Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/135

 ii s. vi. AUG. 10, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to know of some one here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us even in silence, this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden."

In the letter, of course, Carlyle is writing from memory. L. R. M. STRACHAN.

Heidelberg University.

DROGO, COUNT OF THE VEXEST. Drogo {Dreux), Count of the Vexin and of Amiens, interests English readers, not only as the son-in-law of an English king, but as the ancestor of many English families; yet the references to him in English histories, though numerous, are exceedingly meagre.

Drogo was the son of Walter II., Count of the Vexin and of Amiens, by Adelle, Countess of Valois. His parents, who were the founders of the monastery of St. Arnoul of respy (Du Fresne, ' Histoire de la Ville d'Amiens.' &c., bk. iii. chap. ii. p. 14), appear both to have been of Carlovingian descent. Walter II. was grandson of the marriage of Waleran, Count of the Vexin, with Hildegarde, Countess of Amiens, daughter of Arnoul I. of Flanders by Alix, daughter of Herbert II. of Vermandois (Stokvis, ' Manuel d'Histoire,' &c., vol. ii. p. 104). Arnoul of Flanders was fourth in descent from Louis le Debonnaire ; Herbert II. of Vermandois was son of Herbert I., who was third in descent from Pepin, King of Italy. Adelle, Countess of Valois, was descended from a younger son of the house of Vermandois (La Morliere, ' Antiquites de la Ville d'Amiens,' third edition, bk. i. p. 64), probably from Pepin, Count of Senlis, younger brother of Herbert I.

Richard II., Duke of Normandy, gave to Drogo in marriage his niece Goda (Godgifu), daughter of King Ethelred II. by Emma of Normandy (who married, secondly, King Canute). Goda was bred with her brothers at the Norman Court. On 7 April, 1023, Drogo subscribed at Rouen a grant of the village of Chaussy to the monastery of Fontenelle (Du Fresne, bk. iii. chap. iii. p. loo). He succeeded his father as Count of the Vexin in 1027. The Abbot of Jumieges obtained from him restitution of Sesteville (Genestville) in consideration of 62Z. (Rouen money), six horses of great value, and a promise of continual prayers by three monks for him and his family (Du Fresne, bk. iii. ch. iii. pp. 156, 157).

Although Drogo is said to have cut a considerable figure at the French Court, his principal friend was Robert, Duke of Nor- mandy. When Henry I. ceded to the Duke the suzerainty of the Vexin from the Oise

to the Epte he hailed the change with joy (Reaux, ' Histoire du Comte de Meulan,' chap. ii. p. 99). Drogo accompanied the Duke in his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, like him, died on the return journey in 1035. The Duke died at Nicaea in Bithynia. The place of Drogo's death is not recorded ; a necrology of the church of Mantes (cited by Du Fresne, bk. iii. chap. iii. p. 170), which mentions him as a benefactor, gives the date as 15 November.

Drogo left issue by Goda four sons :

1. Walter III., Count of the Vexin ; died s.p. ; succeeded by his cousin Ralph, Count of Crespy and Valois.

2. Ralph, invested with the earldom of Herefordshire by his uncle, Edward the Confessor (see ' D.N.B.,' sub ' Ralph the Timid '). His son Harold (who is the subject of a note in Freeman's ' Norman Conquest,' third edition, vol. ii. pp. 683-5) founded the house of Ewias, from which were descended the English families of Tregoz, Clifford, La Warr, &c. (see ' The History of Ewias Harold,' by the Rev. A. T. Bannister).

3. Fulk, Bishop of Amiens.

4. Amauri of Pontoise, le delicat.

Goda married, secondly, Count Eustace of Boulogne. She died in 1056 or earlier. Count Eustace long survived her ; his issue by a second marriage included Godfrey, King of Jerusalem (see ' The Counts of Boulogne as English Lords ' in Round's ' Peerage and Family History ').

E. M. BELLEWES.

DICK TUBPIN'S PISTOL. The following extract from The Times of 28 June may be worthy of insertion in ' N. & Q.' :

" While taking down the panelling and ceiling of the Globe Room behind ' The Reindeer Inn, Banbury, last week, the workmen employed by Messrs. Lenygon & Co., Ltd., Old Burlington Street, London, who are the purchasers, found a double-barrelled horse pistol with flint locks, on which was inscribed, ' Presented to Dick Turpm at " The White Bear Inn," Drury Lane, Feb. 7th, 1735.' The question of the present owner- ship of the pistol has still to be decided, but should Messrs. Lenygon & Co. secure it, they have expressed their intention of presenting it either to the Banbury Museum or the London Museum The pistol has been submitted to Messrs. Westley Richards & Co., and their opinion is that it is undoubtedly a genuine weapon of the date. It has smooth bore barrels of a 16 gauge. The flash holes are inlaid with gold, and there is a gold band round the breech end of each barrel. The maker's name is marked in four places as ' Baker, London.'

JAS. CtTKTIS, F.S.A.