Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/393

 128. 1. MAY 13, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

387

oppression of the peasants is so great, they are iorced to abandon their houses and neglect their tillage, all they have being a prey to the janissaries, whenever they please to seize upon it. We had a guard of five hundred of them, and I was almost In tears every day to see their insolences in the poor villages through which we passed.

" After seven days' travelling through thick woods, we came to Nissa (Nish), once the capital of Servia, situate in a fine plain on the river Nissava, in a very good air, and so fruitful a soil, that the great plenty is hardly credible. I was certainly assured that the quantity of wine last vintage was so prodigious, they were forced to dig holes in the earth to put it in, not having vessels -enough in the town to hold it. The happiness of this plenty is scarce perceived by the oppressed people. I saw here a new occasion for my com- passion. The wretches that had provided twenty waggons for our baggage from Belgrade hither for a certain hire, being all sent back without payment, some of their horses lamed, and others killed, without any satisfaction made for them. The poor fellows came round the house weeping and tearing their hair and beards in the most pitiful manner, without getting anything but drubs from the insolent soldiers. I cannot ex- press to your B. H. how much I was moved at this scene. I would have paid them the money out of my own pocket, with all my heart ; but it had been only giving so much to the Aga (chief officer of the Turks), who would have taken it from them without any remorse."

GWENDOLINE GOODWIN. Snaithfield, Ecclesall, Sheffield.

EPITAPH IN BRIGSTOCK CHURCHYARD, NORTHANTS. Near the west wall of the churchyard, and opposite the church tower, is a polished granite stone, surrounded by short iron railings, which has on it a quaint verse I have never previously seen in any other burial - ground. I give the inscription exactly as recorded.

Elizabeth Viccars Coursens

the beloved wife of

John Henry Coursens

Born Oct. 7 th 1836 Died April 30 th 1872

Gone for a minute, my love

From this room into the next.

I too shall go in a minute.

What time have I to be vext.

also

John Henry Coursens

Born Nov. 14 th 1833 Died June 6 th 1898 Over the river, faces I see Fair as the morning, waiting for me Friends and companions, safe in the vale Watch for the boatman, look for the sail Bearing the loved ones over the tide Into the harbour, close to their side.

L. H. CHAMBERS. Bedford.

[Our correspondent has perhaps not recognized the first stanza as an adaptation of the last -couplet of Stanza XXVI. of Tennyson's ' The Grandmother ' " my love " being substituted for " my son."]

AN ALL-NIGHT POLLING. An instance of this may, perhaps, be of sufficient interest to obtain record in the pages of ' N. & Q.'

A letter from the Vice-Chancellor to Lord Grenville, dated Oxford, Dec. 13, 1809, runs as follows :

" The poll for the election of a Chancellor of the University, which commenced at nine o'clock yesterday morning, and was continued without adjournment through the whole of the night, and of this day, has just now closed, when the numbers were found to be

LORD GBENVILLE 406 | LORD ELDON 393 | D. OP BEAUFORT 238

Your Lordship has accordingly been declared duly elected."

Though the contest was one of exceptional importance, yet as it was a two days' poll, it would hardly seem necessary (especially as there was but a limited number of electors) to have kept open all through the intervening night a winter's one. K. B.

Upton.

POLYDORE MORGAN. At 10 S. ix. 183 I stated that Thomas Morgan's nephew of this name " was ordained priest from the English College at Rome." It seems that he was actually ordained in Paris, for on March 30, 1579, a licence was granted to him to receive all orders, without letters dimissory, at the hands of the Bishop of Paris or his suffragan (' Archivio Vaticano,' Arm. XLII. vol. xxxvii. f. 483, No. 200).

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

GREENHURST. In the 'Extracts from a Seventeenth-Century Note-Book,' now ap- pearing in The Genealogist, mention is made of one Greenhurst in these words :

" Md. that all that is written at this side is extracted out of Greenhurst his booke made at the visitation, 1623." Genealogist, xxx. 190.

Also ;

" This above is extracted out of Greenhurst his booke of Armes made at the Visitation, August the second, 1623." Ibid., 269.

The Visitation alluded to must have been one of Kent, but so far I have been unable to trace Greenhurst or his book. I shall be greatly obliged if some one will enlighten me. KEITH W. MURRAY (Portcullis).

College of Arms, E.C.