Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/144

 136

NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. x. AUG. IB, 1902.

belonging to the priory at Wenlock Magna. The Burnells were liberal donors to the abbey at Build was, and it acquired from them the advowson and tithes of Kushbury in 1 Henry IV. Most probably the house at Wilderhope was under Build was influence, and the three ceilings were put up in the later years of King Henry VII. Build was Abbey was dissolved in 1535. The ceilings must have been done long before that event. The name of Henry SraaJemon, of Stanweye, in the parish of Rushbury, adjacent to Wilderhope, appears in 9 Edward II., 1315-6. In the 'Castles and Old Mansions of Shrop- shire ' Mrs. Stackhouse Acton states the motto at Wilderhope is MAL MEA DBA EST, and that the initials ES, FS, and PS, and a date 1602 appear on some panels. This is not correct with regard to the motto, and if it should have been so at one time with regard to the initials and the year, it cannot be that these were contemporaneous with the erection of the ceilings. I submit my remarks with hesitation. The details of the ceilings are taken from photographs by the late Dr. W. E. Thursfield, of Shrewsbury. If accurate in- formation as to the dates and motto can be given, I shall be glad. W. G. NORRIS.

Coalbrookdale.

LAMBROOK STRADLING (9 th S. x. 47). A per- son named Lamorack Stradlynge witnessed in 1600 the will of Henry Mathew, of Radyr, and was almost certainly the testator's relative. Lamrock was the Christian name of a son of Robert Mathew, of Cardiff, who died circa 1610, and whose will, dated in 1608, was witnessed by Lamrock Stradling, of Roath, esquire (' Cardiff Records,' vol. iii. pp. 117, 118). In a survey of the manor of Spital, Cardiff, 1666, reference is made to lands of Lamorack Stradling, esquire, deceased, at Rpath (?'&., vol. ii. p. 85). A rent-roll of Cardiff town, 1686, names Jane, widow of Larnbrocke Stradling, esquire (ib., vol. iv. p. 113). JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

" YCLEPING" THE CHURCH (9 th S. viii. 420, 486 ; ix. 55, 216, 394 j x. 54). Note Exodus, chap, xxxiii., last three verses, 21, 22, 23, more especially the last verse, in connexion with the extract cited by MR. DOUGLAS OWEN, ante, p. 55, passages in lines 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 25, 26, 27, from the top of the page. GNOMON.

Temple.

MALLET USED BY CHRISTOPHER WREN (9 th S. ix. 346, 493 ; x. 17). I was very glad to see the note by MR. J. Ross ROBERTSON re Sir

Christopher Wren (M.P., D.C.L., P.R.S.). It is astonishing how many Masonic historians have been led into error re Wren's Masonic career. According to Kenning's ' Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry,' it has been general for many years to credit Sir Christopher Wren witn everything great and good before the " Re- vival," but on very slender evidence. He is said to have been a member of the "Lodge of Antiquity " for many years ; " and the maul ana trowel used at the laying of the stone of St. Paul's, with a pair of mahogany candlesticks, were presented " to him, and are now in the possession of the lodge. Dr. Anderson mentions him as Grand Master in 1685; but according to a manuscript of Aubrey's in the Royal Society he was not admitted a Brother Freemason until 1691. (Wren is popularly supposed to have suc- ceeded Henry Bennett, Earl of Arlington, and, " for the second time," King William HI.) Unfortunately, the early records of the cele- brated " Lodge of Antiquity " have been lost or destroyed, so there is nothing certain as to Wren's Masonic career, and what little has been circulated is contradictory. It is, of course, more than likely he took an active part in Freemasonry, though he was not a member of the Masons' Company; but as the records are wanting it is idle to speculate, and absurd to credit to his labours on behalf of our society what there is not a tittle of evidence to prove.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. 48, Hanover Square, Bradford.

I am afraid that MR. HOLDEN MAcMiCHAEL has been somewhat led astray in depending on ' Old and New London ' for his informa- tion concerning Wren and Freemasonry. When the destruction of that venerable hos- telry the " Goose and Gridiron " was in con- templation, a very interesting account, with a sketch of the building and its sign, appeared in the Daily Graphic of 28 August, 1894. The paragraph concerning Wren and Free- masonry was there dished up much as it appears in ' Old and New London ' (i. 272), and was contradicted by several corre- spondents in a subsequent number. From one of the letters, signed W. F. L, I extract the following paragraph :

" Touching the connection of the Freemasons

with the 'Goose and Gridiron,' will you permit

me to differ from your statement that Sir Chris- topher Wren belonged to the Masonic body, or that a Grand Lodge existed previously to that founded in 1717 at the old hostelry in question ? Both inci- dents are simply legends, and as such are discarded as matters of fact by the leading Masonic historians of the present day, for the very tangible reason that no documentary evidence has ever been forthcoming