Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/489

 9*s. vii. JUNE 2-2, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

481

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1901.

CONTENTS. -No. 182.

NOTES : Cromwelliana, 481 T. S. Mulock, 482 Glasgow University, 484 Inscription Acervation Books on Kiev Duchess of Cleveland, 485 'Annals of Aberdeen' " Toucan " " Rat without a tail " " Prospect," 486.

QUERIES : Knifeboard ' Situation of Paradise ' Denew, Auctioneer " Bench "Taverns in Seven Dials and Soho "Silver trumpet," 487 Gl ad stone Volume Scots Heiress a Recluse in Bologna Bibliography of Universal History " Canny ": " Chevaux " Kipling Stories " Chevaux orynges": " Feuilles de lattier" Cornish Place-names Powdering Slippers "Fall below par" Identification of Arms, 488 A " Peremptory " " Pint umbit" "Heflge" in Bacon's Essay 'On Gardens' Authors Wanted, 489.

REPLIES : Manor of Tyburn, 489 Incised Circles on Stones, 491 Welsh MS. Pedigrees Towns with Changed Sites, 492 Gun Reports "Hold up oil" 'Paddle your own Canoe ' Kingsman Family Verbs formed from Proper Names, 493 Comtesse de Segur English Repre- sentative at Funeral of Alexander I. Walton Relic Crosier and Pastoral Staff, 495 City Curio Collector- Designation of Foreigners in Mexico, 49fi Quotations The Acacia in Freemasonry A Company of Miners, 497 William Hone, 498.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Lady Russell's ' Swallowfield ' Phillips's ' The Token Money of the Bank of England ' Jessopp's 'Before the Great Pillage 'Murray's Handy Classical Maps.'

Notices to Correspondents.

CROMWELLIANA.

IT is not easy to determine to which member of the Cromwell family the follow- ing letter refers, but perhaps some reader of should be observed that the Mr. Hetley who writes the letter is the person accused of misbehaviour, not Mr. Cromwell or Sir Oliver. At first it appears as if it were Mr. Cromwell who had been accused of gaming and other misdemeanours, and the letter seemed as if it might refer to the future Protector and confirm the royalist stories of his riotous youth. On reading it carefully, however, it becomes evident that this is not the case. This document, a copy presumably of some lost original, is amongst the Montague Papers included in the Carte Collection in the Bodleian Library (Carte MS. LXXIV. fo. 494) :
 * N. <fc Q.' may be able to explain it. It

SIR, Whereas (as we are informed by Mr. Hetley) that there are like to arise some differrences at law betweene Sir Oliver Cromwell and you and him- selfe; and whereas (as he saith) there has bin diverse slanderous reports raised of him, viz: that he has spent his estate in whoring, gameing and drinkeing, which has bin both beleeved and reported againe by you ; he saith he will make it appeare, that considering his necessary expences

and the debts owing to him, that his eetate is better worth by 20W. per annum, then it was when he married your daughter; and for gameing, he saies he never used it any otherwise then a lawfull recreation, that being the onely recreation he ever used ; and that he never lost at a time 6/. but once and never 21. 10s. 5 times in his life, which are but very inconsiderable summes, all which he humbly desires you would be pleased to reffer to any one of us or any other indifferent person, which is a very reasonable request and which you cannot in justice deny him, and we shall any of us be ready to take some paines to doe soe good a worke when other more weighty occasions will give us leave, and he saith he has bin al waies ready to serve you in prison and since upon all necessary occasions when most of your neerest relations, especially those whom you now most favour, did most unworthily desert you ; and that both he and his wife did all waies carry themselves with all dutifull respects towards you, though you have bin most maliciously and falsely informed to the contrary otherwise you would not carry your selfe so strangely tow'a[rd]s them undeservedly, all which we thought good to commend to your serious consideration, and we shall remaine,

[Endorsed] Mr. Hetley 's letter to Mr. Cromwell concerning his evill carriage.

In a well-known passage of the * History of the Rebellion ' (xv. 150) Clarendon narrates certain insulting speeches made by the Pro- tector with reference to Magna Charta and other constitutional statutes. The occasion was the trial of Mr. Cony for refusing to pay a certain tax imposed by the Protector, and the plea put forward by Serjeants May- nard and Twysden that the tax was uncon- stitutional. Clarendon says :

" Maynard, who was of counsel with the prisoner, demanded his liberty with great confidence, both upon the illegality of the commitment and the illegality of the imposition, being laid without any lawful authority. The judges could not maintain or defend either, but enough declared what their sentence would be; and therefore the Protector's attorney required a further day to answer what had been urged. Before that day, Maynard was committed to the Tower, for presuming to question or make doubt of his authority, and the judges were severely reprehended for suffering that license ; and when they with all humility mentioned the law and Magna Charta, Cromwell told them their magna farta should not control his actions, which he knew were for the safety of the Commonwealth."

This portion of Clarendon's * History ' was written during his second exile, about 1670, fifteen years after the events referred to, and at a period when his memory had become greatly impaired by age. Nor was Clarendon himself in England in 1655, when the incident narrated is said to have taken place. It is therefore necessary to inquire what the authorities were on which he based his story. The first point to notice is that the story does not appear in 1655. The version of Cromwell's words given then