Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/87

 12 S. V. MARCH, 1919 ] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and Morton afterwards quarrelled, and we are informed from a letter, Drury to Cecil, Novem- ber 28th, that Maitland destroyed the latter bond shortly after its discovery. Though the original has been destroyed, a copy has fortunately been preserved in the State Paper Office."

Mr. Cowan gives a copy of the bond in the above-mentioned work.

W. A. HUTCHISON.

EPITAPHS TO SLAVES (12 S. iv. 323 ; v. 26). In the churchyard of Henbury, Gloucester- shire, not far from the north porch, on the west side of the footpath, is a headstone bearing the following inscription :

Here Lieth the Body of

Scipio Africanus

Negro Servant to y e Bight

Honourable Charles William

Earl of Suffolk and Bradon [sic]

Who Died y e 31 December

1720 Aged 18 Years.

On the upper part of the headstone are sculptured two woolly - headed cherubs, painted black. Below the inscription are two skulls.

The footstone has the following lines : I who was born a Pagan and a Slave Now sweetly sleep a Christian in my grave. What tho: my hue was dark, my Saviour's sight Shall change this darkness into radiant light. Such grace to me my LORD on earth has given To recommend me to my LORD in Heaven, Whose glorious Second Coming here I wait, With Saints and ANGELS here to celebrate.

Charles William, Earl of Suffolk and Bindon and Baron Chesterford, married Arabella, dau. and coheir of Sir Samuel Astry of Henbury by Elizabeth, dau. and h. of George Morse of Henbury. He died at Henbury Feb. 9, 1721/2, in his 29th year.

C. H. S. P.

WYBORNE FAMILY OF ELMSTONE, KENT (12 S. iv. 130, 254 ; v. 49). The Joseph Wyborne who graduated M.A. at Cambridge in 1606 was educated at Westminster School, where he was on the foundation, and in 1598 was elected to a scholarship at Trinity, to which he was admitted in the following year. He could not have been Joseph Wiborne who went up to Trinity from St. Paul's in 1602. It would be interesting to learn the parentage of these two Wybornes.

G. F. R. B.

ROBERT BLAKE (12 S. v. 41). Robert Blake, the eldest son of Sir Francis Blake, Bart., died Jan. 25, 1754, aged 20, and was buried in the North Cloister of Westminster Abbey Feb. 1 following. He was admitted to Westminster School in 1744, and matri-

culated at Oxford from Hertford, Dec. 13, 1751. There is no monument to him in the Abfcey or Cloisters, so far as I am aware. Strictly, he was not a " scholar " at West- minster, as he was never on the foundation. Chester, curiously enough, has failed to identify him in his invaluable edition of the ' Westminster Abbey Registers.'

G. F. R. B.

RAIN AND MOWING (12 S. v. 41). The same tradition is held in North Devon, but it is there applied to reaping corn instead of mowing grass. One of the poems of Edward Capern, the postman poet of Bideford, entitled * Jemmo's Curse ' (' Way- side Warbles,' p. 201), is based upon it, and the author adds the following note :

" This is a very old tradition, which is as fully believed in at the present time as that the sun will rise at his appointed hour ; I have often heard the inhabitants of Bideford say, when they see the field under the sickle, ' We are certain to have rain soon, for they are cutting Jemmo'ar field.' "

R. PEAKSE CHOPE.

High up on the eastern side of what is locally called the Standard Hill in the Nottinghamshire wolds there is a four- or five-acre field (it is in the parish of Hickling) to which the same belief attaches. The field is visible for many miles, and the farmers in the neighbourhood used in my boyish days to be chary of cutting their grass when it was seen to be mown. "It is sure to rain," they would say : " Jack Craft [Jack's croft] is down." C. C. B.

HENSLOWE AND BEN JONSON (12 S. iv. 271).- Ben Jonson's mother married as her second husband a "master brick- layer " during the poet's childhood, the family settling down at Hartshorn Lane, Charing Cross. During his visit to Edin- burgh Jonson told Drummond of Haw- thornden that his early surroundings were mean, and that he was taken from school to learn the trade of a bricklayer ; but as this occupation soon proved uncongenial he made his escape to Flanders, served with the English troops there, and slew a Spanish soldier whom he challenged to single combat.

Jonson chaiacterized as a " duel " the deed by which Gabriel Spencer, an actor of Alleyn's company, met his death at his lands. This occurred on Sept. 22, 1598. The official record states that he was arrested on a charge of felony and confessed lis guilt (Middlesex Session Rolls ; see Athenceum, March 6, 1886). He was let off