Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/163

128. 1. FEB. 19,1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

157

Ferrers (born in 1549, and known as '* The Antiquary ") states that Nicholas Brome obtained the Pope's pardon, and that the towers of Baddesley Clinton and Packwood Churches are monuments of his penance. He died on Oct. 10, 1517, and was buried beneath " the blue marble stone at the entrance " of Baddesley Church. The story of both the crimes to which I have referred lias often been told, and they are recounted at length in ' Baddesley Clinton, its Manor, Church, and Hall,' by the late Rev. Henry Xorris, F.S.A., published in 1897.

A. C. C.

Reference is made to " Beoley or Bewley {now Bewdley), Worcestershire." If I am not mistaken, the Beoley referred to is Beoley, near Redditch, where are the monuments of many generations of Sheldons in their chantry chapel on the north side of the chancel. The writer recalls one inscription, .striking in its terseness and simplicity :

Quondam Randulphus Sheldon : Nunc cinis, pulvis, nihil.

S. T. H. P.

DR. JOHNSON "ox FISHING (US. xii. 462 ; 12 S. i. 18, 98). I have to thank MB. DUGDAI.E SYKES for his quotation from Hazlitt, which is certainly sufficiently serious. Still, if the distinguished essayist were challenged for his authority, one "feels con- fident he could offer nothing better than use and wont among those who loved to have a fling at anglers and their pastime. That Johnson, like any other sound moralist, 'would be quick to emphasize his disapproval of any man wasting his time and money in the constant pursuit of any form of sport one can easily understand, but to express his -contempt for angling as such is quite another thing, and the presumption against his doing Anything of the kind seems to me ex- ceedingly strong.

Johnson read Walton's book, and was so inuch pleased with it that he expressed his intention of writing a biography of the -author. There is at this moment a copy of ' The Compleat Angler ' in existence, on the fly-leaf of which is written in Johnson's -hand- writing : "A pretty book, a very pretty book" ; and I think it may be fairly said that it is in the highest degree improbable, to say the least of it, that he would have written this if he entertained that contempt for the subject-matter of the book which the tradi- tional saying attributed to him implies.

Johnson was delighted with the delicate and gentle flavour of the good Royalist and

Churchman which breathes in Walton's masterpiece, in spite of the writer's care to avoid anything in the least degree contro- versial, and Johnson was just the man to speak tenderly of the favourite pursuit of a man he liked. Reading between the lines, I am convinced Johnson angled himself. I have neither Boswell nor anything of Johnson at the moment by me, but any angler can see at a glance, as I did myself years ago, that in his Highland tour" the Doctor was delighted when he came across the natives trout-fishing ; heartily entered into the spirit of the w T ork that was toward ; applauded Boswell' s own prowess with the rod, which, indeed, the latter displayed on Johnson's urging him to show what he could do and, if my memory does not play me false, the old man most certainly had a try himself. All this, of course, does not exactly prove the negative, but it certainly justifies one in insisting on something more convincing than we now have before ac- cepting the old sneer at the angler and his art as Johnson's. MONA.

DEATH WARRANTS (12 S. i. 49, 111). MR. ERIC WATSON raises an interesting question. Apparently, the King personally did not sign the " Recorder's Report." A copy of the * Report ' on the case of Henry Fauntleroy, the forger, appeared in Belfs Weekly Messenger during December, 1824 :

" To the Sheriffs of the City of London and the County of Middlesex, and also to the Governor of His Majesty's Gaol of Newgate.

" This day was reported to the King in Council the following persons [the names are given in the Recorder's Report] capitally convicted at the October Sessions of the General Gaol Delivery of Newgate now it is His Majesty's pleasure that execution be done on Henry Fauntleroy, on Tuesday next, Nov. the 30th.

" This is to command you that execution be done on the body of the said Henry Fauntleroy on Tuesday next.

" NEWMAN KNOWLYS, Recorder.

" London, Nov. 24, 1824."

According to a newspaper paragraph this ' Report ' was sealed w T ith a black seal, and it was occasionally referred to in the daily press as " a warrant." King George IV. is said to have been present at a meeting of the Privy Council when the fate of Fauntleroy was determined.

In former days, however, there seem to have been instances when the sovereign did actually sign the death warrant of important prisoners. Froude gives a circumstantial account of the signing of the warrant for the execution of Marv, Queen of Scots, by Qu.een Elizabeth (' History of England,' xii. 323-4).