Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/157

 9 th S. II. AUG. 20, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

149

AGMONDESHAM VESEY AND HIS WIFE ELIZA- BETH VESEY. Can any one supply the precise dates of the death of these well-known per- sons 1 He was a member of "The Club" from April, 1773, and she was a conspicuous leader of society. Vesey died, it would seem, in June, 1785. His widow is said to have survived until 1791. W. P. COURTNEY.

Reform Club.

"HUCKLER" A DANCE. Assheton, in his 1 Journal (ed. 1845, p. 45), describes " a maske of noblemen, knights, gentlemen, and courtiers, affore the king, in the middle round, in the garden," followed by "dancing the buckler, Tom Bedlo, and the Cowp Justice of Peace." Is anything further known of this dance, or of the origin of the name ?

ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

MORRIS'S COFFEE - HOUSE. Where was Morris's Coffee- House in London 1 K. K.

HENRY GRYS. Henry Grys was elected from Westminister School to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573. I shall be greatly obliged if any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' can give me particulars concerning Grys. G. F. II. B.

MADDALENA DONI. Where is there a full account of Maddalena Doni? INQUIS.

REV. ROBERT CARTER. Rector of Stour- mouth, 1637-45. The parishioners in March, 1640, sent a long petition against him to Parlia- ment, as recorded in ' Proceedings in Kent, 1640' (Camden Society, 1861). But he pro- bably was not removed, as on 7 August, 1646, administration to the goods of Robert Carter, clerk, of Stourmouth, was granted to his brother Henry Carter. Any further informa- tion would be acceptable. ARTHUR HUSSEY.

Wingham, Kent.

"HIGH COMMISSIONER OF THE CHURCH."- What is the origin and what are the duties of the " High Commissioner of the Church " in Edinburgh ? I allude to the office held this

Past year by Lord Leven and Melville, erhaps I have not given the title of office correctly. I should be greatly obliged by any information on the subject. I understand that a former Earl of Leven held this office during a long period of years, somewhere about the end of last century.

WILMOT VAUGHAN.

THE MEMOIRS OF THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE : LADY FRANCES PENNO YER. I have to thank you for inserting my querv relative to the 'Journal of Raoul Hesdin ' (9 th S. i. 348) and eliciting a

reply confirmatory of the suspicions which I entertained. May I now put a similar question as regards the 'Journal of the Princess de Lamballe ' (Nicholls, 1895) 1 The name of the authoress (or edibress) is not given. The book, we are told, was first published in 1826. She intimates that she was the daughter of the late Duke of Norfolk and Lady Mary Duncan. Who was the latter lady, or was there any such person? The Camperdown peerage wasof latercreation. And is there anything to show that a young lady answering this description was in the confidence of the Princess, and partially of Marie Antoinette herself 1

The Princess affirms that the match between the future Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette was the work of Madame de Pompadour, who unfortunately died before the marriage. Madame de Pompadour died when Marie Antoinette was eight or nine years old. This hardly looks like a genuine journal, the Princess de Lamballe being some years older than the Queen.

May I add to this letter an inquiry as to whether there was any such person as Lady Frances Pennoyer in the eighteenth century, and if so, who she was ? Her diary is quoted in Mr. Cooper's ' History of the Rod,' but he does not state whether it was published or where he got it. The language is hardly what I should have expected at that date. M.

[There was no such person, we are convinced, as Lady Frances Pennoyer. The 'History of the Rod' is an impudent fabrication.]

REFERENCE SOUGHT. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give me the reference for a quota- tion from Goethe to the following effect : " I work without relaxation at making a nobler creature of myself"? W. H. C.

" HORSEMAN'S BEDS." What are, or were, these ] The only instance of the word that we have in the material for the ' Historical English Dictionary ' is in a (partly second-hand) quo- tation from Petty 's 'Political Anatomy of Ireland ' (ed. 1691, p. 107) :

" As to these town-lands, plough-lands, colus,

greevcs horseman's beds, &c., they are at this day

manifestly unequal."

ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

ORIENTAL PALMISTRY. Can COL. PRIDEAUX or any other reader versed in Oriental mat- ters tell me of some book or article where I shall find described the principles of fortune- telling by the hand as practised in the East ? I understand that there is a considerable divergence from palmistry as it exists in Europe. C. J. PEARCE.