Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/592

 488

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. DEC. is, 1920.

1579. (See Foster, 'Alumni Oxonienses ' ; Gee, ' Elizabethan Clergy ; ' Frere, ' Marian Re-action '; Wood, 'Fasti,' i. 135; Strype, Ann.,' II. ii. 596-7, III. i. 39; Cath. Rec. Soc., I. 19, 23, 42, 46; Pollen, 'English Catholics in Reign of Elizabeth,' 247, 248; P.R.O. 'S. P.. Dom.' Eliz. cxxxii. 47.) Is anything more known of him ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

SHEFFIELD : OLD UNDERGBOTJND PAS- SAGE. The paragraph herein is transcribed from The Manchester Evening Chronicle, Monday, Oct. 25, 1920, under the heading 'Gossip of the Day,' which seems worth reproducing in ' N. & Q. ' :

" OLD UNDERGROUND PASSAGE.

During surface mining operations near. Sky Edge on the south-east side of Sheffield, a long under- ground passage has been found There is a tradition that when Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner at Sheffield Castle a subterranean passage ran from the Castle to the Manor house, and the passage discovered is in line with the route the old passage was supposed to take."

FBEDERICK L. TAVARE. 22 Trentham Street, Pendleton, Manchester.

WARWICKSHIRE FOLK LORE : E.OLLRIGHT STONES. So far as I know the King stone is in situ and has never been disturbed, but I was ''credibly informed" that one Humphrey Boffin fetched it down to his courtyard to cover up a water course. It took eight horses to draw it there and even then the traces broke. He thought it safer, after this, to put it back again. It only required one horse to drag it up the hill. Who was Humphrey Boffin ? or is the whole story but another of the mysteries invented aloout this megaiithic circle. The old story ran that a band of men fully armed marched that way, and according to oral tradition the leader said :

If once Long Compton I could see The King of England I should be

But a Long Compton witch spoke as follows :

Fall down men and rise up stone t For King of England thou shalt be none-

This is perhaps worth recording in order to show that the eld tradition often printed is still spoken of among the old men of the neighbourhood. The sad end- ing to presumption settled the origin of the circle in the mind of the narrator with- out any room for doubt.

J. HARVEY BLOOM.

(gtumsl

We must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers maybe sent t them direct.

CHARLES II. AND THE SMITH FAMILY. The first recorded mention of this connexion occurs, under December, 1787, in the diary of John James Smith (1761-1821) to whom the letter from which an extract is given below, was afterwards addressed. The entry reads :

" My Father's Grandmother was a natural daughter of Charles II."

The original of the letter has not been preserved, but, judging from other letters of Nichols, it was probably written from Win- chester Gaol, where the writer was in prison for debt ; and contained a request for money for his sister if not for himself.

Extract of a letter from Mr. James Nichols, dated

Winchester, Oct. 25, 1813. Addressed to Mr. J. J. Smith, Watford.

Your Grandmother and my Grandfather were the Children of the same Parent ; and when in youth you visited the Island, I think you ,must recollect your Father's Mother calling my Grand- father (Mr. Lowe) Brothet for they were both the children of a daughter of Charles the 2nd by a Sister of Lord Russell, afterwards Duke of Bedford, to whose guardianship and protection our mutual Great Grandmother was committed ; but from whom she received a treatment of severity and deprivation of her fortune, for her attachment to and subsequent elopement with, a young man of the name of Durance (I think) who was a Naval Officer and your Grandmother, Mrs Smith, was the offspring of this connection, but Mr Durance was dro.wned This catastrophe involved the Widow in future difficulties who resided at Lincoln, where she continued till the whole of the value of her Jewels was exhausted. She returned then to London, but was disowned and rejected by the Duke, and reduced to extreme dis- tress, and in this situation applied to Mr. Lowe my Great Grandfather, who was a Glover in Piccadilly, to do the ornamental work on the backs of Gloves, He was struck with her manner and appearance, and after a short time married her, and from this connection sprang my Grandfather whom you will recollect. My Mother was educated at your Father's expense at Miss Paul's Boarding School at Islington, but this was for certain reasons perhaps concealed from your knowledge, and the family in general, as your .Father, did not wish his Father-in- law, Mr. Newton, to know anything of the existing connection.

With regard to your Grandmother I know but little, except that she was well educated, but saw- nothing of my Grandfather for I think six and twenty years, during which time she passed thro' a variety of changing scenes, forming a most inter-