mensely increasing village, my attention was attracted a few days ago by observing the fast wearing, but deeply cut, and still very distinct date of 1744, upon the two faces of this block, toward the road and the footway. I imagine that it owes its longevity to its monumental strength, for it is about 15 inches thick and nearly 3 feet 6 in height, one stone cut into three steps, the top inclusive. Had it been constructed in separate pieces, or of less massive strength, it would long since have been dismantled or broken. Is anything remarkable known of this relic? Its situation is in the high-road, about fifty yards beyond the corner of Hanger Lane on the opposite east side, and seems to indicate the existence of an older mansion than the one that claims its present service. May I be allowed, without giving offence to the higher respectable inhabitants of this prettiest approach to the metropolis, to express a regret that its noble residences in size, with beautiful and spacious grounds, should be, with few exceptions, such tasteless lumps of brick or stucco ? J. A. GRIMES.

Llandudno. After duly wondering at the extraordinary increase of that town since my first visit to it some ten years ago, we went up to Dinas, the ancient British fortress over the town, and after examining the remains of it and the circles of stone which served as foundations to the Cytian or wooden huts of its former inhabitants, I went in search of the rocking-stone called by the peasantry Crid Tudno, St. Tudno's Cradle, and I had the extreme disgust to find that it had been deliberately thrown off the balance, and instead of oscillating under the pressure of one finger as I had formerly made it do, it lay like any of the other blocks of stone near it. As I am sure no "Cymru" would destroy such an interesting monument of his ancestors, the credit (?) of having done so must be given to some of the fast young "shoddies," numbers of whom we saw exhibiting themselves on the esplanade. In various places we saw placards headed "Commissioners for the Improvement of Llandudno." It might not have been beneath the care of these gentlemen to have seen to the preservation of such an interesting relic of former days, and even now, like the celebrated Logan stone in Cornwall, they might endeavour to replace it on its balance. The old church on Great Orme's Head has been entirely "renovated," and the solitary graveyard now contains monuments in Aberdeen granite, white marble, and Caen stone!

Hawthorn.

FRANCIS ROBERT DAVIES.

Grey.

Longley.

1832 Monk

-1830

Denison

Hinds Jackson Hamilton Villiers Baring Tait

Pelham

Waldegrave

Thomson

Jeune

Jacobson
Claughton

1856 Turton

1849 Thirlwall

1840

1854 Lonsdale

1843

1845

Queries.

ALPHABET RHYMES. Can any one supply me with the remaining lines of the following alphabet written at the time of the Crimean war?

"A was an Aberdeen wise in debate;

B was the Bear taught to dance on hot plate," &c.?

WIMBLEDON.

1861 1863 1864

1868 1868 JOSEPHUS.

VANDALISM: CRID TUDNO.-The following act of disgraceful Vandalism came under my notice a short time since. Accompanied by a young relative who was enjoying his holiday, I visited

W. H. JAMES WEALE.

CRITICS' FAMILY LIKENESS. Can any one refer me to the passage (I think in one of Moore's poems) where critics are likened to certain insects which, having stung you, deposit an egg in the wound? R. S. P. DEED OF JOHN DE MOWBRAY.-Peck's History of the Isle of Axholme, appendix No. 1, containsA true copy of the ancient deed of John de Mowbray, sometime Lord of the Isle of Axholme . . . . to the freeholders there. . . . translated out of French into English by William Ryley, keeper of the records in the Tower of London."

"Und diess geheimnissvolle Buch,

Von Nostradamus eigner Hand." Faust died in 1466; Nostradamus was not born till 1503. Goethe, no doubt, was fully aware of this anachronism. Can any one assign a reason for it? OSPHAL.

MILITARY.-1. Who was Lieutenant James

Barron, of the 2nd battalion Manchester and Salford Volunteers, 1802, to whom his "fellowtownsmen" presented a gold medal "for spirited 2. Who was Captain and patriotic services"? Thomas Abbott, "4th company Liberty Rangers, 1804" (Dublin) ? J. W. F.

PLANT: GARNET HAND.-Dr. Warner, in his letters to Selwyn (Jesse's Selwyn and his Contemporaries, vol. iv. p. 349), uses the word "plant" in the sense of giving a clue or hint. Has this signification been perpetuated to the present time? It has no apparent connection with the modern phrase, to make a plant (or dupe) of one." What does the same writer mean by the expression "garnet hand"? (p. 349 as above).

L. X.

School?), 1836, Rivington publisher? Who was
Head Master, and who were Under Masters of St.
Paul's in 1836-37 ?
R. I.

SEALING WITHOUT SIGNING.-In a very scholarlike article in a recent number of the Pall Mall Gazette, which was reprinted in the Pall Mall Budget of Nov. 13 (No. 244), the public are told that

"One standard illustration of a moot point never decided is the question whether sealing without signing was at common law a sufficient execution of a deed. After remaining undecided for many centuries, this momentous question came before the courts some thirty or forty years pily became unnecessary to decide it." ago, but by an odd turn in an uninteresting case it hap

Is there not some error here? It is certainly the current opinion, that in England sealing is still a sufficient execution of a deed. All antiquaries are aware that charters of a date earlier than A.D. 1500 have very rarely any other signature except the seal. CORNUB.

ST. STEPHEN.-1. Is there any authority for the statement in Butler's Lives of the Saints that the protomartyr was buried at "Caphragamala," and that the word or name "Cheliel" was (alone) engraved on his tomb? 2. Where is or was "Caphragamala," and what is the signification of "Cheliel"? S. T.

SLYCES.-In 1536 the cathedral church of St.

Mary of Lincoln possessed, among other treasures, "A crismatory. . . . . having within three pots with coverings for oyl and cream, without slyces."—Monast. Anglic. viii. 1281. p.

.....

What were these slyces? The word slyse and slyssing frequently occurs in a churchwarden's with the bell-ropes. It means either to twist or account of the reign of Henry VIII., in connection to splice, but I am not sure which. Can any one tell me? CORNUB.

A TRAGEDY OF TREMIERRE: "BARNEVELDT.”— In 1766, this tragedy was on the point of being represented, when the Dutch ambassador intervened and stopped it. So says M. Hallays-Dabot in his excellent book Histoire de la Censure theatrale, (Paris, Dentu). Is this true or not? I should be much obliged to M. PHILARÈTE CHASLES, or any other of your correspondents in Paris, if they would procure me the necessary information on this subject.

Amsterdam.

H. TIEDEMAN.

Queries with Answers.

THE LATE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS.- From the article on the death of Lord Hastings in The Times, it would appear as if he had been of a family recently risen to distinction, inasmuch as the title he bore of Marquis of Hastings was a new creation. But I remember to have seen, I think in Collins's Peerage, a very curious grant of land to his ancestor, Paulyn de Rawdon, by William the Conqueror, couched in very quaint and singular terms: something to the effect that he was to have and to hold these lands from the centre of the earth to the sky, with all that ran on it or flew over it, &c. Unluckily I did not make a note of this curious charter, and therefore resort to a query; and would ask some of your readers to supply me, through your columns, with a copy of it.

It is rather remarkable that the three imme

stituted the royal grant. Vide Collins's Peerage, by Brydges, edit. 1812, vi. 666; Lodge's Peerage, edit. 1789, iii. 95.

However this may be, the Rawdons, from whom the late fourth marquis is paternally descended, are certainly a very ancient family in Yorkshire. John Rawdon, of Rawdon, in Yorkshire, was great-grandfather of Francis Rawdon, whose son, Sir George, born in 1604, first acquired a footing in Ireland. He commenced his public career as secretary to Edward Lord Conway, and was the bearer to the Hague of the valuable jewels deposited in pledge for the loan of 100,000. In 1639, he was member of parliament for Belfast, and during the civil wars in Ireland he was throughout of essential service to the state, by the activity and ability he displayed in the suppression of those sanguinary conflicts. At the Restoration he was appointed Deputy-Governor of Carrickfergus. He died in 1684, at the advanced age of eighty,

covered with honours obtained by his faithful services to the state. His son, Sir Arthur, was out of favour with

King James, and he lost no opportunity of rendering himself obnoxious to the government of the day. On his in 1723, his son, Sir John Rawdon, fourth baronet, was death, in 1695, his son, Sir John, succeeded, and dying in 1749 created Baron Rawdon of Moira, and in 1761, Earl of Moira. Having married Lady Elizabeth Hast

Nam quæ Mars dat aliis, dat tibi regna Venus."

E. S. S. W.

[The illustrious family of Rawdon is by some said to deduce its pedigree from Paulinus de Rawdon, to whom William the Conqueror granted considerable estates (part of which the late luckless Marquis of Hastings enjoyed) by the following deed," the copy whereof," says Weever (Funeral Monuments, p. 604), "was found in the Register's Office at Gloucester, which I had from my dear deceased friend, Aug. Vincent:

"I, William Kyng, the thurd yere of my reign,
Give to Paulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne,
With all the bounds both up and downe;
From heven to yerthe, from yerthe to hel,
For the and thyne ther to dwel,
As truly as this kyngright is myn;
For a crossebow and an arrow,
When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow.
And for token that this thing is sooth,
I bit the whyt wax with my tooth.
Before Meg, Mawd, and Margery,
And my third sonne, Henry."

This Paulyn, or Paulinus, commanded a band of archers in the Norman invading army, and derived his surname of Rawdon, from the lands of that denomination, in the parish of Guiseley, in Yorkshire, which conSee a copy of this deed in Harl. MS. 382, art. 62, where it is called fictitious.

afterwards Baroness Hungerford, he acquired for his family high blood and landed property in England. On his death, in 1793, his son Francis, the distinguished Earl of Moira, and for his military achievements created Marquis of Hastings in 1816, succeeded, and was grandfather of the late fourth marquis, whose early connexion with the turf was so disastrous in its results.]

MISS WILLIAMS.-Where can I meet with an account of a lady of this name, whose salon at Paris, at the beginning of the present century, was the place of réunion of many, especially English, celebrities? Caroline von Wolgogen (née von Lengefeld, born February 3, 1763; died January 11, 1847), the celebrated authoress of Agnes von Lilien, a work which August Wilhelm Schlegel once ascribed to Goethe, and sister of Schiller's wife, writes thus to her sister from Paris, July 4, 1802:

"A pleasant society is here, in which you may meet all the important faces of several countries, viz. at the house of a political and literary lady, Miss Williams. She is very pleasant (artig) and polite, and receives every second night. Yesterday Lord Holland was there, and Mr. Kemble, a celebrated English actor. They have promised me to make him recite something when I come there again. He has a splendid head, with almost colossal features, a head that must be beautiful upon the stage, and a very elegant figure."-Charlotte von Schiller und ihre Freunde, 1862, vol. ii. p. 75.

And in another place, September 3, 1802: —

"At Miss Williams', I saw the other day a crowd of politically remarkable persons, Fox, Kosciusko, La Harpe, Carnot, a very pleasant English lady (a pupil of Mrs.

Wolstoncraft), and Lord Holland. I have a letter of recommendation from Grivel to La Harpe: the former resembles him in manners and ways of representing things (Vorstellungen). He [La Harpe] paid me a visit, and told me many interesting things. He was very pleased with Wieland. The emperor is said to put much confidence in him."-Ibid., vol. ii. p. 85.

Unfortunately she does not mention in one of her subsequent letters-which, by the bye, are very charming, chatty, and interesting (vol. ii. pp. 39-102)-whether she heard Kemble recite something or not. In another letter she speaks of Füseli, whom she must have seen at the same house:

[Miss Helen Maria Williams, who was pre-eminent amongst the violent female partisans of the French revolution, is said to have been born about the year 1762. She resided for some years at Berwick, came to London

at the age of eighteen, and was introduced to the world, as a writer, by the late Dr. Kippis. In 1790 she settled in Paris, where she formed many literary and political connections. Her productions rendered the French revolution popular among certain parties in England, and recommended their author to the Brissotins at Paris. In the succeeding clash of factions she was in great danger, and was confined in the Temple at Paris; but, on the fall of Robespierre, was released. During the "hollow armed truce of Amiens," Miss Williams is understood to have had some intercourse with the English government; and, during the subsequent war, she became an object of suspicion to the French police, by whom her papers were seized and examined. For some years Miss Williams wrote that portion of the New Annual Register which related to the affairs of France. In her later political writings, she appeared only as a friend of the Bourbons and an enemy of the revolution. She thus showed that her democratic consistency equalled the republican morality she had previously exhibited, by living "under the protection" (as the phrase is) of Mr. John Stone, a married man of letters. She died at Paris on Dec. 14, 1827, aged sixty-five. An accurate, copious, and impartially written memoir of this lady could not fail of exhibiting much curious and political information. For a list of her numerous works consult Bohn's Lowndes; the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1828; Annual Biography and Obituary, xiii. 472; and the new edition of the Biographie Universelle, xliv. 644. Her portrait by O. Humphries was engraved by Singleton.]

AUTHORS.

1. "Materials of Thinking. By W. Burdon. New castle printed by K. Anderson, in the Side; and sold by T. Ostell, Ave Maria-Lane. 1807. 2 vols."

2. "Essays on various Subjects. By J. Bigland. Second edition. Longmans, 1811."

3. "The Commemoration of Handel. The second edition. And other Poems. To which is added a prospectus of a translation of Virgil, partly original and partly altered from Dryden and Pitt. With Specimens. By John Ring. Longmans. 1819."

Wanted, information regarding the above books and their authors. D. MACPHAIL.

[1. William Burdon was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1764, educated at the Free Grammar-school of that town, whence he removed to Emanuel College, Cambridge, 1782; A.B. 1786, Fellow and A.M. 1788. Not choosing to take orders, he resigned his fellowship in 1796; and in 1798 married the daughter of Lieut.-Gen. Dickson. He died in Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, on May 30, 1818, aged fifty-three. For a list of his numerous works, see the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1818, p. 87, and Watt's Bibliotheca Britan.

2. John Bigland was a native of Skirlaugh, in Holderness, and spent the greater portion of his life as a village became an author, and published his first work in 1803. schoolmaster. When upwards of fifty years of age he In Rhodes's Yorkshire Scenery, 1826, are some particulars of him. "We found him," says Mr. Rhodes, “in his

garden, rearing flowers and cultivating vegetables. This veteran author lives a life of patriarchal simplicity, sysgarden." Mr. Bigland died at Finningley, near Dontematically dividing his hours between his books and his caster, on Feb. 22, 1832, aged eighty-two. For a list of his various works, see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. cii. part i. p. 645.

3. John Ring, an eminent surgeon, was educated at the Winchester School, where he imbibed a taste for poetry. In 1786 he wrote a poem called The Commemoration of Handel, which was well spoken of by the periodical critics, and subsequently reprinted. Mr. Ring was a warm advocate for the vaccine inoculation, and has published several works on that subject. He died at his house in Hanover Street, Hanover Square, on Dec. 7, tions see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xci. pt. ii. 1821, aged sixty-nine. For some account of his publicap. 643.]

BOYER.-What is a Boyer? I quote the following from The Lord Marquesse of Hertford his Letter.... to the Queen in Holland. . . . 1642. 4to:

"He saw at the Briell, two vessells, viz. a Pinke and a Boyer, laden with Powder, Muskets, and other Ammunition, the one whereof went for Scarborough, and the other pretended to goe for Ireland; and that Master Knolles, a servant of the King's, went in the boyer."-P. 6, second paging.

A. O. V. P.

[Boyer, in navigation, is a kind of Flemish sloop, or small vessel of burden, having a boltsprit, a castle at each end, and a tall mast; chiefly fit for the navigation of rivers, and in many of its parts resembling a smack. The boyer has a double bottom, and a forked mast, that it may run better with the bowling-line, without driving.]