Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/533

 9" s. vm. DEC. 28, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Alexander VI., but of Pope Julius II. Hi arguments chief of which is that Caesar' mother was the mistress of Julius before sht became that of Alexander, when both o them were cardinals are in no way con vincing, and the only authority he cites i Varillas, who, I think, wrote his work some two hundred years after Alexander's death. I should be glad to know of any othe references to this theory. I know of none earlier than Varillas. I may add that Baron Corvo's partiality for Pope Alexander VI. is only equalled by his prejudice against Pope Julius II., on whom he tries to foist most o; the wickedness usually credited to the Borgia Pontiff. CHARLES R. DAWES.

CHRISTIE FAMILY. Wanted particulars of the two marriages of Charles Christie (born 21 November, 1732), a younger brother oi General Gabriel Christie (born at Aberdeen 1722 ; died in London, 1799), and descendants if any, of these marriages.

Wanted also the names of the parents of William Christie (born c. 1754, died c. 1824). He went to London from School Hill, Aber- deen, and died at Stepney. R. M. P.

" OH, LIFE so SHORT ! " Who is the author of the following ?

Oh, life so short ! So few the hours we live, Would that the life Thou givest were life indeed W. FLETCHER BARRETT.

" EXONER." Preaching in 1732 before the Synod of Perth and Stirling, the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, one of the most learned and influential divines of his day, discussed church patronage, which had engaged the attention of the General Assembly a few months earlier. The Assembly gave a decision on the subject, embodied in the 'Actanent the Planting of Churches,' to which Erskine referred in these terms :

" I shall say the less of this Act now that I had opportunity to exoner myself with relation to it before the National Assembly where it was passed."

The discourse is reported in Thomson's ' History of the Secession Church,' pp. 47-9, and an extract from this, containing the sentence now quoted, is in Cunningham's 'Church History of Scotland,' ii. 430 (ed. 1859). Is " exoner " otherwise known as the spelling for exonerate ? THOMAS BAYNE. [Quotations in 'H.E.D.' date from 1533.]

SEVEN. I should like to hear (1) whether there are any legends associated with the Seven Sisters' Road, Hollo way, and Seven Kings, a rising district outside Ilford ; (2) whether there are any other places in the

provinces with which the number seven has come to be indissolubly conjoined.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

[Seven Acres is in Lincolnshire, Sevenhampton occurs in Gloucester and Wiltshire, Seven Oaks in Cheshire, and Sevenoaks in Kent.]

THE SIGNATURE OF THE DUKE OF CAM- BRIDGE. The following appeared in the Daily Chronicle of 26 November :

,- "p^Sj*^* of Cambridge no doubt finds it a iittle difficult to change his signature from 'George' (henceforth the monopoly of the Prince of Wales) to * Cambridge ' ; and the curious in such things among autograph hunters of the future will no doubt collect belated 'Georges' written in the midst of ' Cambridges ' by force of a habit of more than fifty years."

In my collection of autographs I have the Duke's signature to a document which must be at least eight years old. It is signed "Cambridge." Is the writer in the Daily Chronicle misinformed, or is my specimen exceptional? CHARLES HIATT.

HAMMOND AND ROE. Can any one tell me of what family were two young ladies of these names, who were suggested as Maids of Honour to Caroline of Anspach in 1714 1 The latter of the two was called "Belle Roe." Did either become a Maid of Honour ?

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S HALF

BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

(9 th S. viii. 199, 293.)

THE ' Dictionnaire de la Noblesse ' of 1774, 3y M. De la Chenaye-Dubois, says, under * La Saye du Puis,' that early in the eleventh cen- tury it was in the possession of Richard Turstin called Bardouf, who founded in 1056, with lis sister Anne and his son Yvon Capel, the Abbey of Lessay two leagues south of the Haye du Puis.

Under 'De la Haye,' another family, it ijives references to La Roque's * Histoire de larcourt,' tome ii. p. 1101, <BC. This ancient noblesse descends from Renaud I., Sovereign dount of Burgundy, and Alix, daughter of Richard II., Duke of Normandy, and Judith )f Brittany, and is a branch or the Counts f Vernon. Robert de la Haye, third son of Juy of Burgundy, Count of Vernon and Sridne, accompanied William the Conqueror Lt the battle of Hastings, and confirmed the oundation of the Abbey of Lessay by the ,dvice and with the consent of his wife 1 uriel and his two sons. He married Muriel, daughter and heiress of Eudes au Capel, Grand