Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/45

 9. s. v. JAN. is, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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bout de la table Bans la vie prive"e du moyen

age on appelait nef un vase allonge et de vaste capacite, qu'on plagait sur la table en face du seigneur. " Littre.

In the latter case the " nef" held the sauces, seasoning, &c. In England it served a similar purpose, particularly, I think, in holding the salt. In Mr. Orchardson's picture 'The Young Duke' there is a very prominent "nef." GEORGE MARSHALL.

Sefton Park, Liverpool.

Thirty-seven years ago a very similar question appeared in ' N. & Q.' (3 rd 8. ii.), and as I have unsuccessfully searched for the word in a dozen dictionaries, both ancient arid modern, I think I am justified in tran- scribing the remarks of the Editor and the reply of an anonymous correspondent for the benefit of your readers of the present day. At p. 129 :

"The nef is described in Labarte's ' Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance' a book which, on account of the value of its informa- tion and the beauty of its illustrations, should accompany every visitor to the interesting Exhibi- tion at South Kensington. At p. 226 we are told a nef is ' the piece of plate in which the nobility of those days displayed the greatest luxury.' 'The nef was a kind of box in the form of a ship, which was placed upon the table of a sovereign or great person ; it had a lock to it, and served to contain the goblet and various other utensils for the owner's private use.' Descriptions of several of these splendid specimens of mediaeval luxury are given by Labarte."

At p. 198 :

"A we/ was a ship on wheels; of which we have the most irrefragable proof on the seal of Stephen Payn, almoner to King Henry V., of which I enclose an impression for your acceptance. Here we have an ecclesiastic, no doubt Payn himself, bearing an undoubted nef, filled to the brim with coin, the purpose of which is fully explained by the legend : ' Sigillum officii elemosynarij regis Henrici Q.uinti Anglise.' The present Lord High Almoner bears upon his official seal a large ship in full sail, yet few know that it is a mere vestigium of the ancient nef. And again, we little thought in our childhood's days that the promise of a toy 'when my ship comes in' has meant, from time immemorial, ' when somebody gives me some money.' "

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

GARRARD, MASTER OF THE CHARTERHOUSE (9 th S. iv. 498). The Rev. George Garrard was a London clergyman, temp. Charles I., and he was "intelligencer" to the Lord Deputy Wentworth :

" He [Wentworth] instructed a gossiping person, a hired retainer of his own, the Rev. Mr. Garrard, to furnish him in monthly packets of news with all the private scandal and rumours, and secret affairs of the Court, and of London generally." Forster's ' British Statesmen,' vol. ii. p. 290.

Garrard 's letters to his patron are curious

pictures of Court and city life, and have been much used by historians and memoir-writers. See 'Strafford Letters,' i. 165, 174, 205, 225, 242, 260, 265, 335, 357, 361, 372, 389, 412, 434, 446, 462, 467, 489, 505, 509, 523 ; ii. 1, 55, 72, 85, 114, 128, 140, 147, 152, 164, 179, 351.

He obtained the Mastership of the Charter- house, March, 1638, through the influence of Wentworth with Archbishop Laud (Laud's 'Works,' vol. vii. p. 132 note).

While the matter was still pending, the archbishop wrote about Garrard (or Garrat as he calls him) to the Deputy :

" For Mr. Garrat you write handsomely. I make as little doubt as your Lordship of his honesty in his place. I have known him long, but whether good company (which he likes well) will let him be as vigilant for the thrift, and careful for the govern- ment of that house as is requisite, I am not infinitely confident. He hath been with me since I received your letters, and I have given him a fair and true answer, and perhaps may do more than so. I have also declared to him how much he is bound unto you. For myself, he never came at me, since my living about London, till this winter (1635), then he came first with 110 (Lord Cottington) in his com- pany and 19 (cypher unknown) to boot. Since he hath visited me often, and now I see the cause of his kindness." Laud's ' Works,' vol. vii. pp. 132-3.

In one of his letters Garrard tells us a curious bit of history :

"Mr. Controller Vane's eldest son hath left his father, his mother, and his country, and that fortune, which his father would have left him here, for conscience sake, gone into New England, there to lead the rest of his days, being about 20 years old. He had abstained 2 years from taking the sacrament in England, because he could get nobody to administer it to him standing. I hear that Sir Nathaniel Rich and Mr. Pyrn have done him much hurt in their persuasions this way. God forgive them for it, if they be guilty." 'Strafford Letters,' vol. i. p. 463.

FRANCESCA.

According to the Editor's reply to a previous query (see 3 rd S. vi. 252) this gentleman was one of Dr. Donne's corre- spondents, and is frequently noticed in his letters. He was a clergyman, and lived in the Strand, where he was a lodger, in which capacity he was assessed forty shillings to the ship money. In 1637 he was chosen Master of the Charterhouse, and was succeeded in the office by Edward Crossett, Esq., in 1650.

Peter Cunningham, in his 'Handbook of London, 3 describes him as "the gossining correspondent of the great Lord Strafford." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

VENN : MOUNTFORD (9 th S. iv. 497). In the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' there is a life of the Rev. Henry Venn, who died 1797 and