Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/84

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. JULY 27, 1912.

Thirtieth Year of the said Reign, A.D. 1678. [Vol. VII. Comprising the Period from the Thirtieth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second, A.D. 1678, to the Thirty-Second Year of the said Reign, A.D. 1680. J [Vol. VIII Comprising the Period from the Thirty-Seconc Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second A.D. 1680, to the Thirty-Fourth Year of the said Reign, A.D. 1682. J London : Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough-Court, Fleet- Street. Published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges- >treet, Covent Garden ; and sold by J. Budd Pall-Mall; J. Faulder, New Bond-Street Sherwood, Neeley and Jones, Paternoster- Row Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, Leadenhall- Street ; Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh ; and J. Archer, Dublin. 1810.

8vo, vol. v. pp. viii 1516 columns ; vol. vi. j>p. vi-1512 columns ; vol. vii. pp. vii-1576 columns ; vol. viii. pp. v-1398 columns. iCobbett's Parliamentary Debates, during the Fourth Session of the Fourth Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Kingdom of Great Britain the Twenty-first, Appointed to meet at Westminster the Twenty-third Day of January, in the Fiftieth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third, Annoque Domini One Thou- sand Eight Hundred and Ten. Vol. XV. Com- prising the Period between the 23rd of January and the 1st of March, 1810. [Vol. XVI. Com- prising the Period between the 2nd of March and the 17th of May, 1810.] [Vol. XVII. Comprising the Period between the 18th of May and the 21st of June, 1810.] London : Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough- ourt, Fleet-Street ; Published by R. Bagshaw, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden ; and sold by J. Budd, Pall-Mall ; J. Faulder, New Bond- Street ; H. D. Symonds, Paternoster-Row ; Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, Leadenhall-Street ; Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh ; and J. Archer, Dublin. 1810.

8yo, vol. xv. pp. viii 672 columns and cxlii columns, and 3 pp. Indices ; vol. xvi. pp. viii-1130 columns, and 3 pp. Indices ; vol. xvii. pp. xvi-798 columns and ccx columns, aud 3 pp. Indices.

LEWIS MELVILLE. Salcombe, Harpenden, Herts.

( To be continued. )

AN

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY "BILL STUMPS."

UNDER the heading ' Dickens and the Inscribed Stone' appeared last year (11 S. iv. 443) a note about a stone with an inscrip- tion of the " Bill Stumps " order, said to have been found 1779-80 in the Bellevue lime quarries near Paris.

I have come across a manuscript account of another of a date apparently earlier by some forty years.

It is in faded ink on the margin of p. 31 of my copy of ' Itinerarium Curiosum,'

by William Stukeley, M.D., 1724. It is as follows :

" The Doctor, among other fancy'd Antiquitys should not have omitted y*, which puzzled the

Society of literati, at Spalding, viz. the Stone,

near Cowbit, with this Inscription

KEE. . . PONT

HISS. . . . . IDE

which means nothing more than, in very bad Graving, Keep on this Side : Being near a Ditch & Cowbit Washes. This, but for the K, had bin an antient Roman Inscription but, as it was, was of the lower Empire, when the Greek and Latin Alphabets were blended ! Till their learn'd Transactions are made public, I consecrate this Discovery to their Glory."

The page on which the note is written con- tains an account of Crowland Abbey. There are in the volume many marginal comments, very frequently in disparagement or ridicule of Stukeley's descriptions, con- clusions, peculiar spelling, &c. They exhibit considerable erudition and humour. I can- not be absolutely sure that they are all by one hand, but I have little doubt of it.

If they are, their date is apparently about 1736-8. The earlier date appears twice : first, on p. 82, in a note headed 1736, saying that Revesby Abbey is " now a seat of Robert Vyner, Esq 1, Member in the Present, and two last Parliaments, for the County of Lincoln " ; second, on p. 84, in a long note, which is signed " Lucius Henry Hibbihs." In it he complains that the Aldermen and Commons have neglected the means of navigation to Lincoln. He inveighs against the covetousness of a com- mittee of Aldermen and Commons. " who, at my Instance (who then was their Steward,) were appointed to treat with Captain Burton." Earlier in the note he speaks of Capt. Burton as " an experienc'd Officer under the D. of Marlbore' in Flanders," who had " propos'd to make Both [i.e. Witham and Foss] navigable, at his own
 * xpence " on certain conditions. All that

hey did, according to Hibbins, was to make the Foss much worse while pretending to scour it.

On p. 194, *."., nearly at the end of the 3ook, the annotator speaks of having perused some deeds in 1738.

Perhaps some Lincoln correspondent can dentify Lucius Henry Hibbins.

I find by the ' Memoirs .... of the County and City of Lincoln,' Archaeological Institute meeting, 1848, published 1850, p. 82 et seq., /hat there was a society at Spalding, con- isting largely, or to some extent, of anti- quaries, called " The Gentlemen's Society,"