Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/221

 12 s. i. MAR. 11, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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do not think, however, that priest vicars are ever expected nowadays to help in the music sung by the lay vicars. Their duty is to intone the prayers, and so they some- times get called minor canons, which is the right title for those who perform this duty in cathedrals of the new foundation. At St. Paul's, indeed, there has been a body of minor canons from early times, in addition to the six vicars choral, even though the latter were formerly in Holy Orders. At Hereford, although there are no lay vicars, there are some lay assistants for choir work ; -and at St. Paul's the body of six vicars choral has been strengthened for many years by an unendowed non-foundation body of twelve assistant vicars choral.

As some who read these lines may not know the difference between cathedrals of the old foundation and of the new, I may -explain that before the Reformation the -clergy were divided into regular and secular. The former were monks, and some cathedrals had an abbot and monks, whilst others had secular clergy consisting of a dean, canons, <&c.

At the Reformation monks were abolished, and so Henry VIII. gave to the monastic cathedrals a new foundation, by which each was to have a dean, canons, minor canons, and lay clerks, corresponding to the dean, canons, minor canons (or priest vicars), and lay vicars choral in other cathedrals. Thus, whilst in the old days there was an Abbot of Canterbury, there was then, as now, a Dean of St. Paul's.

W. A. FROST, Vicar Choral. St. Paul's Cathedral.

FEMALE NOVELISTS (12 S. i. Ill, 150). Neither name mentioned by E. C. is to be found in Betham's ' Biographical Dictionary.' Mrs. Agnes Maria Bennett was the authoress of ; Nana, or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress ' <1785), L Ellen, Countess of Castle Howell' <1794), and 'The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors' (1797). G. F. R. B.

LOUISA PARR (12 S. i. 150). Mrs. Louisa Parr was born in London about the year 1848, and was the only child of Matthew Taylor, R.N. Her early life was spent at Plymouth. Commencing her literary career in 1868, when she published in Good Words her first story, entitled ' How It All Hap- pened,' she early attracted great attention. It was so well received that it was translated into French, and appeared also in the Journal des Debats. At the Queen of Wurttemberg's request a German version of it was published. The following year, 1869,

she married a physician, George Parr of Kensington, whither she went and settled.

Her best work, and the one which gained her her audience, was ' Adam and Eve,' published in 1880. She also contributed short stories to magazines. Much of her best work was concerned with the sea. Her death occurred on Nov. 2. 1903, at about 55 years of age. Further information on her life and works may be obtained from the ' D.N.B.,' Second Supp. iii. 73 ; and Alli- bone's ' Dictionary of Authors.'

E. E. BARKER. The John Rylands Library, Manchester.

THE MASS : A FAMOUS ENGLISHMAN'S CHANGE OF VIEW (12 S. i. 149). The one famous is Macaulay at Marseilles (v. 'Life,' vol. ii. p. 19) :

" A chapel, mean inside, and mean outside, but

crowded The Mass was nearly over. I stayed

to the end, wondering that so many reasonable beings could come together to see a man bow, drink, bow again, wipe a cup, wrap up a napkin, spread his arms, and gesticulate with his hands ; and to hear a low muttering which they could not understand, interrupted by the occasional jingling of a bell" (Oct. 28, J838).

But on Nov. 7 :

"While walking about the town I picked up a little Mass- book, and read for the first time in my life [cet. 38] strange, and almost disgraceful, that it should be so the service of the Mass from beginning to end

" I intend to frequent the Romish worship till I come thoroughly to understand this ceremonial."

By Christmas, Macaulay had run on to feel, after seeing the ceremonies at St. Peter's, with the Pope :

' I was deeply moved by reflecting on the im- mense antiquity of the Papal dignity, which can certainly, boast of a far longer clear known and uninterrupted succession than any dignity in the world ; linking together, as it does, the two great iges of human civilisation. Our modern feudal kings are mere upstarts compared with the suc- cessors in regular order, not, to be sure, of Peter but of Sylvester and Leo the Great."

W. F. P. STOCKLEY.

S. JOSEPH, SCULPTOR (11 S. ii. 81, 134). The Royal Scottish Academy is preparing an exhibition of works of sculptors who were natives of or who -worked in Scotland, and is paying particular attention to the work of Joseph. It may be well therefore for to add a few notes to those given at the above references, and especially to the second, which suggests Jewish origin for the 'amily.

I have inquired carefully as to this, and can find no foundation whatever for the idea ; indeed, the moral and physical