Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/147

 12 S. IV. MAY, 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

141

trial. He was found guilty, and was hanged at Gallows-Hill on July 28. The monument which perpetuates the tragedy was erected by Mr. Anthony Buckles and other gentlemen. The inscription thereon has, I understand, been recently restored.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

The report of the trial of Charles Botherham for the murder of Elizabeth Sheppard will be found in The Times for July 29, 1817. The name of the judge is not stated in the brief report, but it was probably Sir George Hol- royd who tried the crime on the Midland Circuit at this Assize, or perhaps Sir John Bayley, who sat elsewhere on the civil side this circuit. Holroyd shortly afterwards came very prominently into notice by his handling of Abraham Thornton's case, on an indictment for the murder of Mary Ashford. This was the famous " wager of battel " case, tried at Warwick Summer Assizes, 1817, the " wager of battel " point being argued the ensuing Hilary Term.

ERIC B. WATSON.

There is a brief reference to this in ' High- ways and Byeways in Nottinghamshire,' by J. B. Firth, 1916, pp. 181-2.

STEPHEN J. BARNS.

GERMAN WORKS : ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS (12 S. iv. 73). A copy of Chamisso'.s ' Peter Schlemihl ; or, the Shadowless Man,' from the German (anon.), 8vo, London. 1824, is preserved in the Bodleian Library.

H. K.

MRS. LECH OF LYME, CHESHIRE (12 S. 48, 82). In Thome's ' Environs of London,' at p. 221, in a description of Fulham Parish Church, the following passage occurs :

" In the chancel is an elaborate mural monu- ment to Lady Margaret Legh, died 1603, wife of Sir Peter Legh, of Lyme, Cheshire. She is represented seated under a semicircular arch, in a ruff, -veil, and farthingale, her hair in very small curls, an infant in swaddling-clothes on her right arm, and another on a pedestal on her left ; above her a shield of arms, hour-glasses, and various ornaments."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

JOHN MIERS THE PROFILIST (12 S. iv. 45). In the ' History of Silhouettes,' by Mrs. E. Nevill Jackson, on p. Iv of the plates, is a reproduction of a portrait of Samuel Holworthy (born 1758) ; this portrait is signed by Miers, and is on ivory, the repro- duction being the actual size. This Samuel Holworthy was son of Samuel Holworthy of Elsworth, co. Cambridge ; he was a captain in the Cambridge Militia, also a captain in

the 23rd Begiment of Foot, and afterwards held the same rank in the East Suffolk Militia. He died in 1816.

Bi CHARD HOLWORTHY. 93/94 Chancery Lane, W.C.2.

EPITAPH ON A PARROT (12 S. iii. 506). Browne Willis records an epitaph on a bird,, composed perhaps by an eighteenth-century rector of Little Gaddesden, Herts ; it is quoted by Cole (Add. MS. 5829, ft 198 and 199b, Brit. Mus.) :

" In the Garden belonging to the Parsonage House, I found these Verses affixed to a Fir or Yew Tree, on a Board handsomely wrote or painted, in memory of a noted singing Bird : One of the little winged Choir lies here, Whose Voice could charm and captivate the Ear. Not the harmonious Flute, nor Orpheus' Lays Could e're [sic] such sweet transporting Musick

raise,

Or merited such Wonder, or such Praise. But now these soft enchanting Strains are fled, The Organ ceas'd, and all its Notes are dead. Adieu, melodious Bird ! while e'en this Tree Retains its Verdure, I'll remember thee."

In 1910 the Bector of Little Gaddesden wrote to me :

" No trace of any such board exists now, and I have inquired in the most likely quarters with- out finding any memory of it."

I do not know of any work dealing with epitaphs on birds or animals, but the lines quoted above may be of interest to MR. DODGSON. E. E. SQUIRES.

Hertford.

I am not unlikely to be wrong, but I think there is a parrot's epitaph in the grounds of Clopton House, Stratford-upon-Avon.

ST. SWITHIN.

SERPENT AND ETERNITY (12 S. iv. 50). Mr. W. Cecil Wade, in ' The Symbolism of Heraldry,' 1898, says : " The Snake is the emblem of wisdom. The Egyptians repre- sented the world by the figure of a serpent biting its tail." The subject of the serpent- symbol is fully dealt with, both in text and foot-notes, in ' The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology,' edited by Alexander Wilder, M.D., published in 1876, pp. 13-18. W. B. H.

Cf. ' The Lost Language of Symbolism,' by Harold Bayley, vol. ii. chap, xviii. p. 214 (Williams & Norgate, 1912). There is a plate given here, and a brief remark or two.

Another and more likely locality is Ajunta (Hyderabad). Cf. ' History of Paganism in Caledonia,' by A. Wise, M.D., who says that the serpent Naga guarded