Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/447

 ii s. ix. JUNE 6, 191*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

441

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 0, Wilt.

CONTENTS. No. 232.

NOTES : Bishop Jewel's Library, 441 " Rumford " Chimney Webster : a Question of Authorship, 443 "Garrett Johnson, Tomb-Maker," 445 " Shipshape and Bristol fashion "-Christ Hospital, 446 Richard John- son's Kpitaph Governor Eyre : Bishop Westcott-New Allusion to Shakespeare" Sterling," 447.

QUERIES : Burnap alias Burnett Navy Arms in Soho Christopher Columbus : his Nationality and Religion Staffordshire Poets" At that "-De Tavarez of Bayonne, 448 Capt. Richard Pechell Old Etonians " Hem y Hase " Addison's Letters Privy Councillors Dubber Family of Gloucestershire Biographical Information Wanted Threefold Twist in Turning: Stethoscope Malcolm Stodart, 449 Author of Quotation Wanted

'Anecdotes of some Distinguished Persons ' Oxford Coptic Dictionary' Bon Gaultier ' Ballads and Kenny Meadows Folkard, Animal Painter " Egoism " v. " Egotism " Alexander Smith's ' Dreamthorp ' Colour- Printing c. 1820, 450.

REPLIES : Hautville Family, 451 Cromwell's Illegiti; mate Daughter, Mrs. Hartop, 452 " Billion," "Trillion*

Lombard Street Bankers : Sir Stephen Evance Hydon's Ball, Surrey, 453 Old Etonians Sir Richard Birnie Joseph Branwell Parish Registers" Bushel and Strike" G. Quenton Centenary of the Cigar 41 Trod," 454 A Book of Fables General Beatson Feast of Shells, 455 Griniol Age of Country Bridges " Blizard " as a Surname, 456 Missionary Ship Duff Dr. John Samuel Phene, 457 Casanova and Henriette, 458.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Coroners' Rolls of the City of London ' ' The Bodleian Quarterly Record ' Reviews and Magazines.

BISHOP JEWEL'S LIBRARY.

(See ante, p. 401.)

JEWEL was evidently a great book - collector and book-reader, and his library, from his intimate acquaintance with the classical and Italian languages, and his wide and varied literary tastes, would be many-tongued and miscellaneous in character. Cassan tells us further (ut supra, p. 44) that he was a copious note-maker, for

" he entered, down into commonplace books whatever he thought he might afterwards have occasion to use, which were many in number, and great in quantity, being a vast treasure of learning and a real repository of knowledge, into which he had collected sacred, profane, poetic, philosophic, and divine notes of all sorts."

Bishop Creighton (' D.N.B.') mentions him in another interesting role :

" He seems to have served as literary adviser. Parker wrote to him about Saxon MSS., and Cecil consulted him about the purchase of a collection of Greek MSS."

Concerning the Saxon MSS., Le Bas ('Life of Bishop Jewel,' 1835, pp. 171-4)

gives the story of Archbishop Parker's com- mission from Elizabeth and request to Jewel that his cathedral library should be

" diligently searched for the purpose of discover- ing whether it contained any books or manu- scripts which might be serviceable towards the accomplishment of his designs [the oversight and conservation of ancient national records and monuments], and, more especially, whether any Saxon writings were to be found there."

Jewel's two brief letters on the matter are worth enshrining in this paper for more reasons than one :

" It may please your Grace to understand that, according to my promise, I have ransacked our poor library of Salisbury, and have found nothing worthy of the finding, saving only one book written in the Saxon tongue, which I mind to send to your Grace by the next convenient messenger. The book is of reasonable bigness, well near as thick as the Communion book. Your Grace hath three or four of the same size. It may be Alfricus, for all my cunning. But your Grace will soon find what he is. Other certain books there are of Rabanus and Anselmus ; but, as common, so also of little worth. If I had any leisure, I would send your Grace the titles of all. But, as now, I am entering on the visitation of my diocese By the way, if I learn of any antiqxiities, I will do your Grace to understand. Thus I humbly take my leave ; from Sarum, the 18th of January, 1568. Your Grace's most humble, Jo. SARUM."

His diocesan visitation concluded, Jewel forwarded the Saxon volume to Parker, accompanied by a second letter :

" Being now newly returned from the visitation of my diocese, and having this convenient me&- senger, I thought my duty to perform my promise. And, therefore, have sent your Grace that hidden treasure that we had in our library. Whether it be Alfricus, or no, or what matter it containeth, your Grace will judge. I have made inquiry for such antiquities, as I passed through my clergy, on this visitation ; but as yet I can find nothing. If there be anything found, I shall have under- standing of it. . . .From Sarum, the 31st of Jan- uary, 1568. Your Grace's most humble, Jo. SARUM."

Le Bas explains that

" the book in question was a folio in vellum, elegantly written, and containing the tract of Pope Gregory ' De Cura Pastorali,' in four books ; and turned, in the way of paraphrase, into the Saxon language by King Alfred. Prefixed to the tract is a preface by Alfred himself, together with a poem addressed to the reader ; both rendered from the Saxon into Latin by some more modern translator, supposed to be William Lombard. At the end of the book are presented the above two letters of Bishop Jewel." Strype, Parker, vol. i. pp. 523-5 ; vol. ii. p. 506.

As it would be a matter of interest to know the present habitat or (so far) ultimate fate of this precious " folio in vellum " (though the MS. was not strictly a possession of Jewel's), I communicated first with the Librarian of