Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/267

 12 s. i. APRIL i, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1916.

CONTENTS.-No. 14.

NOTES : Contributions to the History of European Travel, 261 Fielding at Boswell Court, 264 Memoirs of Patrick Madan, 265 "Leuiciana" -Gossips and Lies- Major John Fairfax A Question in Probabilities, 266.

QUERIES: Phosphorescent Spiders 'La Bete du GeVaudan ' Charles Lamb's Folio ' Beaumont and Fletcher' Poisoned Robes Elizabeth Vernou of Hodnet Montagu and Manchester Fourteenth-Century Stained Glass, 267 Action on Water of Frogs and Toads Waring

Authors Wanted Lyke Wake Dirge Larckin "Parted brass-rags "George Byng, M.P. for Newport

Major Thomas Dilkes Author of Song Wanted Royal Sussex Regiment Dr. Charnock's Library, 268 Heraldry

"Plura mala nobis contingunt quam accidunt " Driden Welsh Priests educated Abroad, 269.

REPLIES : Sir Robert Carey's Ride, 269 Mrs. Quon, 272 Song Wanted Rowland Hill Chanelhouse : Ion : Ormondy : Twisaday, 273 Village Pounds Santiago de Compostela Handley Cross" Pat (Martha) Alexander, Tavern Keeper," 275 A Smoker's Superstition" Har- pastum" : Football, 276 Queen Anne's " Three Realms " Richard Wilson Stuart, Count d'Albanie, 277 Canon Law Mack Surname Capt. Kane William Horneck, 278.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Monumental Inscriptions in the Churches and Churchyards of the Island of Bar- bados ' ' Coronation Rites.'

OBITUARY : Richard Oliver Heslop. Notices to Correspondents.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN TRAVEL.

(See ante, pp. 61, 101, 141, 181, 221.)

VI.

RICHARD CHISWELL.

THE manuscript account of the travels of Richard Chiswell through Holland, Germany, and Italy in 1697 is preserved at the British Museum (Add. MS. 10,623). The party comprised Mr. Henry Mandrell, " going Chaplain to Aleppo," Mr,. Jerome Rawstorne, Mr. Nat. Hill, Mr. Richard Payler, " Designed for Smirna," and the writer of the travels, then a young man of about twenty-three years of age.

Leaving London on March 5, 1696/7, the travellers arrived at Harwich on the 7th. Here they found the traffic with Holland so much increased and Harwich so greatly profited by the French war that Chiswell regards it as "one. of the few townes in

England that does not care how long it lasts." The same day they set sail in the packet-boat Eagle, a vessel of about 80 tons and carrying four guns and about 50 persons; but they encountered contrary winds followed by a " stark calm," and finally a violent gale blew them back to Harwich, where they were forced to wait five days. On the 13th they tried again, but " mett with just the like fortune as before," and it was not until the 18th that they got safely across to Helvoetsluis, the sea running all the time " mighty high and hollow." At Helvoetsluis they observed a large yard and dock for building and careening men-of-war, seventeen of which, each carrying from 50 to 90 guns, lay ready for sea,

" but nither for neat building, largeness or strength [says Chiswell] are they comparable to cures, nor may they niver increase their Art to Bivall y e English Nation in y 6 Dominion of y e Seas."

Rotterdam was reached on March 24. Here the travellers much admired the fine brick-built houses, and visited an exhibition of pictures representing ships, flowers, &c., cut out of paper and framed :

a most exquisite piece of work, and y e more to be admired because nothing of y* Nature was ever made before, this being y 6 singular fancy of a gentleman of a very good estate (but a Melan- choly person), so tho' great Summs have been offered to purchase them, it would not be ac- cepted."

Delft was reached the next day in a boat drawn by a horse at a great pace along the canals, and from there the travellers pro- ceeded in a " sort of waggon " via the Hague to Leyden, where they dined extravagantly dear. The Dutch as a race did not impress Chiswell very favourably :

" Y e generality of the Nation [he writes], as Common Civility and good Manners is not their Pattent, so also strangers find it to their Cost y fc over-reaching and exacting is a principal qualli- ication and a Master peice in Holland."

At Amsterdam the Town Hall, not then finished, is described as a " magnificent }ile " ; and a visit was also paid to

' y 8 2 Places of Correction for Bobbers, Whores, &c., called y 6 Rasp and spin houses, which are well worth seeing, and y 6 designe has mett with y e desired effect, it being very apparent that this way of Punnishment by Hard Labour and long restraint has had much better Success in y e Suppressing of Bobbery, &c. than Our method of

mmediate Execution in England."

Each night at Amsterdam a bell was rung at 11 o'clock, and a quarter of an hour later

he city gates were shut. Any one admitted after this hour had to pay Qd. to the poor. The fish market and the Dutch East India