CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMITY, 1641. "George, by God's pridence Lorde Bushopp of Hereford, To all to whom these psents shall come greetinge in our Lorde God everlastinge: knowe yee that Roger Letchmore, of the pishe of ffownehope, wthin the Dioces of Hereff, Gent., havynge byn formlye indicted, and convicted for a Recusant, appeared psonally before the right worfull John Kyrle, Barronett, and Ambrose Elton, Esquire, beinge twoe of his Maties justices of the peace wthin the Countye of Hereff., uppon the nyneteenth daye of June last past, at the pishe of Much Marcle, in the Countye of Heref.; and then and there did willinglye submitt hym selfe to the state and Church of England, and in pfession of his Conformitye to the sayd State and Church, did then and there take the oathe of allegeance and supremacye to the kinge's most excellent Matie, and faythfullye pmysed and ptested the same daye before the sayd Barronett Kyrle and Ambrose Elton (as I am crediblye informed by certificat remaynynge in my custodye under the hands of the sayd Barronett Kyrle and Ambrose Elton), from thenceforth accordinge to the lawes and statuts of this Realme to continue such his Conformitye in his due obedience to the Kinges Matie, his heyres and successors, to his lyves ende: and I have received as well a Certificat, under the hande of Robert Gregorie, clarke, vicar of ffownehope, aforesayd, bearinge date the twentieth day of June last past, testifyinge that the sayd Roger Letchmore, for the space of more than one whole yeare last past, conformed hym selfe; duringe wch tyme hee hath usuallye frequented his pishe church of ffownehope aforesayd; and there did religeouslye demeane himselfe during the tyme of dyvyne Service reade, and sermon preached, and at the ffeast of Easter last past the Sacrament of the Lorde's Supper administered, then and there alsoe the sayd Roger Letchmore (amongst other of the Congregacon there psent) receaved and tooke the holye Sacrament, administred unto hym by the hands of the sayd Mr Gregory, as in and by the sayd certificatt remaynynge in my custodye more at lardge yt doth and may appeare.

"In wittnesse whereof, I have sett to my hande and Episcopall Seale, the thirtith day of June, in the seventeenth yeare of the raigne of our sov'rigne lorde Charles, by the Grace of God Kinge of England, Scotland, ffrance, and Irelande, Defender of the ffaythe, etc. Anno que dni, 1641. "GEO. HEREFORD."

(L.S.)

is not the slightest reason for fixing a Roman station at South Molton. No Roman remains have ever been found there. The town is, of course, named from the river Mole on which it stands; and it is unnecessary to look for the Celtic dun here, any more than in North Molton, or in North and South Tawton, on the river Taw. Baxter, it may be added, places South Molton wrongly, "ad Tavum amnem;" meaning, apparently, on the Taw, into which the Mole runs. the ancient Cymric speech feebly lingered on till 2. Mr. Taylor asserts (p. 255) that, "in Devon the reign of Elizabeth; while in Cornwall, it was the general medium of intercourse in the time of Henry VIII. What authority is there for the former statement? I know of none whatever. The Saxon border had been driven some way down into Cornwall at an early period; and although there may be little doubt that the villains on many of the Devonshire manors were of Celtic blood, there is no evidence, so far as I know, that the "Cymric speech" lingered in Devonshire at any period after the Conquest.

3. "On the frontier between the Celts of Cornwall and the Saxons of Devon stands the village of Marham" (p. 279). In the word "Marham," Mr. Taylor finds the Saxon Mark, "boundary." Marham church is dedicated to St. Morwenna (locally "Morriner "), as is that of Morwenstow on the adjoining coast. The saint's name has probably been Saxonised into Marham.

4. "The Stannary Court of the Duchy of Cornwall is an assembly which represents, in continuous succession, the local courts of the ancient Britons. The court was formerly held in the open air on the summit of Croken Tor, where the traveller may still see concentric tiers of seats hewn out of the rock. The name of Croken Tor evidently refers to a deliberative assembly; and Wistman's Wood, in the immediate neighbourhood, suggests the wisdom traditionally imputed to the grave and reverend seniors who took part in the debates."-P. 308.

The Cornish Stannary Court was never held on Crokern (not Croken) Tor, which is on Dartmoor. A general court for the regulation of the tinners of Devon and Cornwall was held on Hengstone Hill (in Cornwall, just across the Tamar), until, in the reign of Edward I., that for Devon was removed to Crockern Tor. It is possible-but of this there is no direct proof-that before this division a local court may have been held on Crockern Tor; but that the name, "evidently refers to a deliberative assembly," is, at least, uncertain. It is pronounced "Crokern," and not "Crōken," as Mr. Taylor apparently supposes. There is a village called "Crokern Well," on the

road between Oakhampton and Exeter; and "Croker," the name of one of the oldest Devonshire families,—

"Croker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,

When the Conqueror came, were found at home,❞— may perhaps be connected. Pryce (Cornish Vocabulary, 1790) asserts that Chrecken, or Chrocken, in Cornish and Brezonec, signifies "a little hill;" and Crockern is the lowest of three or four neighbouring Tors.

No tradition has ever connected Wistman's

Wood (it is properly Whishtman's or Wishman's Wood) with Crockern Tor. Mrs. Bray (Legends of the Tamar and Tavy) was the first to find wisdom in its name; and to connect it with the lore of older "wise men"-Druids. I believe the "whishtman," to whom the wood belongs, to be the master of the "whish" hounds, an unearthly pack with fiery mouths, which hunts over Dartmoor. Wúsc, or Wísc, seems to have been one of the names of Odin (Kemble, Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 345); and “whishtness is the common Devonshire word for all supernatural beings and dealings. RICHARD JOHN KING.

SIMILAR STORIES IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES.At Belmont, near Lausanne, Switzerland, we have the old stories of hedging in the cuckoo; of the farmer who built a wall round his turnip-field to keep the flies off; and also of the coats beneath the church. This last story is the same as the Essex (Coggleshall) version. Some Belmonters had an idea that their church would be all the better if moved three yards to the west; so they marked the distance by leaving their coats. They then pushed against the eastern wall. A thief stole the coats, and the peasants found they had pushed too far! A" seedy" Belmonter is sure to be told to "have a push at the church!" The Belmont people also have a moon of their own, quite different to the one at Lausanne! As a proof of the simplicity of the Belmonters, they tell a story that a stranger who came to reside there was pounced upon for two permis de séjours. "Two!" said the Frenchman; "why I am garçon, and by myself!" "No!" said the taxgatherer; "you have a little boy, who must pay." The boy was a tame monkey!

I am not aware that we have any joke resembling the last. Happily, we have no such thing as a permis de séjour; that is an exaction peculiar to free and republican Switzerland, where I may observe there is more petty tyranny exercised towards strangers resident, than there is in even Austria and the Roman States.

S. JACKSON. FRENCH BIBLE.-Whilst looking over a book, containing some curious and quaint old facts, I

came upon a history of a "French Bible," printed by Anthony Bonnemere, at Paris, in 1538; wherein is related the following facts:

"That the ashes of the golden calf, which Moses caused to be burnt, and mixed with the water that was drunk

by the Israelites, stuck to the beards of such has had fallen down before it; by which they appeared with gilt beards, as a peculiar mark to distinguish those which had worshipped the calf."

This idle story is actually interwoven with the 32nd chapter of Exodus. And Bonnemere says, in his preface, this French Bible was printed in 1495, at the request of his most Christian Majesty Charles VIII.; and declares further, that the French translator "has added nothing but the genuine truths, according to the express terms of the Latin Bible; nor omitted anything but what was improper to be translated!" So that we are to look upon this fiction of the gilded beards as matter of fact; and another of the same stamp, inserted in the chapter above mentioned, viz. that

CAPTAIN NATHANIEL PORTLOCK, whose voyage round the world with Capt. George Dixon, was published in 1789, and an abridgement of which appeared in 1791, died Sept. 12, 1817. As to him see Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, ed. Bohn, 1930; Annual Register, xli. 307,] 36; Gent. Mag. lxxvi. 1075; lxxxvii. (2) 379; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 473; and James's Naval Hist. ed. Chamier, ii. 344, 345. He is surely better entitled to a place in our Biographical Dictionaries than many who appear there.

S. Y. R.

AN ANCIENT CRAFT.-The following cutting is taken from a New England journal. May not the old craft have a remembrance in "N. & Q. ?”—

"The vessel recently discovered buried in the sand on the eastern coast of Orleans, Cape Cod, was 35 feet in length, had a tonnage of 40 to 50 tons, and was called the Sparrowhawk. She is supposed to be the first transport sent with provisions to the Pilgrims after their landing. Six years after the landing on Plymouth Rock237 years ago-she attempted to get out of Potonomicut harbour, as it was then called, but ran upon a sand-bar and bilged, and in the constant changes in the coast there she was entirely buried in ten or fifteen years, and so she has remained until a few weeks ago, when some sand was washed away, and she was discovered.

"The deck was gone, and the floor below the deck was strewn with staves and heads of barrels, and among them a large quantity of bones-some of beef, some of pork, and some of mutton. The hoops of the barrels had mostly disappeared; they may have been of iron, and so dissolved by the action of the sea water.

struction of the vessel had also disappeared, or so mingled "All the bolts and spikes and iron used in the conwith the sand as to form a kind of reddish stone, quite

"He married the lady Else,

All with the gold so red
Ere a month had pass'd and gone,
The lady Else was dead."

The ballad is Scandinavian, Danish, or Norse, and was inserted in a periodical called The Portfolio; but whether it was an original translation, or copied, I know not. The Portfolio does not appear in the Museum Catalogue, nor can I find it elsewhere.

I also should like a copy of a ballad called "Lord Malcom," written in the Lewisian stanza, i. e. in that of "Alonzo the Brave." It was often quoted by Horsley Curteis, Charlotte Dacre (Rosa Matilda), and the romance writers of the Minerva school. I remember a part of a verse

"The chill dew is falling-damp, damp is the night;
The ruins are lonely-Oh God! for a light.
Lord Malcom! and thou art death cold."

Miss Jane Porter wrote a ballad called "Lord Malcom," but it is not the one inquired after, and

is in a different metre.

I also wish to know who wrote the ballad of the "Lists of Naseby Wold, or the White-armed Ladye's Oath." It appeared in Friendship's Offering, and has been inserted in Mr. J. S. Moore's interesting work published by Bell & Daldy. I had heard that Mrs. Howitt was the author, but that lady assured me that she was not, and had no idea who was. It is one of the most beautiful of modern ballads, and was a particular favourite with the late James Telfer, the author of "Our Ladye's Girdle," &c., inserted by Mr. Moore in his Book of Ancient Ballad Poetry. S. JACKSON. The Flatts, Yorkshire.

BURNETT AND OTHER FAMILY QUERIES. Wanted particulars of the family of Burnett, who lived in Rotherhithe early or in the middle of the eighteenth century. Also particulars of one George Burnett, who lived in Horsleydown, 1734, and was a cornfactor, 1738. Can any one tell me who was one Robert Burnett, secretary of New Jersey, America, 1733? Who was Richard Bristowe Burnett, of Exeter Court, Strand, who died 1795 ?

Who was Benj. Burnett, living in Austin Friars, 1789? Who was Noel Burnett, who died 1736, a Spanish merchant, living in Gracechurch Street? Who was Thos. Burnett, stockbroker, died 1768? Who was John Burnett, who died 1790; and John Burnett, ob. at Fulham, 1689; William Burnett, born 1685, died 1760 at Croydon; also, Alexander Burnett, born at Croydon, 1718, aged ninety-nine? Who were the Burnetts living at Chigwell, Essex? What became of those Burnetts, descended from Burnett of Leys: Duncan, Robert, Thomas (a doctor at Norwich), Alexander, and Gilbert-all brothers? Any particulars of any one of these persons, would be thankfully received.

Particulars wanted of the family of Gibson of Kirby Lonsdale, Westmoreland. One Elizabeth married Edward Bainbridge, 1740. Also, who Barton, near Kirby Lonsdale, about the end of was the wife of one Henry Bainbridge, living at 1600-say 1680, and upwards?

Particulars also wanted of a family called Barons, living at Watford early in 1800, before and afterwards; also, particulars of a family called Church; also, of a family called Waters, relations of the celebrated Sir John Waters, born in Glamorganshire; and also, of a family of the name of Swann, living in Berks some eighty years ago. H. A. BAYNBridge.

Euston Square.

when he visited Cumnor, or were the sign and the publican's name humorously borrowed from the novel? Visiting Cumnor church I found from a monument that the celebrated Tony Forster was not the surly domestic presented by Scott, but a gentleman of high repute. I afterwards learnt from a tablet in Aldermaston church in the adjoining county of Berks, that the Forsters had formerly resided there. In this church is a very fine altar tomb of white marble, to the memory of a knight and his lady of this family. Was Anthony Forster, of Cumnor, of the same family as the Forsters of Aldermaston ? H. C. CATHARINE OF BRAGANZA.-In Carte's Life of Ormonde it is stated that the retinue of this princess, on arriving at England, was composed of 252 persons. Are there any documents extant which give either their names or their subsequent history? OXONIENSIS.

CHESS.-Does the 20th epigram of Martial (book xiv.) describe the game of chess?

"Insidiosorum si ludis bella latronum,
Gemmeus iste tibi miles et hostis erit."

R. L. West: size, about 5 inches by 4; date, 1801. The treatment is admirable. The subject is a starving man, on a wretched bedstead. Two rats are on the floor, and an empty dish and spoon. The feet, hands, and face, are painfully true; and the light is streaming through the broken portion of an otherwise dull window. The print puts me so much in mind of Wallis's "Death of Chatterton," that I am anxious to know if any history or anecdote appertains to it, and whether R. L. West was a painter of any note. P. P. ESQUIRE. In Clark's Heraldry are mentioned, as having a right to the title "Esquire," "Bachelors of Divinity, Law, and Physic." Are the two degrees in Arts excluded; and also, those_of Doctor of Law and of Physic? K. R. C.

"Si tu joues au jeu d'échecs, qui représente les embuches de la guerre, voilà des soldats et des ennemis enrichis de pierreries."

If not chess, what game was this?

D.

"It seems to me to absorb and to retain the water, and to keep it ready to be drawn up by the heat of the sunat any rate, the fact is, that the surface above it does not burn; for there never yet was a summer, not even this last (1825), when the Downs did not retain their greenness to a certain degree; while the rich pastures, and even the meadows (except actually watered) were burnt so as to be as brown as the bare earth."

Will any of your readers do me the great favour to inform me the cause why a chalk bottom does

not suffer the surface of the soil above to burn?

And if he can refer me to any work in which the subject is discussed at length, I shall feel greatly obliged.

Larchfield, Darlington.

FRA. MEWBURN.

ENGRAVING BY BARTOLOZZI.-I have before me an engraving of Bartolozzi's, from a picture by

Wanting these words for a particular purpose, may I ask you in which of Burke's writings they are to be found? Авива.

SIR EDWARD GORGES, KNT.-Can any of your readers inform me who were the father and mother of Sir Edward Gorges, Knight, of Wraxall, Somerset, whose will, a copy of which is in the Wells Registry, is dated February 6, 1565, proved 1566, and who bequeathes "the residue of my goodes unto Edward Gorges, "my cousin and heire apparent," whom he makes his sole executor to see his body "brought unto the earth." His signature is witnessed by Ann Gorges, widow, and Francis Gorges. Apparently from this he died unmarried and sine prole. His said cousin seems to have died the following year, as in Doctors' Commons there is a copy of a will of Edward Gorges of Wraxall, dated 10th of Elizabeth, 1567, proved 1568, in which he mentions his mother, Ann Gorges, and his brother Francis, and his two young sons, Edward and Ferdinando; the latter being, I suspect, the celebrated Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was concerned in the Essex rebellion in the reign of Elizabeth. F. BROWN. Nailsea Rectory, Somerset.

INFIDEL SOCIETIES AND SWEDENBORGIANS.-In

Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix. p. 518, a book the Infidel Societies, is described as containing "a or pamphlet, entitled The Rise and Dissolution of genuine account of the origin of the Swedenborgians in this country." Can any one give me the date of this publication, the name of its author, or any other particulars concerning it?

HARDY CLARKE.

"Until the Institution of the Bishopric of Chester, at the period of the Reformation, Lancashire lay within the dioceses of Lichfield and Coventry; and wills proved from this county at that time were deposited at Lichfield,

where these wills now remain."

I find that no Lancashire wills are now at Lichfield. Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." inform me where, and to what place, they were removed? H. FISHWICK.

MONCKTON FAMILY.-Did Marmaduke Monckton, of Cavil, co. York, who married in 1571, have any issue besides Philip, John, and Frances? Was the Rev. Christopher Monckton, who was born 1579, and died vicar of Hayes and rector of Orpington, Kent, 1652, a son of the above? if not, can any reader give his parentage? I give my address to prevent the intrusion of purely personal matters in your pages. W. I. S. HORTON.

Rugeley.

EDWARD WORTLEY MONTAGUE ran away from Westminster School and entered on board ship. Can any of your numerous readers inform the writer in what year this event took place? if so, they will oblige the grandson of the captain of the ship. ANON.

JOHN MOLESWORTH, ESQ., late of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and of the Inner Temple, published:

1. "Proofs of the Reality and Truth of Lottery Calculations, with Observations on the Museum and Adelphi Lotteries, and a Table showing the Value of Insurance each Day during the Drawing of the Latter; likewise, a Plan, by pursuing which, Two out of Three Adventurers will be successful; and a Specimen of Numbers, which will be valuable both as to their Chance for Prizes and the Manner in which they will be drawn, insomuch that considerable odds may be laid upon an equal Chance, with a Certainty of gaining. London. 4to. 1774.”

2. "Lots and Numbers of the Adelphi Lottery advantageous to Insure; with a Hint to the Speculators in Tickets, by which there is a Certainty of gaining, demonstrated in a Manner clear to every Capacity. London. Svo. 1774."

In the second of these works he stated that, when a child, he could calculate the number of seconds in fifty years by mere strength of memory, without pen and ink; and that he could then read and retain 150 octavo pages in an hour. It seems that there are two engraved portraits of him: one in mezzotinto, taken 1773, in his twentysecond year; and the other, taken in his twentyfourth year. Bromley calls him a lottery broker, and Evans a celebrated calculator. We shall be thankful for further information respecting him.

C. H. & THOMPSON COOPER.

"PLAY UPPE THE BRIDES OF ENDERBY.'" I have read, with much pleasure, Jean Ingelow's

interesting poem, "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571," and am desirous of knowing whether it is still customary for the "Boston bells" to "play uppe" that tune on the occasion of any sudden calamity, such as the one alluded to in the poem, and why? If a Lincolnshire correspondent of " N. & Q." will kindly furnish the tradition connected with it, I shall be obliged.

A. F. QUOTATIONS.-Who are the authors of the following lines?

"No spot on earth but has supplied a grave, And human skulls the spacious ocean pave; All's full of man; and, at that dreadful turn, The swarm shall issue, and the hive shall burn." A. T. "The shadowy realm where Mind and Matter meet." JULIA CECILIA NORMAN.

Goadby Hall.

"Green wave the oak for ever o'er thy rest,
Thou that beneath its crowning foliage sleepest,
And, in the stillness of thy country's breast,
Thy place of memory as an altar keepest.
Brightly thy spirit o'er her hills was poured,

Thou of the lyre and sword.

"Rest, bard, rest soldier; by the father's hand
There shall the child of after years be led;
With his wreath-offering silently to stand
In the hushed presence of the mighty dead;
Soldier and bard, for thou thy life hast trod
With freedom and with God."