Cole, whilst I was compiling the "History of Hinckley *;" and the enquiries were in general both expeditiously and very satisfactorily answered. "DEAR SIR, Milton, Aug. 22, 1781. "By the inclosed you will perceive that my conjecture of Dr. Grey's single marriage was not founded. My namesake * seems to be amazed about nothing: I well remember having a Catalogue of Books from Northampton some three or four years since, in which were many of Dr. Grey's MSS. If Mr. Cole of Ely, his son in law, sold these MSS. can he be surprized to find them in other hands? Or, if he judged them improper for pub lic view, why did he not burn them himself? What seems to stick most is, the calling George Grey an Attorney. I know no disreputation in the profession: but Counsellor is more profita ble and though he might be an Attorney, he counselled in his profession, and that may countenance his calling him Counsellor, if you please. The other alterations are nothing to the purpose.-I would have sent an answer directly, but I expected to send a book to Mr. Gough by Mr. Steevens, but have not heard from him: possibly he may be from home this fine weather; and I was unwilling to put you to expence for my Letters. When you have an opportunity, I shall be glad of Mr. Cole's Letter again; though it is of no consequence to send it back, or keep it. I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. W. COLE." "DEAR SIR, St. Michael, Milton, 1781. "I am going to dine with the new Mayor of Cambridge to-day, Mr. Merrill, who I hope will find a conveyance for this Letter. In an extreme antient book of the County of Leicester, being the Feodary's account of that County, containing 84 quarto pages, besides the index, are the following extracts. 4 Ed. III. William Turvill held lands in Hinkley, for which he paid an aid for the making a Knight of the King's eldest son." After several other extracts, all which are used in the History of Hinckley, Mr. Cole says: "This is all that I can find relating to Hinckley in the MS. which is not quite perfect, but contains the names of owners of property in that town; during an early period. and though it cost me some time to decypher the different old hands it is wrote in, yet I thought so authentic a record would be no unacceptable accrue to the History of that Town. Dr. Farmer (who lent me the MS. to accommodate your enquiries) told me that Mr. George Ashby had a Burton with MS notes on the margin, &c. and was likely to have materials for your purpose." [This curious MS Feodary was, and still is, the property of the Rev. Mr. Goodwin of Sheffield; who lent it to Mr. Pegge for the use of Dr. Fariner, who again lent it to Mr. Cole. Dr. Farmer afterwards communicated it to me; and I have since returned it to Mr. Goodwin. J. N.] "Ralph Brook says, that Robert de Bellomont, or Beau* The Rev. William Cole, of Ely. See vol. II. p. 549. VOL. I. XX mont, In the Autumn of 1782, Mr. Cole would have presented to me his friend Mr. Browne Willis's mont, third Earl of Leicester, was called Blanchmaines, from his white hands: but query, if this title of Blanchmaines may not rather be derived from the white scurf of the leprosy (then most common in France and England) than from the beauty of his hands, especially as his son William was so infected with that malady, that he founded an hospital for it in Leicester. And more especially if we consider, that these Soubriquets, or surnames, so common in these times, were often imposed on imperfections or deformities; as, William the Bastard, Robert Bossu, Earl of Leicester, so named, no doubt, from his crooked make, and many others, easy to be named, if requisite. Edmund Crouchback, Henry Wryneck, Torto Collo, Duke of Lancaster.-The mention of this Hospital reminds me of a particular, which may be thought curious, if you have an opportunity of inserting it. It is this. Mr. Freeman, an ingenious painter of Cambridge, in 1776, brought me the impression of the seal of this hospital, the original brass seal being lately found at Saffron Walden in Essex: it is of an oval form of three inches depth, having the full figure of St. Leonard, dressed as an Abbat, with a short, squat mitre on his head, a crosier in his left hand, a book in his right, and a pair of manacles or collar and chains hanged from them to express the nature of his charitable employment in redeeming captives. Under an arch below his feet, is the half figure of one of the brethren of the hospital, praying to him. The Saint stands under a beautiful Gothic canopy, and the whole is surrounded with this legend, in small Gothic characters: Sigillu' com'une Magistri et Fratrum Hospital' D’ci Leonardi Lecestrie. "This Hospital, at the Dissolution, fell into the hands of a person whose name was Catlyn. Now, as a family of that name has long been settled at Walden, it is not improbable that the seal and writings might have been in that family, and the seal occasionally left in that place. "DEAR SIR, Milton, Dec. 23, 1781. "I immediately, on the receipt of your note, wrote to Mr. Freeman, to get me an impression of the seal; he wrote me word that he would send to Saffron Walden for one, since which I have not heard from him; my servant goes to Cambridge to-morrow, and he shall call again; and if he has not got it, you must e'en be contented with a copy from a draught which I took of it, when he first shewed it to me. W. COLE." "DEAR SIR, Milton, Monday, February 25, 1782. "Let me first thank you for your prints, which were very acceptable. Did not I see somewhere an hint in the Magazine or some paper, that the head of Justice Gascoigne was that of his wife? I have some confused idea I did.-I am glad you have got the description of the seal, as I am still rather indisposed to writing. "I have "History of the Hundreds of Newport and Cotslow in Buckinghamshire*;" which Mr. Cole had transcribed and methodized in ten folio volumes, from "I have not Lilly's Merlin for 1654; but see his History of his Life and Times, p. 82, 83, where Gataker is mentioned: whose Discourse Apologetical, in 1654, I have, and will send, with Lilly, in a packet to Mr. Gough, who, I hope, will bring them to you when he comes to town, and you may take any opportunity at your leisure to return them; for I see that I have made above 40 references to the Discourse Apologetical chiefly, probably, relating to Gataker himself, who was one of the most learned men of the last century; and I am not well enough to examine the 4to book at my ease. Yours, &c. W. COLE." "DEAR SIR, Milton, Tuesday, February 26, 1782. "Since I sealed my other Letter, I have looked at the two books I send you, Lilly's Life and Gataker's Discourse Apologetical; and though there are many curious anecdotes in both, yet, I apprehend, not one word to your purpose. Mr. Cleiveland, I think, is only mentioned once occasionally; so that I cannot imagine upon what grounds Mr. Oldys went. Possibly the Merlin for 1654 might explain it, but that I have not. W. COLE." * On this subject, I received the following Letter from Mr. Gough, dated Enfield, Sept. 11, 1782. "I am just returned (a little fatigued with heat and long stages) from a most pleasant excursion. I spent two agreeable days in Cambridge, with Messrs. Cole, Steevens, and Farmer. The former approves every thing in Hinckley Dedication, but the most distant insinuation of a change in the Constitution. The second is in high spirits in the prospect of the Nundina Sturbrigienses, which he never saw; and the third enjoys his friends. Mr. Reed should have been added to the party, but he seemed fatigued with his journey. "Mr. Cole has two Folios in his own loose open hand, amounting to 800 pages together: which, if you think worth printing, he will freely give you leave. They are particular 'Accounts of two Hundreds in Buckinghamshire;' (see British Topography); which he would have published as a Continuation of Willis's Buckingham, and not as Numbers of Bibliotheca Topographica. Let me know your opinion of them. They will cost you only types and paper. I should have no objection to the loan of the Howard monuments. Yours faithfully, R. GOUGH." The answer was short, and speedy: "I am happy to hear that Mr. Gough is returned well, and thank him for the account of our Cambridge Friends. Mr. Cole's offer is too kind and too valuable to be refused or neglected.—I will endeavour to obviate his Fears about the Constitution. J. N." [See some other Letters on this subject in vol. VI. p. 199.] + Mr. Cole's transcript is deposited (with his own Collection of MSS.) in the British Museum, and Mr. Willis's original copy (with his Collections for the whole County) are preserved in the Bodleian Library. X X 2 From the originals in four volumes, which Mr. Willis had delivered to him a few weeks before his death, with an earnest request that he would prepare them for publication. Unluckily I had not at the time sufficient leisure to pay him a visit at Milton *. Mr. Cole did not long survive the date of this kind offer. His death is thus noticed by Mr. Gough: "At Milton, a small village on the Ely road, was the retirement of the eminent Antiquary, the Rev. Mr. William Cole, vicar of Burnham, in the county of Bucks, and the intimate friend of Browne Willis. Here, Dec. 16, 1782, in his 68th year, he closed a life spent in learned research into the history and antiquities of this County in particular, which nothing but his declining state of health prevented this work from sharing the benefit of. He left to the British Museum, to be locked up for twenty years, his valuable collections in 100 volumes in folio, fairly written in his own hand, which was not unlike that of Mr. Thomas Baker, to whose memory he has bequeathed a monument in St. John's College Chapel. Mr. Cole was buried under the belfry of St. Clement's church in Cambridge.” My own Epitaph, in due time, when it pleases God, after taking me out of this world, to make it proper for me. "Underneath lyeth the body of W. C. A. M. and F. A. S. the son of W. C. of Baberham, in the County lord of the manor of Halls, in this parish, * From Mr. Cole I afterwards received the following Letter: "DEAR SIR, Milton, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 1782. "Your two last books of Mr. Bowyer, and the proof-sheets of Hinckley, greatly please me: Dr. Farmer sent me the last. Your Anecdotes in both will render your works valuable to every Antiquary; and to none more than to, Dear Sir, your most obedient servant, W. COLE." ↑ Camden's Britannia, Cambridgeshire, vol. II. p. 143*. daughter daughter of Theophilus Tuer, He was educated in the College of Eton, he was in the Commission of the Peace for the and acted for many years in that capacity; and was afterwards Justice of the Peace for the Borough of Cambridge. On his going into holy orders, he was first collated by Thomas Sherlock, Bp. of London, to the Rectory of Hornsey in Middlesex; then by that industrious Antiquary, Browne Willis, Esq. to the Rectory of Blecheley in Buckinghamshire; and lastly presented by Eton College to the Vicarage of Burnham near Windsor. He departed this life in the...... year of his age. Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. Miserere mei, Deus, secundùm multitudinem O Christe, Soter & Judex, It is singular that, in an epitaph prepared by himself on himself, he should make no mention of his migration to, and residence at, King's College. An instance scarcely ever occurs of a person's changing his College, except for a Fellowship or Mastership; neither of which was his lot at King's. He probably resided there as a Fellow Commoner Master. On the arms engraved for his Book Plate he is styled of King's College. I suppose he liked living well with his old Eton friends, the Fellows of that Society. + Copied from Mr. Cole's MSS. vol. VII. p. 179.—In the MS Catalogue at the Museum, in continuation of Mr. Ayscough's Ca1alogue of Donation Manuscripts, is a drawing of Mr. Cole's tomb. A por |