Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/247

 9fB.XLMABOH2i.i903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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its editorial explanation of the old story, referred to by Pepys, of a certain Countess of Hennesberg, who was cursed in the thir- teenth century by a beggar woman to whom she had refused alms, and, as a consequence, bore as many children in one day as there were days in the year 365. A. F. R.

MONARCH IN A WHEELBARROW (9 th S. x. 467 ; xi. 14, 78). There is an interesting article on Czar Peter's life in Deptford, with mention of his companions in his wheel- barrow frolics, and a view of a house there in which he lodged, pulled down in 1858, in the Illustrated London News, 21 August, 1858, p. 184. ADRIAN WHEELER.

LORD WHITEHILL (9 th S. xi. 49, 156). MR. BARCLAY - ALLARDICE'S query as to Lord Whitehills may refer to a Lord Whitehill, a judge of the Court of Session in Scotland. He was the son of John Scougal, Lord Why te- kirk, also a judge. He succeeded Lord Pres- mennan on the bench, taking his seat on 9 June, 1696, by the title of Lord Whitehill, from his estate. He died 23 December, 1702. GEORGE STRONACH.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Tivo Biographies of William Beddl. Edited by E. S. Shuckburgh, M.A. (Cambridge, Univer- sity Press.)

BISHOP BEDELL (1571-1642) is an ancient worthy who deserved well of his generation. His name ought to be had in remembrance, if it were merely for the reason that he seems to have been one of the very few men of his time who took a wise and statesmanlike view of the duties of the Church of Ireland towards the recalcitrant people whose alle- giance it claimed, and over whom he as bishop was called to preside in a troublous time. He saw clearly that the Church must lay aside its foreign English garb and become Irish for the Irish if it was ever to win the affection of that alienated nation. Above all, it must learn to speak to them in their own tongue. With this object he took care to secure the ordination of Irish-speaking clerics, and had the Old Testament translated into their vernacular under his own direct supervision ; the New Testament and Prayer Book had already been translated by Archbishop Daniel of Tuam. He also put forth a short catechism in Irish for their instruction, for, as he remarked, "those people had souls which ought not to be neglected till they would learn English."

Notwithstanding, he was a sturdy champion of the Anglican position, and indefatigable in his efforts to win over the Romanists. In this he had no great success, but he did succeed in con- ciliating the respect and goodwill of even those who rejected his ministrations. When the rebellion broke out in 1641, in which so many were driven from their homes and barbarously maltreated, Bishop Bedell's house was almost the only one that

enjoyed immunity from attack, and he was pro- mised the Odyssean favour that " he should be the last of the English that would be put out of Ire- land." " Such," adds the contemporary biographer, " is the praise and reward of virtue even amongst the very enemies of it ! "

The two lives here edited are not new to the public. The first, written by the bishop's son, was published by Prof. Mayor in 1871, and in the following year by the Camden Society. The other, entitled ' Speculum Episcoporum ; or, the Apos- tolick Bishop,' and written by his chaplain Alex- ander Clogie, was printed in 1862 by Mr. W. W. Wilkins. To these are now added a number of his letters to Laud, Ussher, Samuel Ward, and other well-known men with whom he corresponded ; and a theological treatise of his on ' The Efficacy of Grace' is here printed for the first time.

The bishop was a capable scholar, and a student to the end of his days, a man of rare courage and still rarer charity. Though it was his unhappy lot to be involved in endless controversies and harassed by many petty persecutions, which \yould have soured a less sweet nature, his never-failing courtesy seems to have exercised a fascinating influence over all who held relations with him.

Bedell first came into notice through his being taken to Venice by Sir Henry Wotton as his chap- lain. There he formed a close intimacy with the famous Fra Paolo Sarpi, a part of whose ' History of the Council of Trent' he translated into Latin. Through the influence of Wotton and Ussher he was promoted in 1627 to the Provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, where he found ample scope for his reforming energies. Two years later he was made Bishop of Kilmore, a diocese in which he found an ignorant clergy, a disaffected laity, ruined churches, and every sort of laxity and disorder rampant. Mr. Shuckburgh, as a member of Bedell's old college, has with laudable pietas revived the memory of a good and worthy man, and given him a new lease of fame.

Archaologia JEliana. Vol. XXIV. Part II. (Reid

&Co.)

THE first place in the present issue is occupied by an obituary notice of Cadwallader John Bates, by Mr. Thomas Hodgkin. Bates was an active man, trained in many lines of thought. Had he lived to carry out what he designed he would have filled a distinguished place on the roll of Northern antiquaries. At the time of his death he was engaged on a work relating to the struggle which took place as to the time of keeping Easter, in which St. Wilfrid took so great a part, and which terminated in favour of the Roman reckoning at the synod of Whitby. The historical labour he is best known by is his dissertation on the ' Strong- holds of the Border Country,' which contains much valuable and well-arranged information. He was the owner of Langley Castle, having bought it from the Greenwich Hospital trustees, and renovated it, as we understand, in a manner which will not offend the strongest opponent of what goes by the name of restoration. Mr. Bates was well known also in another and widely different line of thought. As great-nephew of Thomas Bates, the founder of the Kirklevington herd of shorthorns, he had inherited the papers and correspondence of his collateral ancestor, and fully realized that the development of this distinguished breed of cattle had never been treated from the scientific standpoint, or with the