Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/337

 12 S. IX. OCT. 1, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 275 friendship. From the latter we gather that Mermann's influence had obtained for Fienus an honourable post with the Duke of Bavaria, which we know to have been that of a Leibarzt. The notice of Hermann in the ' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ' gives Cologne as his birthplace, and tells us that j he studied philosophy at Pisa, and after- j wards medicine. He lectured on philosophy i with such success that Duke Cosmo of ' Florence sought his acquaintance (Cosmo I., who died in 1574). Hermann became Leiba,rzt to the Bishop of Eichstadt, and in 1586 was invited by Duke William V. of Bavaria to fill a similar post in his Court at Hunich, where he became the First Leibarzt in 1606. Here he enjoyed universal respect, was consulted in affairs of State, and entrusted with the composition of letters to Popes, Cardinals, and Brinces, which called, we may suppose, for an elegant Latin style. In 1585 his Duke presented him with a castle and feudal estate, and in the following year he was ennobled by the Emperor Rudolf. In 1593 he accompanied Duke Haximilian to Rome, and received a gold chain from Clement VIII. A point which the German biographer does not mention is that two of the Englishman Robert Turner's ' Epistolae Posthumae ' are ' addressed to Hermann, pp. 289-291 in ' Rob. Turneri Epistolae,' Cologne, 1615. In the second of these, dated April 18, 1584, Turner begs Hermann to support the candidature of Edmund Rollings (see 'D.N.B.') for a chair of Eloquence. As regards portraits of Hermann, the ' Allg. Deut. Biog.' says that there is an excellent one in ' lusta Tho. Mermanno. . . Ab Amicis Facta ' (Hunich, 1613), and one in his ' Consultationes ac Responsiones Hedicae,' &c., edited by Fr. Ign. Thiermair (Ingolstadt, 1675). EDWARD BENSLY. EMERSON'S 'ENGLISH TRAITS' (12 S. vi. 228). No. 7, " The Norman historians recite, that 'in 1067, William carried with him into Xormandy, from England, more gold and silver than had ever before been seen in Gaul.' ' See William of Poitiers, ' Willelmi Con- questoris Gesta ' : Attulit non aliquantulum vectigal, non rapinas, sed, quantum ex ditione trium Galliarum vix colligeretur argentum atque aurum, quod rectissi- mo jure acceperat ; quod, ubi honestissimae ra- tiones postularent, expendere cogitabat. Chari metalli abundantia multipliciter Gallias terra ilia vincit. Ut enim horreum Cereris dicenda videtur frumenti copia, sic aerarium Arabiae auri copia (p. 210 in Andre du Chesne's ' Historiae Norman- norum scriptores antiqui,' Paris, 1619, and col. 1266 B, C, in vol. 149 of Migne's ' Patrologia Latina '). William of Poitiers is describing the Con- queror's visit to Normandy in 1067. No. 8, " Sir Edward Boynton, at Spic Park, at Cadenham, on a precipice of incom- parable prospect, built a house like a long barn, which had not a window on the pros- pect side." ("At Cadenham" is another error of Emerson's.) At 12 S. vi. 276, the place was identified by LADY RUSSELL as Spye Park, Chippenham (Wiltshire) and the owner as Sir Edward Baynton. There being several Sir Edwards of that family it was suggested that the one meant was King Henry VIII. 's favourite, the first of that name seated at Spye Park, who is said to have converted the lodge into a mansion house in 1552 (?). But there can be no doubt that Emerson's source was Evelyn's ' Diary,' where, under July, 1654, we read : Went back to Cadenham, and, on the 19th, to Sir Edward Baynton's at Spye Park, a place capable of being made a noble seat ; but the humorous old knight has built a long single house of two low stories on the precipice of an incom- parable prospect and landing on a bowling-green in the park. The house is like a long barn and has not a window on the prospect side. The coachmen of Evelyn and his friends were made " so exceedingly drunk " on this occasion, by order of the old knight, that, as Evelyn writes, " we escaped great dangers." " The custom," he notes, " is barbarous, and much unbecoming a knight, still less a Christian." EDWARD BENSLY. GRINLING GIBBONS (12 S. ix. 231). In chap. xvi. of ' Grinling Gibbons and the Woodwork of his Age,' by G. H. Avray Tipping (Country Life Office), 1914, the author deals with Chatsworth House, and says that the only documentary evidence that exists is against Grinling Gibbons having had anything to do with it, i.e., with the wood-carving to be found in that mansion. It is one of those delightful controversies, like the authorship of the Junius Letters, which can go on for ever, because no authori- tative document is discoverable capable of setting the dispute at rest.' Though plenty of elaborate specifications, designs, agree- ments, and accounts exist, yet of Grinling Gibbons there is nowhere a trace, unless some of the cases which contained " carved work, statues, and pictures " can be identi- fied as any of his work. Much of the