Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/141

 12 8. III. FEB. 17, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

135

built by a parcel of strolling players in 1761.

The " new " church mentioned may be ^either St. Ann's, St. Mary's (now demolished) or St. John's, consecrated respectively 1712, 1756, and 1769. There is (and was) very little suggestion of " Gothic taste " in any one of the trio, but the further mention of the " Square of Houses " built round the -church points to the first named and oldest of the three.

St. Ann's Square, in mid-Georgian days, with its Queen Anne houses and tree- planted " sidewalks," ranked not least amongst the " genteel " sights of the town. The church of St. Ann is a quite good ex- ample of seventeenth- to eighteenth-century Renaissance, and closely resembles Wren's church of St. Andrew, Holborn. Some architects have attributed St. Ann's, Man- chester, to the same competent hand. Built 1709-12, this church was for nearly a century known locally as the " New Church," to distinguish it from the " Old Church" now Manchester Cathedral, but still " th' owd Church " to thousands of Lancashire folk.

The Bull's Head Inn in the Market- place was during the whole of the eighteenth century the principal inn of the town, and the only one with a licence to sell wine. It still exists on the old site. G. H. R.

St. Annes-on-Sea.

VENETIAN ACCOUNT OF ENGLAND (12 S. iii. 50). There was printed for the Camden Society in 1847

'A Relation, or rather a True Account, of the Island of England ; with sundry particulars of the -customs of these people, and of the royal revenues under King Henry the Seventh, about the year 1500.'

"The English translation is by Charlotte Augusta Sneyd, the Italian original being given in smaller type at the foot of the page. The preface begins thus :

" The MS. from which this is translated was formerly in the library of the Abbate Canonici at Venice, and is now in the possession of the Rev. Walter Sneyd. [See Macray's 'Annals of the Bodleian Library.'] Neither the name of the writer of this history, nor that of the person to whom it was addressed, is known. Jt appears, however, to be the work of some noble Venetian, who accom- panied an ambassador from Venice to the court of England, and who was employed by him to write the report usually made to the Senate by every ambassador on his return from his mission, of the country to which he had been sent."

Further on it is suggested that, although Francesco Capello (1502) was the earliest
 * recorded Venetian ambassador to England,

and the present ' Relatione ' may have been the work of his secretary, yet the occasion may have been the visit of a special envoy from Venice in 1496 to conclude the treaty by which, at Windsor, in September of that year, Henry VII. agreed to take part in the league formed by the Italian states against France, " the Venetian and Milanese am- bassadors," according to Rymer's ' Feed era,' " being both present." Has this point been settled by later researches ?

EDWABD BENSLY.

The embassy referred to was that of Andrea Trevisano to the Court of Henry VII. His report or ' Relation ' was translated and edited for the Camden Society, 1847 (vol. xxxvii.), by Miss Sneyd. At the time of publication neither the author nor the precise date of the ' Relation ' was known ; these facts were first ascertained by Rawdon Brown, and published in his ' Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII.,' 1854. See also W. B. Rye, ' England as seen by Foreigners,' 1865, p. xliii. MALCOLM LETTS.

The Venetian account of England referred to by Bishop Creighton in his lecture on ' The English National Character ' was published by the Camden Society in 1847. It was entitled :

" A Relation, or rather a True Account, of the

Island of England Translated from the Italian,

with notes, by Charlotte Augusta Sneyd."

At the time Miss Sneyd contributed this interesting work to the Camden Society, neither the name of the writer nor the exact date of its composition was known. It was conjectured, however, to be by the secretary of Francesco Capello, who in November, 1501, was appointed Venetian ambassador to England. This belief was dispelled by the subsequent researches of Mr. Rawdon Brown in the Venetian archives, who proved it to be the relation of Capello's predecessor, Andrea Trevisano, who landed in England towards the end of August, 1497. The date of his relation can be definitely fixed to the following year, and the Italian version is also printed with Miss Sneyd's translation. Bishop Creighton styled this " the earliest account of England from outside," but the statement is not correct. Though it is certainly the earliest account by a Venetian, the distinction of being the first foreigner to write a detailed and lengthy account of this island belongs, I believe, to the secretary of Baron Leo von Rozmithal, who visited us in 1466. Rozmithal was the brother-in-law of the King of Bohemia, and a Latin version of his travels was republished by the Literary