(vol. ii. p. 77) there is a letter from Lord Byron, in which he speaks of the enthusiasm of the French for Byronism. He says, "Nothing was ever like their entusymusy (you remember Braham) on the subject." What is the joke about this perversion of enthusiasm? Braham, that truly marvellous singer, was of the very lowest origin, and probably never had any education, but on the stage he used to speak well enough. JAYDEE. VARIA-I hope that some of the readers of "N. & Q." can give some information about the following to one who is writing a book and has no good library of reference at hand. 1. Dr. Cockman.-I want to know something of the ancestors and birthplace of Thos. Cockman, D.D., Master of University College, Oxford. He graduated M. A. 1697, and died in 1744. He made a translation of Tully's Offices which passed through many editions. 2. Laurence Sterne. When, by whom, and on what authority was the statement first made that he was educated at Heath Grammar School, near Halifax? I have found a great deal to be said against it. 3. Cyril Jackson, Dean of Christ Church.-I want to know if he was the son of Cyril Jackson, M.D., of Stamford, who between 1745 and 1750 married the widow of the lord of the manor of Shipley, near Bradford, and so became a wealthy man. I want also to know whether his family was otherwise connected with Yorkshire, where the dean was educated, and when and where he died. T. C. GILBERT SHELDON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.-Where was this celebrated prelate born? Biographia Britannica states at Stanton, Staffordshire, but Collinson, in his History of Somerset, claims him as a Somersetshire worthy, and says that he was born at Stanton Prior in that county. Which statement is correct? D. K. T. EDWARD LONGSHANKS.-Fabyan has, "In this vere.... was borne at Westmynster Edwarde, that after was surnamed Longeshanke." What is the earliest authority for this nickname? O. W. T. Saved (if my memory serves me rightly), there occurs the following line, "And Kenmuir's lads are men in vain." To what does this expression refer-any saying or tradition connected with the house of Kenmuir? MISS PORTER'S "SCOTTISH CHIEFS."-Is the character of Edwin Ruthven in Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs wholly imaginary ? B. SMOLLETT'S "ADVENTURES OF AN ATOM." Can any one tell me who are the ministers intended in this satire? E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. "BRIEFE AN PILATUS."-Among the published works of Friedrich v. Gentz is Briefe an Pilatus. Is there any way of learning who "Pilatus" was ? JOURNEY-MAN. o? N. & Q." furnish me with the title of a book I TITLE OF BOOK WANTED.-Can any reader of remember reading some five-and-forty years ago The only clue I can furnish is the following. It was a motley collection of odds and ends, some grave and some gay-some quite proper, others not "I have culled a noseOn the title-page was gay of choice flowers, and brought nothing of my own but the thread which binds them.W. E. Howlett. Montesquieu." Kirton-in-Lindsey. So. This lady was a lineal descendant, in the fifth generation, of Sir Walter Blunt of Rock and Sodington, the common ancestor of the Blunts of Sodington, the Lords Mountjoy, and the Blunts of Kinlet. Her father was Sir John Blunt of Kinlet, who died in 1524; her mother was Catharine, third daughter of Sir Hugh Peshall of Knightley. She was born early in the sixteenth century, probably in 1502, and died in 1551, surviving Henry VIII. and all his wives and widows except Ann of Cleves, and leaving a posterity which bears one of the most honourable names among the ancient families of England, that of the how or when Elizabeth Blunt first appeared at the Dymokes of Scrivelsby. There is nothing to show Court of Henry VIII., but her stay there seems to have been of very short duration. The original authority for all subsequent statements respecting her connexion with the king is Hall, who says : of "The kinge in his freshe youth was in the chaynes of love with a fair damosell called Elizabeth Blount, which in synging, daunsyng, and in all goodly pastymes exceeded all others, by the which goodly pastymes she wan the Kingys harte, and she again shewed him such favour that by him she bare a goodly man childe, of beautie like to the father and mother. This childe was well brought up, like a prince's childe: and when he was six yere age, the Kinge made him Knight, and called him Lord Henry Fitzroy and in London, being the 18th day of June, at the manor, or place, of Bridewell, the said Lord ledde by twoo Erles was created Earle of Nottingham, then he was brought back again by the said twoo Erles. Then the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolke led hym into the great chamber again, and the King created him Duke of Richmond and Somerset."-Hall, fol. c, ed. 1550. The title of Richmond was that of the king's father before he became Henry VII., and had not since been conferred on a subject. This son of Elizabeth Blunt was born at the manor house of Jericho, Blackmore, Essex, a seat of the Blunts, in the year 1519, his mother being not more than seventeen years of age at the time of his birth, and Cardinal Wolsey became one of his godfathers. On June 18, 1525, he was, as stated in the preceding quotation, made Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and was also created Knight of the Garter, his plate of arms still remaining on his stall in St. George's Chapel. A month later, on July 16, 1525, the Duke of Richmond was made Lord High Admiral of England; in 1527 he was appointed Warden of the Marches on the borders of England and Scotland; and in 1530 was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with Sir William Skeffington for his acting deputy. In 1525 Sheriff Hutton was assigned to the young duke for his residence, and he was placed in charge of a council, being treated in all respects as a prince of the blood. The antiquary Leland appears to have been one of his early tutors, but before he was twelve years of age he had become a student at King's College, Cambridge, under the care of Croke, the Professor of Greek. Henry Fitz-Roy attended his father to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1532, and thence went to Paris to complete his education in the university there; and returning in the following year was present at the baptism of Queen Elizabeth. Three months later he was married to Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, but it appears that the young bride and bridegroom never lived together. On May 19, 1536, the king imposed upon him the duty of attending, as one of four peers, the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn; and there can be little doubt that the Act of Succession, which was passed soon afterwards (28 Hen. VIII. c. 7), was intended to facilitate his nomination as his father's successor to the crown.* But on July 22, From a passage in Tyndale's Practice of Prelates, written about 1529 and published in 1530, it seems probable that the Protestant party proposed a marriage between the Princess Mary and the Duke of Richmond. 1536, less than three months after his attendance at the Tower scaffold, he died, in a very mysterious manner, at St. James's Palace, having probably been poisoned by some of those who objected to the arrangements in progress for his succession to the crown. Lord Herbert says of him that he was "equally like to both parents," his mother "being thought, for her rare ornaments of nature and education, to be the beauty and mistress-piece of the time" (Herbert's Henry VIII., 165). He was the close friend of the cultured Earl of Surrey, and indicate that he was a youth of great promise. He some of his letters remain (Camd. Misc., iii.), which was buried at Framlingham, in Norfolk, where his monument still remains. Elizabeth Blunt does not seem to have returned to the Court after the birth of her son, and the only trace of any association between them in later days is that William Blunt, her youngest brother, and only a boy at the time, was on the roll of his nephew's household as a gentleman usher at the time of the duke's death. But before Henry FitzRoy was three years old his mother had become the wife of Sir Gilbert Tailbois, the manor of Rokeby, in Warwickshire, part of the Duke of Buckingham's estates, being granted to him and his wife Elizabeth on June 18, 1522. In the following year a private Act of Parliament (14 & 15Hen. VIII. c. 34) was passed respecting the jointure of "Elizabeth, wife of Gilbert Taylboys," from which it would appear that some provision was made for her by the Crown on her marriage. Lord Sir Gilbert was summoned to Parliament as Lord Tailbois of Kyme-an ancestor of his had been Earl of Kyme, but the title had been forfeited for rebellion-in 1529, though he lived to wear the honour of a peerage for a very short time, his death taking place on April 15, 1530. Kyme had three children by Elizabeth Blunt: two sons, who died before him, and one daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Tailbois,† who was married first to Thomas Wimbush of Norton, in Lincolnshire, and secondly to Ambrose Dudley, afterwards Earl of Warwick, the eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland, and brother of Lord Guildford Dudley, but she died without children. The two infant sons of Lord Kyme and Elizabeth were buried "If the King of England," says Tyndale, "had a son by one wife, heir to Englaud, and a daughter by another, heir to Wales [Mary being then Princess of Wales], then, because of the great war that was ever wont to be between these two countries, I would not fear to marry them together for the making of a perpetual unity, and to make both countries one, for to avoid so great effusion of blood."-Tyndale's Pract. Prel., 331, Parker Soc, ed. "The controversy between the Ladie Talbois and her husband Mr. Wimbuss was committed by the Council to the order of the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Lord Admiral, and the Master of the Horse" (Privy Counc. Reg., June 13, 1550). This was probably respecting the claim made by Wimbush to the barony of Kyme. with their father in a vault in the priory church of Kyme; and all three bodies were accidentally discovered there some years ago, shrouded in lead. There was also found a brass plate with the following inscription, the plate being now placed on the north wall of the parish church of South Kyme:"Here lyeth Gylbert Taylboys Lord Taylboys, Lord of Kyme, wych maried Elizabeth Blount, one of the daughters of Sir John Blount of Kynlet in the counte of Shropshire, Knight. wych Lord Taylboys departed forth of this world the xyth day of April A Dni m.ccccc.xxx whose Solle God pardon. Amen." For some years after the death of Lord Kyme his widow lived at Kyme, and there are some reasons for conjecturing that she was, secretly or openly, mixed up with the Pilgrimage of Grace, which began at Louth two months after the Duke of Richmond's death, but must have been long preparing in secret. There is, however, no direct evidence to be found at present on this point. About the year 1537 Elizabeth was again married, to her neighbour Edward, ninth Lord Clinton, whose seat was at Folkingham, a few miles south of Kyme. She lived to see this husband made Lord High Admiral and Knight of the Garter; but it was not until twenty years after her death that he became Earl of Lincoln, and it was by another wife that he became the ancestor of the Dukes of Newcastle. He is buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and the name of Elizabeth Blunt occurs in the inscription on his monument as that of his first wife. By her he had three daughters, Bridget, Catharine, and Margaret. Bridget became the wife of Robert Dymoke of Scrivelsby; and thus the Champions of England since the time of Queen Elizabeth have all been descended from Elizabeth Blunt. Catharine, her second daughter, was married to William, fifth Baron de Burgh, their descendants in modern times being the Lords Berners. Margaret, the third daughter, was the wife of Charles, second Baron Willoughby of Parham, and their family appears to have become extinct in the latter part of the last century. Elizabeth Blunt herself died on September 4, 1551; Machyn having entered in his Diary, "The iiij day of September ded my lade Admerell' wyfe in Lynkolne-shyre, and ther bered" (Machyn's Diary, p. 9). The estate of Kinlet was bequeathed by Sir George Blunt, the brother of Elizabeth, to his younger sister, Agnes, the wife of Rowland Lacon, and from them it has descended to the Childes. Kyme was deserted after Elizabeth's marriage with Lord Clinton, and nothing now remains of what was once a magnificent house except a lofty square tower, which forms a conspicuous object in the flat landscape on the western border of the Boston fens. J. H. B. Lord Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 165, speaking of the year 1518, when the king was twenty-seven years old, and had been married about nine years, says : "One of the liberties which our king took at his spare time was to love. For as all recommendable parts concur'd in his person, and they, again, were exalted in his high dignity and valour, so it must seem less strange, if amid the many fair ladies, which lived in his Court, he both gave and receiv'd temptation. Among whom, because Mistress Elizabeth Blunt, daughter to Sir John Blunt, Knight, was thought, for her rare ornaments of nature and education, to be the beauty and mistress-piece of her time, that entire affection past between them, as at last she bore him a son." This son was born in 1519, and his godfather was Cardinal Wolsey; he was created a Knight of the Garter and Duke of Richmond in 1525, and died in 1536 (Ellis, Original Letters, i. 267). Elizabeth Blount married Gilbert Talboys of Kyme, created Baron Talboys 1529, and bore him three children: George and Robert, who died young, and Elizabeth, who married Thomas Wimbish, Esq. Baron Talboys died in 1539; his only surviving son, George, died a few months later, and the title descended to the daughter Elizabeth, but as she had no child by Mr. Wimbish nor yet by her second husband, the Earl of Warwick, the barony became extinct. The second husband of Elizabeth Blount was Edward Clinton, first Earl of Lincoln, by whom she had three daughters: Bridget, married to Robert Dymoke of Scrivelsby; Catherine, who married William, Lord Borough; and Margaret, the wife of Charles, Lord Willoughby of Parham. The dates of Elizabeth Blount's two marriages do not appear to be well ascertained. It would seem probable that it was as Miss Blount that the king took a fancy to her in 1518. Yet Burke, Extinct Peerage, 1866, states that it was after the death of her first husband, that is, after 1539, which is evidently impossible, whilst Ellis notes that she was Lady Elizabeth Tailboys in 1518, which is improbable. Holinshed (Chronicle, 1586, p. 892) distinctly calls her "Elizabeth Blunt, the daughter of Sir John Blunt"; and at p. 941, when mentioning the death of her son Henry Fitzroy in 1536, he calls her "the Ladie Tailebois, then [i.e. in 1519] called Elizabeth Blunt." EDWARD SOLLY. See an account of her in the Genealogist, vol. ii. pp. 19, 44. C. J. E. ANCIENT MONUMENTS OF THE MORETON FA MILY IN ASTBURY CHURCH, CHESHIRE (5th S. x. 349, 517.)-I am afraid that "the clergyman residing near Congleton," who has so kindly solaced MR. E. WALFORD's anxieties by informing him that "the recumbent figures of the Moretons in Astbury Church are still there," must be a bit of a wag, and one who delights to play practical jokes, for the statement is utterly devoid of truth. Still it must be confessed that MR. WALFORD laid himself open to have practical jokes played upon him by stating as facts what every one who knows anything of Astbury Church must know to be fictions. Thus he wrote, 66 In it [the Moreton aisle] or the chancel were formerly two recumbent figures of Crusaders, members of the ancient family of Moreton." This is not a fact, although so precisely stated, for no such monuments ever existed. MR. WALFORD continues, "My cousin Mrs. Moreton-Craigie... about twenty years ago gave permission to the vicar to remove these monuments a few inches;... they have, however, been removed, not a few inches, but wholly and entirely, and cannot now be found. Can any of your readers say what has become of them? I would gladly forward any information to my cousin." These are some more of MR. WALFORD'S statements; and although it is as obviously impossible for any one to give leave to move what never existed, or to lose what never could be lost, as it is for any of your readers to state where these monuments now are, still it was not for me to dispute the word of a lady or the knowledge of MR. WALFORD, so I let the matter rest, wondering all the time what it could really mean. It was not, however, kind of the Cheshire clergyman to play off his practical jokes, but if your correspondent will allow me to say so, he should make sure of his facts before stating them, and before rushing into the columns of "N. & Q." should not mind taking a little trouble to see what has already been written on the subject. Most people know that there are two books, at the least, relating to Cheshire history, one called Lysons's Cheshire and the other Dr. Ormerod's History of Cheshire, and in both these are accounts of the monuments in Astbury Church. Had MR. WALFORD but consulted these well-known books it would have prevented his being subjected to the ridicule of a country clergyman. For it is really too bad to try and palm off the well-known effigy of an old lady, who died in 1599, as one of the imaginary Moreton Crusaders, and yet that is what MR. WALFORD'S correspondent has "kindly" done for him, and for which he is grateful. are four effigies, removed some centuries ago from the church, and now much defaced by the weather: one of these is that of a priest, and the other three relate either to the families of Venables or Brereton, the arms admitting of dispute. The real "facts" of the case are, however, very simple. There are but two recumbent effigies in Astbury Church, as the Cheshire clergyman no doubt well knows. One of these is, as he says, at the east end of the south aisle, and the other at the east end of the north aisle, although it formerly stood on the south side of the chancel. The former of these is an effigy of a member of the old Cheshire family of Davenport of Davenport, and is of fourteenth century date, bearing upon the surcoat the well-known arms of Davenport. The other is that of the old lady before referred to, Dame Mary Egerton, who died in 1599, and it represents her in the costume of that period, hooped petticoat and ruff, &c. In the churchyard As your correspondent MR. PICKFORD very properly points out, the altar tomb of Sir William Moreton, who died in 1763, has been removed, and the inscriptions let into the floor of the church; and it seems to me possible that it was to the removal of this heavy altar tomb that the correspondence to which MR. WALFORD alludes took place. But if this is really the case, it is a wonderful instance of the growth of mythical traditions when in twenty years a heavy altar tomb of the eighteenth century becomes converted into "two recumbent figures of Crusaders." But putting conjecture on one side, it is only right that MR. WALFORD should be made aware of the practical joke that has been played upon him by his nameless correspondent. I can only hope he has not forwarded the information to Mrs. MoretonCraigie. J. P. EARWAKER, M.A., F.S.A. Withington, near Manchester. EPIGRAM ON BEAU NASH (5th S. x. 429.)— The oldest printed version of this which I have seen is that given in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1741, p. 102. It is there printed without any author's name or initials. It is so frequently to be met with in an imperfect or incomplete form that it is worth reproducing entire : "On Mr. Nash's present of his own picture at full Length, fixt between the Busto's of Mr. Pope and Sir Is. Newton, in the Long Room at Bath. "Immortal Newton, never spoke More truth than here you 'll find; This picture plac'd the busts between, But Folly at full length." Nash died in 1761, and his life, written by Oliver Goldsmith, was published in 1762. In this (p. 127) the second verse of the above lines is thus mentioned: "The Corporation of Bath placed a fulllength statue of him in the pump room between the busts of Newton and Pope. It was on this occasion that the Earl of Chesterfield wrote that severe but witty epigram, the last lines of which were so deservedly admired." As Lord Chesterfield did not die till 1773, he was of course alive when Goldsmith wrote this not very accurate sentence, and it may be presumed that he did not deny its correctness. In 1777 Dr. Maty, in his handsome edition of Chesterfield's Miscellaneous Works (vol. ii. App., p. 190), has inserted the lines " on the picture of Richard Nash, Esq.," &c. These consist of six verses, and begin, "The old Egyptians hid their wit and end with the same concluding verse as that for it was purposely made to describe such a one as Dr. Benn was not. The story goes that, after his death, his niece sent to Queen's College, asking for an appropriate inscription for her uncle's tomb, and the waggery of the Common Room provided her with one which she adopted. It certainly does not describe the man, who has been pictured to me by the present incumbent (Mr. T. Falcon) as having been handed down as a man dull and morose, of little culture, and not much sense of duty. He kept the registers himself, very badly and carelessly, evidently filling them up once a year. Dates are often omitted and children's burials are entered together after the adults'." Now as to his ghost. It is certainly said that he walks in the old house, but confines himself to the cellars and the old parts of the house where the offices and servants' bedrooms are: the rest of the house has been built since his day. The present incumbent tells me that "there are many people These lines are misquoted both by Mr. Locker in about Charlton whom nothing could induce to pass his Lyra Elegantiarum and by JAYDEE, although a night in the house alone, and that eight or nine the latter is perfectly correct as to the reading of years ago one of his servants certainly left his the third line, for it is very apparent that the sub-service in consequence of some ghostly impression. stitution of the word seldom entirely destroys the intended satire. The epigram is one of several verses contained in a book of Mrs. Jane Brereton's poems, published in 1744. EVAN THOMAS. Pimlico. .... His presence is supposed to be made evident by the rustling of a silk doctor's gown." Mr. Falcon has been there for some sixteen years, and (except the one servant leaving him) has never had any trouble with the ghost. With regard to the exorcism Mr. Falcon says: "The story that a dozen parsons and a woman went down to the cellar to exorcise him is a very silly and modern tradition. In Goldsmith's very amusing little Life of Nash the epigram is given as quoted by JAYDEE, which form is obviously the only one admissible. Gold-It is possible that my predecessor, Mr. Knipe smith says that, "to add to his honours, there was placed a full-length picture of him in Wiltshire's ball-room, between the busts of Newton and Pope. It was upon this occasion [no dates given that the Earl of Chesterfield wrote the following severe but witty epigram." The Temple. EDWARD H. MARSHALL. The REV. R. BENN, OB. 1752: CHARLTON-UPONOTMOOR, OXON (5th S. x. 408.)-Queen's College, Oxford, holds the patronage of Charlton. college has ever been the resort of North-countryLen; especially has it been favoured by those from Camberland and Westmoreland. The Rev. Robert Benn, D.D., was a fellow of this society. He was a Cumberland man of good family. The Benns lived at Heasington House, serving the office of sheriff and the like, till, in the close of the last century, one of them lived at a great rate, got the nickname of "Lord Benn," and ran through the estate. Dr. Benn, fellow of Queen's and incumbent of Charlton, is not accused of being "guilty" of any crimes. If epitaphs were veracious (which they seldom, if ever, are), Dr. Benn must indeed have been a pattern clergyman. Unfortunately his epitaph is less to be trusted even than others, (1805-1845), who was a merry man, may have made a jest of going down with his guests after a dinner party to confront the ghost. I believe he used to laugh and say he had laid him in the middle of Otmoor.' But certainly no solemn exorcism has been attempted within the memory of the oldest inhabitant surviving." It was a wicked Common Room jest to concoct such a thing, but the epitaph is worth preserving: "Juxta situs est Beatam expectans resurrectionem Collegii Reginensis quondam socius Hujus Ecclesiæ per breve heu septennium Rector Omni demum privata laude cumulatus. Et semper præsens gregi invigilavit suo. |