Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/384

 378

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. 1. MAY 6, 1916.

DRAKE'S DRUM (12 S. i. 247). This hardly amounts to a " patriotic phrase," surely. The drum itself is now at Buckland Abbey, the seat of Sir Francis F. Elliott-Drake, Bart., pictures of which residence, including the drum, appeared in Country Life of March 1 1. An engraving of it also figures as one of the illustrations in ' The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake,' by Lady Elliott-Drake, which engraving was more- over reproduced in the book of the play ' Drake,' by Louis N. Parker, published by John Lane. With regard to the history of the instrument reliable information is scanty. Corbett, in his ' Drake and the Tudor Navy,' surmises that this drum was beaten when the great navigator's body was consigned to the deep ; and there is a legend that Drake may yet be summoned by a beat of the drum, should England ever be in danger. Perhaps, however, it will be safer to rely on Sir John Jellicoe.

Sir Henry Newbolt's song, to which W. C. J. alludes, consists of three verses, which I cannot well reproduce, without his authority, for copyright reasons. Suffice it to cite one which bears on the legend : Drake he was a Devon man an' ruled the Devon Seas

(Cap ten, art tha sleepin' there below ?) Bovin', tho' his death fell he went wi' heart at ease,

An' dreamin' all the time o' Plymouth Hoe. Take my Drum to England Hang et by the shore,

Strike it when your powder's runnin' low ; If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the Port o' Heaven,

And drum 'em up the Channel as we drumm'd 'em long ago.

There is a musical setting to this song by Sir V. Stanford in his ' Songs of the Sea,' and another by W. H. Hedgcock.

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

The tradition attaching to Drake's drum is that, in the event of England being in peril, the drum will sound an alarm, and Drake will rise from his watery grave to fight again for England. .Twice, it is said, since Drake passed away has the drum sounded. Once his spirit found a tenement in Blake, who avenged the insult of the Dutchman who sailed up the Thames with a broom at his masthead, and afterward carried a whip at his own, as a sign that he had driven the Dutch from the English seas. The second time his spirit was summoned, Nelson arose and secured to England the supremacy which she has never since lost.

Drake's drum, which has been made famous by Sir Henry Newbolt in his stirring poem, was carried by Sir Francis

Drake on board the Pelican on his memorable voyage round the world, 1577-80. It hangs in Buckland Abbey, near Plymouth, the seat of Sir Francis Drake. It measures 17 ! in. high, and 16 in. in diameter.

Two drums, exact reproductions of the original, were presented by the ladies of Devon to H.M.S. Devonshire, when she was first commissioned. W. G. WILLIS WATSON.

Exeter.

HENRY DETHICK (US. ix. 485). To the account of Henry Dethick, quoted from Dr. Venn's ' Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College,' and supplemented by MR. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT'S note, it may be added that in Robert Turner's ' Epistolse,' Cologne, 1615, pp. 51-4, is a letter written from Rome to Henry Dethick at Liege. There is no date, but the year is presumably 1580, as Turner gives the news of the capture of Elvas by the Spaniards. *One of the chief topics of the letter is the death of Christopher Owen (Ouoenus) : "ilia spes Anglise, gloria Oxonij, ornamentum

Romanae scholse, angelus Anglus ille paruus

homo, magnus Theologus."

" Lugent omnia [says Turner], Roma extinctum suum lumen, schola deformatam suam gloriam, Anglia exclusam suam spem, Societatis Patres translatum suum angelum, amici ereptam suam suauitatem."

EDWARD BENSLY.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SPANISH LITERATURE (12 S. i. 287). The following books retrospec- tively are excellent guides :

' History of Spanish Literature.' By Prof. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, in Heinemann's" Short Histories of the Literature'of the World."

'Lectures on Chapters in Spanish Literature/ By same author.

' Elementary Handbook Spanish Literature/ By H. Butler Clarke.

' Spanish Literature in England of the Tudors/ By John Garrett Underbill, in " Columbia Uni- versity Studies in Literature."

Martin S. Hume.
 * Spanish Influence on English Literature/ By

ANEURIN WILLIAMS.

[MB. ARCHIBALD SPARKE thanked for reply. A reply by MR. HUMPHREYS to follow.]

LATTON FAMILY (11 S. xii. 400; 450,- 12 S. i. 79). Much information may be obtained from the following sources : Ashmole's ' Berkshire,' vol. i. p. 126, and vol. iii. p. 330 ; Atkins's ' Gloucestershire,' see Painswick and Cirencester ; Mant ell's ' Topographical Hist, of Surrey,' vol. ii. pp. 360 and 362 ; Manning's ' Hist, of Surrey ' (1809), vol. ii. part ii. p. 753.

Dr. Mantell states that Burwood Park, in the parish of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey,