Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/409

 2nd s. N 20., MAT 17. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

When the tower was completed the child was kept in close confinement within its walls ; but a viper having unfortunately been carried into the castle in a faggot of wood, the dream was fulfilled, and the child perished. A similar story is told of the tower called " Cook's Folly," on the banks of the Avon, near Bristol. JOHN PAVIN PHILLIPS.

Haverfordwest.

Minster Lovel (2 nd S. i. 230.) Andrews in his History of Great Britain (1794-5), vol. ii. p. 180. note 1 7., after mentioning the report of Sir Tho- mas Broughton's escape from the battle, and living incognito among his tenants at Witherstack, in Westmoreland, states :

" A more singular fate is said to have attended the Lord Lovel. On the demolition of a very old house (for- merly the patrimony of the Lovels), about a century ago, there was found in a small chamber (so secret that the farmer who inhabited the house knew it not) the remains of an immured being ; and such remnants of barrels and jars as appeared to justify the idea of that chamber hav- ing been used as a place of refuge for the lord of the mansion, and that, after consuming the stores which he had provided in case of a disastrous event, he died, un- known even to his servants and tenants. As the author cannot call to mind the topographical work in which this eccentric incident is recorded, it might perhaps have been better omitted. Lord Verulam, however, sanctions the tradition by an intimation of Level's living long after in a cellar or vault."

W. H. W. T.

Somerset House.

Consecrations (2 nd S. i. 314.) The Rev. Walter Kerr Hamilton, D.D., Merton College, Oxford, was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury, in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, on Sunday, May 14, 1854, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Oxford, Winchester, Chichester, and New Zealand.

I regret I have no minute of the consecration of the Bishop of Chester. He succeeded the pre- sent Archbishop of Canterbury about March or April, 1848. PATONCE.

Felo-de-se (2 nd S. i. 313. The forfeiture of chattels in the case of felo-de-se is an ancient right of the crown, earlier than the introduction of the feudal principle, which seems to be in- sinuated in the term Felonia. It belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kings, and an example of it occurs in a yet unpublished charter in my possession. I think it is a grant of the manor of Battersea, made to Westminster. Of course this passed with all the other regalia, as Treasuretrove, Wreck, &c. &c., with the grant of a manor. I. M. K.

Kentish Proverb (2 nd S. i. 331.) The saying referred to by J. Y. appears to be a modification of a couplet frequently quoted by the peasantry in Norfolk :

" If the snake could hear and the slow- worm could see Neither man nor beast should e'er go free."

The slow-worm (Anguis fragilis) or blind- worm is believed to be venomous, and conse- quently a war of extermination is waged against it, although its sting is as fabulous as its blindness. G. SEXTON, M.D., F.R.G.S.

Kennington Cross.

A similar proverb to the one quoted by J. Y. exists in the county of Pembroke ; but as it libels the character of that harmless reptile, the blind or slow-worm, the persecution which it experiences at the hand of man may in some degree be ac- counted for ; our proverb runs thus :

" If the adder could hear, and the blind-worm could see, No poor man's children could go their way free."

JOHN PAVIN PHILLIPS.

Haverfordwest.

" The eagle suffers little birds to sing" frc. (2 nd S. i. 353.) I beg to inform UNEDA is to be found in Titiis Andronicus, Act IV. sc. 4. H. C. K.

"Sir" as a Clerical Prefix _(2 d S. i. 234.) For a further illustration of this old custom, see the comedy All for Money, printed in 1578, wherein is this dialogue :

" Sinne. I pray thee what is thy name ? Art thou either vicar or parson ?

" Sir Laurence, Sir Laurence Liviugles, without either living or mansion.

" Sinne. In faith, Sir Laurence, I think you must play the carter, or else you must be a hedge priest, beggers to marie.

" All for Money. Do not fear, my priest, for wanting of any living ; my chaplin thou shalt be, for here I do thee make. A benefice thou shalt have, none shall from thee it take.

" Sir Laurence. Now God rewarde your lordship, in heven may you it finde."

JNO. D. ALLCEOFT.

The Right Man in the Eight Place (2 nd S. i. 294.) It is said that Chaucer in his day had heard of an architect in whose mouth these words were, and who, when he quitted the globe, took to politics ; hence he wrote :

" Ever sith that the world * began,

Who so liste looke, and in story rede He shall aye finde that the trewe man

Was put abacke, whereas the falshede Y furthered was."

The Complaint of the Black Knight.

W. D.

Systems of Short-hand (2 nd S. i. 152. 263.303.) The following is the substance of a note on the subject made from Earle's " Microcosrnography."

Short-hand writing was first introduced into this country by Peter Bales, who, in 1590, pub-

Some copies read " globe."