Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/257

 ii s. vii. MAR. 29, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ungrammatical ; she proposes writing my name Lamb? Lambe is quite enough."

This is- further explained in a letter of 8 Sept., 1802 (ibid., 220) :

" Observe the Lam be (but don't mark it) on those letters I am not to open."

These particular letters were being de- livered by Lamb to Stuart, the editor of The Morning Post, they containing Cole- ridge's contributions to that organ, and the state of Lamb's conscience may be judged by the passage :

"I shall expect little notes now and then to accompany yours to Stuart, which will pay me for the pang I must feel in defrauding the Company."

M. H. DODDS.

" CASTLE " IN SHAKESPEARE AND WEBSTER (11 S. vii. 165). Mr. John Foster in ' A Shakespeare Word-Book' (1908) explains the word as " a helmet " in the two passages quoted by MR. SYKES, and refers to Nares and Holinshed.

The Henry Irving and the Caxton Shake - speares adopt this interpretation ; while the Temple Edition does so for the passage in * Titus Andronicus.' A. R. BAYLEY,

WALTER GARY (US. vii. 128). The full title of Walter Cary's little book is :

"The | Hammer for the | stone : | So named, for that it | sheweth the most excel- | lent remedie that ever | was knowne for the | same. Latelie devised by Walter Carie | Maister of Art, and student in | Physicke. | Imprinted at London, by | Henrie Den- ham dwelling in | Pater noster Row at the I signe f the Starre. \ 1580."

If MR. BARLOW will look at the final passage in this edition, he will read :

" But least this most excellent medicine should perhaps be slandered : as also, if any person what- soever desireth to have conference' with me for his greater ease, not finding (perchance by some abuse) such remedie as I have promised, and he looked for: let him (if it seeme good) repaire to my house in great Wickham in the Countie of Buckingham, where he shall find the Authour, without either pennie or pennie worth, readie to do what possiblie he may, for his further cure. And if by taking ought, herein hee breake his promise, let him be thought rather a deciever, than one seeking the benefite of his Countrie. Finis."

In one, at any rate (that of 1611), of the later editions of 'The Hammer for the Stone,' issued thirty-one years later than the 1580 edition, the above passage is repeated with slight variations. From these facts it is clear that Walter Cary lived at High Wycombe, and that he Was an M.A. A reference to W. D. Macray's ' Register of Magdalen ' reveals the entry :

" Walter Carie or Carey, co. Bucks, elected for hoc. Chichester. Demy, 1561 (Reg. p. 160). M.A.

lie. March 24, 157i, inc. July 14. On Feb. 8, 1573, he had six months' leave ' causa promotionis.' Resigned 1574." New Series (London, 1897), vol. ii. p. 184.

This entry is found also, with slight dif- ferences, in J. R. Bloxam's ' Register of Magdalen,' iv. 160, published earlier (Oxford, 1853).

There were, as I shall show, several generations of Walter Carys living at High Wycombe, but unless it can be proved that there was another Walter Cary living in Buckinghamshire at this date, who also was an M.A., I think it may be concluded that this, or one of them, is the man about whom information is sought. This Walter Cary evidently started upon a clerical career, but resigned and took up medicine later.

A search among the few surviving records of the ancient town of High Wycombe proves that the Cary family lived there for centuries, and occupied a leading position. In the possession of the Wycombe Municipal Charity Trustees is a volume of MSS. which contains many interesting documents of the time when the Carys were an influential family there. Among these documents is the will of Edward Cary the elder (c. 1475). He mentions his son " Richard and Johan his wife " ; Walter Cary, brother of the afore- said Richard ; Margery Wykes, sister of the aforesaid Richard and Walter ; and Matilda, the testator's wife.

As early as 1421 the name of Walter Cary is attached to a High Wycombe deed. Walter Cary again occurs, 6 March, 1490, in another deed.

Thomas Langley in his ' Hundred of Des- borough ' (1797), and Lipscomb in his ' History of Bucks ' (1847), give lists of mayors of High Wycombe, in which a Richard Cary is twice named in the reign of Edward IV., another Richard as mayor in the reign of Henry VII., and Edward Cary, mayor in 5 Edward VI.

But Langley must have been in error as regards Edward Gary, and Lipscomb also (who followed him), because " Richarde Gary Maior of Wycombe " signs an order 13 March, 5 Edward VI., 1551 ; and in an agreement dated 25 March, 5 Edward VI., concerning the establishment of a grammar school, " Richarde Carye " is named as mayor. Cf. Bloxam's ' Magdalen Register/ i. 6 : " Richarde Carye chorister " in 1506.

Edward Cary's name appears in a deed dated 19 Henry VI., 1440; and Edward, Walter, and Richard's names are attached