Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/397

 ii s. vii. MAY 17, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LONGFELLOW'S * COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH ' : COPYRIGHT LAW. The first English edition of this was published in 1858, the shilling issue in paper covers being styled " Author's Protected Edition." On the inner page of the cover is a notice which reads :

IT " In order to protect this volume from the fate of previous American publications, viz., an instant appropriation on the part of an unlimited number or English publishers, a small but sufficient portion of the contents has been contributed by an Eng- lish writer."

This latter can only have been the title-page, table of contents, preface, or notes, as all the shorter poems appear in Longfellow's 1 Works.' Who was the " English writer " ?

Civis.

ROBERT HALL. I have seen it stated that Robert Hall, the famous Baptist preacher, was accustomed to smoke in his vestry in the intervals of service. What authority is there for this ? Gregory does not mention it in his * Memoir,' though, of course, he refers to the fact that Hall was an inveterate smoker. G. L. APPERSON,

A CURIOUS HUNTING EPISODE IN BUCKS. The Times of 8 March, 1800, records " a curious case " which

"was tried at Aylesbury Assizes, in which Mr. Groom, a farmer in Buckinghamshire, was plaintiff, and the Earl of Sandwich, Master of the King's Hounds, and Mr. Gordon, defendants. Mr. Groom attempted to stop His Majesty and his party in the chace from passing over his grounds, and, failing to do so, brought his action against the Master of the: King's Hounds ; but he was non-suited. The trial lasted five hours."

Is anything known of this episode ? Who was Mr. Gordon ? J. M. BULLOCH.

THE TITLE " REVEREND DOCTOR." In the diocese in which I reside it seems the fashion, even in more or less official corre- spondence, to write of or to a clergyman who has taken the LL.D. or the D.C.L. degree as " the Rev. Doctor." I had an idea that the title ought to be confined to clergymen whose degree of Doctor is in Divinity. Am I right, or merely old- fashioned ? DIEGO.

from the Records of the City of Oxford ' (ed. Turner, 1880, p. 136) there are printed the depositions of some Oxford townspeople, dated March, 1536, in which complaints are made of the Proctor, Edmund Shether, who is alleged to have been seen going down the street with a poleaxe in his hand and " a paire of brexen journeys on his backe," and
 * " BREXEN JOURNEYS." In 'Selections

to have stricken down and sore beaten three men of the town of Oxford, and in other ways to have behaved in a most violent, out- rageous manner.

Can any one tell me what is the meaning of " brexen journeys " ? A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford.

TABLE-NAPKIN. An Irish gloss in the St. Gall Priscian, a manuscript which dates from the middle of the ninth century, men- tions the use of napkins over the knees. It Would be interesting to know what is the earliest record of the existence of that highly civilized social custom in England, Scotland, and Wales.

The gloss in question is on the word " mantile," or " mantele, a towel or napkin with which to wipe the hands," and runs thus: "Mantile. 1. lam-brat bis tar glune " = a hand -cloth which is habitually over the knees. T. O'NEILL LANE.

Tournafulla, co. Limerick.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF JOB CHARNOCK. I am trying to find out all I can about the early days of Charnock, before his arrival in India in 1656. Little or nothing is known about his lineage, but I have recently come across the name Robert Charnock in a connexion which, if followed up, might lead to further discovery.

On 13 April, 1696, Sir William Parkyns (or Perkins), a Warwickshire baronet, was executed on Tower Hill for association with Sir George Barclay, Capt. Geo. Porter (who turned King's evidence), and Robert Charnock in a conspiracy to assassinate William III.

Job Charnock died in 1693, so that Robert (evidently a man of adventurous disposition) may well have been his near kinsman. Is anything further known of Robert ? WILMOT CORFIELD.

' CRITICAL REVIEW,' 1756. Are the two copies of The Critical Review (1756) men- tioned by Nichols in the following passages still extant ? and, if such is the case, where are they to be found ?

(1) "Mr. Wright printed the Westminster

Magazine, in which he had marked the writers of every article in a copy which probably still exists. He had, in like manner, when at Mr. Hamilton s, prefixed the names of the writers in The Critical, Review.'"--'' Literary Anecdotes,' vol. iii. p- 399.

(2) "I have Mr. Robertson's set of The Critical Review, in which he has particularly marked his own articles."' Literary Anecdotes,' vol. in. p. 504.

When was John Nichols's library dis- persed ? J- J CHAMPENOIS.-f Bedford College.