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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. APRIL 5, 1902.

my finger dry ? " " Yes."-" May I cut my throat before I'd tell a lie !" The lagt sen- tence was accompanied by the making of a cross on the throat, head tilted back. A shorter form : " Finger wet ; finger dry ; cut my throat if I lie." This was used when the oath- maker was in a hurry. A more elaborate form was :

Sure an' certain

Bout to death ;

Eat awt worlds

If I tell a lie.

Sometimes instead of the last two lines it was :

May the devil fetch me

If I tell a lie.

There was another : ''May I drop down dead if I tell a lie." These are also known in Notts, Stafford, and Yorkshire.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

SIR HENRY CROMWELL (9 th S. ix. 166). D. J. may like to see a quotation from the Rev. W. H. Button's history of his college (1898), p. 87 :

" The Cromwell family had sent many members to S. John's. The daughter of Sir Thomas White's second wife, Joan Warren, married Sir Henry Cromwell, of Hinchinbroke. Her son Henry was elected a Law Fellow in 1581 ; his younger brother Philip became Fellow in 1594. Both were Oliver's uncles. It was from Sir Oliver, another uncle, that the living of Crick, Northamptonshire, was bought by Sir William Craven, a rich merchant, and bestowed on the college in 1613. In the last years of the sixteenth century it is clear that Buckeridge resided constantly in the college. He was very likely the tutor of the younger brother, as he was of Laud ; and the family association may well have led the great Oliver to S. Giles's, Cri Delegate, where, on 22 August, 1620, he married Kli/abeth Bourchier."

John Buckeridge, a distinguished theo- logian, and also akin to the founder, was the eighth President of the college (1605-11), immediately preceding Archbishop Laud, his former pupil, in that office. Besides several country livings, he held, from 1604, that of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. He gave three MSS. to the college library, and Henry Cromwell, the fellow, gave one MS. A. R. BAYLEY.

Joan, the daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, Lord Mayor of London in 1537 and again in 1544, by his second wife Joan, daughter and coheir of John Lake, married Sir Henry Williams, alias Cromwell, of Hinchingbroke co. Hunts. f Sir Ralph Warren died 11 July' 1553, and his widow remarried, 25 November 1558, Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London 1553, and founder of St. John's College, Oxford. Sir Thomas White died at Oxford, 11 February, 1566, andjhis widow

died at Hinchingbroke, the house of her son- in-law, on 8 October, 1572, and was buried with her first husband in the church of St. Benet Sherehog, in the City of London.

Sir Henry Cromwell, therefore, married the stepdaughter of Sir Thomas White. He had by her six sons and five daughters. Oliver the Protector was the eldest son of Sir Henry's second son Robert, and Eliza- beth, Sir Henry's second daughter, was the mother of John Hampden.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

A RIME ON EDWARD VII. (9 th S. viii. 445, 532 ; ix. 52). When I was at Oxford now, alas ! forty years ago I remember fre- quently hearing the rime :

In Edward VII. 's reign Mass will be said again.

OSWALD J. REICHEL.

ARTISTS MISTAKES (9 th S.iv. 107, 164,237, 293 ; v. 32, 317, 400 ; vi. 44 ; vii. 423, 471 ; viii. 171, 328). According to the Illustrated London News of 14 December, the Prince of Wales, on his visit to the City on 5 December, when abreast of Christ's Hospital, wore a naval uniform with the usual cocked hat, but on his arrival at the Guildhall it was changed to a round felt one. The two illustrations being on opposite pages, the mistake is most con- spicuous. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

NAPOLEON'S LAST YEARS (9 th S. viii. 422, 509). In my little library is a ' History of Napoleon,' in 2 vols. large 8vo, by George Moir Bussey, published in 1840. remarkably well written, and copiously illustrated by Horace Vernet. The illustrations are graphic, and the head and tail pieces of the chapters descriptive. The likeness of Napoleon is well preserved, though it is difficult to identify the conqueror of Marengo and Austerlitz in the plain and simple dress worn by him at St. Helena when walking about or dictating his history to Las Cases.

Antommarchi, the Italian physician, ar- rived there in 1819, and continued as the medical attendant of Napoleon until his death, 5 May, 1821. One vignette engraving represents the Abbe Vignali administering to the prisoner the sacrament of extreme unction, and another depicts his death sur- rounded by his faithful followers, Madame Bertrand amongst them. Marchand, St. Denis, and Antommarchi watched daily and con- stantly by the bedside of the emperor. The greatest of the lyrics of Alessandro Manzoni, ' II Cinque Maggio,' commemorates the day, and one stanza of the noble ode may^be