Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/223

 12 s. ii. SEPT. 9, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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I had also noticed Dr. Brushfield's paper. It is not a satisfactory performance. For instance, Dr. Brushfield quotes from MB. ALLNUTT'S preliminary article in ' N. & Q.' (5 S. ix. 12), apropos of Dr. Tanner's letter, und remarks :

"How far the hearsay report [of Dr. Tanner] was correct we have no means of ascertaining. No other conteni|)orary writer alludes to it."

It is surely misdescriptive to vrite down -as " hearsay " the report of a learned antiquary made after inquiry ; and, as for allusions by contemporary writers of the early eighteenth and seventeenth centuries 10 the periodicals of their times, the trouble is always to find any writer who does so allude. I can speak feelingly on this subject, after many years' research. Dr. Brushfield then goes on, aided by Dr. Oliver, to identify one printer as the printer of another man's paper :

" Samuel Farley has been termed by one of his -descendants ' the father of journalism in the West of England.' The history of the known Exeter press certainly commences with him. His first newspaper venture was The. Bristol Poatman [.sic] in 1713. On September 24th, 1714, he started his first Exeter newspaper, with the following title :

'"Numb. 1. The Exeter Mercury Printed

by Philip Bishop at his Printing Office in St. Peter's Churchyard. 1714.' "

I quite fail to see why the proof given afterwards that Farley and Bishop in 1715 (the following year) agreed for the latter always to print the news becomes proof that Bishop's paper of 1714 really was Farley's, Dr. Oliver to the contrary not- withstanding.

The history of the Farley family, both at Bristol and at Exeter, is undoubtedly im- portant ; but since Bliss was printing a paper in 1707, his life -story should prove very much more so for the latter place, as I hope to demonstrate shortly in a further article in ' N. & Q.' J. B. WILLIAMS.

ST. PETER AS THE GATE-KEEPER OF HEAVEN (12 S. ii. 90, 177). The story' of the Irish fishermen reminds me of one told me by an Italian.

A fisherman who lost his life at sea applied for entrance. St. Peter asked him if he had received absolution. The fisherman replied no ; he was lost at sea, and no priest was there. " Very well," said St. Peter, " you sit down outside, and the next priest that comes in shall absolve you." This hap- pened in the fourteenth century, but the fisherman is still hitting outside.

H. A. C. SATJNDERS.

Ill Grosvenor Road, Highbury New Park, N.

" CONSUMPTION " AND " LETHARGY " : THEIR MEANING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (12 S. i. 489 ; ii. 35). MR. HILL should consult

" Morbus Anglicns : or the Anatomy of Con- sumptions to which are added some brief dis- courses of melancholy, madness, and distraction occasioned by love. By Gideon Harvey, M.D. 1672."

Chap. ii. deals with ' The Various Acceptions of Consumptions ' ; chap. viii. ' Of an Hypo- chondriack Consumption ' ; chap. ix. ' Of an Amorous Consumption ' ; chap. xiv. ' Of a Dolorous Consumption.' There are thirty- six chapters in all.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

COMMON GARDEN =COVENT GARDEN (12 S. ii. 89, 157). In J. T. Smith's ' Book for a Rainy Day ' there is an amusing anecdote told of a mock knight known as " Sir " Harry Dinsdale (or sometimes Dimsdale). He was an itinerant muffin-man, and his portrait was engraved and published by Evans, the famous dealer of Great Queen Street and later of the Strand. " Sir " Harry was charged with unruly conduct. He was a short, feeble little man :

" ' What have you. Sir Harry, to say to all this ? ' asked the justice. The ' knight,' who had been roughly handled, began, like a true orator, in a low tone of voice, ' May it please ye, my magistrate, I am notdrunk ; it is languor. A parcel of *' bloods " of the Garden have treated me cruelly, because I would not treat them. This day, sir, I was sent for by Mr. Sheridan to make my speech upon the table at the Shakespeare Tavern in Common Garden ; he wrote the speech for me, and always gives me half a guinea when he sends for me to the tavern,' " &c.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187 Piccadilly, W.

CROMWELL: ST. JOHN (12 S. ii. 171). Oliver St. John (1598 ?-1673), Chief Justice, was married thrice : (1 ) to Johanna, daughter of Sir James Altham of Marks Hall, Latton, Essex, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Barrington. Elizr.beth Barrington's mother was Joan, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbro-ke, aunt both to the Protector Cromwell and to John Hampden. For St. John's four children by his first wife see Noble's ' House of Cromwell,' ii. 24-9, and ' D.N.B.,' 1. 156.

(2) On Jan. 21, 1638, to Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Cromwell of Upwood, the Protector's uncle. Henry Cromwell. B.C.L., and Fellow of St. John's College, Oxon, in 1588, aged 22, was a J.P. and M.P. for the borough of Huntingdon in James I.'s first Parliament. He was an adventurer in the Virginia Company, and died in 1630,