Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/371

 i2s.x.Ap R n.22,i922.i NOTES AND QUERIES. 301 LONDON, APRIL 22, 1922. CONTENTS. No. 210. NOTES : A Miraculous Stone, 301 The Romantic Element in Settecentescan Dramatic Criticism, 302 Middlesex Justices, 1745, 305 New Light on William Penn, 306 The Stars and Stripes. 307 The Bear, the Horse and the Auber- gine, 308. QUERIES: St. Thomas's Hospital. 308 " Tuileurs." a French Masonic Term Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Viu- cenzo Martinelli Palavicini Arms Stone Sign: Lower Thames Street Rope of Sand Wines Spry Family. 309 " Hildebrand Oaktree " Maltby Family Frogs and Snails as Purifiers of Water Beef : Effect on One's Witr- Thumb Bibles Peel Yates Thomas Adams Charles (or Christopher) Alcock Daniel de Ligne W. J. N. Neale, 310. REPLIES :-" Grave " and " Gressom." 311 Did Lord Byron make a Tour in Corsica in 1821 ? 312 Linnaeus and the Mile End Nurseryman Mary Seymour: Lady Bushell John Abercrombie. 313 Eighteenth-century London Coffee- houses and Taverns Old London Bridge The One-legged Lord Mayor, 314 " Tourd'Ivoire," 315 " Southam Cyder " Henry Ellis Boates of Liverpool Barrel Organs in Churches Nevin Family, 316 " The King*s Standinge " in Rich- mond Park " Berwick," 317 " Coget " De Heringeshae Sir Henry Johnson of Poplar Ruvigny's Plantagenet Rolls Portrait of Lady Harrington Holborn, Middle Row Grafton. Oxon Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes Lambert Family. 318. NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The Ballads of Marko Kraljevich ' S.P.E. Tracts Nos. VII. and VI11. ' Primitive Speech.' Part I. The Finch MSS., Vol. ii. ' The Battle of Brunanburh.' Notices to Correspondents. A MIRACULOUS STONE. MANY years ago I came across the follow- ing tract in the British Museum. This was before I had examined our Records at Aldeburgh, and previous to an acquaint- ance with William Dowsing (of icono- clastic fame), Captain Johnson, or the godly Mr. Swayn ; and I have little doubt the story was planned, staged, and played for Parliamentarian purposes. Items in the Chamberlains' Accounts show that Johnson (who died Oct. 17, 1658, and is described on the black marble tablet in the church as " Captaine of the Traineband ") was paid for his supply of Aldeburgh lecturers. These lecturers all over the country were, I believe, powerful agents in the hands of the Parliamentarians, who, under the cloak of piety, " turned religion into rebellion and faith into faction." (Lecturers are drastically treated by Selden in his * Table Talk/ ) This particular tract probably paved the way in part for William Dowsing. Dowsing's visitation of destruction in Suffolk began on Jan. 6, 1643, and in 50 days 150 places were visited by him, or by agents appointed by him under his warrant. The destruction in our church at Aldeburgh took place on Jan. 24, 1643 ; the order was given (as appears in Dowsing's nauseous ' Diary ') for taking down 20 Churubims, and 28 pictures which their lecturer Mr. Swayn (a godly man) undertook, and their Captain Mr. Johnson. Far more damage was, however, done than that included in the " order," as proved by the items in the Accounts for the repairs to the windows, chancel, floor of the nave (whence many brasses were removed), &c. The story is miraculous in several ways. The printing of the tract seems to have been expeditious, to say the least. The sign occurred at " about the hour of four or five a clock in the afternoone " of Aug. 4, and we find the tract is printed on the 12th day of the same month in London ; this almost looks as if the printer had received some premonition (in the absence of the tele- phone) and had the type set, especially as " Captaine Johnson and one Master Thomp- son " decided to continue their journey to Aldeburgh (and one can imagine their re- ception at the " Lion " !) instead of turning rein and trying to get to the " Honourable House of Commons " before the " scent as was hot " (presumably sulphur) had left the stone. But the falling of the stone was certainly " somewhat miraculous." Instead of embedding itself in the soft sandy soil, it seems to have grazed " in the fall of it along upon the Heath some 6 or 7 yards." We are not told what kind of dog " was in their company " but it certainly was not a King Charjes's spaniel ! I believe this tract has been mentioned in two or three old Suffolk books. It is headed : A syne from Heaven, or a Fearefull and Terrible noise heard in the ayre at Alborow in the County of Suffolk on Thursday the 4 day of August at 6 of the clock in the afternoone wherein was heard the beating of Drums, the discharging of muskets and great ordnance for the space of an hour and more, as will be attested by many men of good worth and exhibited to some chief mem- bers of the Honourable House of Commons with a stone that fell from the sky in that storme or noise rather which is here to be seen in Towne, being of a great weight. The tract is printed by T. Fawcet on Aug. 12, 1642. After reciting that it had been foretold that we should be visited by