Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/492

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. ix. JUNE 1,1902.

Messrs. Blackwood recently caused a search to be made, and have discovered that the manuscript of the poem, which appeared in a * Noctes Ambrosianse ' by Lockhart, is in the handwriting of Lockhart, who gives no hint as to its authorship further than stating that it had been sent to him "by a friend now in Upper Canada." In this state- ment Mr. Munro thinks there is a clue to the author's identity, "and it is significant," he adds, "that in the same number of Maga in which the poem first appeared, there is an article on Tipper Canada from the pen of John Gait, who was certainly in

that country in 1829 It is now considered

by the Blackwoods certain," he concludes, "that Gait was the author of 'From the lone shieling.' " The author of ' The Annals of the Parish,' as Mr. Muriro points out, wrote a good deal of verse ; and while, as he asserts, the poem "impresses a very poignant Celtic note, it does so in a fashion purely Saxon," implying that the lines came from the pen of a Lowlander. It may not be inappropriate to mention here that Neil Munro, as one of the "Blackwood group," was honoured by inclusion in the ' Noctes Ambrosianse ' which formed a feature of the thousandth number of Blackwood three years ago. Here is the first verse of his interlude 'To Exiles' which shows the author of 'The Lost Pibroch' as a genuine poet : Are you not weary in your distant places,

Far far from Scotland of the mist and storm, In stagnant airs, the sun-smite on your faces,

The days so long and warm ? When all around you lie the strange fields sleeping,

The ghastly woods where no dear memories roam, Do not your sad hearts over seas come leaping,

To the highlands and the lowlands of your Home ?

"There's an eerie sough aboot thae lines," as the Ettrick Shepherd would say.

JOHN GRIGOR. [See also 6 th S. xii. 310, 378 ; 9 th S. vii. 368, 512.]

^SiR RICHARD REDE. In the brief account given in the ' D.N.B.,' vol. xlvii. p. 374, of Sir Richard Rede (or Reade), Lord Chan- cellor of Ireland, 1546-8, and afterwards a Master of the Court of Requests in England, it is stated that he died in 1579. His will, however, was proved in 1576, P.C.C. 20 Carew ; and according to the finding of the jury upon the inquisition post mortem taken at Hatfield, Herts, 13 Dec., 19 Eliz. (1576), he died on 11 July, 1576. See the ' Chancery Inquisitions/ series ii. vol. clxxvii. No. 102.

The dictionary does not refer to Rede's connexion with Sherburn Hospital, Durham. While the see of Durham was vacant by

reason of Bishop Tunstall's deprivation, Rede, who was one of the commissioners upon Tun- stall's trial, obtained a grant, dated 4 Feb., 1552/3, of the mastership of this hospital for his life, without prejudice to an earlier grant he had from the king of a life annuity of 100/. ; Patent Roll, 7 Edward VI. , part vi. ; cf. Strype, 'Eccl. Mem.,' II. ii. 276, edition 1822, where Rede is miscalled " Sir Robert." His tenure of the hospital was cut short through Tunstall's restoration to the see shortly after Queen Mary's accession. Anthony Salvayn thereupon obtained possession of the hos- pital, and the grant of the mastership to Rede was afterwards cancelled on the ground of a voluntary surrender, 14 Nov., 2 <fe 3 Ph. & M. (1555). Apparently, however, the sur- render did not wholly determine Rede's con- nexion with the hospital ; for in 1568 he was suing Thomas Lever, who was then the master, for a pension of 40. a year and four- teen years' arrears; see 'Cal. State Papers, Dom.,' Addenda, 1566-79, p. 51. In the index to the calendar Thomas Lever, who died in July, 1577, is confused with Ralph Lever, his successor in the mastership ; see Hutchinson's ' History of Durham,' ii. 593-4. H. C.

CROMWELLIANA. On one of the fly-leaves of my copy of ' A Short Critical Review of the Political Life of Oliver Cromwell,' by John Banks (M.DCC.LXIX.), is written as follows: "Lord Hailes, in his 'Annals of Scotland/ says that at Halidon two Stuarts fought under the banners of their chiefs ; the one Allan of Dughom, the paternal ancestor of Charles L, and the other James of Rosythe, the maternal ancestor of Oliver Cromwell." JOHN T. PAGE.

"BREECHIN." Dr. John Brown's 'Rab and his Friends 'has reached the classic dignity that is gained by the appreciation of the school-book compiler. The fight with the " thoroughbred white bull-terrier " is given in ' Passages from Modern Authors/ an at- tractive little book published by Messrs. Blackie & Son. The following passage prompts an editorial note :

"He is muzzled ! The bailies had proclaimed a general muzzling, and his master, studying strength and economy mainly, had encompassed his huge jaws in a home-made apparatus, constructed out of the leather of some ancient breechin."

The note given is, "Breechin, or brechame, the collar of a working horse." But the breechin," of course, is the breeching, or that in which the horse sits when resisting the pressure of his load in a downhill move- ment. This part of the harness would suit the purpose of Rab's master much better