Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/160

 244 NOTES AND QUERIES. 19-s.iv.sspt. as, m In his next letter to Montagu, dated 11 August, 1746 (vol. ii. p. 47), Walpole writes : " 1 have seen Mr. Jordan and have taken his house I have desired the landlord will order the key to be delivered to you, and Ashton will assist you." Finally, in a letter to Conway, dated " Windsor still," 3 October, 1746 (vol. ii. p. 59), Walpole writes :— "George Montagu, who perhaps is a philosopher too, though I am not sure of Pythagoras silent sect, lives but two barrels off [he has been referring to himself as Diogenes, and to his house as " his little tub of forty pounds a year"]; and Ashton, a Chris- tian philosopher of our acquaintance, lives at the foot of that hill which you mention with a melan- choly satisfaction. Apropos, here is an ode on the very subject which you will please to like exces- sively [Gray's ' Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College']." As, therefore, Montagu apparently left England in 1737, and was still abroad in 1739, he could not during that period have been in the neighbourhood of Eton, as he was at the time this letter was written. On the other hand, Montagu was living in the neighbourhood of Eton (in fact, at Windsor) between August and October, 1746. On 5 August of that year Horace Walpole applied to him to find a house for him in Windsor. On 11 August Horace Walpole reported that he had concluded his bargain with the landlord. This letter from the "Christopher" was probably writtensometiine during that week, when Horace Walpole went to inspect his future residence. A further clue to the date of the letter is furnished by the reference to Ashton. Walpole says:— " If I don't compose myself a little more before Sunday morning, when Ashton is to preach, I shall certainly be in a bill for laughing at church ; but how to help it, to see him in the pulpit, when the last time I saw him here, was standing up funking over against a conduit to be catechised." From this reference it is evident that Ashton at this time was in orders. According to Mr. D. C. Tovey ('Gray and his Friends,' E. 3, note), who also considers this letter to e out of place, Ashton was not ordained till after 1739. Again, Walpole appears to allude to Ashton's preaching in Eton College Chapel. Mr. Tovey points out that Ashton probably never preached in the Chapel until after he became a Fellow of Eton, which he did on 20 December, 1745. Letter 271 (vol. ii. p. 117), to Horace Mann, written from Strawberry Hill without date of month or year, appears to be misplaced by Cunningham between two letters (Nos. 270 and 272), dated respectively 14 July and 25 July, 1748, from Rigby's seat at Mistley in Essex. It is improbable that Horace Walpole left Mistley for Strawberry Hill and returned thither between those two dates, as must have been the case if the present order of the letters be preserved. At the end of letter 272, dated from Mistley, 25 July, Horace Walpole writes : "I go to town the day after to-morrow, and imme- diately from thence to Strawberry Hill." Letter No. 271 may, therefore, be placed between that of 25 July, dated from Mistley (No. 272), and that of 11 August, dated from Strawberry Hill (No. 273). Helen Toynbee. The Family of Feowyk.—This family, members of which played an important role in the history of London during trie reigns of Henry III. and Edward I., is treated at length in the 'Dictionary of National Bio- graphy,' vol. xx. p. 293. My manuscript notes bring to light two of the Frowyks—Peter and Henry—who came frequently into com- munication with the London Jews of their day. A strange circumstance attaches to both men—a matter which at present is a puzzle. It has not been noticed by any writer. Both of them left the Christian faith. This is par- ticularly remarkable with regard to Henry, who was more than once Sheriff of London. Close Roll, 38 Henry III., 1254, m. 11, is thus found in precis:— " Henry, the King's surgeon, to have thirteen shops, &c., in London, which belonged to Peter de Frowyk, who has left the Christian faith, and which are extended at fifty-one shillings and four- pence per annum. To hold in part payment of his annual fee of ten pounds at the Exchequer." Peter de Frowyk was a lender of money, a criminal, therefore, in the eyes of his com- patriots. Taking together the facts that he lent 15/. to Ralph Aswy, a great Londoner, and that he is credited with being subse- quently the owner of the latter's tenements in Ironmonger Lane, we arrive at the con- clusion that Peter acted after the fashion of the Jews, compromised himself in the eyes of his fellows, and "left the Christian faith " only to the extent of being a usurer. No actual conversion is meant. See Watney's ' St. Thomas of Aeon,' p. 258. The work here quoted gives on the same page an entry dealing with Henry de Frowyk, and says that his houses in Ironmonger Lane were forfeited because "the said Henry is said to have apostasised." This evidently means that the sheriff did a little usury business covertly, and met with his punish- ment when his avocation came to light. I