Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/250

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. v. SEPT, 1919.

in these very words : Legatus est yir bonus, peregre missus ad mentiendum Beipublicse causa ; which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished : An Ambassador is an honest man, sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

The witty conceit is Walton's. It appears that Wotton' s blunt definition eventually got him into trouble. C. A. COOK.

It was Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) who first said that an ambassador was " a good man sent to lie abroad for the -good of his country." According to the ' D.N.B.' he first phrased it in Latin ("ad mentiendum "), which obviously annihilates the double entente. The tempering of the cynicism with the jest appears to have been an afterthought. See the ' D.N.B.,' vol. Ixiii, p. 53, and Izaak Walton's * Life of Sir Henry Wotton,' a little beyond half way through.

S.

[Several other correspondents also thanked for replies. ]

Miss HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS (12 S. v. 180). Of this lady, then living, I find a somewhat lurid account in 1816, appar- ently written by one possessing personal knowledge from about 1780. Coming from Berwick to London, the proceeds of her poems and novels enabled her about 1788 to visit Paris, where she became resident in 1791. During the reign of Robespierre she was arrested and imprisoned, but on his fall was released.

" Though a violent republican, this woman could stoop to eulogise the late usurper of France ; and, to her eternal disgrace, she undertook the employ- ment of editing the Correspondence of Louis XVI., = accompanying all the letters with the basest calumnies, arid the most brutal observations."

A later publication, however, '' A Narra- tive of the Events which have taken place in France from the landing of Napoleon Buonaparte on the 1st of March, 1815, till the Restoration of Louis XVIIIth, 1815," is credited as being "a volume which, if it does not completely atone for the bad qualities of her former works, will at least entitle her to respect." She appears to have written some fifteen or sixteen different works, and to have died in 1827.

W. B. H.

Helen Maria Williams wa^ the daughter of -Charles Williams, an officer in the army, and was born in London in 1762. In 1782 she published ' Edwin and Eltruda,' a legendary tale in verse, and later wrote many other poems. She went to France in 1788 on a visit to her sister, and from that time she

for the most part resided there. She adopted with enthusiasm the principles and ideas of the revolution, and wrote of it with a fervour that amounted almost to frenzy. She became acquainted with many of the leading Girondists, was thrown into prison by Robespierre, and narrowly escaped the fate of so many of her friends. In 1817 she took out letters of naturalisation in France, and died in Paris on Dec. 15, 1827. A long account of her will be found in the ' D.N.B.' ARCHIBALD SPABKE.

Charlotte Ann Burney in January, 1783, found her " superfinely affected," and Mary Wollstonecraft writing from Paris in Decem- ber, 1794, notes her affectation, " yet the simple goodness of her heart continually breaks through the varnish." I have seen it stated that she was Imlay's mistress. Johnson met her at Hoole's in 1785 (see Boswell), and Wordsworth met her in Paris later (see Harper's ' Life of Wordsworth ').

G. G. L.

MANOR RECORDS (12 S. v. 182). The Court Rolls of a manor remain in the custody of the lord of the manor in practice with his steward who is usually a solicitor. In some cases they have been deposited with the Board of Agriculture under Copyhold Act 1894 s. 64. A list of manor customs is collected by Watkins in his book on Copyholds. Where the Crown is lord of the manor the Court Rolls are either with the Duchy of Lancaster Officers or the Commissioners of Woods, &c.

G. D. JOHNSTON. 10 Old Square. Lincoln's Inn. W.C.2.

The Manorial Court Rolls should be in possession of the lord of the manor. There are many Manor Court Rolls in the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, and a printed list of them is issued by the Stationery Office. Refer to Mr. N. J. Hone's ' The Manor and Manorial Records,' second edi- tion (Methuen, 1912), and to The Manorial Society, 1 Mitre Court Buildings, Temple, E.G. '

Court Rolls, being regarded as private title-deeds, have been much scattered and destroyed. A well-known dealer would sell these invaluable records in separate mem- branes, so that the records of any one Court may at the present time be scattered all over the world. Every effort should be made to save what remain of them, and one of the best methods is to join the Manorial Society. GEORGE SHERWOOD.