Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/241

 2 S. V. SEPT., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

235

There is no dial in Grasmere churchyard, ,d no tradition even of one " (Knight) ; it it is suggested that Wordsworth has "xed up with his Grasmere scenery some miniscence of a dial once existing on a lar in Bowness churchyard. Or it may be mewhere else. Does any reader of J. & Q.' know this inscription ? What I

ant to get at is the original Latin verse, le passage with its context seems to me

roof that the inscription did exist and was

ot a flight of fancy, like the bells of ' Sir

Jfred Irthing ' in book vii. 1. 981. 2. In book v. 1. 172, Wordsworth records

mong the sepulchral stones in Grasmere

hurch :

Some with small

.nd shining effigies of brass inlaid

A brazen plate,

'ot easily deciphered, told of one 7hose course of earthly honour was begun i quality of page among the train f the Eighth Henry, when he crossed the seas, [is royal state to show and prove his strength i tournament upon the fields of France.

hat is to say, at the " Field of the Cloth of rold " in 1520. The text is that of the oet's final decision. There are not now r ere there ever ? any monumental brasses i Grasmere Church. But do these brasses xist, or are they recorded as once existing, nywhere in the Lake District ? At Cros- tiwaite is the brass effigy of a Sir JohnRatclif , ated 1527 ; this is the only one in the ounty whose date is suitable. Was this ersonage attached to Henry VIII. 's court ? H. K. ST. J. S.

RICHARD CHALLONER, FATHER OF BISHOP /HALLONER (b. at Lewes, Sept. 29, 1691), 3 said to have been a wine-cooper by trade nd " a rigid Dissenter " by religion, and o have died when his son Richard, the iture bishop, was still very young (Burton's Bishop Challoner,' vol. i. p. 1).

Is it known whether the father of the ishop was related in any way to Richard /haloner, " of the Chapell, gentleman," fho " lived an orthodoxe Christian, feared Jod, honoured the King, obeyed the Church ..." and "died of an apoplexie in the 6 year of his age," May 12, and was buried t Westweston, May 14, 1664 [the last .gure is uncertain] ? As to him see ' English "opography, Surrey and Sussex,' " Gent, lag. Library," London, 1900. at p. 338.

Hare in his 'Sussex' (1896) states at >. 110 that the church of St. John, sub J astro, at Lewes contains a tomb of " Mr. Chaloner, 1705, father of Bishop

Chaloner." I have been unable to find this tomb ; but, anyhow, John Chaloner was not Bishop Challoner's father, though per- haps he was a relative.

Richard Chaloner of Westmeston had a son named William, who died in May, 1713, aged 57, and was buried at Westmeston, : probably John Chaloner of Lewes was another son.

Where is there any pedigree of the Sussex Chaloners ? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

DENNIS THE HANGMAN. In recording the trials at the Old Bailey of the Gordon Rioters, The Gent. Mag. has this paragraph, under date, Monday, July 3, 1780 :

"Edw. Dennis, better known by the name of Jack Ketch, was tried for assisting in pulling down the house of Mr. Boggis in New Turnstyle. The prisoner admitted the fact, but pleaded compul- sion, the mob swearing they would burn him if he did not assist them in burning the goods. He was found guilty, hut recommended to mercy, and has a bailable warrant, which will be sued out when the executions are ended. The humanity of Mr. Smith, the Keeper of Tothill-fields bridewell, to whose custody he was committed, deserves due praise. He declined confining him among the other prisoners lest his obnoxious character should expose him to their rage."

Now if old " Sylvanus Urban' s " state- ment was correct it sharply controverts at least two of the portions in ' Barnaby Rudge ' dealing with this unhappy man, for it implies (1) that Dennis would be reprieved, and in that case was never hanged, so dis- posing of the thrilling picture of the all- night waiting of the crowd for his execution ; and states (2) that he was allowed a cell by himself in Tothill Fields Bridewell, whereas in Dickens the turnkey thrust him into Hugh's cell in Newgate, with the grim remark that necessity, or the rioters, had left no choice. Has any student of the novelist noticed this before ?

W. R. WILLIAMS.

OLD FIELD. Who was John Oldfield of Oldfield, who died 1762, aged 74 ? Please reply direct. (Mrs.) E. E. COPE.

Finchampstead, Berks.

" WHEN YOU DIE OF OLD AGE, I SHALL QUAKE FOR FEAR." This was a common saying among peasants and workpeople, when speaking to someone rather older than themselves. Of course, other causes which led to decease were excluded, it was death caused by senile decay was the sole reason alluded to. Was this a well-known saying; or merely a stray cockney allusion ?

W. W. GLENNY.

Barking.