Alphonso, the elder, was a favourite with King James I.: Lansdowne MS., in the British Museum, No. 156, recording his annual pension from the king at fifty pounds.

Several offices at court, connected with the King's Chamber, were filled by Ferrabosco: 1. A Musician's place in general; 2. A Composer's place; 3. A Viol's place; and 4. An Instructor's place to the Prince (Charles I.) in the Art of Music.

And now for a Query: Did Ferrabosco die in England, and where was he buried?

PETER CUNNINGHAM.

LETTERS OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ. Messrs. Hachette & Co., publishers, Paris, who are at present giving in their Collection des Grands Ecrivains de la France a new edition of Madame de Sévigné's correspondence, would be most thankful to communicate, either by letter or through the medium of " N. & Q.," with persons possessing autographs, or old copies of letters, written by Madame de Sévigné and the various members of her family (Charles de Sévigné, the Grignans, the Coulanges, &c. &c.) The indication of the date, and the quotation of the first few lines of these autographs, or copies, would be esteemed a favour, as also the kind permission to have transcripts made, at their own expense, of any document of the above character; a scrupulously correct text being one of the principal merits which Messrs. Hachette & Co. endeavour to secure for their collection.

Seven volumes of Madame de Sévigné's letters have already appeared; but the information and the permission requested would not be useless, even if the autographs or copies belonged by their date to an epoch comprised in the portion now before the public; for it is purposed to complete the work with a Supplement, which shall embody all documents accidentally omitted, besides rectifications and additions of every kind.

Messrs. Hachette & Co. would likewise receive with gratitude communications of the same sort referring to other celebrated French writers, particularly those who lived during the seventeenth century.

Horace Walpole had in his possession autograph letters of Madame de Sévigné. Any of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." knowing the present whereabouts of these letters would confer the greatest obligation upon Messrs. Hachette & Co. by forwarding to them particulars, addressed to the care of Messrs. Williams & Norgate, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London.

SUNDRY QUERIES.

1. By whom, and where, was Wycliffe first styled the "Morning Star of the Reformation ?" [This epithet was first applied to Wycliffe by John Fox, in his Life of the Reformer. He says: "When the lamentable ignorance and darknesse of God's truth had overshadowed the whole earth, this man, Wickliffe, stepped forth like a valiant champion, unto whom it may justly be applied that is spoken in the booke called Ecclesiasticus (ch 1. ver. 6,) of one Simon the sonne of Onias: Even as the morning star being in the middest of a cloud, and as the moone being full in her course, and as the bright beames of the sunne: so doth he shine and glister in the temple and church of God.'"-Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog., edit. 1853, i. 170.]

2. Who was the Angel of France?

3. Where did Shelley get his name of Adonais for Keats, and what does it signify?

4. At what date was Maga first used as a familiar synonyme for Blackwood's Magazine? 5. Who is Bombastes Furioso?

[Bombastes Furioso is the title of a burlesque tragic opera by William Barnes Rhodes, performed at the Haymarket in 1810. It was intended to ridicule the bombast of modern tragedies. It has since been printed at Dublin, 8vo, 1822.]`

6. Where can a good account, historical and descriptive, of the Via Dolorosa be found?

7. Who is the Sir Matthew Mite, thus alluded to by Macaulay ?" As useless as the series of turnpike tickets collected by Sir Matthew Mite." The personage of this name, who figures in Foote's comedy of the Nabob, has no such collection; at least, not in the editions of Foote's Works which I have consulted.

8. Who was Mother Douglas?

"I question much whether the celebrated Mother Douglas herself could have made such a figure in an extemporaneous altercation."-Smollett.

[Foote, in his comedy, The Minor, in the character of Mrs. Cole, has represented the notorious Mother Douglas, the procuress. She also figures in Hogarth's "March to

Finchley," and is repeated in the last print but one of "Industry and Idleness." In Bonnel Thornton's explanation of the former, he says: "You will pardon the invention of a new term-I shall include the whole King's Head in the word Cattery, the principal figure of which is a noted fat Covent Garden lady [Mother Douglas], army's success, and the safe return of many of her babes who, with pious eyes cast up to Heaven, prays for the of grace." Mother Douglas resided at the north-east corner of Covent Garden, where she died on June 10,

"Will without power,' said the sagacious Casimir to Milor Beefington, 'is like children playing at soldiers.' ”— Macaulay.

[This passage is quoted from the dramatic piece, "The Rovers; or, the Double Arrangement," Act iv. in The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. Casimere is a Polish emigrant; and Beefington an English nobleman, an exile by the tyranny of King John, previous to the signature of Magna Charta.]

12. Who are the two Mother Bunches referred to in the following citation?

"Now that we have fairly entered into the matrimonial chapter, we must needs speak of Mother Bunch; not the Mother Bunch whose fairy tales are repeated to the little ones, but she whose cabinet,' when broken open, reveals so many powerful love-spells. It is Mother Bunch who teaches the blooming damsel to recall the fickle lover, or to fix the wandering gaze of the cautious swain attracted by her charms, yet scorning the fetters of the parson, and dreading the still more fearful vision of the churchwarden, the constable, the justice, the warrant, and the jail."-Quarterly Review, No. XLI. art. v.

[The fairy tales of the first lady of this name may be found in "Pasquil's Jests, with the Merriments of Mother Bunch: wittie, pleasant, and delightfull. Lond., 1653, 4to." The work, or rather chap-book, by the other belle of this name, is entitled "Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, containing Rare Secrets of Art and Nature, tried and experienced, by Learned Philosophers, and recommended to all ingenious Young Men and Maids; teaching them, in a natural way, how to get good Wives and Husbands. By a Lover of Mirth and Hater of Treason. In Two Parts. Lond. 12mo. 1760."]

13. Who is Sir Tunbelly Guzzle, alluded to by Lord Chesterfield in one of his Letters to his Son? [Sir Tunbelly Guzzle is a worthy old north-country baronet, sadly afflicted with the gout, and an inveterate scurvy. His character is sketched by Chesterfield in No. 90 of The World.]

14. Who are Tom Dingle, Tom Noodle, Tom Stitch, Tom Tiddler, and Tom Tram? —

"In conclusion, we have to recommend to those whom it may concern, to avoid, as much as possible, the name of Thomas; it being pretty certain that there must have been formerly some remarkably silly fellow of that name, whence it hath been transmitted to posterity with no great honour, as witness Tom Fool, Tom Dingle, Cousin Tom, Silly Tom, Tom Noodle, and the diminutive bird Tom Tit."-Brady, Names of Persons, p. 56.

16. How did the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour?) get his appellation of "The Duke with the Silver Hand?" (ubi suprà.)

17. Who was the Princess Elizabeth surnamed "Queen of Hearts," and how did she get this title? (ubi suprà.)

[Elizabeth, daughter to King James I., and the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia. So engaging was her behaviour, that she was, in the Low Countries, called "The Queen of Hearts." When her fortunes were at the lowest ebb, she never departed from her dignity; and poverty and distress seemed to have no other effect upon her, but to render her more an object of admiration than she was before.]

18. Who was Duke Humphrey, who was called "The Good Duke?" (ubi suprà.)

[Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, commonly called "The Good," was the youngest son of King Henry IV. He was a singular promoter of literature and the common patron of the scholars of the time. About the year 1440, he gave to the University of Oxford a library containing six hundred volumes. These books are called Novi Tractatus, or New Treatises, in the University register, and said to be admirandi apparatus. He died in 1446, 8. p., when his honours became extinct. Granger informs us, that "this Prince's vault, in which his body was preserved in a kind of pickle, was discovered at St. Alban's in the year 1703." Christopher Middleton was the author of The Legend of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Lond. 1600, 4to, a metrical production consisting of 184 stanzas.]

Bountiful, and the Duke of Fairlight? 19. Who were the Maid of Saragossa, Lady [For a notice

"of the Maid

Waving her more than Amazonian blade," see Byron's Childe Harold, canto i. stanzas 54, 55, and 56, and Byron's note.]

Dorchester, near Boston, U. S.

W. A. W

THE ACLAND FAMILY.-Will any Devonshire antiquary assist me under the following circumstances? I have a deed dated the 22nd of April, 9 Hen. VII. (1494), by which one Elizabeth Ackelane, widow, provides that, after her decease, all her lands, &c. "in Pylle, Barnestaple, South Raddeworthy, Whytefeld, Rockelegh, Fulford, Toriton, Fremyngton, Newport Epi, et Rownessam in com Devon," together with lands, &c. " in Tenby, Bonbylystourt et Pentylpyre in Wallia in com Pembroch," shall be conveyed to her son Brian Travers; in default to her son Nicholas Travers ; and in default to her son Robert Ackelane. The estate is also charged with 100 shillings per ann. to be paid to one Edmund Delyon during his life. I am extremely anxious to know of what parentage was this Elizabeth Acland? the christian names of her husbands? how she became possessed of these lands? and who was Edmund Delyon? H. J. S.

Oxford.

OPERA OF IL PENSEROSO, as it is acted with authority at the royal theatres (i. e. the schools of Eton and Westminster), satirical plate, privately printed: what is the date, and who is the author? R. INGLIS.

QUOTATIONS Wanted.—

1. "O! we did not part in sadness;

There were smiles upon thy brow;
But we little dreamed our gladness
Would be turned to sorrow now."

2. "Back to the depths of Heaven,

Thou ray of Jehovah's brow,

That but lit earth's depths, like the flashing levin,
To deepen the darkness now."

3. "O! were it not for this sad voice,

Stealing amid the flowers, to say
That all in which we most rejoice

Ere night must be the earthworm's prey!"
4. "Like the fresh sweetbriar and the early May;
Like the fresh, cool, pure air of opening day:
Like the gay lark, sprung from the glittering dew;
An angel, yet a very woman too!"

5. "When the spirit was young and the world was new."

HERMENTRUDE.

"He died of no distemper, But fell, like Autumn fruit that mellowed long, E'en wondered at, because he fell no sooner. He was wound up to threescore years and ten, And even then ran on two winters more. "Till like a clock, worn out by eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still." Whose are these lines, and where are they to be found? S. S. S.

SCOTTISH. On what authority do our northern neighbours justify their exclusive use of the word Scottish, and never Scotch, in an adjective sense; as for instance, it is a Scottish practice, it is a Scottish work, &c.? Whereas the termination ish usually denotes with us an inclination towards, or slight degree of a thing, as darkish, brackish, selfish, and the word Scottish itself would mean rather Scotch. But if we allow Scottish why not Frenchish also? ANGLUS.

"TOM TIDLER'S GROUND."-Is this a common expression in Hertfordshire, as applied to the garden ground of a sluggard, or was it coined by Dickens as a characteristic title for his Christmas story for 1861? The locality is well known to be near Hitchin, and I presume its real signification to be Tom t'Idler's Ground. M. D.

WINCHESTER SCHOOL: TO OLD WYKEHAMISTS. Any information not hitherto printed as to the history or traditions of Winchester College would be thankfully received and duly acknowledged if forwarded to W. L. C., care of Messrs. Blackwood & Sons, Publishers, Paternoster Row. Especially, as to its condition during the civil wars; the early state of "Commoners;" obsolete customs; the "Rebellion" of 1818.

Queries with Answers.

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON. — In reading English or Scotch history of the sixteenth century, one is surprised and disappointed to find so little said of the parentage, family, latter years, and death of that distinguished statesman and ambassador, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, held in such repute both in Mary and Elizabeth's courts; and who, upon the whole, bebaved so faithfully and honorably towards both queens, under very trying circumstances. There can be little doubt he was of the ancient Worcestershire [Warwickshire?] family of Throckmorton (or Throkmorton), in which there were afterwards two baronetciesone, that of Gloucestershire, long extinct - but that most indefatigable genealogist, Sir Bernard Burke, does not mention him in his "Lineage" of either of those branches. See his Peerage and Baronetage, and his Extinct Baronetage, art. "Throckmorton"; and Sir Bernard is generally glad to introduce eminent men into his catalogues, and say something of them, though not in the direct line of ancestry of families, so we may presume he has come across no roll including Sir Nicholas, or his brother John, executed in 1554 as concerned in the Suffolk conspiracy (when Sir Nicholas also had a narrow escape.) In all probability they were in the line of the present Throckmorton family, of Congleton, Warwickshire, and younger sons very likely of Sir George Throckmorton (temp. Hen. VIII.); for his wife's father, Lord Vaux, was a Nicholas. The present young baronet, also, it appears, is named Nicholas William. It is odd, however, that the public records of the family should be deficient of a name of such celebrity and honour in his day as was that of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. Neither in Hume or Robertson can we trace him lower down than to 1569, when he was involved (with so many other eminent and patriotic individuals) in what was called the Norfolk intrigue, but only suffered some imprisonment. Could any of your readers communicate some reliable particulars of his death, age, &c.? In 1569 he could not have been much over 40, but probably did not long survive that year. THEOBALD SMID.

Wotton-under-Edge.

P.S. The Francis Throgmorton, a Cheshire gentleman, condemned and executed in 1584,

must have been of the same family, but not a near relative, or historians would have mentioned it. Sir Nicholas appears to have embraced the reformed doctrines, in which the Congleton branch do not follow him. He was far, however, from being a bigoted enemy of the Catholics.

[A good life of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton is a desideratum, and would make an excellent subject of historical biography. With the exception of a short note in Dr. Towers's British Biography, iii. 20, we do not think that any particulars of him are to be found in any of our standard Biographical Dictionaries. The leading and stirring events of his bustling life are ably sketched by a writer in the Penny Cyclopædia, xxiv. 403, and form a faithful picture of what Shakspeare calls –

"The art o' the court,

As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that
The fear's as bad as falling."

Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 3. Materials for an extended biography of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton are sufficiently abundant; but they will be found dispersed through a variety of unconnected departments of literature. First, for printed books: Strype's Annals and Memorials, passim; Lloyd's State Worthies, i. 429-432; Observations and Remarks on the Lives and Reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth, &c. with Characters of their Favourites, pp. 275, 276; Guthrie's History of England, iii. 205, 347; Pictorial History of England; and Thomas's Historical Notes, i. 469. A report of the trial of Sir Nicholas for being concerned in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, taken from Holinshed, is given in The Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Criminal Trials. His correspondence with his own government during his residence at the French Court, A.D. 1559-1563, will be found in Dr. Patrick Forbes's Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 2 vols. fol. 1740-1, and others in the Hardwicke State Papers, 1778, vol. i. pp. 121162. Francis Peck, in his work entitled New Memoirs of the Life and Poetical Works of John Milton, 4to, 1740, has printed the following tract with some curious illustrative notes: "The Legend of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Kt., Chief Butler of England, and Chamberlain of the Exchequer, who died of poison, A.D. 1570: an Historical Poem, by his nephew, Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Littleton in com. Warwick, Kt."

To obtain, however, a correct estimate of Sir Nicholas's diplomatic skill and management of the affairs of state, recourse must be had to the mass of his papers now in the State Paper Office, a portion of which has already been indexed by Mr. Lemon (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1547-1580.) Others will be found in the British Museum among the Cottonian, Harleian, Lansdowne, and Additional Manuscripts.

The fate of a large portion of the Throckmorton papers, formerly in the possession of Sir Henry Wotton, is somewhat curious. In the Sloane MS. 4106, vol. i. art. 3, is the following memorandum, entitled "An Account of the Recovery of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton's Papers by Nich. Harding," which states that "Mr. Mansfield, formerly a grocer in Windsor, was executor to Mr. Hales of Eton College. Mr. Mansfield died at his house at Eton. His effects being sold after his death, several books and MSS. (which appeared to have belonged to Mr. Hales) were purchased by some learned persons of Eton College, and particularly by Dr. Evans, fellow of the College. Throckmorton's letters were part of the MSS. so purchased. Mr. Hardinge, Clerk of the House of Commons, who had

seen the MS. letters of Throckmorton's in Dr. Evans's custody, obtained them of his executors with a design to preserve them in the Paper Office, in compliance with Sir Henry Wotton's will, who left all Sir Nic. Throckmorton's letters and other papers of state to King Charles I."

These papers, however, instead of being deposited in the State Paper Office, found their way into Lord Hertford's library at his seat in Warwickshire, where they were inspected by Horace Walpole in the year 1758. About 1824, the third Marquis of Hertford requested the late John Wilson Croker, Esq. to examine them, who had the great mass of them stamped with the words "Conway Papers.' As the examination proceeded, Mr. Croker was surprised in finding so many papers with which the Lords Conway could have had no concern, but which had evidently belonged to the earlier days of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. The will of Sir Henry Wotton came to his recollection, where he found that these papers were destined by the express bequest of Sir Henry for the State Paper Office, to the officials of which they were handed over the day before Mr. Croker closed his active life.]

CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES.-When a church is rebuilt, is it either requisite or usual that the new building should be consecrated?

When St. Paul's Cathedral was opened for divine service in 1697, what was the ceremony observed? And how far was such ceremony in accordance with ecclesiastical usage? MELETES.

[Thomas Lewis, in his valuable work, An Historical Essay upon the Consecration of Churches, 8vo, 1719, pp. 131-3, has collected some of the authorities the Canon Law affords for the Reconsecration of Churches from an author whose authority has always been acknowledged on these matters, namely, Grutiani Decreta, De Consecratione, dist. i.

"Churches or altars, whose consecrations are uncertain, ought to be consecrated without dispute.

"A church built upon the ground where an old one stood is not to be esteemed the same church, but must be consecrated, as if there never had been a church in that place.

"If the walls are rebuilt from the foundation, the church ought to be consecrated again.

"If the altar be broken down or removed, the church is to be new consecrated.

"If the fabrick of a church becomes wholly ruinous, and is rebuilt from the foundation, it ought to be reconsecrated; but if the walls by degrees decay, and are gradually repaired, it ought not. Or if a church be enlarged either in length, breadth, or height, it ought not to be reconsecrated; because, as the Canonists express it, sacrum trahit ad se non sacrum,' that part that is already holy sanctifies whatever is annexed to it.

"Churches that have been once consecrated to God ought never to be reconsecrated, unless they have decayed, or been consumed by fire, or been desecrated by the spilling of blood, or by the commission of fornication or adultery; because, as an infant that has been once baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, ought never to be rebaptized; so a church once dedicated to God should never be again consecrated, provided always that the persons officiating at the consecration professed their belief in the Holy Trinity.

"The Churches of the Arians, where the doctrine o the Trinity has been undermined and exploded, ought to be reconsecrated wherever they are found."

The references to the Canons quoted by Lewis are given in the original by Chancellor Harington in The