Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/306

 298 NOTP:S AND QUERIES. [us.vn.APBn. 12,1913. through carelessness, he drevr Jesse Luke seated on horseback ! It is quite true that at one time the Journal was dated nearly a fortnight ahead, as the number published on Monday bore the date of the following Saturday week ; but the number following that for 8 May, 1858, instead of being dated 15 May, bore " May 8* " on its front 'page, and so the custom was brought to an end. W. A. Frost. 16, Amwell Street, E.C. In The London Journal of 13 March, 1852, p. 9, was an engraving of Prince Rupert's charge at the Battle of Naseby, by John Gilbert, " from the original painting now exhibiting at the British Institution." I shall be glad to know any particulars con- cerning the present whereabouts of this picture, and also the name of the author fif the letterpress entitled ' The Battle of Naseby ' which accompanied the engraving. John T. Page. Long Itchiugton, Warwickshire. Died in his Coffin (11 S. vi. 468; vii. 96, 134. 156, 214).—Newspaper cutting, Dover, 10 April, 1869 :— " An Eccentric Character.—The bite Mr. Joseph ( olegate, carpenter and joiner of Stroud Street, who died recently, had made his coffin twenty- five years ago, and was at one time often in the habit of takins his afternoon naps in it in order to know if it was still the proper size for him." Another cutting, undated, but much older:— " Deaths.—-At Osbaston, near Monmouth, aged 90, Dame Morris. She had had her coffin pre- pared many years previous to her decease, and kept it in her house." R. J. Fynmore. Wine-Fungus Superstition (11 S. vii. 109. 214).—See the curious story of a fungus growing in a cellar in Shorthouse's " Countess Eve.' chap. x. F. E. R. Pollaud-Urquhart. Bi'ockenhurst, Hants. History of Churches in Situ (11 S. vi. 428, 517; vii. 55, 155, 231). — Under the heading ' Interesting Historical Record of Crediton Church,' The Western Times (Exeter) for 26 March, 1913, states that the Vicar (the Rov. W. M. Smith-Dorrien) has just prepared, and had placed in the porch of the grand old church of the Holy Cross, a valuable record of its history dating (so it is expressed) from half a century prior to the Christian era down to the present time. Harry Hems. Fair Park, Exeter. Utrtts on SBooks. A Brief Memoir of the Mildmay Family. Com- piled bv Lieut.-Col. Herbert A. St. John Mildmay. (John Lane.) The material here eolleoted by Col. St. John Mild- may, although, for parte of the story, somewhat scanty, is, on the whole, of high interest. The family of Mildmay first comes into prominence in the sixteenth century, when, in the persons of Thomas Mildmay and his wife Avicia Gunson, it obtained a share of the estates distributed on the dissolution of the monasteries. This Thomas was Auditor of the Court of Augmentations and of the Duchy of Cornwall, an office of itself affording opportunity of acquiring wealth: and he was fol- lowed by another Thomas, in whose favour was ereoted by Queen Elizabeth the office of a Registrar of aliens, for the regulation and taxing of the " foreynirs and stranjers now being and inhabiting within Her Highness' Realm." A younger brother of the Auditor was Walter Mildmay of Apethorjie, who, both by his own career and by the fortunes of his line, may perhaps be counted the most illus- trious branch of the Mildmays. Born c. 1520, he is found, while still a youth, in the service of Govern- ment, and. as years go on. is employed in no small variety of business, principally connected with finance, until, in 1588-9, he is made Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was sent with Cecil in 1570 to Mary, Queen of Scots, at Chatsworth, was one of her judges, and present at her execution. He founded Emanuel College, Cambridge, throwing the weight of his experience in men and affairs, his concern for learning, and the wisdom which his contemporaries praised in him, upon the side of Puritanism. His sou Anthony is a far less attrac- tive character, interest during his time centring in his wife Grace Sherrington—" one of the most excel- lent confectioners in England," as a tract of 1603 remarks, telling how King James dined at her house at Apethorpe. She was an ideal Lady Bountiful, some of whose account-books, together with "collections" concerning medicines and dis- eases, still exist to attest her assiduity, intelligence, and kindness. " When her picture," we are told, " was at Apethorpe. she was said to step out of it at night, pass through the house and village to see that all was in order, and scatter silver pennies for the needy." The next interesting character in the family—a contrast to the puritanical severity of the two men last mentioned—was Sir Anthony Mildmay's nephew Humphrey, who led a somewhat dissolnte life, the particulars of which he recorded in a diary running from 1633 to 1666. Many extracts from it are given in this volume, but, as the com- piler says, it is not a specially satisfactory docu- ment, drinking-bouts and lawsuits forming the staple of the matter. More conspicuous figures are Humphrey's two brothers, Anthony, to whom Princess Elizabeth and her young brother were entrusted at Carisbrook Castle, and Henry "the Regicide." the protege of James I., being Master of the Jewel Office, who sat on the trial of Charles I. at eight out of the twenty-two sittings, and is said to have spoken violently against him, though he was neither present when the sentence of death was passed nor signed the death-warrant.