the prisoner is brought to the right of it under an escort of a corporal and six men with bayonets fixed [and the regimental facings and buttons having been cut off his coat, and the coat itself turned inside out], the halter is then put round his neck, and frequently a label on his back signifying his crime [though this last practice has now fallen into disuse] ; a drummer generally the smallest in the regiment], then takes hold of the end of the rope, and leads him along the front, the drums following and beating the Rogue's March. When they have passed to the left, the procession moves to the rear, if in camp, or if in quarters, to the end of the town [or if in enclosed quarters or barracks, to the gate], where [he is thrust out and] the drummer, giving him a kick on the breech, dismisses him with the halter for his perquisite." (Vol. ii. p. 110, ed. 1801.)

At an earlier period (the halter being a relic of this), the flogging and dismissal were performed by the hangman instead of by a drummer; but though I have not found any earlier description than Grose's, the form was probably in other respects very similar, since it explains several of the old allusions. Thus the recipient, whether Parolles or any other, was called Tom Drum, because, like the drum that formed so noisy and demonstrative a part in the entertainment, he was well beaten. So also the flogging seems to be alluded to in Nares's quotation-"it shall have Tom Drum's entertainment, a flap with a foxtail." Again, in the quotation from Holinshed, where the entertainment given is said to be, "to hale a man in by the head and thrust him out by both the shoulders,”'-we have allusions both to the halter and the expulsion. As usual, Shakespeare's uses of the phrase in All's Well is both quibbling and pertinent to man and matter. Parolles was drummed out for cowardice and disgraceful conduct, and with poetical justice, the drum which he so loudly boasted he would recover, called the world to witness his disgrace, and was remembered in his nickname.

BRINSLEY NICHOLSON. P.S. I am aware of the quotation from Florio, "a flap with a fox-taile, a jest," but in the passage from 66 Apollo Shroving," there is probably a double allusion, in part to the flogging and in part to the jests so freely broken upon the drummer's victim.

of Villalar, by the Conde de Haro.* The insurrection had certainly some just grounds of complaint against Charles and the foreigners, by whom his majesty was influenced for some years. It is related that when Juan de Padilla was led to execution, together with another prisoner named Don Juan Bravo, the latter requested the executioner to decapitate him first," in order that I may not see the best Cavalier in Castile put to death." On hearing which words, Padilla exclaimed: "Juan Bravo, heed not such a trifle; yesterday it became us to fight like gentlemen; but to-day it is our duty to die like Christians." (Robertson's Hist. of the Emperor Charles V. vol. ii. p. 256, ed. London, 1774.)

But some strange and contradictory accounts are related of his wife, Maria de Padilla, daughter of the Marquis de Mondejar. She seems to have been a lady of remarkable beauty, courage, and wit. After the defeat and death of her husband, she hastened to Toledo, of which city she was a native, and called both upon the clergy and people not to lay down their arms until they had secured the "Liberties" for which her husband fought and died. She also sent numerous letters to the

Commons of Castile, exhorting them " to take up their arms which they had so dishonourably laid down; and moreover, that if they did not take advantage of this favourable opportunity, it would bring upon them eternal infamy, and that they would remain slaves for ever," &c.

As Toledo was almost impregnable, and its citizens - animated by the example of Padillawere determined to hold out to the very last extremity, the Marquis of Villena endeavoured to succeed by negotiation: accordingly, he sent Padilla's brother to have an interview with her, and to try and induce his sister, either to leave Toledo, or to persuade the citizens to come to terms. But she refused, declaring "That as she had no wish to outlive the liberties of her country, so, had she a thousand lives, she would rather lose them all, than receive any favours from the traitors of her country."

When the news, however, came that William de Croy, the young Flemish Archbishop of Toledo, was dead, and that Don Antonio de Fonseca, a Castilian, was nominated by Charles to succeed him, the people then turned against her, having been persuaded to do so (it is said) by the clergy of the city, who spread the following reports about her, viz. "That she was a witch; that she was attended by a familiar demon in the form of a negro-maid, who regulated all her movements; others, again, asserted "that the maid was not a woman, but an imp of hell, who furnished her

* The Bishop of Zamora, Don Antonio de Acuña, was executed at Simancas, by order of Charles V., having been connected with the Rebellion.

with charms to fascinate people into a veneration for her."

Antonio Guevara, in one of his "Familiar Letters," thus addresses her:

"People likewise say of you, Madam, that you have about you a tawny and frantic slave a female who is a great Sorceress; and they say she has affirmed, that within a few days you shall be called High and Mighty Lady,' &c." (Quoted by Mr. Borrow in his Zincali; or, Account of the Gypsies of Spain, vol. i. p. 98, London, 1841.)

with her relations of the noble family of the Pachécos. She never afterwards applied to the Emperor, or any of his ministers, for a pardon. (See a curious tract on this subject by Dr. Geddes, in his Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. i. p. 203, London, 1730.) Amongst the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum (No. 303) there is an account, entitled "Relacion de las Comunidades," and another MS. (No. 310), entitled, "Tratado de las Communidades." A Spanish writer, named Martinez de la Rosa, has also published a sketch

"She lived in Gypsy times, and we have little hesitation in believing that she was connected with this race, fatally for herself: her slave!-lora y loca,' tawny and frantic-what epithets can be found more applicable to a Gypsy, more descriptive of her personal appearance and occasional demeanour, than these two?-And then again, the last scene in the life of Padilla is so mysterious, so unaccountable, unless the Gitanos were concerned; and they were unquestionably flitting about the eventful stage at that period. . . . . Perceiving that it was necessary, either to surrender or to see Toledo razed to the ground, she disguised herself in the dress of a female peasant, or perhaps that of a Gypsy; and leading her son by the hand, escaped from Toledo one stormy night, and from that moment nothing more is known of her. The surrender of the town followed immediately after her disappearance." (P. 101, ut supra.)

I believe that Mr. Borrow is quite mistaken about the negro-maid having been a Gypsy." He quotes no authority for his assertion, but seems very glad to have such a good opportunity of trying to connect his favourite Zincali with the heroic Maria de Padilla. There are two authori

ties quoted by Robertson, viz. the Letters of Peter Martyr, and the Hist. of Charles V. by Sandoval*: these writers may contain some further particulars, but unfortunately I cannot consult them. The tawny frantic slave, called a sorceress by Antonio Guevara in one of his letters addressed to Padilla (Epistolæ Familiares, Salamanca, 1578), does not by any means imply that she was a Gypsy; besides, he merely refers to a report" People likewise say of you, Madam," &c. The fact seems to be, that as Padilla was a character so extraordinary, and had such wonderful influence over the people of Toledo, it was but natural that they should ascribe this influence to some occult power, or believe that she was herself a witch, or that a demon under the form of a black slave regulated all her actions. Such things were said of the Maid of Orleans, of Friar Bacon, and others, in an age when men were placed in a state of society so different from our

own.

When Padilla escaped from Toledo, she fled to Portugal, where she remained the rest of her life,

He was Bishop of Pamplona. The first part of his History was printed in folio, at Valladolid, in 1604, and the second part in 1606. It has since been reprinted in Barcelona.

dades."

title of " Bosquejo de la Guerra de las ComuniDon Vicente de la Fuente, in his Historia Eclesiastica de España (tom. iii. p. 56, ed. Barcelona, 1855), makes the following few remarks on the character of the Castilians, in their war against the Emperor's foreigners:

"No tuvo la Iglesia de España que agradecer nada à los Comunéros; y antes algunos de ellos se le mostraron harto desafectos, apoderándose de sus bienes, y despreciando sus preceptos."

The spot where the Bishop of Zamora was executed is still pointed out to the visitor at Simancas.* The Emperor was obliged to receive absolution from the Pope, on account of the death of the Bishop which he had ordered. J. DALTON.

Norwich.

BEAU WILSON: LAW OF LAURISTON. of Lauriston," publishing monthly in Bentley's In the recent romance on the subject of "Law Miscellany, although the writer is entitled to deal with his hero in any way he chooses, I am very much inclined to think that, in what is intended to be a historical fiction, it would have been the author has done. Law himself was not the better to have kept nearer the real facts than beauty he is depicted; and the conversion of the Beau Wilson, into an old married roué, is far young, handsome, and accomplished bachelor, from satisfactory: for all readers, excepting those whose historical knowledge is confined to the literature of circulating libraries, must be struck at once by the extraordinary metamorphose.

Wilson's singular rise in fashionable life has never been explained, and perhaps never will be. The account of him in Nichols's Leicestershire (vol. iii.), is only accurate in part. There is a most extraordinary pamphlet, in octavo, published after his demise, which gives a very different representation of the sources from whence his income was derived. It is of very rare occurrence, and is entitled :

Thanks to the liberality of the Spanish Government, there is now every facility given to scholars who wish to consult the documents preserved at Simancas.

Lord Ball of Bagshot, in Hamptshire; who doth with many, and indeed more solemne rites inuest his Brothers of his vnhallowed Chappell of Basingstone (as all our men of the westerne parts of England do know by deare

experience to the smart of their purses) then these merry

Burgomaisters of Saint Gewere vse to doe."

J. O. HALLIWELL. COMMON LAW.-The term "Common Law" has

lost the one simple and grand signification which it formerly had. Its use is rendered ambiguous in consequence of the various ways in which it may be employed according to the objects with which it is contrasted. It is found in the following senses:

1. As the lex non scripta (i. Black. 637); 2. As the antithesis of equity (Step. Comm. i. 81, et seq.), and according to Wharton (Law Dict. art. "Common Law"), as the antithesis 3. of the civil and canon law, and, 4. of the lex mercatoria.

The reason assigned by Coke (Co. Litt. 142, a.) for the first meaning is, that "it is the best and most common birthright that the subject hath for the safeguard and defence, not onely of his goods, lands, and revenues, but of his wife and children, his body, fame, and life also."

Stephen says (Comm. i. 82), that the words in my first and second meaning indicate that which is more ancient as opposed to that which is less so, the statute being of modern creation when compared with that which is of immemorial antiquity, and equity being of considerable later birth than some of the earlier parts of the statute law.

May not the term in its primary signification rather derive its force from the fact that it represents the general customs or maxims commonly employed in the administration of justice through out the nation? What, lastly, is the connection between the term, and my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th meanings? WYNNE E. BAXTER.

Queries.

THOMAS HOLDER: CAPTAIN TOBIE HOLDER. Thomas Holder was a very active agent of the royal party during the civil war, and appears to have been repeatedly the medium of communication between Charles I. and his devoted adherents, Anne Lady Savile and Sir Marmaduke Langdale (afterwards Lord Langdale). On the very day the latter was overthrown in Lancashire by Cromwell (Aug. 17, 1648), Thomas Holder was seized by some of Skippon's soldiers near the Exchange in London. He was for some time confined in Petre House in Aldersgate. In October, Windsor Castle is named as the place of his captivity. Subsequently he was imprisoned in or near Whitehall, and made his escape from a house of office near the river on the day following the king's decapitation.

At a later date, Prince Rupert had a secretary, whose name was Holder, and who appears to have been a Roman Catholic, but it is uncertain whether Thomas Holder were the man. The compiler of the Index to the third volume of the Clarendon State Papers, calls Rupert's secretary William Holder, although I can find no authority whatever for so designating him.

Thomas Holder and Benjamin Johnson gave a certificate, dated St. Sebastian, April 4, 1660, as to the services at sea of one John Synnott, and on May 11, 1661, Thomas Holder certified as to the assistance he had received from Sir Thomas Prestwich and Clement Spelman in negotiating the late king's transactions in 1648 with Lord Langdale to bring in the English of the king's party to join with the Scotch. In 1661 he also occurs as governor of the African company, and in 1663 as its treasurer. In or about 1671, when

he is termed auditor-general to the Duke of York, he made a communication on the subject of his negotiations with Charles I., Lady Savile, Sir brother and biographer of the latter. Marmaduke Langdale, and John Barwick, to the

The late Mr. Eliot Warburton, in that unmethodical and almost useless compilation which he was pleased to term " Index and Abstract of his Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers Correspondence" appended to the first volume of PP. 536, 537), abstracts eight letters to Prince Rupert from Job Holder, in 1650. They are dated Heidelberg, July 25; Aug. 1, 8, 26; Sept. 1, Oct. 7, 14; and Paris, Dec. 3.

(which is even more absurd and unsatisfactory In Mr. Warburton's "Chronological Catalogue" than his Index and Abstract), I find mention of the following letters to Prince Rupert from Holder (no Christian name given): Paris, Dec. 3, 1653; Heidelberg, July 25; August 1, 8, 26; Sept. 1, Oct. 7, 14; Nov. 20, 1654.

Mrs. Green thus abstracts two documents in the State Paper Office :

"1660. July 14. [Whitehall.] Petition of Tobie Holder to the King, for the Registrarship in Causes of Instance and Ex Officio under the Chancellor of the Archbishop of York, or for some other place. Has served through the War, in Lord Langdale's affair, at Brest, under Prince Rupert, &c., and has now only debts left. With referCal. Dom. State Papers, C. II. i. 119. ence thereon to the Bishops of Ely and Salisbury."

"1660? Account of the services done by Capt. Tob. Holder during the Civil Wars, as an officer, as secretary to Lord Langdale in Scotland, as serving under Prince Rupert, and then as messenger, for which the King promised him a kindness when he was restored."-Ibid, 458.

Now, I suspect that Capt. Tobie Holder is the person whom Warburton calls Job Holder, for Tob. might be easily misread as Job, and in one of the letters which Mr. Warburton has abstracted is an allusion to a letter which the writer had received from Sir Marmaduke Langdale.

Additional information about either Thomas Holder or Capt. Tobie Holder is much desired. S. Y. R.

ALLEGED PLAGIARISM.-The Rev. Richard Jago, M.A., published a volume of pleasing poems, chiefly written about the middle of the last century, which Chalmers has reproduced in his Works of the English Poets, vol. xvii. Mr. Jago, in the work alluded to, has an elegy entitled "The Blackbirds," which no sooner appeared than the manager of the Bath Theatre claimed it as having been written by him. This impertinent assumption gave rise to a controversy with much excitement in Bath. Can any reader of “N. & Q.," so far enlighten me as to give me a reference to particulars of this dispute?

Σ.

:

Being in Scotland, I ought to tell you of Scotch customs; and really they have a charming one on this occasion, as you will say (he is writing of the first day of the New Year). Whether it is meant as a farewell ceremony to the old one, or an introduction to the New Year, I can't tell; but on the 31st of December, almost everybody have either parties to dine or sup. The company, almost entirely consisting of young people, wait together till twelve o'clock strikes, at which time every one begins to move, and they all fall to work-at what? Why, kissing. Each male is successively locked in pure Platonic embrace with each female; and after this grand ceremony, which, of course, creates infinite fun, they separate and go home. This matter is not at all confined to these, but wherever man meets woman, it is the particular privilege of this hour. The common people think it necessary to drink what they call hot pint, which consists of strong beer, whiskey, eggs, &c., a most horrid composition; as bad, or worse, as that infamous mixture called fig-one, which the English people drink on Good Friday.

"Give a conjecture about the origin of this folly." The letter from which this is an extract is signed Henry Bickersteth, and dated Edinburgh, Jan. 1st, 1802.

I do not know that the question he asks as to "the origin of this folly" has ever been answered; and I have doubts, knowing something of Scotland, whether this custom was universal or even general. I am curious to ascertain whether it has prevailed, and also what is the composition of fig-one, and among what portion of the English people it may have been used. It is entirely new to me. Was it not the slang term for some abomination in the shape of mixed alcoholic liquors, known only to the students of the law,

GREEK CUSTOM AS TO HORSES.- In the early part of the Clouds of Aristophanes (line 32), the youth who is dreaming of horse-racing, and is talking in his sleep, cries out :

“Απαγε τὸν ἵππων ἐξαλίσας οἴκαδε.”

The scholiast tells us this means, "Lead home the horse, first letting him roll on the sand." This custom is kept up in Italy to the present day. I have often seen the vetturini take the harness off after a long journey, and the horses would directly walk down to the seaside and roll in the sand for a long time, and seem to enjoy it thoroughly. The practice was said to be most healthy for them, particularly to keep off doubt has been thrown on the meaning of the pasrenal diseases. I mention this, first, as some English horsekeepers at first sight; and next, to sage, which does not certainly commend itself to ask if it be in use anywhere else than in Southern Europe?

Poets' Corner.

A. A.

HERODOTUS.-In an article on the Pyramids, in the September number of Blackwood's (p. 348, b.), the writer, who is speaking of the history of Herodotus, says: "those same travels were honoured through all Greece with the names of the Nine Muses."