Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/90

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th ix. FEB. i, 1902.

Teeth ; like a Cock upon his own Dunghil ; ; what is Sawce for a Goose, we say is Sawce for f Gander the more's the Pity; the Words and the Sense jump together; knowing Men to have an Eye .to, to see the World turn'd topsy-turvy ; his Disciple in all his Whimseys; a slippery ^ sort of Man ; was hugely put to it; rants and hectors, one Eye in their freads; Bug-bear sort ; betwixt sixes and sevens; another bout there ; the Searchers are as sly as can be ; as it is possible for such Sharks to be; sleep in a whole skin; let the future shift for itself; wheedled by them ; we shall take a good nap ; catch us napping ; made use of tor a stalking Horse ; though they do not yet play above-board ; buy a Cat in a Sack or a Pig in a Poke ; dance Attendance ; down in the Mouth ; I do not value it a farthing ; in spight of my own Teeth ; shall be defended Tooth and Nail ; meer hotch-potch ; by hook or by crook ; this rare Gim-crack ; pinning Mens Faith upon other Mens Sleeves ; from the Teeth outward; laugh on the wrong side of their Mouths ; his Friend may go whistle to understand it ; away they slip through his Fingers ; in spight of his Teeth ; no body would give a farthing for all the Wit and Craft they have ; scared out of their seven Senses ; set them together by the Ears ; slink behind the Curtain ; end in Smoak and nothing ; have got the whipping Hand of us ; but ten to one ; no Army will budg a foot ; they never boggle at any Promise ; lay all their Heads together ; not yet been as good as their word ; Matter fit to hammer it out of ; they have cock'd their Caps ; it must needs be the Ace of Trumps ; like a Turn-coat as he was ; fit to leap out of their Skins ; at the fag- end of all ; still in his Swadling Clouts ; There is something here upon the Anvil ; trip up a Man's Heels that stands ; go point-blank against it ; They are buzzing their Pates about it ; accept the Will for the Deed ; the same hurly - burly ; dive over Head and Ears ; to stand in a Quondary ; have been fain to let go the Fish ; a sudden Occasion that call'd me out of Town ; bestir his Stumps ; his Empire handsell'd with more Work ; ill will cannot forbear to shew its Teeth ; takes into his Army Tag Rag and Bobtail ; so they can but feather their own Nest ; there are some that can swallow it as glibly as they do here ; he trusts him no further than he can fling him ; they do it bare-fac'd.

On the first fly-leaf of my copy of these ' Letters,' 1693, there is to be found the name of "Stuart Bickerstaffe," written in a round, bold, and legible hand. Immediately under this name there is written, apparently in a different hand and in a less decided colour of ink, "Donum Authoris." Then on the second fly-leaf there is written, " Mr. Brown Rector Sundridge and Editor of this book gave it me." But as this was not exactly what the writer meant to express, the whoU is obliterated by the pen, and these words arc substituted underneath : "The Authour gav< me this book." The writing of these last t\v( I take to be in character the same as that o " Stuart Bickerstaffe."

I should be much obliged if some kinc reader of 'N. & Q.' could tell me anything

egarding both " Stuart Bickerstaffe " and Edward Brown, Rector of Sundridge in Kent." A. S.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF MARGARET, COUNTESS OF RICHMOND.

SOME seven miles from Bedford, on the road between that town and Higham Ferrers, .he birthplace of Archbishop Chicheley, and >n the banks of the slow-flowing Ouse, is iituated the quiet village of Bletsoe, with ts church grey with antiquity, not far from -esidence of one of the greatest families in _ngland, the Beauforts, and now has for some ! our hundred years been the property of the
 * he Midland Railway. Bletsoe was once the

oble family of St. John, styled Barons St. John of Bletsoe. Here was born that most Denevolent of ladies Margaret Beaufort, the 'oundress of St. John's and Christ Colleges at Cambridge and the Lady Margaret Pro- 'essorship of Divinity at Oxford. She is inown by the names of Lady Margaret Beau- tort, Margaret of Lancaster, and the Countess of Richmond, but usually by the simple title of Lady Margaret.

The old castle where this benevolent lady first saw the light in 1441 has been razed to the ground, but a considerable portion of the great mansion where the St. Johns lived is still in existence, a venerable structure covered with ivy, and the church continues to this day to be their burial-place. The vault is in the northern arm of the transept, and on the wall is a curious monument of Sir John St. John, who was brought up by Lady Margaret with her grandson Henry VIII. , who made him guardian of his daughters the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. There are one or two monuments of modern date to members of this ancient family, but of no great interest. From a common ancestor) descended Henry St. John, Viscount Boling- broke, in the days of Queen Anne, the great statesman, the friend of Harley and Atter- bury, to whom Pope dedicated his fine poemj 'An Essay on Man,' which has this [altered]] address :

Awake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ; A mighty maze ! but not without a plan.

Rplingbroke died childless in 1751, and buried in Battersea Church. It is probabl< that on the death of Queen Anne in 171< had prompt measures been taken, her brotht would have ascended the throne of Engb and the story goes that Atterbury offered