Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/334

 326

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. A, 21, 1900.

to a cake of very thin bread which is rollec up into a tube of narrow diameter.

W. E. WILSON. Hawick.

WILL OF THOMAS GUY (9 th S. v. 209). The following is extracted from the Catalogue of the Guildhall Library :

"A True copy of the last will and testament oj Thomas Guy, late of Lombard Street, Bookseller, containing an account of his public and private benefactions. 8vo. London, 1725."

" A Copy of the last will and testament of Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's Hospital ; with an Act 11 George I. for incorporating the executors of the said will. 8vo. London, 1815."

WM. H. PEET.

If MR. GADSDEN wants a copy for any important (I mean accurate) purpose I should advise him not to trust to any copy, but to get one from Somerset House and examine it himself with the original.

RALPH THOMAS.

The will of Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, who died on 27 December, 1724, has been published on three or more occasions. Copies of the editions issued in 1725 and 1815 may be referred to in the Cor- poration Library, Guildhall, E.C. I possess another copy "printed in the year 1732," with which has Deen bound the Act of Parliament 11 George I., published in 1725, for "incor- porating the Executors of the said Will," which was executed on 4 September, 1724.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

MAIL SHIRTS FROM THE SUDAN (9 th S. v. 183, 270). If MR. STEPHENS would try the ioints of the rings with a file, and consult a blacksmith about the welding, I think he would find that the last is impracticable, and that the " nipple-like protuberances " are rivet heads.

After consideration it appears to me that I was wrong in saying that "it seems un- likely that there have been workmen in the Sudan capable of making these shirts " ; for the amount of skill required is small, while of patience the Arab has an unlimited supply.

That the wire of the rings is not circular in section may come, not merely from wear, but from its being made, not by drawing as in Europe nowadays, but in the old-fashioned way by thin strips of metal hammered into the round section. This fact would fix the date pretty well of wire used in Europe, but hardly of that used in so backward a country as the Sudan.

It is generally thought by officers present

in the Sudan campaign that the shirts belonged to Crusaders. Of some this is pos- sible, considering the climate and the fond- ness of Arabs for arms, and how such things are handed down as heirlooms through generations ; but that many of them should be at least seven hundred years old is un- likely. THORNFIELD.

FAGGOTS FOR BURNING HERETICS (9 th S. v. 269). This question has already been dis- cussed in ' N. & Q.' No church in London, so far as I can ascertain, possesses, or ever did possess, funds for the purpose of buying faggots for burning heretics. So recently as the issue of 9 th S. ii. 378 I gave instances of the legacy of 2,OOOZ. bequeathed to the Ironmongers' Company for the purchase of faggots for the poor of the City of London ; also at Newmarket, Suffolk, at Godstpne, Surrey, and Biddenham, Kent, for various charitable purposes, but in neither case for the purpose described at the head of this article. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Jjjiisttllmtam.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A History of the English Church during the Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth. By William A. Shaw, Litt.D. 2 vols. (Longmans & Co.) SPECIALISM tends every day to become more special. While other Church historians extend their purview to centuries or considerable periods, Dr. Shaw pre- fers restricting himself to one particular corner of a wide field, upon which he has bestowed special culture. The portion he selects is that in which the fortunes of the English Church were in their nadir, when Episcopacy was dragooned and ridden over roughshod by the tyranny of a militant and unscrupulous Nonconformity. Then, as ever, there were no such despots as the self-styled champions of liberty. Taking the years that lie between 1640 and 1660 as his subject, Dr, Shaw, with immense ndustry and admirable mastery of detail, traces out through 1100 pages the ramifications of what he lolds to be " the most complete and drastic revolu-
 * ion which the Church of England has ever under-

gone." A clean sweep was made of the endow- ments, organization, formularies, and services of the old historic Church, and the brand-new system of a blatant and bigoted religionism forced upon a much-enduring people. It is this constitutional revolution that Dr. Shaw has made his study ; and possessing a minute and accurate acquaintance with )rought to bear upon it probably a fuller amount of cnowledge than any writer hitherto has been able to command. Besides using the Parliamentary debates reported by D'Ewes and others, he has made large drafts on the accessible records of the arious committees which carried through the work f spoliation, and in particular he has utilized the
 * he unpublished documents of the time, he has