Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/493

 ii s. vii. JUNE 21, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

On p. 436 of the same volume almost identical lines were said to have been noted under a crucifix in Germany, and it was suggested that they were not part of any poem, but composed in order to be placed under a representation of Christ, and that they were probably to be found at one time in many places.

Since making this suggestion, I see that the late Dr. F. G. Lee, in the introduction to his ' Glossary of Liturgical and Eccle- siastical Terms,' when speaking of rood- screens and the images on them, says that in several cases the following inscriptions were placed near. The first given is the couplet quoted above, except that the second line has the less euphonious beginning

Sed non effigiem .... The other two are

Attendite ad Petrum unde excisi estis and

Per Crucem et Passionem Tuam Libera nos Domine Jesu. Amen.

The first two lines are given again at the end of Lee's article on * Rood -beam,' where they are said to have been placed on a modern specimen in the church of St. Mary, Aberdeen. EDWARD BENSLY.

SHEFFIELD PLATE. Some interesting notes on the purchase of Sheffield plate are to be found in the letters of Hester, Lady Newdigate (wife of Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart., of Arbury, co. Warwick), written from Buxton in the year 1781. In one letter Lady Newdigate writes : " You have given me Leave to have desert knives which it w d be a pity not to have to suit y e others. My Brother has Knives & forks also made to suit his Silver ones, so exact that they can't be distinguish'd, which are used only in y e manner I proposed viz : when y e others run short. The Carving Knives are also very hand- some."

Sir Roger evidently regarded Sheffield plate with scanty favour, for there was much argument on the subject of " these shim -shams."

Lady Newdigate writes in reply to a letter which probably expressed her husband's disapproval :

" Now y c first place y e Money you gave me is for no other purpose than to fool away as I like, and in y e second it is fit that everyone sh d pay for their own Whims. You must & still more dearly for yours whenever your Magnificence. chuses to replace them with really silver. I shall therefore give full scope to my extravagance."

Lady Newdigate relates that she went to Sheffield from Buxton, and " saw the Plated

Manufactory through all its branches which is very curious indeed."

Unfortunately, she does not give us a list of her purchases, but she does record that she "made myself rich in conveniences which are to be sent to Arbury in about a month," P. D. M.

ADMIRAL RODNEY SAVED FROM DROWN- ING. In a diary under date 30 June, 1886,. I have noted down the following :

" Calling to-day in Cranworth (Norfolk) upon- a Mrs. Bacon, the blacksmith's wife, professionally, I was told by her that her grandfather, named Riches, had been a shipboy in the same man-of-war that carried Lord Rodney, and that, when starting for a naval action, the Admiral had fallen over- board, and had been rescued by the boy Riches,, her grandfather. When the vessel arrived back- in England again, Lord Rodney asked the lad what he could do for him, and Riches, having, no taste for the sea, asked for ' a berth ' on land r and Lord Rodney bought him a farm at Castle Acre, and left in his possession an old chest which he requested him to keep for him, saying that, if he should die without sending for it, it was to belong to Riches. The latter event happened, and on opening the chest it was found to contain valuable old china one bowl alone,. Mrs. Bacon saying, Lord Leicester had offered her 50Z. for. The rest of the china descended to an uncle, and was by him given to a Mr. Jackson.'*

I am not aware that this incident has beea recorded in Lord Rodney's life, and it majr therefore be worth noting in ' N. & Q.'

W. Louis KING.

Wadesmill, Ware.

CRABB ROBINSON ON HAZLITT. It i* perhaps somewhat late in the day to draw attention to a slip in Crabb Ilobinson's famous Diary, but, as this has just been discovered, it seems of some consequence to " make a note " of it, Writing on IT February, 1818 (vol. i. p. 311), the diarist observes :

" I took tea at home, and Hammond calling,. I accompanied him to Hazlitt's lecture. He spoke of the writers in the reign of Queen Anne,, and was bitter, sprightly, and full of political- and personal allusions, in treating of Prior, he quoted his unseemly verses against Blackmore to a congregation of saints."

The verses in question, however, are not Prior's, but Gay's. Included in the latter ' ' Miscellanies,' they are elaborately entitled ' Verses to be placed under the Picture of Sir Richard Blackmore, England's Arch- Poet : containing a complete Catalogue of his Works.' The opening couplet is : See who ne'er was, nor will be half read ; Who first sang Arthur, then sang Alfred.

Hazlitt's reference occurs near the begin- ning of the sixth lecture ' On the English-