Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/199

 .x. SEPT. 6, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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been admitted to the most noble Order of the Garter. Of the original twenty -six knights, no fewer than fifteen appear to have been commoners, though one, Sir Thomas Holland, was afterwards created Earl of Kent ; and of the subsequent creations by Edward III. twelve were commoners. Of the twelve succeeding sovereigns down to Queen Elizabeth, eleven of them created Knights of the Garter, and all included commoners. Sir Henry Lee} created Knight of the Garter in 1597, appears to have been the last so honoured, with the exceptions of Edward Montagu in 1660, who afterwards became first Earl of Sandwich, and Sir Robert Walpole in 1726.

This information and much more on the same subject will be found in Haydn's 'Book of Dignities.' WM. NORMA.N.

Pepys's ' Diary,' 27 May, 1660, states that on that date Sir Edward Montagu, Knt. (afterwards Earl of Sandwich), and General Monk received the distinction,

" the only two for many years that have had the Garter given them before they had the honours of an earldom, or the like, excepting only the Duke of Buckingham, who was only Sir George Villiers when he was made Knight of the Garter."

GEORGE GILBERT.

BRANSTILL CASTLE (9 th S. x. 149). Bransil (as it is now spelt) Castle, nothing of which remains, was situated in the parish of East- nor, three miles from Ledbury. Eastnor Castle (Lady Henry Somerset's) is in the same parish. Bransil is now a private residence, m the occupation, I believe, of C. W. Bell, Esq. E. C. COUSENS.

THE SOUL'S ERRAND' (9 th S. x. 150). This poem, generally known as ' The Lie,' did not appear in the works of Du Bartas until the edition of 1633, and there is no reason to believe that the editor, J. Sylvester, was its author; he simply appropriated it. In his 1 Courtly Poets ' (1870) Hannah dates it " certainly before 1608; possibly before 1596." It was first printed in Davison's ' Poetical Rhapsody,' published in 1602 ; but a copy of it in Harl. MS. 2296, No. 23, is assigned to 1596. This disproves the possibility of Ralegh having composed it in 1618, just prior to his execution ; or in 1603, after his first sentence. Possibly it dates back to the period of his marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton in 1593, and during his imprisonment. Many copies are known, and show considerable verbal variations, extending in some to entire lines. There is a transcript, apparently from Davi- son's work, in Collier's ' Bibliographical Cata-

logue' (ii. 224-5), stated to be taken from "a MS. of the time," and to be headed 'Sir Walter Wrawle his Lye.' A bibliographical list of the poem in MSS. and printed works is included in Hannah's volume. The entry of the British Museum copy in Harl. MS. 2296, No. 23, is worth quoting : "A Satirical Ballad, beginning thus Goe, Sowle the Bodies gueste, Vpon a thanke-les Errant, &c. The last Stanza is

Lett Cuckoulds be remembred, I will not die their Better, Their Heads are strongelie armed To beare the Brunte the better. If They themselves denie, Their Wifes doe knowe they Lie."

Probably this was one of Sylvester's addi- tions. The fact of the poem having brought forth several contemporary 'Answers,' of a vituperative character against Ralegh, helps to confirm him as the author of the original. Four of these replies are printed in Hannah's work, and it is remarkable that two of these in Ashmole'^LS. 781 are assigned to Ralegh himself, and are included' in other of his poems in the edition of his works pub- lished in 1829. One of the most virulent is ascribed by Ritson to Francis Davison (' Bibl. Poet.,' 308). T. N. BRUSHFIELD.

The authorship of these lines is admittedly a matter of some doubt, but Profs. Henry Morley and Hales both, without question, ascribe them to Raleigh. Trench says (notes to 'A Household Book of English Poetry') that the fact of their having first appeared in Davison's 'Poetical Rhapsody,' 1608, dis- poses of the assertion that Raleigh wrote them the night before his execution in 1618, but adds that he may have been their author at some earlier date, and that there is some evidence in favour of this tradition. The fact that they appear among the ' Posthumi ' in Sylvester's collected works proves nothing as to authorship, as several other pieces are there given as his which he certainly did not write e.g., the sonnets "Thrice tosse these oaken ashes in the aire " and " Thou art not faire, for all thy red and white." The com- piler of these 'Remains,' moreover, asserts that they were "never till now imprinted." Sylvester died in 1618, and 'The Soul's Er- rand,' as we know, was first printed in 1608.

C. C. B.

AN HEUSKARIAN RARITY IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY (9 th S. viii. 377; ix. Ill, 415; x. 14, )7). With all respect to your correspondent MR. ADAMS, I think that Mr. Andrew Lang s right, and that he is wrong if he means that "habitual" should have an before it.