referred to by Madden, nor do Dr. Sirr's words refer to them. That Miss Curran was tenderly dealt with, as Dr. Sirr asserts, cannot be doubted, and that the correspondence was consumed out of compassion to the family is in keeping with the consideration shown by Government and officials to Curran, which emphasizes his own meanness and harshness to his daughter. Perhaps I may be permitted to add, concerning the Rev. Dr. Sirr, whose name has come forward so prominently, that the most to be gathered from books of reference is to be found in vol. iii. of Mr. Boase's Modern Biography,' though, unlike the 'Dict. Nat. Biog., no mention is made of his Life of Archbishop Usher' (also noticed by Halkett and Laing in 'Dictionary of Anonymous Literature'); and the 'D.N.B.' accepts his 'Life of Archbishop Trench' as the leading authority. There is also with the Fitch MSS. relating to Suffolk at Ipswich an advertisement of a prospective work (c. 1845):: Yoxford, Its Worthies and Memorabilia | em bracing The History of the Lords of that Manor, of the Patrons and Vicars of St. Peter's Church, and of the Remarkable Proprietors and inhabitants of the Parish. | By the Rev. Joseph D'Arcy Sirr, D.D. M. R.1.A., &c. | Vicar of Yoxford, Suffolk." The advertisement follows. How far this work progressed I cannot say. Dr. Sirr was not only highly respected, but greatly beloved (the memorial stone at Morstead, erected by friends, as the inscription sets out, is some evidence of this). He was in the full possession of all his faculties until his death, and certainly, from his character and painstaking work, he would not have falsified; besides, he had no motive for doing so. Supplementing MR. PICKFORD's interesting note, I may say that Major Sirr is generally represented too old, and Cruikshank's illustration is fanciful. An illustration in The Spear (14 March, 1900) shows the major an elderly man, whereas he was slightly the junior of Lord Edward. The engraved portrait entitled 'Henry Charles Sirr, Esq., Town Major of Dublin, &c., from one of two oil paintings (c. 1798), and by "J. Martyn Delt. & Sculpt.," quite alters the countenance, and is poor. W. Ewing's ivory relief, 1818 (9th S. ii. 168), is very good, and likewise a bust (late in life) by Prospero (though not a first-rate artist). The major is also represented in various engravings in Walter Cox's The Irish Magazine and Monthly Asylum for Neglected Biography. The following are perhaps the best: The Major trying a Charity Sermon in Mr. La Touche's Travelling Pulpit' (1810); 'Sale of the Major's Library,' depicting him (a good likeness) as an auctioneer; "The Major presiding at the Communion of Saints (1811); and His Holiness making a present of our Irish mitres while Major Sirr is presenting an address to the King' (1814). I have been given to understand reproductions from photographs of one of the oil portraits and the ivory may appear in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.' · I do not think Maxwell's 'Irish Rebellion" is quoted by historians (e.g., Mr. Lecky). Maxwell, who was not in a position to know anything about Major Sirr's character, copied Madden, and also Fitzpatrick's 'Sham Squire," both discredited (as to the character they give) under 'Sirr' in the 'D.N.B.'; but it is largely due to such books that Major Sirr's reputation in Ireland is what MR. MACDONAGH correctly states it to be. No impartial and serious student of Irish history could be misled by those books; it is none the less regrettable they have been popularized. The commission of Town Major of the Garrison of Dublin is in the Record Tower Collection, Dublin ('Entry Book of Military Commissions, 1796-1806,' p. 75). The office was not a corporate situation," as Maxwell asserts. 66 RATES IN AID (10th S. iii. 469).-The following extract from the Act 43 Eliz. cap. ii. f. 3 will inform EQUITAS who was to judge when and why it was requisite to make a Rate in Aid :: "And it be also enacted, That if the said Justices of the Peace doe perceiue, that the inhabitants of any Parish are not able to leuie among themselues sufficient summes of money for the purposes aforesaid that then the said two Justices shall and may taxe, rate and assesse, as aforesaid, any other of other Parishes, or out of any Parish within the Hundred where the said Parish is, to pay such sunime and summes of money to the Churchwardens and overseers of the said poor Parish for the said purposes as the said Justices shall think fit," &c. The rate was in some cases appealed against and quashed on some technical point. JOHN RADCLIFFE. EQUITAS will, I think, find most, if not all, of his queries answered in the Report of the Poor Law Commission, published in 1834. In the parish of Cholesbury, in Bucks, the value of the land was more than swallowed up in rates, and it was handed over by the landowners to the Poor Law authorities to do the best they could with it for the poor, and the authorities thought that, if aided by an adjoining parish or parishes, they might manage to support the poor of Cholesbury. At Uley, in Gloucestershire, the rates were 11. 7s. 6d.-we cannot say in, but, to be correct, 7s. 6d. outside the pound. It was less the needs of the poor than the corruption which existed under the old Poor Law which brought about the excessively high rates. HARRIETT MCILQUHAM. Universal History' in 60 volumes 8vo; a Primer or the Philosophical Transactions' at large, the 37 volumes in folio-in short, Books in all languages, History of Little Dick' or 'Grævii Thesaurus,' in every class of literature, in new and splendid bindings, or soiled second-hand copies, and as his ready-money plan is strictly adhered to, every article, whether second-hand or new, will still be sold from 20 to 50 per cent. under the common prices." WM. JAGGARD. " Probably this is the Academy known as the Museum Minerve, 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, manuLondon's wonders. Formerly at 46-7, Chis- scripts, paintings, statues, musical and well Street, Moorfields, Lackington removed mathematical instruments, &c., and every 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 constitutions of the Museum Minervæ were published in London in 1626 in 4to. In 1636, during the time that Dr. Featley was provost, the plague raged with so much violence in London that Sir Francis presented a petition to the king, requesting his permission to remove the Academy to Chelsea College. But this was found impracticable, and Sir F. Kynaston and Dr. May, one of the professors, were obliged to remove the Academy to Little Chelsea. See Faulkner's 'History of Chelsea,' 1810, vol. i. pp. 148-50. "The very great share of public favour that I have experienced for some years past has often created a grateful wish that it were in my power to accommodate purchasers in a better manner; it having been always extremely mortifying to me to see my numerous and respectable Customers frequently pushing, as it were, one another out of my shop, or driving each other into holes and corners for want of room. To remedy this inconvenience was for many years totally impossible, as I never could bear the idea of leaving that spot that to me had proved so fortunate. The longwished-for opportunity is at length arrived. "An eligible and commodious place is found, purchased, and now fitting up, at many thousand pounds expence, but a few yards from the famous old shop. This new shop will be about 70 ft. long and 40 ft. wide, so that there will be ample room for my numerous customers to walk about or sit down at their ease. "For such Ladies and Gentlemen as wish to enjoy a literary lounge, somewhat more retired than a public shop will admit of, a communication is opened between the shop and the ground floor of my dwelling house. This house is situated at the S.W. corner of Finsbury Square and the shop in Finsbury Place, the whole forming a front of about 140 ft. In the centre of the shop a dome is erecting, round which will be galleries for books. My old shop having long been acknowledged the cheapest in the world, I hope that the new one will not only be the cheapest and contain the largest collection, but will also be the best shop in the world, and I have no doubt but that the public will add their good wishes that it may long stand a monument to shew mankind what Industry and Small Profits will effect. "It perhaps may not be amiss to inform the Public that although this shop will be grand and contain an immense collection of capital and superb books, that [sic] the most trifling customer will not be neglected. At the shop of Lackington, Allen & Co. may be had a second-hand Pilgrim's Progress' or J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. It is given as pertaining to London in Has MR. UTTON referred to 'Schools,' &c., by RALPH THOMAS. "POP GOES THE WEASEL (10th S. iii. 430, 491).-The word "weasel" should be "weevil." The stanza runs thus : All around the cobbler's house The line is from a song popular in America half a century ago. The weevil is the common name for coleopterous insects of the family Curculionidæ. The larvæ of one species were very destructive to wheat in America fifty and more years ago. The song came into popular favour at a time when the entire country was disturbed by the ravages of the FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN. 537, Western Avenue, Albany, N. Y. insect. The word "weasel" was the expression often used for a sixpence. I particularly remember its employment by a railway porter some thirty years ago in connexion with a tip he had received. J. E. LATTON PICKERING. Without the quotation from an authority, say not later than the last forties, the explanation of "silver plate" or "flat iron" must be pronounced inconclusive. There is a distinct possibility that the boot may be on the other leg, and that these articles, being "portable property," in Mr. Wemmick's phrase, obtained the name from the vogue of the song. A reliable authority, anterior to the song, should set the matter at rest. Lord Cobham: serpent's skin.-A hull is a covering or shell: "the hulls or skins of grapes" (Nomenclator,' quoted in Nares's Glossary'). Duke of Somerset: beanstall and crown.Would not this allude to some office of the royal household like the avenar or avenor (see Halliwell's Archaic Words '), which involved the care of such provender as was kept where the bean-fodder was stalled for feeding cattle? Lord Ryvers: the pychard and the pye.The pye is doubtless the magpie, although it is not mentioned in Burke's Peerage.' Lord Dudley: "ye molle."-Molles are described in Bailey's 'Dict.' (1740) as "Kastrels, a kind of Hawks. Chau." But a molle was also a mull or mill for grinding purposes, the heraldic terms "mullet" or "molette," and fers de moline, or mill-rinds, which support the millstone, being related, I think. There is another possible interpretation. 64 H. P. L. Moll," from mollis, soft, was an old English term (old slang, presumably) for one of the softer sex, but not, at first, necessarily derogatory to womanhood, as later. And it allusive to Agnes, daughter of Hotot, who occurs to me that perhaps molle " was married Lord Dudley, of Clapton, and who, disguised, took the place of her father, who was unable through illness to fulfil his engagement in mortal combat with one who had quarrelled with him (see Burke's 'Extinct Peerages,' s.v. Dudley). Agnes was victorious. As information about this song has been twice asked for, I venture to send the little I can give. About 1850 a song was popular among the lower classes in Philadelphia, the first verse of which ran as follows: There was an old man without any sense, Was "Pop goes the weasel.' I remember seeing the whole song in print on a handbill, but cannot recall any more of the words. I think there was a chorus after each verse. I never heard of the tune apart from this song. Another song of that time which rivalled it in popularity was 'Vilikins and his Dinah.' Both were evidently of English origin. of J. P. LAMBERTON. Philadelphia. When I was young I had no sense; Was "Over the hills and far away."] BADGES (10th S. iii. 407).-Pychard means a woodpecker, as in the following old French lines, from Du Verdier, 'Diverses Leçons,' 1616: 66 J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. George Cotton's wife Mary was William Shelley's sister (see Berry, 'Sussex Genealogies, p. 63; Hants Genealogies,' p. 52). At the latter reference Berry calls George Cotton a knight. This is perhaps a mistake. One George Cotton was knighted in 1603, but he was of Cambridgeshire, not Hants (see Metcalfe's Book of Knights,' p. 148). He was very likely the Sir George Cotton who married Cassandra, daughter of Henry MacWilliams, Esq. (see Strype's 'Cheke,' 134). Our George Cotton was a recusant who suffered imprisonment for his religion; cf. P.C.A.' (N.S.), x. 11, 87, 89, 325; xiv. 87; xvii. 357; xviii. 415; xxiv. 475; xxv. 208; xxvi. 362; xxvii. 589. Cf. Strype, Ann.,' 'II. ii. 660; iv. 276. His son Richard and a cousin named George were also recusants (Cal. Cecil MSS.,' iv. 270-1). referred to, viz., John, the father of Sir John Shelley, Bart., and Thomas, the Winchester scholar of 1555. Another brother, Richard Shelley, is mentioned in the Visitation of Yorkshire, 1563-4,' Harl. Soc., p. 127. The sisters of William Shelley were: 1. Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Guildford, Knt. (son, by his first wife, of the before-mentioned Sir John Guildford). They had issue one son, Sir Henry, and three daughters. 2. Eleanor, who married Thomas Norton, son and heir of Sir John Norton, Knt., of Visitation of Kent, 1619,' Harl. Soc., p. 80. Northwood, co. Kent. For their issue see 3. Margaret, who married Edward Gage, son and heir of James Gage (perhaps James Gage, of Bentley, co. Sussex, second son whose monument is in the Bentley Chapel of Sir John Gage, K.G.). Edward Gage, at Framfield, and who died 1595, is mentioned as amongst the recusants reported by the sheriffs of the county to Queen Elizabeth ('S.A.C.,' 11, 62). 4. Mary, who married Sir George Cotton, Knt. (b. 1538, d. 1610), of Warblington Castle, Hants. Richard Cotton, their eldest son, was born about 1570; and their eldest daughmar-ter, Mary, married (about 1582) Sir John Caryll, Knt., of Warnham, co. Sussex, doubtless the Sir John Carrell mentioned by MR. WAINEWRIGHT. I am sorry I cannot give MR. HALL any information as to the dates of birth, riage, and death of Mary Cotton. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. The following notes as to near relatives of William Shelley may possibly be of use in the way of supplementing MR. WAINEWRIGHT's very interesting narrative :: William Shelley's mother was Mary, daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, Knt., of Gaynes Park, co. Essex. 5. Bridget, who married Anthony Hungerford, Esq., of Down Ampney, co. Gloucester, and had issue Sir Henry (whose name also and Sir Anthony. appears in MR. WAINEWRIGHT's narrative) Wotton, in his 'Baronetage' (vol. i. p. 63), Her elder half-states that a sixth sister. Anne, married Sir Richard Shirley, Knt., of Wiston, co. Sussex, but this is doubtful. sister, Anne, was the wife of Sir Anthony Cooke, Knt., of Gidea Hall, Essex. This close connexion with the family may have led to his being appointed guardian of William Shelley. Sir Anthony was father-in-law of Lord Burleigh, the Lord High Treasurer, and also of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; and it was, perhaps, Burleigh's influence at Court which in after years was of so much assistance to Mrs. Jane Shelley. an interesting account of the Lingen family. Burke (Commoners,' vol. iv. p. 266) gives Referring to Mrs. Jane Shelley and her incarceration in the Fleet, he says:— 'An Harleian Manuscript (No. 2050) contains many curious letters to her there, particularly one of an offer of marriage in her widowhood from Francis, youngest son of the first Lord St. John. 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. 8 B), and restored her a house and demesne, of Benenden, co. Kent, and by him had issue letter to her in the same collection speaks in affectwhich seems to have been Sutton; for another 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 RadTwo brothers of William Shelley have been estates, passed on her death to a hungry Scot (of brook in Gloucestershire, and her Shropshire ALFRED T. EVERITT. 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 brocaded dress trimmed with lace. Her earrings, singularly enough, are attached to her ears by ribands." RICHARD WELFORD. High Street, Portsmouth. 'PICTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS' (10th S. iii. 487).—This work was published at Amsterdam about the end of the eighteenth century, in quarto, and the title is as follows (see Lowndes, p. 199): "Pictures of the Old and New Testaments, showing the most Notable Histories in One Hundred and Fifty Copperplates by the most famous and principal Masters. The Text in French and English." It is apparently an imitation of an earlier work by De Royaumont in 1690-8, in which each plate was dedicated to an individual patron (who was allowed to pay the cost of production in return for the, honour, the work being thus produced free of cost to the promoter). The market value of MR. GREEN SMITH'S "rarity" is only small, and seems absurdly out of proportion to his generous praise of the work. WM. JAGGARD. CONYERS (10th S. iii. 489).-Sir Conyers Darcy (son of Thos. Darcy, Esq., Lieutenant of the Tower of London, by Elizabeth, second daughter and coheir of John, third Lord Conyers of Hornby) was knighted 23 June, 1603; confirmed as Lord Conyers, Darcy, and Meinell by letters patent dated 10 August, 1641; died 3 March, 1653; and was buried at Hornby. By his marriage with Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Bellasis, of Newborough, Yorkshire, he had six sons and seven daughters. Barbara, the eldest daughter, married Matthew Hutton, of Marske; Margaret married Sir Thomas Harrison, of Copgrave, son of Robert Harrison, alderman, and grandson of Thomas Harrison, one of the Lord Mayors of York. See Plantagenet Harrison's pedigrees in his ' History of Yorkshire' for the Darcy family, Dugdale's 'Visitation' for Harrison of Allerthorpe (and Copgrave), and a paper on 'Marske' contributed to Archæologia Eliana (second series, vol. v. pp. 1-90) by the late Rev. James Raine. At the date of Mr. Raine's paper (1860) there remained at Marske Hall portraits of Lord Conyers and Darcy and his wife, which are thus described : "Sir Conyers Darcy, the distinguished Royalist. Created Lord Conyers and Darcy in 1641. A handsome face, florid and oval, with a Carolian beard Half length. He is in a Court dress, and has a purple mantle with a surcoat of white point lace." and moustache. Dorothy Bellasis his wife A pretty girlish face, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. See Dugdale's Baronage' (sub d'Arcie), G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, and Harl. Soc., xxxix. 985-6. H. J. B. CLEMENTS. Killadoon, Celbridge. [Reply also received from MR. J. RADCLIFFE.] like to mention that a very important work LOCAL RECORDS (10th S. iii. 464).-I should on Somersetshire has apparently escaped notice, ie., "Somersetshire Parishes: an Historical Handbook to all Places in the Piccadilly, London, W." This work marks County, by Arthur L. Humphreys, 187, an advance in the system of making county bibliographies, inasmuch as the references to wills and ancient deeds, &c., are given in fuller detail than is usual in works of this description, and the work also includes biographical notices of both ancient and contemporary well-known personages. W. J. [Mr. Humphreys's collections are, we believe, in course of publication. We mention the fact as it is not clear from W. J.'s letter.] JOHN HAZLITT AND SAMUEL SHARWOOD (10th S. iii. 468).-From Scharf's Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures, Busts, &c., in the National Portrait Gallery' (1888) I give the following particulars concerning John Hazlitt : "1768-1837. Miniaturist. Born at Wem, in Shropshire. He came to London shortly before 1788, and exhibited in the Royal Academy from that year to 1819. He died at Stockport." JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. PICTURES INSPIRED BY MUSIC (10th S. iv. 9). Finished paintings of this class must be very rare, since in the course of thirty years' continuous exhibition-going I cannot recall one, and any work of that kind would certainly have attracted my attention. But the late M. Fantin-Latour produced a good many lithographs illustrating or symbolizing passages from Wagner's operas. I think he also |