton, two miles from Glutton. John Brodribb, Sir Henry Irving's grandfather, occupied an old manorial house called North End Farm, near Glutton. No Brodribbs are living at Glutton or North End at present. The last of them was James Brodribb, who died a year ago. Mr. E. Filey, now living at Glutton, has reminiscences of them; and Mr. M. H. Parfitt of Moatlands, Burghfield, near Reading, is a great-grandson of John Brodribb (supra). Mr. Parfitt's mother was the daughter of William Brodribb, and William Brodribb and Sir Henry Irving's father were brothers. Several other Brodribb Parfitts are living to-day in Caversham and Reading, and are descendants of the Brodribbs of Glutton.

North End is half a mile from Glutton, on the way to Bristol by the "lower" road. A by-road turns off by a pool and leads to North End Farm. This is an old and well-preserved building, suggesting substantial comfort. The house has a wide frontage with central doorway. Shortly before he died, Sir Henry Irving wrote to Glutton to inquire into the truth of a story that an ancestor of his was stopped by highwaymen and robbed. This incident really occurred to an uncle (who lived where Glutton railway station now stands) when riding to Bath. It is asserted locally that long before Irving had attained fame he appeared before a small gathering of Cluttonians in a room in the village.

I am able to give copies of the numerous Brodribb inscriptions which are found in the churchyards of Glutton and High Littleton. In some cases they are partly obliterated, and the exact details cannot be given in full. There are no monuments in either church. The stones and monuments in the churchyards are well cared for.

The following are from Glutton, and I give first those on the east of the churchyard:—

I cannot discover why the Brodribb inscriptions are on the same tomb as the inscription of the Rev. John Perry. The family connexion, if any, does not seem discoverable.

See next tombstone inscription for connexion between Purnells and Brodribbs.