6

referred to by Madden, nor do Dr. Sirr's trying a Charity Sermon in Mr. La Touche's. words refer to them.

Travelling Pulpit' (1810); 'Sale of the Major's That Miss Curran was tenderly dealt with, Library,' depicting him (a good likeness) as as Dr. Sirr asserts, cannot be doubted, and an auctioneer; 'The Major presiding at the that the correspondence was consumed out Communion of Saints' (1811); and His of con passion to the family is in keeping Holiness making a present of our Irish mitres. with the consideration shown by Govern- while Major Sirr is presenting an address to ment and officials to Curran, which empha- the King', (1814). I have been given to sizes his own meanness and harshness to his understand reproductions from photographs daughter.

of one of the oil portraits and the ivory may Perhaps I may be permitted to add, con- appear in ·Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.' cerning the Rev. Dr. Sirr, whose name has I do not think Maxwell's 'Irish Rebellion come forward so prominently, that the most is quoted by historians (e.g., Mr. Lecky). Maxto be gathered from books of reference is to well, who was not in a position to know be found in vol. iii. of Mr. Boase's Modern anything about Major Sirr's character, copied Biography,' though, unlike the 'Dict. Nat. Madden, and also Fitzpatrick's 'Sham Squire,' Biog., no mention is made of his "Life of both discredited (as to the character they Archbishop Usher' (also noticed by Halkett give) under "Sirr' in the 'D.N.B.'; but it is and Laing, in Dictionary of Anonymous largely due to such books that Major Sirr's Literature'); and the 'D.N.B.' accepts his reputation in Ireland is what Mr. MacDonagh 'Life of Archbishop Trench' as the leading correctly states it to be. No impartial and authority. There is also with the Fitch MSS. serious student of Irish history could be relating to Suffolk at Ipswich an advertise- misled by those books ; it is none the less ment of a prospective work (c. 1845):

regrettable they have been popularized. The Yoxford, | Its Worthies and Memorabilia | em. commission of Town Major of the Garrison bracing | The History of the Lords of that Manor,l of Dublin is in the Record Tower Collection, of the Patrons and Vicars of St. Peter's Church, Dublin ('Entry Book of Military Comand of the Remarkable Proprietors and inhabit

The office was ants of the Parish. | By the Rev. Joseph D'Arcy missions, 1796-1806,' p. 75). Sirr, D.D. M.R.I.A., &c. | Vicar of Yoxford, not a corporate situation,” as Maxwell Suffolk."

asserts. The advertisement follows. How far this

Will FRANCESCA kindly give a reference to work progressed I cannot say. Dr. Sirr was

the page in Phillips's 'Curran and his Connot only highly respected, but greatly be temporaries,' 1818, for the mention of Major loved (the memorial stone at Morstead, Sirr's weeping over Sarah Curran's letters ? erected by friends, as the inscription sets

H. SIRR. out, is some evidence of this). He was in RATES IN AID (10th S. iii. 469).—The folthe full possession of all his faculties until lowing extract from the Act 43 Eliz. cap. ii. his death, and certainly, from his character f. 3 will inform EQUITAS who was to judge and painstaking work, he would not have when and why it was requisite to make a falsified; besides, he had no motive for Rato in Aid :doing so.

“And it be also enacted, That if the said Justices Supplementing MR. PICKFORD's interesting of the Peace doe perceiue, that the inhabitants of note, I may say that Major Sirr is generally any Parish are not able to leuie aniong themselues represented too old, and Cruikshank's illus- sufficient summes of money for the purposes aforetration is fanciful. An illustration in T'he said: that then the said two Justices shall and may Spear (14 March, 1900) shows the major an

taxe, rate and assesse, as aforesaid, any other of

other Parishes, or out of any Parish within the elderly man, whereas he was slightly the Hundred where the said Parish is, to pay such junior of Lord Edward. The engraved por. sunime and summes of money, to the Churchtrait entitled 'Henry Charles Sirr, Esq., wardens and overseers of the said poor Parish for Town Major of Dublin, &c., from

the said purposes as the said Justices shall think of two oil paintings (c. 1798), and by "J.

fit,” Martyn Delt. & Sculpt.," quite alters the The rate was in some cases appealed against countenance, and is poor. W. Ewing's ivory

and quashed on some technical point. relief, 1818 (9th S. ii. 168), is very good, and

JOHN RADCLIFFE. likewise a bust (late in life) by Prospero EQUITAS will, I think, find most, if not all, (though not a first-rate artist). The major is of his gueries answered in the Report of the also represented in various engravings in Poor Law Commission, published in 1834. Walter Cox's The Irish Magazine and Monthly In the parish of Cholesbury, in Bucks, the Asylum for Neglected Biography. The fol- value of the land was more than swallowed lowing are perhaps the best: The Major up in rates, and it was handed over by the

6

one

» &c.

landowners to the Poor Law authorities to Universal History' ip_60 volumes 8vo; a Primer do the best they could with it for the poor, History of Little Dick' or Grævii

Thesaurus,'

or the ‘Philosophical Transactions' at large, the and the

authorities thought that, if aided by 37 volumes in folio-in short, Books in all languages, an adjoining parish or parishes, they might in every class of literature, in new and splendid manage to support the poor of Cholesbury. bindings, or soiled second-hand copies, and as his At Uley, in Gloucestershire, the rates were ready-money, plan is strictly adbered to, every 11. 7s.6d.

:-we cannot sayin, but, to be article, whether second-hand or now, will still be correct, 7s. 6d. outside the pound. It was

sold from 20 to 50 per cent. under the common

prices.” less the needs of the poor than the corruption

WM. JAGGARD. which existed under the old Poor Law which brought about the excessively high rates.

Probably this is the Academy known as the HARRIETT MCILQUHAM.

Museum Minerva, of which Sir Francis

Kynaston was “Regent." It was instituted ACADEMY OF THE MUSES (10th S. iii. 449).

in the eleventh year of the reign of Charles I., A propos of this inquiry, I may refer MR. and established at a house in Covent Garden, UTTON to the mammoth bookshop of James purchased for the purpose, by Kynaston. Lackington, regarded at the time as one of 'This he had furnished with books, manu. London's wonders. Formerly at 46-7, Chis

scripts, paintings, statues, musical and well Street, Moorfields, Lackington removed matheinatical instruments, &c., and erery in or about the year 1796 to a specially requisite for a polite and liberal education : equipped establishment known as the Temple only the nobility and gentry were admissible of the Muses, adjacent to the old address. into the Academy. Professors were appointed The following characteristic notice was issued to teach the various arts and sciences, under in 1795:

the direction of the “Regent.” The constitu"The very great share of public favour that I tions of the Museum Minervæ were published have experienced for some years past has often in London in 1626 in 4to. In 1636, during created a grateful wish that it were in my power the time that Dr. Featley, was provost, the to accommodate purchasers in a better manner; plague raged with so much violence in Lonit having been always extremely mortifying to me don that Sir Francis presented a petition to to see my numerous and respectable Customers frequently pushing, as it were, one another out of the king, requesting his permission to remove Dy shop, or driving each other into holes and the Academy to Chelsea College. But this corners for want of room. To remedy this incon- was found impracticable, and Sir F. Kynaston venience was for many years totally impossible, as and Dr. May, one of the professors, were I never could bear the idea of leaving that spot obliged to remove the Academy to Little that to me had proved so fortunate. The long- Chelsea. See Faulkner's History of Chelsea,' wished-for opportunity is at length arrived.

"An eligible and commodious place is found, 1810, vol. i. pp. 148-50. purchased, and now fitting up, at many thousand

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. pounds expence, but a few yards from the famous old shop. This new shop will be about 70 ft. long

It is given as pertaining to London in and 40ft. wide, so that there will be ample room Robson's British Herald ' and Berry's Encyfor my numerous customers to walk about or sit clopædia Heraldica,' and the arms are printed down at their ease.

thus : Argent, two bars wavy azure ; on a For such Ladies and Gentlemen as wish to chief of the second a music book open or, enjoy a literary lounge, somewhat more retired than a public shop will admit of, a communication between two swords in saltire of the first, is opened between the shop and the ground floor hilted and pommelled of the third. Crest, a of my dwelling house. This house is situated at sagittarius in full speed ppr., shooting with the S.W. corner of Finsbury Square and the shop bow and arrow argent. Supporters, dexter a in Finsbury Place, the whole forming a front of satyr: in sinister a merman with two tails. about 140 ft. In the centre of the shop a domie is both ppr. Motto, " Nihil invita Minerva." erecting, round which will be galleries for books. cheapest in the world, I hope that the new one No. 4, plate xix., gives a fine illustration of

"My old shop having long been acknowledged the London Armory,' by Richard Wallis, 1677, will not only be the cheapest and contain the the arms.

JOHN RADCLIFFE. largest collection, but will also be the best shop in the world, and I have no doubt but that the Has MR. UTTON referred to 'Schools,' &c., by public will add their good wishes that it may long W. Carew Hazlitt, 1888? In my 'Swimming stand a monument to show mankind what Industry Bibliography' I refer, p. 19, to a

" Museum and Small Profits will effect.

It perhaps may not be amiss to inform the Minervæ," a scholastic institution. Public that although this shop will be grand and

RALPH THOMAS. contain an immense collection of capital and superb books, that (sic) the most trifling, customer will not

“POP GOES THE WEASEL” (10th S. iii. 430, be neglected. At the shop of Lackington, Allen & Co. 491). — The word "weasel ” should be “ weevil.” may be had a second-hand Pilgrim's Progress or The stanza runs thus :

:

66

or

All around the cobbler's house

Comme jadis Picus fut estonné
The monkey chased the weasel ;.

Quand une fée en pichard l'eut tourné.
The priest he kissed the cobbler's wife,-

As to the other words inquired about, I
Pop goes the weevil.

should think the serpent's hull must be its The line is from a song popular in America skin or slough. Cooke may be the cuckoo, half a century ago. The weevil is the cominon and molle the mole. Fylmand is a disguised name for coleopterous insects of the family form of foumart, the polecat. Curculionidæ. The larvæ of one species were

JAS. PLATT, Jun. very destructive to wheat in America fifty and more years ago. The song came into

Lord Cobham : serpent's skin.-A hull is popular favour at a time when the entire a covering or shell : "the hulls or skins of country was disturbed by the ravages of the grapes" (Nomenclator,' quoted in Nares's insect. FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN.

Glossary).

' -537, Western Avenue, Albany, N.Y.

Duke of Somerset: beanstall and crown.

Would not this allude to some office of the The word “

weasel

was the expression royal household like the avenar or avenor often used for a sixpence. I particularly (see Halliwell's · Archaic Words '), which inremember its employment by a railway volved the care of such provender as was porter some thirty years ago in connexion kept where the bean-fodder was stalled for with a tip he had received.

feeding cattle J. E. LATTON PICKERING.

Lord Ryvers : the pychard and the pye.Without the quotation from an authority, The pye is doubtless the magpie, although it say not later than the last forties, the expla- is not mentioned in Burke's Peerage.' nation of "silver plate or "flat iron ” must Lord Dudley : ye molle.”—Molles are debe pronounced inconclusive. There is a scribed in Bailey's Dict.' (1740) as “Kastrels,

. distinct possibility that the boot may be a kind of Hawks. Chau.” But a molle was on the other leg, and that these articles, also a mull or mill for grinding purposes, being “ portable property,” in Mr. Wemmick's the heraldic terms mullet"

“molette,” phrase, obtained the name from the vogue and fers de moline, or mill-rinds, which supof the song. A reliable authority, anterior port the millstone, being related, I think. to the song, should set the matter at rest. There is another possible interpretation.

H. P. L. Moll," from mollis, soft, was an old English As information about this song has been term (old slang, presumably) for one of the twice asked for, I venture to send the little softer sex, but not, at first, necessarily deI can give. About 1850 a song was popular rogatory to womanhood, as later. And it among the lower classes in Philadelphia, allusive to Agnes, daughter of Hotot, who

occurs to me that perhaps

“molle' the first verse of which ran as follows :There was an old man without any sense,

married Lord Dudley, of Clapton, and who, Who bought a fiddle for thirty pence,

disguised, took the place of her father, who And all the tune that he could play

was unable through illness to fulfil his enWas "Pop goes the weasel.'

gagement in mortal combat with one who I remember seeing the whole song in print had quarrelled with him (see Burke's. Extinct on a handbill, but cannot recall any more of Peerages,' s.v. Dudley). Agnes was victorious. the words. I think there was a chorus after

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. each verse. I never heard of the tune apart BISHOPS' SIGNATURES : THEIR PUNCTUATION from this song.

(10th S. iii. 487).- In old signatures a colon Another song of that time which rivalled frequently appears after the Christian name it in popularity was • Vilikins and his Dinah.' when abbreviated, thus-Tho: Smith. The Both were evidently of English origin. archiepiscopal signatures mentioned may be

J. P. LAMBERTON. a return to that custom, as the name of the Philadelphia.

see is abbreviated, while an ordinary sur[The lines you quote are obviously a recollection name is not. The use of a colon in that of When I was young I had no sense ;

manner is perhaps more distinctive than the I bought a fiddle for eighteenpence,

period, which signifies finality or completeAnd all the tune that it could play

M. “Over the hills and away.")

WILLIAM SHELLEY (10th S. iii. 441, 492).— BADGES (10th S. iii. 407):- Pychard means a MR. J. HALL may be glad to know thạt, acwoodpecker, as in the following old French cording to Berry's •Sussex Genealogies,' p. 63, lines, from Du Verdier, ‘Diverses Leçons,' Mary Shelley, who married George Cotton, 1616:

of Warblington, Hants, was sister of William

was

ness.

Was

6

cf.

Shelley (born 1538, died 1597), the subject of referred to, viz., John, the father of Sir John MR. WAINEWRIGHT's note. In Berry's Hamp- Shelley, Bart., and Thomas, the Winchester shire Genealogies,' p. 52, her husband is scholar of 1555. Another brother, Richard styled Sir George Cotton, Knt. But is that Shelley, is mentioned in the Visitation of correct? A list of Hampshire recusants, Yorkshire, 1563-4,' Harl. Soc., p. 127. The apparently made in 1592, includes the name sisters of William Shelley were :of "George Cotton, of Warblington, Esquire 1. Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas ('Cal. of Cecil MSS.,' iv. 270, 271). H. C.

Guildford, Knt. (son, by his first wife, of the

before-mentioned Sir John Guildford). They George Cotton's wife Mary was William had issue one son, Sir Henry, and three Shelley's sister (see Berry, “Sussex, Genea- daughters. logies,' p. 63; Hants Genealogies,' p. 52). At the latter reference Berry calls George

2. Eleanor, who married Thomas Norton, Cotton a knight. This is perhaps a mistake. son and heir of Sir John Norton, Knt, of One George Cotton was knighted in 1603, Visitation of Kent, 1619,' Harl. Soc., p. 80.

Northwood, co. Kent. For their issue see but he was of Cambridgeshire, not Hants (see Metcalfe's 'Book of Knights,' p. 148).

3. Margaret, who married Edward Gage, He was very likely the Sir George Cotton son and heir of James Gage (perhaps James who married Cassandra, daughter of Henry Gage, of Bentley, co. Sussex, second son MacWilliams, Esq. (see Strype's Cheke,' 134). whose monument is in the Bentley. Chapel

of Sir John Gage, K.G.). Edward Gage, Our George Cotton was a recusant who suffered imprisonment for his religion ;

at Framfield, and who died 1595, is mėn"P.C.A.' (N.S.), x. 11, 87, 89, 325 ; xiv.

87; xvii

. by the sheriffs of the county to Queen Eliza

tioned as amongst the recusants reported 357 ; xviii. 415 ; xxiv. 475; xxv. 208; xxvi. beth (S.A.C., 11, 62). 362 ; xxvii. 589. Cf. Strype, ‘Ann.,' II. ii. 660 ; iv. 276. His son Richard and a cousin

4. Mary, who married Sir George Cotton, named George were also recusants (*Cal. Knt. (b. 1538, d. 1610), of Warblington Castle, Cecil MSS.,' iv. 270-1).

Hants. Richard Cotton, their eldest son, I am sorry I cannot give MR. HALL any

was born about 1570; and their eldest daughinformation as to the dates of birth, mar- ter, Mary, married” (about 1582) Sir John riage, and death of Mary Cotton.

Caryll, Knt., of Warnham, co. Sussex, doubtJohn B. WAINEWRIGHT.

less the Sir John Carrell mentioned by MR.

WAINEWRIGHT. The following notes as to near relatives of 5. Bridget, who married Anthony HungerWilliam Shelley may possibly be of use in ford, Esq., of Down Ampney, co. Gloucester, the way of supplementing MR. WAINE- and had issue Sir Henry (whose name also WRIGHT's very interesting narrative :- appears in MR. WAINEWRIGHT's narrative)

William Shelley's mother was Mary, daugh- and Sir Anthony. ter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, Knt., of Wotton, in his Baronetage' (vol. i. p. 63), Gaynes Park, co. Essex. Her elder half- states that a sixth sister. Anne, married Sir sister, Anne, was the wife of Sir Anthony Richard Shirley, Knt., of Wiston, co. Sussex, Cooke, Knt., of Gidea Hall, Essex. This but this is doubtful.

, close connexion with the family may have

Burke ("Commoners,' vol. iv. p. 266) gives led to his being appointed guardian of Wil an interesting

account of the Lingen family.

. liam Shelley. Sir Anthony was father-in-law Referring to Mrs. Jane Shelley and her of Lord Burleigh, the Lord High Treasurer, incarceration in the Fleet, he says: and also of Sir Nicholas Bacon,

Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; and it was, perhaps, Bur

“An Harleian Manuscript (No. 2050) contains leigh's influence at Court which in after many curious letters to her there, particularly one years was of so much assistance to Mrs. Jane Francis, youngest son of the first Lord St. John.

of an offer of marriage in her widowhood from Shelley.

Queen Elizabeth had certainly a kindness for Mrs. William Shelley's mother married secondly, Shelley, as evinced by some memorials (Harl. MSS. as his second wife, Sir John Guildford, Knt., 2120, p. 8B), and restored her a house and demesne, of Benenden, co. Kent, and by him had issue which seems to have been Sutton; for another

letter to her in the same collection speaks in affecte a son, Richard Guildford, who married a ing terms of the attachment of the neighbourhood daughter and heir of - Horne. Dame Mary to the Lingen family, and of their disquietness in Guildford died about the year 1578, having having heard a false report that the Lingen's lands outlived her second husband some thirteen would be gone from the name of Lingen for ever." years.

Great part of her rich inheritance, including Rad.

brook in Gloucestershire, and her Shropshire Two brothers of William Shelley have been estates, passed on her death to a hungry Scot lof

6

the Court of James I., Sir Richard Preston, Lord with light hair and brown eyes. She holds a watch Dingwall, but Radbrook was repurchased.” in her hand, and is very richly attired in a brown ALFRED T. EVERITT.

brocaded dress trimmed with lace. Her earrings, High Street, Portsmouth.

singularly enough, are attached to her ears by ribands."

RICHARD WELFORD. 'PICTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTA

Newcastle-upon-Tyne. MENTS' (10th S. iii. 487).—This work was published at Amsterdam about the end of

See Beatson's Political Index,' 1786, p. 60 the eighteenth century, in quarto, and the (1641) and p. 69 (1682); also Collins's title is as follows (see Lowndes,' p. 199): Peerage,' second edition, '1710, pp. 325-6. “Pictures of the Old and New Testaments, Under the heading of Darcy, Earl of Holdershowing the most Notable Histories in One ness, full particulars are given of Conyers. Hundred and Fifty Copperplates by the If MR. HELMER will send me his address I most famous and principal Masters. The will lend him ‘Collins.' Text in French and English.”

HERBERT SOUTHAM, It is apparently an imitation of an earlier Innellan, Shrewsbury. work by De Royaumont in 1690-8, in which See Dugdale's Baronage' (sub d'Arcie), each plate was dedicated to an individual G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, and Harl. patron (who was allowed to pay the cost of Soc., xxxix. 985-6. H. J. B. CLEMENTS, production in return for the honour, the Killadoon, Celbridge. work being thus produced free of cost to [Reply also received from MR. J. RADCLIFFE.] the promoter). The market value of MR. GREEN SMITH's like to mention that a very important work

LOCAL RECORDS (10th S. iii. 464).—I should “ out of proportion to his generous praise of notice, i.e., "Somersetshire Parishes : an

rarity” is only small, and seems absurdly on Somersetshire has apparently escaped the work. WM. JAGGARD.

“

Historical Handbook to all Places in the CONYERS (10th S. iii. 489). —Sir Conyers Piccadilly, London, W.” This work marks

County, by Arthur L. Humphreys, 187, Darcy (son of Thos. Darcy, Esq., Lieutenant daughter and coheir of John, third Lord to wills and ancient deeds, &c., are given of the Tower of London, by Elizabeth, second an advance in the system of making county

bibliographies, inasmuch as the references Conyers of Hornby) was knighted 23 June, in fuller detail than is usual in works of 1603 ; confirmed as Lord Conyers, Darcy, and this description, and the work also includes Meinell by letters patent dated 10 August, biographical notices of both ancient and con

3 ; Hornby. By his marriage with Dorothy, temporary well-known personages. W. J. daughter of Sir Henry Bellasis, of New

[Mr. Humphreys's collections are, we believe, in borough, Yorkshire, he had six sons and seven

course of publication. We mention the fact as it is

not clear from W. J.'s letter.] daughters. Barbara, the eldest daughter, married Matthew Hutton, of Marske ; Mar- John HAZLITT AND SAMUEL SHARWOOD (10th garet married Sir Thomas Harrison, of Cop: S. iii. 468). - From Scharf's Historical and grave, son of Robert Harrison, alderman, and Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures, Busts, grandson of Thomas Harrison, one of the &c., in the National Portrait Gallery' (1888) Lord Mayors of York. See Plantagenet I give the following particulars concerning Harrison's pedigrees in his 'History of York. John Hazlitt :shire' for the Darcy family, Dugdale's "1768-1837. Miniaturist. Born at Wem, in Visitation' for Harrison of Allerthorpe (and Shropshire. He came to London shortly before Copgrave), and a paper on 'Marske' contri. 1788, and exhibited in the Royal Academy from that buted to Archæologia Æliana (second series, year to 1819. He died at Stockport."

JOHN T. PAGE. vol. v. pp. 1-90) by the late_Rev. James Raine. At the date of Mr. Raine's paper

West Haddon, Northamptonshire. (1860) there remained at Marske Hall portraits PICTURES INSPIRED BY MUSIC (10th S. iv. 9). of Lord Conyers and Darcy and his wife, |- Finished paintings of this class must be which are thus described :

very rare, since in the course of thirty years' Sir Conyers Darcy, the distinguished Royalist. continuous exhibition-going I cannot recall Created Lord Conyers and Darcy in 1641... A handone, and any work of that kind would cerand moustache. Half length. He is in a Court late M. Fantin-Latour produced a good many some face, florid and oval, with a Carolian beard tainly have attracted my attention. But the dress, and has a purple mantle with a surcoat of lithographs illustrating or symbolizing paswhite point lace.

Dorothy Bellasis his wife' A pretty girlish face, sages from Wagner's operas. I think he also