"shall be one Year imprisoned." [To endure to the mist "Parliament: continued till the next succeeding Parliament, 33 H. 8. c. 17.] What in particular had taken place to render such an enactment necessary? BENJ. WINSTONE. 53, Russell Square, W.C. 1851. THE PORTRAIT AND ARMS OF RICHARD PATES, OR PATE.— In Notes and Queries (7th S. i. 348) a correspondent has inquired:--Is there any portrait extant of Richard Pates, the founder of Cheltenham Grammar School in 1586 [1574]? if so, where? Also, what were his armorial bearings? In the same volume, p. 475, another correspondent has thus replied:-There is an effigy with his arms on his tomb in Gloucester Cathedral. I transcribe from Rudder's History of Gloucestershire, p. 118:-He was buried in 1588, near the south wall of the south-cross-isle of the cathedral, where there is a monument erected for him, which has been of late years repaired by Corpus Christi College in Oxford; to which he gave the nomination of a school-master and usher at Cheltenham, in this county, the hospital there, and some other benefactions. Upon the monument is the effigies of an old man in a lawyer's gown, and a boy kneeling behind him; and of a woman, with three girls behind her. Over them is this inscription: Richardus Pates, Arm., huic nuper Civitati a memoria, qui vixit annos 73, et ob. 29 Oct. 1588, sibi et conjugi, et natis suis, posuit. Quid stulti vitæ mortales stamina duci Longa volunt miseræ, non minus atq malæ. Vita est, hæc vera est, cætera vita necat. Over the monument is a board or wainscot to keep off the dust, and upon it are these arms: Argent, a chevron sable, between three pellets in chief, three crosses patée fitchy of the first. Crest, a lion vaire crowned, sable and argent; and these words at top: Mihi vita Christus, Christus mea spes unica.-ED. MARSHALL. Two more replies appeared in the same volume, p. 518: (1) A portrait of this Gloucestershire worthy is to be seen in Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and an old copy of it is in the custody of the head master of the Cheltenham Grammar School. This latter memorial of Richard Pates was exhibited at the meeting of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society which was held at Cheltenham in April, 1877.-ABHBA. (2) At Ludlow Castle there are arms of all the councillors of the marches of Wales of the time of Elizabeth. Amongst them are the arms of Richard Pates, one of these councillors, as follows:-Argent, a chevron sable between three pellets, on a chief of the second three cross crosslets pattée of the first; and a note is added saying that he seems to have been of Gloucestershire family. These arms are the same as those of Pate of Cheltenham and Masterden, co. Glouc., which are, Argent, a chevron sable between three ogresses, on a chief of the second as many cross crosslets of the first. Bigland says, in his History of Gloucester, that Richard Pate founded the Free School and Hospital at Cheltenham in 1574.-B. F. SCARLETT. 1852.-MR. HODGES, OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 1657.-(See Nos. 357, 487.) As appears from Oliver Cromwell's letter which you have published, dated Sept. 21, 1657, and thus addressed, "For Mr Hodges at his House in Gloucestershire, these," the latter was appointed one of seven "for ye Govenemt of Irland by a Deputye & Councell," with an annual salary of 1,000l. I do not know whether he accepted the appointment, or ever crossed to Dublin to act; and I am anxious to be informed. Some reader may perhaps be able and kindly disposed to help me in the matter. J. G. 1853.-JAMES UPTON, OF ALVESTON, DIED 1821. (See No. 1652.) In the Stinchcombe parish register appears an entry of the marriage of James Upton, of the parish of Alveston, bachelor, and Susanna Bendall, of Stinchcombe, spinster, by license, October 25, 1781. He died at Stinchcombe in 1821, aged 69 years. Any information regarding his parentage will be of much importance. The Canons, Mitcham, Surrey. G. R. T. UPTON. 1854. THE REV. THOMAS BEST.-Mr. Best was the minister of a chapel at Cradley, Worcestershire, in connection with Lady Huntingdon, towards the end of the last century; he afterwards conformed, his chapel was consecrated, and he died about the year 1821. Some of his family, I believe, settled in Gloucestershire and were in holy orders. I am anxious to find out his parentage and birthplace, and shall be grateful for information. Birmingham. L. J. 1855.-DR. PARRY'S PROPOSED "HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE FOSSILS."-Caleb Hillier Parry, M.D., F.R.S., who was born at Cirencester in 1755, and died at Bath in 1822, published in 1781 "Proposals for a History of the Fossils of Gloucestershire," the introduction to which was intended to include all that was known on the subject of organic remains, and the result of many experiments and observations in which he had been long and ardently engaged. As his son has stated in the memoir in Lives of British Physicians, p. 300 ("Murray's Family Library "), his father's "increasing avocations suspended, and finally prevented, the completion of this work; but his remaining MSS. are a sufficient proof of his industry, knowledge, and discrimination." Where are these MSS. at present? and are they likely at any time to appear in print? GLOUCESTRENSIS. 1856. THE LASSINGTON OAK.-Full mention has been made in Nos. 232, 320, and 391, of the Newland Oak, in the Forest of Dean, and of the Bodington Oak, near Cheltenham. In the parish of Lassington, near Gloucester, there is an oak of "very large dimensions", known as the Lassington Oak; I cannot specify its dimensions, as done in the case of the others; but nevertheless the following particulars respecting it, taken from the Gloucestershire Chronicle, November 2, 1889, may prove interesting to the reader :-"This fine old tree, the largest of its kind in this part of the country, shows signs of increasing age and inability to support itself without assistance. One of the main branches has had several props placed beneath it for many years, but these have been recently increased, and now the number of props on which the tree leans is eight. As a split is showing itself in the lower part of the leaning trunk, it is not improbable that a chain cable will be brought in to lend its aid to preserve the old tree from destruction." What may be its dimensions? G. A. W. 1857. THE DERIVATION OF THE PLACE-NAME AMBERLEY."— In Notes and Queries (6th S. iii. 8) this query appeared :-There is a district so called in the neighbourhood of Stroud, in Gloucestershire. What may be the derivation of the name? If called, as some will have it, from amber stones, what and where are they? In the same volume, p. 213, a correspondent replied:-Besides Amberley in Gloucestershire (which gives the second title to the earldom of Russell), there are villages so named in the counties of Worcester and Sussex. The name does not seen to have much to do with amber. Mr. Edmunds explains it, Names of Places, p. 165, ed. 1872 :-"Amber, Ames, Ambrey, Ambros, Embrey B. probably from Ambrosius, the famous British king. Ex: Amberley (Sussex and Wor.) Ambrose's place." Can anyone suggest a more satisfactory derivation? G. A. W. The latest authority, the Rev. Robert Hall, has written thus in his Local Names of Gloucestershire [1888], p. 9:-AMBERLEY Comp. Ambreslege and Ombresuuelle, Evesham charter in 706, Amberloo Holland, Amorbach the Rhine. The b is only an excrescence, and the er an apparently stream word which often attaches to others, as the Cocker, Chelmer, the Erewash Derb. See the next [Amney] and Arle. Open ground at the springs. EDITOR. 1858.-MEANING OF THE WORD "BRAWNER."-In the Accompts of the Wotton-under-Edge market, from 1663 to 1679, there is annually such an item as this:-"Paid to the Mayor to buy his Brawner, £02. 00. 00." From 1680 to 1697 the payment was increased to £3; and from that year to 1710 it was £5. What may be the meaning of the word "Brawner"? V. R. P. In Wright's Historical Notices of the Borough of Wotton (1872), p. 17, under the year 1663, this entry appears"Paid Nicholas Webbe [Mayor] to buy his Brawner, £2"; but no explanation of the word. Johnson and Webster both give, s.v., "a boar killed for the table;" and Dr. Murray, in his new Dictionary, "a boar fattened for the table." He likewise quotes two examples of the use of the word :-"1708 W. King Cookery (R.) Send up the brawner's head;" and "1809 Edinb. Rev. XIII. 341 The misery of the brawner." Cf. porker. The special object of the purchase can be easily understood. EDITOR. 1859.-ORIGIN OF THE FESTIVAL OF THE THREE CHOIRS.-(See No. 597.) Who deserves the credit of originating the Festival of the Three Choirs? Perhaps no one more than Stephen Jeffries, a pupil of Michael Wise, of St. Paul's Cathedral and Salisbury. Jeffries, who was organist of Gloucester from 1680 to 1712, was a very skilful musician, a man of a convivial turn of mind, and of no little eccentricity of character. All that remains of his musicianship is perpetuated in the chimes of the cathedral, which even to the present day ring out the quaint melody he composed for them nearly 200 years ago. One of the anecdotes preserved of him tells how he was wont to indulge in the charms of tavern society, often to a very late hour. His wife, in the endeavour to cure him of this propensity, once drest up a fellow in a winding sheet, with directions to meet Jefferies with a lanthorn and candle in the cloisters, through which he was to pass on his way home; but on the pretended ghost attempting to terrify him, Jeffries expressed his wonder merely by saying, "I thought all you spirits had been abed before this hour." J. G. 1860.-OLDISWORTH FAMILY: MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.William Oldisworth represented Gloucester in the parliaments of 1597-98 and 1601; and Arnold Oldisworth represented Cirencester in 1604-11. I should be glad of any information respecting them, or of the family to which they belonged. Were they akin to Michael Oldisworth, member for Salisbury in the Rump parliament? Leigh, Lancashire. W. D. PINK. 1861.-MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FOR BRISTOL, 1655-59.(Reply to No. 1811.) Alderman Miles Jackson, M.P. in 1654-55, was sheriff in 1631-32, and mayor in 1649-50. When Cromwell passed through Bristol in May, 1650, Jackson presented him with a "butt of sack"; and "for entertaining the Lord General" he was paid £10 (Garrard and Tovey's Life of Edward Colston, 1852, p. 152). Jackson died before July, 1669. His bequest to the poor of the parish of St. James, Bristol, is mentioned in Manchee's Bristol Charities (1831), vol. i., p. 427. Alexander Jackson is there said to have been his son and heir. Alderman Joseph Jackson, mayor in 1651-52, and M.P. in 1659, was born in 1611. In 1647 he was chosen master of the Merchant Venturers, which position he held four times. His portrait is in the hall of that guild. In July, 1649, when Cromwell came to Bristol, and stayed about a fortnight while making preparations for his famous expedition to Ireland, the corporation appointed Alderman Jackson's house "for his entertainment and provision: to be at the city's charge." His house was in Small-street (Life of Colston, p. 150). He died in January, 1661; and amongst his bequests was one of £200 "for the encouragement of preaching the word of God" in the parish of St. Werburgh (Bristol Charities, vol. ii., p. 383). Clifton. WILLIAM GEORGE. 1862. THE "BRISTOL GAZETTE."-(Replies to No. 1814.) Your correspondent says that there are no files of this newspaper "to be met with either in the Public Library or the Mercantile Rooms at Bristol;" and that the paper, he thinks, "lived on to about 1850." A file of the Bristol Gazette, from 1811 to 1868, is in the library of the Commercial Rooms, Bristol, and the paper lived on to 1871 or 1872. A bookseller's catalogue, published about thirty years ago, contained this note:-"The Bristol Gazette, from 1767 to 1805, large folio, bound in 14 vols. This was the publisher's own file, and contains his signature, 'Wm Pine,' in each volume." Who the present fortunate possessor of the above series may be, I regret to be unable to say. There is no mention of the Bristol Gazette, your correspondent further states, "in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xvii., p. 421, under the head of Bristol journalism." The writer of the article referred to has also omitted to mention Bonny's Bristol Post-Boy (1702), Samuel Farley's Bristol Postman (1713), and Greep's Bristol Weekly Mercury (1716); and he has asserted that "Bristol journalism began in 1715." See the Athenæum, August 2nd, 1884. WILLIAM GEORGE. An extract from Dr. Brushfield's Andrew Brice and the Early Exeter Newspaper Press (1888), p. 6n, is here appended :—“ Much has been written about the early history of the Bristol press, but the most reliable account of it is certainly that of Mr. William George, in the Athenæum of August 2nd, 1884. Most |