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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vn. JCNE 7, im.

and either action should be sufficient to keep his name alive there. Though Sydney Smith, in 1810, was of opinion that he was unquestionably " a weak man," Governor North, ten years earlier, characterized him as " intelligent, firm, and zealous." The Canon had no personal experience of his qualities ; the Governor had. His failure in Ceylon and Madras has sufficed to keep him out of the ' D.N.B.' ; neither has Major-General Baillie of " Baillie's Regi- ment " a place. PENRY LEWIS. Quisisana, Walton-by-Clevedon.

FILES : TOOLS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. I am collecting material for an article dealing with the history of the file. So far, in the British Museum, Guildhall Museum, and the Silchester Collection at Reading, I have been able to see files of one kind or another which have been dug up from time to time, the remains in some cases dating back to A.D. 1.

I have difficulty, however, in obtaining any record of tools used by British mechanics and craftsmen during the period of the Middle Ages and later. Can you direct me to any source where I can find reference to tools used during this period ?

A. H. FRANKLIN.

9, Leonard Street, Finsbury, E.G.

PENNY READINGS. Could any of your readers give the date of the first " Penny Reading " at Ipswich, referred to by CUTH- BERT BEDE at 6 S. vii. 225 ?

I have just ascertained that the first Penny Reading at the Birmingham and Midland Institute was given by Mr. Arthur Ryland on 1.9 March, 1859, when he read selections from ' Horatius ' and the story of ' A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam.' It may, perhaps, be interesting to note here that Mr. Joseph Chamberlain contributed two readings one, 19 Nov., 1859, selections from Dickens and a story from Sterne's ' Tristram Shandy ' ; and one 26 Jan., 1861, Lever's Irish stories and the ' Pickwick Papers.'

C. J. WOODWARD.

Harborne.

[MR. C. A. PYNE stated at 6 S. vii. 496, in reply to CUTHBERT BEDE, that he believed that Mr. Ransom originated the readings at Norwich.]

" Quo VADIS ? " I should feel obliged if you would give an explanatory definition of the above phrase as applied to the recent exhibition at the Albert Hall and the title of the novel. " Where [or Whither] are you going ? " being the literal translation, how are these words applicable in either

case ? Is it a quotation ? A statement has aeen made that it is a quotation from the Bible, but inasmuch as the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New in Greek, and the phrase is Latin, that state- ment is clearly erroneous. QUJESITOR.

[A search in an English Concordance of the Bible under " goest " would have revealed the rigin of the phrase. St. Peter's question in John xiii. 36 is rendered in the Vulgate, " Domine, quo vadis ? " and this is the inscription on a ittle chapel mentioned in the last words of the novel. In the same gospel, xiv. 5, St. Thomas raises the same question. In chap. xvi. Christ speaks of the persecutions awaiting His disciples ; jhe time has come for their revelation, now that He is going away. He adds (verse 5) : " But now I go my way to him that sent me ; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou ? " The phrase is thus naturally associated with the persecutions of Nero's reign with which the novel deals.

It may be well to add that the Vulgate was constructed much later than the period of the story, and has displaced earlier Latin versions, the original source of which is disputed.]

VANDEN BEMPDE FAMILY. The will of John Vanden Bempde of the parish of St. James, Westminster, which was proved in P.C.C. 22 June, 1726 (137 Plymouth), contains this direction :

" I direct that the family pictures shall attend the family [? estate], and especially tho silver-hilted sword of 'Henry VIII., it being that with which he knighted the first of the Vanden Bempdes who came to England and brought 20,000*. with him, whose son married a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, who gave her the pearl necklace and a diamond locket (of which the middle stone of my diamond ring is one ; the rest were converted into the diamond buckle now in the custody of Sir Isaac Rebow), and also was given by her an ancient MS. Annotation on Ecclesiasticus, bound up in purple velvet, with silver-gilt bosses and coats and crests, which must not be parted with."

The estates, which were large, were settled by the will on his daughter Char- lotte, Marchioness of Annandale, and on the most worthy of her sons George and John (whichever of them is freest from the vices of lewdness, swearing, drinking, and gaming), without regard to seniority, in tail male.

Who was the first of the Vanden Bempdes who came to England and was knighted by Henry VIII ? ~No knight of the name appears in Shaw's ' Knights of England.'

What was the name of his son, and who was the maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth whom he married ?

One John Vandenbenden married Eliza- beth, daughter of Sir Peter Vanloore of London, Knt. He was a legatee under the will of Dame Jacoba Vanloore, Sir Peter's