Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/413

 128. 1. MAY 20, 1916.]

NOTES AND QQERIES.

407

-wants of others all that he had earned by labour -or withheld from self-indulgence. Warm with philanthropy and exalted by charity, his mind expanded to those noble affections which grow but too rarely from the most elevated pursuits. After administering with extensive bounty to the claims of consanguinity, he established this asylum for that stage of languor and disease "to which the charity of others had not reached ; he provided a retreat for hopeless insanity, and rivalled the endowment of kings. He died the ~27th of December 1724, in the eightieth year of this age.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchrngton, Warwickshire.

(To be continued.)

LETTER OF WARRANT FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH TO SIR THOMAS SMITH AND DR. "WILSON, FOR PUTTING Two OF THE DUKE OF NORFOLK'S SERVANTS TO THE RACK (MS. 'Cotton. Calig. C. iii. fol. 229, Orig.). The following letter of warrant from Queen "Elizabeth, permitting the torture to be applied to the Duke's servants Barker and "Banister, is somewhat curious. It is re- markable that the body of the letter is in the handwriting of Lord Burghley.

" ELIZABETH R. By the Quene.

" Eight trusty and welbeloved we grete yow well, and fyndyng in the traytorovs attempts lately discovered that nether Barker nor Bannister Tthe Duke of Norfolks men have uttred ther knolledg, nother will discover the same without "torture ; forasmuch as the knolledg herof con- cerneth our suerty and estate, and that they have untruly allredy answered, We will and by warrant l herof authoriss you to precede to the furder 'examynation of them uppon all poynts that you -can thynk by your discretions mete for knolledg 'Of tiie truth. And, they shall not seme to yow "to confess playnly ther knolledg, than we warrant yow to cause them both, or ether of them, to be 'brought to the rack : and first to move them with feare thereof to deale playnly hi ther answers, and
 * if that stiall not move them than yow shall cause

-them to be putt to the rack, and to find the tast tfherof untill they shall deale more playnly, or iimill yow shall think mete. And so we remitt ?the whole procedyng to your furder discretion, Tecuiryng yow to use spede herin and to require the assistance of our Lieutenant of the Toure.

" Gyven under our signet the xv th of Septemb lo il

To o r trustie and right well beloved Counsellors S r, Thomas. .yth K*,

&nd to o r, tie and well beloved

Itoctor son one of the Masters

of our Requestes. ^Indorsed]

Heceaved at the Towir the xv j, daie of 7 er, at eleven of the clocke in the fore- aioone 1571."

This extract is taken verbatim et literatim from

" Original Letters, illustrative of English History : including Numerous Royal Letters from Autographs in the British Museum, &c. By Henry Ellis, F.R.S., Sec. S.A., Keeper of the Manu- scripts in the British Museum," vol. ii. p. 260, second edition, First Series.

That the torture was applied seems certain. Two days subsequent to the date of this Letter, Sir Thomas Smith writes thus to Lord Burghley from St. Katherine's, respecting Barker's, Banister's, and the other examinations :

" I suppose we have gotten so much as at this time is like to be had : yet to-morrow do we intend to bring a couple of them to the Rack, not in any hope to get anything worthy that pain or fear, but because it is so earnestly commanded to us. As for Barker, I thynk he hath and will confess so much as his wit will serve him ; and yet, as it appeareth, hath been the most doer betwixt the Duke and other foreign practisers. Banister is somewhat obstinate, but little he knoweth. We send you his, Barker's, Higford's, and Charles's examinations more than you have had already. I pray you trust that to-morrow we will do what we can do." Ibid., p. 261.

HARRY B. POLAND. Inner Temple.

THE " PENNY-A-LINERS " OF ' THE DAILY CHRONICLE ' CORNER. The demolition of the corner of the advertisement office of The Daily Chronicle, as part of the scheme for the widening of Fleet Street, recalls the fact that it was once the favourite rendezvous of the now practically extinct " tribe " of " penny-a-liners." Many have long since passed away, and the few survivors have become thoroughly " respectable journal- ists," or are devoting themselves to more serious branches of literature. It was, in fact, the multiplication of news agencies and the development of the telephone service which gave " lining " its final death-blow. One of the most progressive news agencies of the present time was founded by two of the more serious members of the " tribe " at the corner. On stormy and rainy days the " tribe " generally took refuge in the City News Rooms, near Ludgate Circus, which was managed by a Mr. Walker and his two very pleasing daughters. It was the real " Bohemia " of those days, and an opportunity was afforded there for having " forty winks " during the daytime without extra charge. The " copy " of the day was generally written within its walls. The chief messenger of the " tribe " was a one- eyed man, who was once a professional singer. The " silver- toned tenor," as he