Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/448

 366 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2 S .vin.MAY7,i92i. of the city the same year in which his father died, so that he was just 01 age to succeed to the business. At his death his father bequeathed him " all my drawings (pro- tractoria*), appliances and necessaries, also the tables and trestles belonging in any way to my artifice. . . . Also I bequeath to the same Robert 13s. 4d. to be delivered in glass (in vitros liber andos)." He also left his son one coverlet, one pair of blankets, one pair of sheets, two coodds (pillows), one mattress, one plain chest, one bronze jar, one ewer, one wash basin, and four marks of money (2 13s. 4d.), so that the son evidently had a fair start in life. His name does not occur in the York Minster Fabric Rolls, but many of these are missing and it is to be regretted that those extant have not been printed in extenso. Robert Shirley was one of the glass -painters who appeared before the mayor in 1463. It is not known when he died. JOHN A. KNOWLES. "MAGDALEN" OB "MAWDLEN." It was recently stated in The Church Times, in answer to a correspondent, that " Mawdlen " was "a corrupt mediaeval pronunciation" of Magdalen. This drew a protest from another correspondent (Canon Macleane). who claimed " Mawdlen "as " pure French (Made- leine), like the traditional pronunciation of St. Maur, St. John, or St. Leger." The writer then went on to say, "I doubt whether anyone said Magdalen till the nineteenth [ century schoolmaster era. Izaak Walton j certainly wrote and said Maudlin, and ! which could be kept and used over and over again. Examples in ancient glass where, in order to save trouble, the same drawing of a figure has been used many times, with slight alterations such as changing the emblem so as to make the figure do duty for different saints, are j common. Thus at Great Malvern, North Clere- story, a figure of St. Joachim is made to serve for the single figure of Joachim albne in the fields, and j the subject of the Meeting at the Golden Gate ; a j figure of a bishop variously coloured, and with j slight alterations such as changing crosier for | pastoral cross, orphrey for pallium, &c., con- stitutes a small army of variously named bishops and archbishops ; whilst a figure of St. Edward Confessor granting a charter makes an excellent King William performing the same function in | another light. (For large scale photographs of the most interesting glass in this church see ' The < Stained Glass of Great Malvern Priory Church,' photographed by Sydney A. Pitcher, with de- 1 scriptive notes by G. McNeil Rushforth, M.A., I F.S.A.) doubtless Donne, though I grant that he made three syllables of the Lady Magdalen Herbert's Christian name ! " In going through the registers of the parish church of Oldham, Lancashire, a few days after Canon Macleane's letter ap- peared in The Church Times (March 18, 1921), I came across two entries in the eighteenth century which support his view as to the late date of the pronunciation Mag-da-len. 1738. November 30. Buried. Maudlin wile of Albain Brierley of Bardsley Brow. 1770. December 6. Married. Thomas Mills coal -miner to Maudlen Brierley, spinster. And in two later baptismal entries the chil- dren are styled sons of " Thomas Mills by Maudlen his wife." F. H. CHEETHAM. 54, Sussex Road, Southport. A PROJECTED ESCAPE OF NAPOLEON FROM ST. HELENA. The following letter from Sergeant John Beard to the late Mr. S. R. Townshend Mayer concerns a pro- jected escape of Bonaparte from St. Helena. This letter is given in the " vernacular " of the writer. I should explain that there is no relation- ship between the Sergeant and the sender of this copy. It is merely a curious co- incidence in nomenclature. The letter came into my hands through the means of Mrs. S. R. Townshend Mayer. St. Helena Cottage, Cheltenham Road, Nr. Gloucester, Dec. 2, '76. Dear Sir, Since I received your letter with the magazines I have lost my dear wife which was the reason of my delay. I noticed in the Gloucester Mercury of the death of Joseph Pitman, late of the 66th Regiment, and on Monday, the 21st of Augt. I delivered to the Editor of the Mercury to put in his next Issue, which was Augt. 26th which you saw in the Gloucester Journal, but that was not printed most likely untill September in the Journal, what you saw concerning me was the 26th Augt. or at least it should be so. Dear Sir, with respect to Frank Stewart I have som recollection of him, Admiral Las Cass [Las Cases ?] and two others was banished from St. Helena, it was rumerd at time they was put on some oninhabited iland, but I do not believe so. Every Guard Mounting, the General Orders was read to those a -mounting Guard, any Officer, Non-Commisioned, or Soldiers that was guilty of aiding or asisting in the escape of the then General Boneyparty or Napoleon, was to be tried by General Court Marshal to suffer Death or such other punishment as should be awarded, it was the night it was reported that Bonny was to make his escape in a hen-cub (hen-coop ! !). J was Serjeant of Gregory's Battery Guard, not a move was heard during the night, there was not a landing plac<> around the Iland, but was well guarded. A Man of War, Brig, or some Ship was erasing
 * These were evidently cartoons on paper