Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [9* s. vm. NOV. 9, 1901.

bably he was a first cousin and they second cousins of the deceased, who had a bond charged on Kirkbuddo to secure an annuity left by will ; this was paid off or discharged in 1780.

I should be glad of particulars of the parentage of any of these persons, other than the laird. Was Mgr. Erskine possibly a follower of the Young Pretender, or one of the suite of Cardinal York? The family were Jacobites, but no other members of it belonged to the Roman Church. When and where did Mgr. Erskine die 1

W. C. J.

DOROTHY CECIL. (See ante, p. 362.) In which church in Surrey is the singular epitaph to Dorothy Cecil mentioned by C. W. in the Times of 25 October 1 The Hon. Dorothy Cecil was the eldest daughter of Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon. By her will she desired to be buried in the parish church at Wimbledon, near her dear father, if she died within half a day's journey of Wimbledon, and to be carried there by night ; and if she died at a greater distance, to be buried where she died. Dorothy Cecil died unmarried in France in 1652. Where was she buried 1 Jos. PHILLIPS.

Stamford.

MERLIN. (9 th S. viii. 103, 234, 287.)

SIR GEORGE BIEDWOOD, in the Times of 26 August, appears to have come to the con- clusion that the quotation, professedly taken from Merlin's 'Prophecies,' contained in a reproduction of the century-old letter which originated the present correspondence, was spurious. He and my namesake MR. W. ROBERTS (ante, p. 234) are of opinion also, that no edition of Merlin's ' Prophecies' was "published by Hawkins in the reign of Henry VIII. " (I quote MR. R. B. MARSTON, ante, p. 103). The first -named gentleman

says further, " no copy of it has evei

been seen, nor is any mention made of it by any responsible bibliographer such as Brunet and Lowndes." Timperley, in his ' Encyclo- paedia of Typographical Anecdote' (Bohn 1842), quotes under '1530. John Hawkins, the following paragraph from the 'Typo graphical Antiquities' (1749) of Joseph Ames ., t.b.A. :

"Merlin'* Prophecy. -The original is said to be of the famous Merlin, who lived about a thou sand years ago, and the following translation i 200 years old, for it seems to be written near thi

end of Henry the Seventh's reign. I found it in an old edition of Merlin's Prophecies, imprinted at 1/ondon by John Haukyns in the year 1533."

Chen follow twenty lines of prophecy in rime. Ames (whose 'Antiquities' is spoken of in works upon typographical antiquities) speaks lere definitely enough as to this edition of the book, just as did the writer of the Times etter in 1801, and his allusion to the transla- tion being of the time of Henry VII. con- flicts with Sir George Birdwood's contention jhat the style of the language was not true X) date. Comparison of the two quotations, which are different in matter, shows an identity of style ; and I would submit deferen- tially that it is probable that Mr. Ames and the Times correspondent each saw a copy of Merlin's ' Prophecies ' " published by Hawkins in the reign of Henry VIII."
 * he Caxton Exhibition catalogue as having
 * ormed the foundation for all succeeding

I must take another sentence from Sir vjeorge Birdwood's interesting letter :

"It [Heywood's 'Merlin'] was reprinted with the ' Prophetical Chronology ' of Merlin Silvestris for Lackington, Allen & Co., London, in 1813, and this reprint is the only account of Merlin and his vague and visionless vaticinations readily accessible to English readers."

Even this edition may not easily be met with, for the book is called "scarce" in Mr. Hotten's ' Bibliographical Account of One Thousand Curious and Rare Books' (about 1870). MR. JOHN RADCLIFFE (ante, p. 234) mentions this reprint, too. There is, how- ever, at least one other edition extant that of 1651 printed probably a year after the death ("1650?" says the 'Dictionary of National Biography') of Hey wood. A fine copy of this edition I noticed in the window of Messrs. Maggs Brothers in the Strand the other day, and on being kindly allowed to compare it with my 1641 (slightly imperfect) copy, I found that from its stagey, dedication, with its amusing disclaimer of any attempt at compliment, to the end of the book it was a facsimile of its forerunner. From the title- page these words had been deleted :. " A subject never published in this kind before." To Thomas Heywood the prophecies were no " visionless vaticinations"; but until we find the following lines in the 1533 edition, or in manuscript or print of a date anterior to the period of Queen Mary, scepticism is pardonable :

Then shall the masculine Scepter cease to sway, And to a Spinster the whole Land obey, Who to the Papall Monarchy shall restore All that the Phoenix had fetcht thence before, Then shall come in the faggot and the stake, And they, of Convert bodies bonefires rnal^e,