6

' a pot of paint thrown in the face of the public') there was one particular afternoon when the hopes of Whistler's admirers sank very low because Walter Sickert, giving evidence as one of them, had failed miserably in cross-examination. That evening Strang called at Whistler's house, and the following dialogue took place: StrangI can't understand how Walter came to make such a mess of it to-day.' Whistler 'No, more can I.' Strang-'I suppose it must have been conceit.' Whistler Very likely, but I can't understand anybody being conceited but me !'" J. LANGDON BONYTHON.

Carclew, Adelaide, South Australia.

Queries.

WE must request correspondents desiring inormation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

COUNTESS MACNAMARA.-Miss Frances Williams Wynne, the writer of The Diaries of a Lady of Quality,' which were edited by Abraham Hayward in 1864, writing at Richmond in August 1832, says (op. cit. pp. 216-9):

'We have just had Countess Macnamara here ..she gave me a singular instance of devotion to her beloved Bourbons, which, being asserted on her personal knowledge, is, I suppose, in the main, true. A Miss W., who some fifty years ago was an admired singer on the English stage, made a conquest of a Mr. A. a man of large property, who married her. Whether the lady's character was not immaculate, or whether, the march of intellect not having begun, actresses of the best character were not yet reckoned fit society for ladies, does not appear; certain it is, that, finding she could not get any society in England, the A's went to establish themselves at Versailles, where they took a fine house, gave fêtes, &c., &c. His wealth gave splendour; her beauty, her singing, her dancing, gave charm. The Polignacs came to her fêtes, and afterwards introduced her to the little society, to the intimate réunions, of which Marie Antoinette was a constant member. When adversity befell this object of admiration, of almost idolatry, Mrs. A. devoted herself, her talents, and (better than all) her purse to her service.

It was chiefly during the Queen's melancholy abode in the Temple that Mrs. A. most exerted herself. In bribes, in various means employed for the relief of the poor Queen, she expended between £30,000 and £40,000 sterling. This of course was taken under the name of a loan, and soon after the restora. tion Mrs. A. made a demand upon Louis XVIII. Every item of her account was discussed and most allowed, till they came to a very large bribe given to the minister of police, one to the gaolor, and bribes to various persons, to manage the escape of the Dauphin and the substitution of a dying child in his place. Louis XVIII. would not agree to this

account as the condition upon which he would order the gradual liquidation of the rest of the debt. To this condition Mrs. A. would not accede: Louis XVIII. died: the accounts were again brought forward. Charles X. was just going to give the order for paying the debt by instalments when the revolution came, and Mrs. A. seems now further than ever from obtaining any part of her money. It is to me very sad that Mac. does not seem to feel that, admitting all her premises, her story tells very much against her beloved Bourbons......She concludes the history I have just written by saying, 'I had a message for Mrs. A. from Holyrood, which I was desired to deliver in person. I had great difficulty in tracing her: at last I found her a week ago,' (she told me where but I have forgotten). She represents her as preserving remains of beauty at about 70, coiffée en cheveux, with a mask of paint.

.It seems that they are all convinced, and this Mrs. A. is ready to make any oath, that the Dauphin did not die as was supposed in the Temple. The Duchesse d'Angoulême has always said, "I have no evidence of his death, and know that it did not take place in the Temple, but I have no evidence of his being alive at any subsequent period.'"

The Miss W. is Miss Charlotte Walpole; the Mr. A. is Mr. Edward Atkyns. See 10 S. ix. 343, xi. 457 and the authorities there quoted.

Who was Countess Macnamara ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.-Can any reader kindly tell me whether the three Primers which preceded the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. can be obtained in a reprint, and if so, where; also, the same information as to the Scottish Prayer Book

of 1637.

EVERARD HAMILTON.

The other manuscript was the property of the late J. Eliot Hodgkin of Richmond, Surrey. It is a fifteenth-century alchemical work and is described in the Historical MSS. Commission Report,' vol. xv., part 2, pp. 2-4.

I am at present engaged in completing a catalogue of the early alchemical MSS. in the British Isles, which is to be printed as

Catalogue of Alchemical MSS. published by the Union Académique Internationale under the General Editorship of Prof. Bidez of Ghent.

It is much to be desired that the contribution from this country should be as far as possible complete, and any assistance in tracing either the above mentioned manuscripts or any other early alchemical manuscripts in private hands will be warmly welcomed and of course duly acknowledged in the publication.

DOROTHEA WALEY SINGER. Westbury Lodge, Norham Road, Oxford.

EDUCATION OF THE FIRST DUKE ог MARLBOROUGH.-Can any reader give me any information as to where the first Duke of Marlborough was educated when a small boy? I have reason to believe that his first school was a French one, but cannot find any details of his education in the 'Lives' which are at my disposal here.

Rochester.

F. M. M.

ST. THOMAS'S DAY CUSTOM.-In a letter from his Vicarage of Fen Drayton, Cambs, my son mentions the occurrence there of what appears to be a very old custom.

On Dec. 21, St. Thomas's Day, all the widows (or, as on the last occasion, all representatives) go round the village and collect money which is then divided equally among them. I should feel obliged if any of your correspondents could inform me if this custom is practised elsewhere, and what its origin was? ALEX. THOMS.

7 Playfair Terrace, St. Andrews, Fife.

YEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS.-Could any reader kindly give precise date and reference to the Statute, or other authority, ordering yew-trees to be grown in churchyards for supplying bows? The date was about 1474. And why to be grown in churchyards? Was it on account of the poisonous nature of the yew? G. B. M.

AN OLD SILVER CHARM.-Can any one explain the symbolism of a small antique silver ornament in the form of a leafy twig, with a heart, a key, and a queer little serpentine bird, arranged among the leaves? The end of the twig has a hole drilled through it (as if the ornament were intended to be worn round the neck), and a coil of silver cord round it. The heart looks as if meant to be pierced. Woldingham.

G. A. ANDERSON.

PASSAGE IN LOCKHART'S LIFE OF SCOTT.' -In Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' vol. viii., will be found at pp. 70-1 the following passage:—

་

"I was much struck by his description of a scene (the divorced Lady he had once with Ladyborn before her marriage with Lord -). upon whom her eldest boy, who had been asking her why he himself was not Lord - (the second title). Do you hear that?' she exclaimed wildly to Scott, and then rushing to the pianoforte played in a sort of frenzy, some hurried airs, as if to drive away the dark thoughts then in her mind. It had been something more than mere friendship struck me that he spoke of this lady as if there between them. He described her as beautiful and full of character."

Who is the lady referred to ?

FREDK. CHARLES WHITE.

14 Esplanade, Lowestoft.

NORTONS IN IRELAND.-Can any reader interested in genealogy inform me whether a younger branch of the Norton family (formerly) of Rotherfield Park, Hampshire, went over to Ireland and settied there about the seventeenth century? A great-grandfather of mine, Samuel Norton, came from Ireland and settled in Hampshire at the end of the eighteenth century, and he is supposed to have been a descendant of a younger branch of these Hampshire Nortons, but I have not yet been able to trace which particular branch of this family settled in

Ireland. Possibly one of the younger of the eight sons of Richard Norton (died 1556) by his wife Elizabeth (dau. and heiress of Sir William Rotherfield, Knt.) may have founded a cadet branch in Ireland.

I shall be glad of any information on this point.

It may be of interest to note that during the Civil War the senior branch of this family (viz. the descendants of Sir Richard Norton, Knight [died 1592] by his first wife) were staunch Royalists, and suffered very heavily for their loyalty; whilst Colonel Norton, a descendant of the above mentioned Sir Richard by his second wife, was a staunch Parliamentarian, and, about 1643, tock a leading part in the storming of Basing House, which was held on behalf of King Charles by John, 5th Marquis of Winchester (whose nephew Francis Paulet married, in 1674, Elizabeth, d. and heiress of Sir Richard Norton, 2nd Bart.).

It would be interesting to know if Colonel Norton and any other of his branch of the family accompanied Cromwell to Ireland, or were sent there by his orders, and whether if so Colonel Norton left any of his younger kinsmen in Ireland. It is known that he himself did not settle there, but Cromwell frequently stayed with him at old Alresford House (Hants), and he may very probably have obtained a position in Ireland for one or more of his younger kinsmen through his friendship with the Protector.

Eccleston Park, Prescot.

F. CROOKS.

THE FIRST LORD WESTBURY.--What was the episode thus referred to in the notice of Charles Neate (1806-1879) in the 'D.N.B.'?

"[He] was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1832, but an unfortunate fracas with Sir R. Bethell, afterwards Lord Westbury, terminated his career there.... the old scoundrel,' as he was in the habit of styling Westbury."

In Memory's Harkback,' 1808 to 1858, by F. E. Gretton, B.D. (1889) are two allusions to the same occurrence; at page 138,

[Bethell] To his juniors he was curt, almost rude, so that you wondered that one or another did not, in the robing-room imitate the late Professor Neate, and apply the lex digitalis." At page 285:

"From hard words we come to legal, or illegal, blows for example, Mr. Neate boxing Bethell's ears in the robing-room."

BISHOPSGATE: DRAWINGS WANTED.-In connexion with a history of the ward of Cripplegate in the City of London, which I am about completing, I should be glad to hear of any original unpublished drawings of buildings, &c., of the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries. I have all those contained in the British Museum and the Guildhall Library JOHN J. Baddeley.

32 Woodbury Down, N.

G. P. R. JAMES, THE NOVELIST.-I should be glad to learn some particulars of his mother, whose name is not recorded in the 'D.N.B.' xxix. 209. His father, Dr. Pinkstan James, Physician Extraordinary to the Prince Regent, died at the novelist's house near Evreux, July 14, 1830. G. F. R. B.

SIMSON AND DRUMMOND.-The Rev. Matthew Simson (born 1675, d. May 20, 1756) ordained to Pentaitland, Sept. 10, 1705, translated to Fala, 1742, married, March 1709, Alison (born 1686, died 1736), 5th dau. of Adam Drummond, 9th Baron of Lennoch and 2nd Baron of Megginch, by Alison Hay his wife, dau of ...... Hay of Haystoun, and had, with other issue known to me :

Adam, a Lieut., smothered in the black hole of Calcutta, June 18, 1756.

2. Major Jonathan Forbes, 78th Highlanders, author of Eleven Years in Ceylon,' London, 1840.

3. Major Arthur Johnston, 19th Foot, author of A Narrative of the Operations of & Detachment in an Epedition to Candy in the Island of Ceylon in 1804,' London, 1810.

4. Sir Frederick Hankey, G. C. M. G., sometime of the 51st and 19th Regiments. None of these appear in the 'D.N.B.'

The glaziers, some thirty in all, were certainly impressed from various parts of England. On the other hand they were paid good wages, the master glaziers receiving 78. a week each, and the lesser grades in proportion to their tasks, while they were allowed a fortnight's holiday at Whitsuntide.

The work of glazing the windows of St. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster appears to have lasted from June 20 to Nov. 28, 1351, and early in March, 1352, the craftsmen commenced work upon the glass intended for Windsor, which, in turn, was finished by Michaelmas of that year.

The completed panels were not inserted in the windows of the Castle Chapel and Chapter-house until the next year, as may be proved by the following entries in the fabric rolls for the week beginning, Mar. 18, 1353:

Paid for 18 elm boards for making boxes for carrying the panels of glass from Westminster to Windsor

36 elm boards of the same, a piece 4d Carriage of the same from London to Westminster

3

12% 8d

5

14

12d

for Hay and Straw to put in the boxes 300 nails for making the said boxes whilst there is a further payment of 18s. to John Talwych for freightage of his 'shout or sailing barge, carrying 6 boxes of glass from West.ninster to Windsor.

It should also be pointed out that impressment of labour was not confined to these few glaziers. Between 1350 and 1377 King Edward III. carried out very extensive building operations at Windsor, during which several successive Clerks of the Works were appointed (amongst them William of Wykeham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester). Each of these officials was given power to impress men and set them to work upon the King's works at Windsor.

The same practice still prevailed in later reigns. Thus in 1390 Letters Patent were granted to Geoffrey Chaucer, Esq., Clerk of the King's Works in the Palace of Westminster, the Tower of London, and elsewhere, authorizing him to choose and set to work masons, carpenters, and other workmen about the necessary repairs of "Our Collegiate Chapel of St. George within our Castle of Windsor "; whilst in 1472 King Edward IV. granted similar powers to "our dearly loved cousin the venerable father in God, Richard, Bishop of Salisbury, Master Surveyor of the King's works Windsor.

impressing labour entirely confined to home service. in 1370 William Wynford, one of the Royal masons, was ordered to retain workmen for the King's works "beyond the Seas."*

Again we find King Henry V. on his second expedition to France in 1416 ̄authorizing Thomas Morstède, his only Army surgeon, forcibly to impress as many surgeons as he needed, together with a suitable number of mechanics for the making of surgical appliances and to embark them in the port of Rye.†

Previously to this the King had asked the London Corporation of Surgeons to supply him with a dozen volunteers for the use of his Army and it was upon their failure to comply with his wishes that he resorted to to drastic measures.

4. MR. KNOWLES's concluding suggestion that the east window of Great Malvern Priory representing the Passion of our Lord is probably a later work of John Thornton's, may easily be tested by a single reference to the St. William window at York Minster with which he compares it. A panel‡ from the latter window depicting Robert and Richard, two sons of the donor (William, seventh Baron de Ros) and his wife Margaret, shews that the canopy shaft is enriched with a small figure standing on a base beneath a projecting canopy. This is a very common characteristic of the York school of glasspainting but does not appear in the east window of Great Malvern Priory.

A. F. Leach, F.S.A. *A History of Winchester College,' p. 109,

†This incident is graphically depicted in The Illustrated London News for Sept. 6, 1913, by Mr. A. Forestier to whom I am indebted for several interesting particulars.

The panel in question is illustrated in the Handbook on Stained Glass, published by the