Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/289

 12 S. HI. APRIL 14, 1917.] N OTES AND QUERIES.

283

having ceased to be a Fellow, probably by death, in ' 1843-4. The Francis Motteux who subscribed to the publication of 1718 may be connected with these.

E. BRABROOK.

(?) Robert Stephens (1665-1732), His- toriographer-Royal and one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries, related to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. See ' D.N.B.,' liv. 180. A. R. BAYLEY.

GLOVES AT WEDDINGS (12 S. iii. 210). Beck in his ' Gloves, their Annals and Associations,' 1883, notices the custom, and quotes from the old dramatists, but gives no reason or earliest date. On p. 236 :

" For the wedding, in 1567, of the daughter of Mr. More of Losely, there were purchased/ One dozen of gloves, 10s. One other dozen of gloves, 5s. III. dozen gloves at 3s. a dozen."

So there were carefully graded classes of recipients. S. L. PETTY.

I have a pair of white gloves preserved by my father in an old cabinet, which I have always understood were given to him at the wedding of his wife's cousin, about 1840-44.

' The Wedding Dav in All Ages and Countries,' by E. J. Wood, 1869, vol. ii., has the following :

" At the marriage of Philip Herbert and Lady Susan at Whitehall, in the reign of James I., two noblemen led the bride to church. In ancient times the bridemen or bride-knights who led the lady to church were always bachelors, but she was conducted home by two married men. Morison says that the bride gave gloves during the dinner time to the men who escorted her." P. 185.

" The giving of gloves at weddings is a very ancient custom." P. 188.

" Pepys, in his ' Diary ' under date 5 July, 1663, says that he was at a wedding, and had two pairs of gloves like the rest of the visitors. It is still the custom to give white gloves to the guests at marriages." P. 189.

R. J. FYNMORE.

' THE ADVENTURES OF A POST CAPTAIN ' (12 S. iii. 70, 172). While thanking MR. SPARKE for the information as to the illus- tratorof this book.I would ask if he canthrow further light on the " J. Mitfcrd " whom he mentions incidentally as author of ' Johnny Newcome in the Navy.' This poem, re- published in Methuen's " Illustrated Pocket Library," is stated on the title-page to be by Alfred Burton, and the coloured plates by Rowlandson from the author's designs. Was Burton only an assumed pen-name ? ANETTRIN WILLIAMS.

LIBRARY OF THE LATE WILLIAM WATKIH EDWARD WYNNE OF PENIARTH, MERIONETH- SHIRE (12 S. iii. 230). What follows is taken from a Report of the National Library of W 7 ales, published in 1909 :

" The important manuscripts which for just half a century have been kept with care and pride at Peniarth,the ancestral home of the Wynnes in Merionethshire, have been removed " to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and are now, through the generosity of Sir John Williams r Bart., public property."

EDWARD BENSLY.

University College, Aberystwyth.

The Peniarth MSS. were sold in 1905 by Mr. W. R. M. Wynne to Sir John Williams,, subject to the life interest of himself and brother, and on condition that they became the property of the National Library of Wales if established at Aberystwyth. ' On the death of the brothers the MSS. passed to the Library in due course. The Historical Manuscripts Commission published a report of them, and it will be found in the portion devoted to the Welsh language, forming parts ii. and iii. of vol. i. (London, 1899- 1905). The report was prepared by Dr. John Gwenogvryn Evans, who, in the course of his remarks, says :

" The collection is undoubtedly the premier collection of Welsh manuscripts, both 'in extent and quality. Here we have the oldest MSS. of the laws of Wales, in Latin and Welsh ; the oldest versions of the Mabinogion, as well as of the- Arthurian and other romances ; the oldest and only perfect copy of the Holy Grail ; an early translation of a portion of the Gospel of Matthew ;; an immense body of poetry, ranging from the- Black Book of Carmarthen down to the eighteenth century ; historical works like the Brut y Tywysogion ; and a large number of the theo- logical works current in the Middle Ages. We have here also not only the most extensive - collection of pedigrees, but by far the oldest manuscripts with authentic contemporary ac- counts and references to sources of information."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

MOTHER AND CHILD (12 S. ii. 190, 316; iii. 17, 76). A rich series of articles, showing almost all aspects of the question, espe- cially the folk-lore side, is in La Chronique Medicale, under head of ' L' imagination de la mere peut-elle agir sur le foetus ? ' viz. : 1906, xiii. 185-6, 318, 541-3, 683 ; 1907, xiv. 396-9, 811 ; 1908, xv. 89-90, 265-8, 443-4 ; 1909, xvi. 22, 407-9, 441-2, 537-8, 684-6 ; 1910, xvii. 27, 273-4, 545-51.

Further folk-lore items are in ' Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsvrvania Germans ' (E. M. Fogel, Philadelphia, 1915), viz. : Supplement, Nos. 1850, 1851, 1853, 1880, 1882, 1886, 1891, 1904. Another recent