Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/164

 130 NOTES AND QUERIES. EU s. vm. mm. 12, mi. 4. The old song, quoted in chaps, vi. and xii. : " When cannons are roaring, and bullets are flying," &c. 5. The famous lines on General Wade (chap, xviii.) is their authorship known ? F. A. CAVENAGH. Manchester University. LEGISLATION AGAINST TOBACCO. Robert Ghristison, M.D., in 'A Treatise on Poisons ' (Edinburgh 1829), writing on Tobacco, on p. 619 says : " Soon after it was brought to England by Sir W. Raleigh, King James wrote a philippic against it, entitled ' The Counterblast to Tobacco.' Some countries even prohibited it by severe edicts. Amurath the 4th in particular made the smoking of tobacco capital ; several of the Popes excommunicated those who smoked in the church of St. Peter's ; in Russia it was punished with amputation of the nose ; and in the Canton of Bern it ranked in the tables next to adultery, and even so late as the middle of last century a particular court was held there for trying delin- quents (note Paris and Fonblanque's ' Medical Jurisprudence,' ii. 416). Like every other per- secuted novelty, however, smoking and snuff- taking passed from place to place with rapidity ; and now there appear to be only two luxuries which yield to it in prevalence, spirituous liquors and tea." Unless this subject has already been discussed in <N. & Q.' particulars of the 'severe edicts " might be of general interest if any readers can supply them. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. COTTAGE AT ENGLEFIELD GREEN. In a book in the British Museum, entitled ' Views of Noblemen and Gentlemen's Seats,' &c by J. Hassell, 1804, there is a plate of ' St.' Agnes Cottage, Berks, [sic] the Seat of Mr! Knowles,' and in the accompanying letter- press it is stated that this stood "in the old Winchester Road, and takes its name from a well near the house, called St. Agnes Well and it is mentioned by Camden and most historians for being a celebrated spot where pilgrims and devotees, going to Winchester used to stop and do homage to the Saint. Hither, also came many for the benefit of the water, which was reputed to possess many healing qualities." Now as the house stood in a bye-lane from Englefield Green to Windsor Great Park, I should be glad if any reader could give any explanation of the statement about the old Winchester Road or give any infor- mation about the well. I can find no reference to it in my copy of Camden (Gibson, 1695). The spring which fed the well is or was until recently still in evidence And who was the "Mr. Knowles " whose seat it was ? W. H. WHITEAB, F.R.Hist.S. 10 Fairlawn Court, W.4 THE "INVALID OFFICE." A building with this name is shown on the east side of Whitehall, between Scotland Yard and the " Banqueting House " in a late seventeenth century map in the Grace Collection. I shall be grateful for information as to the business transacted there, and for some one who will supply my failure to observe Capt. Cuttle's rule "When found, make a note of" as regards the exact reference and date. Q. V. ROYAL BRITISH BANK. When did a London bank with this name or something very like it, come to a. stop ? And what was the cause ? I am under the impression that it ceased to exist shortly after the Crimean War. G. ROBERT GASCOIGNE AND WALTHAMSTOW. This forgotten soldier and poet of the sixteenth century, so a writer in an old volume of Temple Bar tells us, married a rich widow, presumably after his return from campaigning, and settled down in a " poor house at Walthamstow in the Forest. " Many of his poems seem to have been written in that retreat. But ' Walthamstow in the Forest ' is just a trifle vague. Can any correspondent identify for us the "poor house," which means a cottage, I take it ? M. L. R. BRESLAR. Percy House, Well Street, South Hackney, E.9 MATTHEW CARTER. I should be glad to learn if any information can be obtained about "Matthew Carter, Esq.," author of a valuable work on Heraldry, known as ' Honor redivivus,' and published by " Henry Heringman at the Ancker on the lower side of the New Exchange " in 1673. This appears to be a second edition, and contains what I suppose to be a full-page copy of the author's coat of arms, which is identical with the arms originally granted to a family of Carters residing for three or four genera- tions in St. Columb, Cornwall, and admitted in the 'Visitations ' of 1620 and' 1686. I have failed to trace Matthew Carter in the pedigree of any of the St. Columb family of that name. The first to be mentioned is "Richard, s. of Thomas Karter " with whom the pedigree begins. He was born on Jan. 17, 1540. The last member of the family mentioned in the Registers of St. Columb is Honor Carter, whose death is recorded on Sept. 13, 1691. She was the