Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/193

 12 s. i. MAE. 4, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

187

r^paraient la toiture d'une des chapelles de la oath^drale, et qui y d^couvrirent quatre grandes caisses en bois renfermant, outre les pieces capi- tales cities plus haut, de nombreux registres des actes capitulaires de 1447 a 1734, et plus de 700 pieces originates allant du neuvieme au dix 'huitieme siecle.

"II y a tout lieu de croire que ce magnifique tre"sor arch^ologique avait e"te" cache" pendant les troubles reVolutionnaires. 11 sera transport^ au depot des archives du d^partement du Rhone t mis a la disposition des erudits.

"C. M. SAVARIT."

EDWARD S. DODGSON. The Union Society, Oxford.

THE THREE PIGEONS, BRENTFORD. This well-known inn having been closed, its demolition will not be long delayed. Its interest to-day is largely that of association and literary celebrity, because it has been so modernized, and is frankly so unpicturesque, that a visit to it diminishes rather than feeds our regard for its splendid history. It is mentioned in several local histories ; and Faulkner (' History of Brentford,' p. 144) writing before 1845, says the interior was sitting and sleeping apartments, connected by a projecting gallery at the back, and communicating by several staircases to the attics, with numerous 'dark closets and passages."
 * ' still in its ancient state, having above twenty

Not a very vivid description, but, having devoted six pages of his work to Mrs. Trimmer, the writer would not be capable of describing this old inn. The Observer of Jan. 16 provides an illustration and interest- ing summary of its history.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

The passing of this historic inn at Brent- ford was noted in a recent issue of The Times, which quoted the following extract from Halliwell's notes to * The Merry Wives of Windsor ' :

"This house is interesting as being in all likeli- hood one of the few haunts of Shakespeare not removed, and as being, indeed, the sole Elizabethan tavern existing in England, which, in the absence ot direct evidence to the contrary, may fairly be presumed to have been occasionally visited by him."

"Ben Jonson alludes to the tavern in 'The Alohymiat, 1 and Middleton in ' The Roaring Girl,' and the former tells how 'We '11 tickle it at the Pigeons. Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Peele used the house. Peele made it the scene of some of his 'Merry Jests.' Goldsmith used it as the scene of Tony Lumpkin's conviviality in ' She otpops to Conquer,' and Dickens alludes to it in

Our Mutual Friend.' "

John Lowen, who acted with Shakespeare and Ben Jonson at the Globe as a member of the King's Company, and who created

the part of Henry VIII., became, on the suppression of the theatres by the Puritans, landlord of this tavern, and died here in 1659. The Three Pigeons closed its doors on Jan. 7 last by order of the Middlesex licensing board, presumably to make room for municipal improvements. ^ ^y JJ ILL

JOHN OLIVER, of Worcester diocese, described as a pensioner of King Edward VI., and probably, therefore, educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, was ordained deacon in London in December, 1553 (Dr. Frere's 'The Marian Reaction,' S.P.C.K., 1896, at p. 267), and was subsequently ordained priest. Dr. Gee in ' The Elizabethan Clergy, 1558-64' (Oxford, 1898), in his Index at p. 314, seems disposed to identify him with the Rector of Baddiley, Cheshire, who was absent from the Visitation of 1559 ; but this is not a correct identification. In a letter from Louvain, addressed to Cardinal Morone, dated March 28, 1573 (' Archivio Vaticano,' Arm. Ixiv. 28, p. 73), John Oliver says that he had been domestic chaplain to Richard Pate, Bishop of Worcester, and had been promised a prebend in Worcester Cathedral. As he states that he said Mass in presence of the Bishop just before he, Oliver, went abroad, and as the Bishop of Worcester (who seems to have been in private custody some months previously) was committed to the Tower of London, May 20, 1560, it is probable that Oliver fled abroad in 1559. He appears from the ' Concertatio Ecclesiae ' to have been still living abroad in 1588. In his letter to the Cardinal he says that two years previously he had dedicated a book of prayers to his Eminence. Is anything known of this book ? and is anything known of the author or compiler, or whatever he was ? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

HALLEY AND PEAKE FAMILIES IN VIR- GINIA. (See 11 S. xii. 339 ; 12 S. i. 9.) Mr. Henry I. Hutton of Warrenton, Virginia, writes me under date of Dec. 23, 1915, as follows :

"I wrote you some time ago about one Sybil Halley marrying Jesse Peake, which was taken From some old family records in Kentucky ; but last week I went to Fairfax Courthouse (Virginia) ind found a marriage contract between Sybil Halley and Wm. Harrison Peake, made and re- corded in 1791 ; so this is positive proof that his name as last given [in another letter] is correct. The contract was witnessed by his brother John Peake, and her father James Halley."

EUGENE F. McPiKE. 1200 Michigan Ave., Chicago, U.S.