Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/275

 128. II. SEPT. 30, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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church is called "St. Mary Merge or Marge." What is the origin of this appellation ? Capel-le-Ferne, sometimes termed C&pel- farne, I take to be Capol-la-Fernle, though in a will dated 1526 the testator desires to be buried in the " church of Our Lady of Capell in the Feme." PIERRE TURPIN.

JONATHAN BUNKS. In a foreign book- seller's catalogue, a few years ago, a MS., written in 1795 by one Jonathan Bunks, was offered for sale, containing stories of adven- tures, including ' Mirus Omnivagus's Aerial Flight to England in his Grand Balloon.' According to a note the author was a school- boy, and the MS. was illustrated with water- colour drawings. Is anything known con- cerning the author or the present whereabouts of liis MS. ? L. L. K.

AUTHORS WANTED. Who wrote a poem entitled ' Links with Heaven ' ? The first verse is as follows :

Our God in heaven, from that holy place To each of us an angel guide has given;

But mothers of dead children have more grace, For they give angels to their God in heaven.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

Can any of your readers inform me where the following quotation is taken from :

He counted them at break of day,

But when the sun set where were they ?

Huddersfield Club. F " A " BROOKE.

[Byron: 'The Isles of Greece' in 'Don Juan' Canto III.

MADAME DE STAEL. According to M. Pierre Kohler, M. Necker brought his wife and child then aged 10 years to London- in 1776, as he was anxious that they should become acquainted with the country of which the Government excited his sympathy. Has any reader come across any reference to this first and apparently unrecorded visit of the future Madame de Stae'l to this country ? L. G. R.

Bournemouth.

BRASSEY (BRACEY) FAMILY. Can anyone enlighten me on the family of Brassey of Hertfordshire ? It is distinct from that of Lord Brassey. The family, I believe, pro- nounced the name " Bracey," and claimed descent from Sir Thomas de Bracy, one of the murderers of St. Thomas a Becket. The earliest name I have yet traced is John Brassey of Roxford, Hertingfordbury, whose son Nathaniel represented Hertford in four Parliaments in the eighteenth century. Chauncy (publ. 1700) mentions Roxford, but not Brassev.

I should like any earlier names than the above John, and any warrant for the family tradition as to the ancestry.

Burke's ' General Armory ' gives the arms of Brassey, "or Bracey," as: Sa.,a bend be- tween 2 dexter hands arg.

G. H. PALMER. Heywood Park, Maidenhead.

WRECK OF THE GRANTHAM, 1744. There is a tradition that the Grantham, an East Indiaman, was wrecked at Folkestone in 1744 ; where can particulars be found ? As to that date there is not entire agreement ; for instance, there is a house near Folkestone said to have been built from the wreckage, and on it there is an inscription dated 1718 : " God's Providence is my Inheritance."

Recently a piece of the wreck was presented to the Folkestone Museum and the date given as 1742 ; a discovery of remains in 1847 puts the year as 1737; but Nicholas Bir-field tes- tified in 1788 that he "particularly remem- bered the Grantham, E.I., being stranded or wrecked within the bounds of Folkestone, 1744." R. J. FYNMORE.

" DRIBLOWS." I am interested just at present in the history of a Merchant Taylors' Company, and have found in an inventory of 1649, which has been put into print, that the Society possessed " Eight dozen of Puder drib lows great and small." " Puder " I take to mean pewter, though I believe the word has sometimes stood for copper ; but what were " driblows " ? The company had a marking-iron to mark the " Puder," and it is sad to read that in 1664, when it was de- sirable to make money by the sale of a silver bowl, "all the Puder" was likewise sold. It is delightful to read in the minutes of June 24, 1683, the order that there should be unity, peace, and concord among the Mer- chant Taylors " for ever and A."

ST. SWTTHIN.

" WHO'S GRIFFITHS? " I remember, dur- ing the early sixties, seeing this interrogation posted in whitewash on walls and other prominent places at Hampstead and other parts of the metropolis, but as a boy I never could learn to what it had reference. Was it in the nature of an advertisement, and, if so, of what ? N. W. HILL.

[Sometimes the question was followed by the answer: "The safe man." The firm of C. H. Griffiths & Sons, safe-makers, still flourishes in London.]

FAUST BIBLIOGRAPHY. Can any n ;',(!< T- recommend books dealing with the Faust legend, and the place of the Faust story in English literature ? _^. GWENT.