"An Answere to a Popish Ryme lately Scattered abroad, in the west parts, and much relyed vpon by some Simply Seduced. By Sam1 Hieron, Minister of the Word of God, at Modbury, Devon, 4o, S. Stafford, 1604.” This, which is a far more extended reply than that of Rhodes, was reprinted, and bears "2nd edition" on the title, 4to, H. L. for S. Masedan, 1608. In the latter, the author has an Address to the Reader apologising for his muse, and intimating that when he first published his Answere he was warned that another hand had been before him in confuting the Papist, which, of course, alludes to Rhodes in 1602, and completes the object I had in view in showing that the three names quoted by BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM. were three independent writers upon the subject in question. In conclusion, I would observe that these questions to the Protestants comprise fifty-one fourline stanzas, embracing all the strong points of Romish doctrine, under the headings "Catholike," Prophets," "Continuance," " Visible," "Vnity," Holy," and "Heretikes," answered by Hieron in less than 227 of the like stanzas under the same heads! Besides this poetical handling of his opponent, the minister of Modbury cuts off about one-third of his page where the obnoxious Ryme occurs, for comments and texts subversive of the papal teachings of the defiant ballads. WHO WAS NEVILL SIMMONS? (3rd S. ii. 440.) J. O. The REV. E. BRADLEY wants "any works or broadsheets by Richard Baxter, printed for Nevill Symmonds of Kederminster, 1640-60." During a search after books printed in Sheffield in the last century, a few bearing the name of Nevill Simmons, in Kederminster, London, and Sheffield, ranging in date from 1656 to 1724, have fallen into my hands. The name of Simmonseither S. or Mr. Simmons-appears, however, as that of a bookseller and stationer in Sheffield until 1755, but never of a printer. The last Nevill Simmons died five or six years before the date of the earliest Sheffield printed book which I have yet seen. I subjoin a list of books, bearing the name of Simmons (with one exception), in my possession; and shall be obliged for any information respecting that family, as well as for any notice of books printed in Sheffield in the early part of the last century, or of the commencement of printing in Sheffield: 1. Wanted "Any Works or Broadsheets by Richard Baxter, printed for Nevill Symmonds of Kederminster, 1640-60."-" N. & Q." Nov. 29, 1862. 2. Gildas Salvianus, the Reformed Pastor, by Richard Baxter, Teacher of the Church at Kederminster. London: Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons, Bookseller at Kederminster; and are to be sold by William Roybould at the Unicorn, in Paul's Churchyard. 1656. 3. The Divine Life in Three Treatises, by Richard Baxter. London: Printed for Francis Tyton, at the three Daggers in Fleet Street, and Nevil Simmons, Bookseller in Kederminster. 1664. by the twelve Months' fasting of Martha Taylor, the 4. A Discourse upon prodigious Abstinence, occasioned famed Derbyshire Damsel, &c. &c., by John Reynolds. Humbly offered to the Royal Society. London: Printed by R. W. for Nevil Simmons at the signe of the three Crowns, near Holbourn Conduit, and Mr. Dorman Newman, at the Surgeon's Arms in Little Britain. 1669. [I have not seen this book, but copied the title from an old Review I think.] 5. The Life of Faith, by Richard Baxter. London: Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons, at the Three Crowns over against Holborn Conduit. 1670. Peaceable, for Pacification of the Dogmatical Word War6. Richard Baxter's Catholick Theologie, Plain, Pure, riours. London: Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1675. 7. Methodus Theologiæ Christianæ, &c. &c., per Richardum Baxterum Philotheologum. (On the engraved title-page) London: Printed for Nevill Simmons at the Prince's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1677. Imprimatur dated Aug. 25th, 1678. (Title-page.) Londini: Typis M. White et T. Snowden, et prostant Venales apud Nevil Simmons ad Insigne Trium Gallorum en Vico Ludgate prope Templum Paulinum. 1681. 8. Trading Spiritualized, &c. &c., by Wm. Bagshaw (Parts 1 and 2, Printed for Thomas Parkhurst in Cheapside, 1694 and 1695.) Part 3. Lonon (sic): Printed for Nevill Symonds, Bookseller in Sheffield, in Yorkshire. 1696. Part 4. London: Printed for Nevill Symonds, Bookseller in Sheffield, in Yorkshire. 1696. 9. De Spiritualibus Pecci. Notes (or Notices) concerning the Works of God, and some of those who have been workers together with God, in the Hundred of the High Peak in Derbyshire, by W. Bagshaw. London: Printed for Nevill Simmons, Bookseller in Sheffield. 1702. 10. Three Discourses by the Reverend Mr. Clement Ellis, Rector of Kirby and Prebendary of Southwell. London: Printed for Nevill Simmons, and to be sold by Thomas Parkhurst in Cheapside, J. Robinson and J. Taylor in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1704. 11. Funeral Sermon occasioned by the death of the late Reverend and Learned Mr. John de la Rose of Sheffield, who departed this life Dec. 31, 1723, by Richard Bateson. London: Printed for John Clarke, at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, near Cheapside, and Sold by Nevill Symmonds of Sheffield, &c. &c. 1724. [Here ends the name of Nevill.] · the High Pavement in Nottingham, June 28, 1738, by J. 12. A Sermon preached at an Assembly of Ministers at Clegg, V.D.M., M.D. Nottingham: Printed by Thomas Collyer and Sold by J. Roe in Derby, S. Simmons in Sheffield, and J. Slater in Chesterfield. 1738. 13. Amongst the agents for the sale of Homfray's Sheffield Weekly Journal, and also, when in the same year (1755) the name of the Doncaster Flying Post was added to its original title, is the name of Mr. Simmons. 14. In an Assessment made in Sheffield according to an Act of Parliament for raising Money by a Poll, for carrying on a vigorous War with France in 1692, appears — 2 children 15. Copy of an inscription in the chancel of the parish church, Sheffield: "Here lyeth the body of Ruth, late wife of Nevill Simmons, interred ye 25th of December, 1707, aged 41. She left 4 sons and 5 Daughters. 66 Nevill, their 2nd Son, died June ye 11, 1730, aged 37. Elizabeth, their third Daughter, died May 13, 1755, aged 56 years." 16. Timothy Jollie, born 21 Aug., bapt. 1 Sept. 1691, for a time one of the Ministers of the Upper Chapel, but removed to London, where he died Aug. 1757, married Mary, daughter of Nevil Simmons of Sheffield, stationer and bookseller, Oct. 19, 1714. She died Dec. 9, 1761, aged 70, and was interred in the Lower Meeting-yard, Shef field. [They had eight children; one, named Nevil Jollie, died æt. 12.] 17. In Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 443, is mention of James Simmons of Canterbury, printer and bookseller, who became M.P. for that city in 1806, and died 1807. In the same vol. p. 687, Simmonds of Blandford, a bookseller, is named, who died in 1801, æt. 82. I find no record of Nevill Simmons, the husband of Ruth, in the parish registers. Sheffield. HENRY JACKSON. CHRISTMAS CAROLS. (3rd S. iii. 6, 59.) The subject which has been opened by your correspondent A. A. is very curious, and deserves further investigation and illustration. Many ancient Christmas carols have already been published. I believe the very earliest which is known to have been published dates from the year 1521. It is now in the Bodleian Library, and consists of two carols. One is named "A Carrol of huntynge," which is reprinted in Berner's Boke of St. Alban's; the other is styled "A Carrol, bringing in the Bore's head." This used to be sung, and perhaps is still, in Queen's College, Oxford, to the chant of one of the Psalms. The Bibliographical Miscellanies (Oxford, 1813, 4to) contains seven carols from a collection in one volume, belonging to Christ Church College, Oxford, "Imprinted at London, in the Powltry, by Richard Kele, dwelynge at the longe Shop under Saynt Myldrede's Church." The date is unknown. The custom of singing carols seems to have been very common on the Continent, as well as in England, Ireland, and Scotland. I send you a scrap of an ancient German carol: "Ein Kindlein so löbelich, Ist uns gebohren heute, Wär uns das Kindlein nicht gebohrn, Das Heil ist unser aller. Ey du süsser Jesu Christ, See Christliches Gesangbuch, p. 36. Bowring, in his Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain (ed. London, 1824), gives a few Spanish carols, beginning with the words "Llevadme, Niño, à Belen." Carry me, Babe! to Bethlem now, For I would look on Thee, my God! Thou art alone my goal-and Thou, Thou to that goal the only road." Another curious one is given at p. 178. begins thus: "Pues en esta feliz noche." "In such a marvellous night, so fair, And full of wonders strange and new; Ye shepherds of the vale declare Who saw the greatest wonder? Who? "First. I saw the trembling fire look wan.' Second. 'I saw the sun shed tears of blood." Third. I saw a God become a Man.' Fourth. 'I saw a man become a God.' "Owond'rous marvels! at the thought, The bosom's awe and reverence move; But who such prodigies hath wrought? What gave such wonders birth? Twas Love. "Yes! love hath wrought, and love alone, The victories all-beneath-above; And earth and heaven shall shout, as one, The all-triumphant song of love." It There are several collections of old carols in French, which are published in a scarce work entitled, Noels Nouveaux sur les Chants des Noels Anciens, notez pour en faciliter le Chant, par M. l'Abbé Pellegrin. (Paris, 1785, 8vo.) Have any of lowing odd title of a Christmas Carol ? your readers a copy of the fol which, like Tea that is perfectly good and fine, will be "A Christmas Carol on Peko-Tea; or, a Sacred Carol, most grateful and useful all the year round, from Christmas to Christmas for ever. Humbly addressed to Queen Caroline, and the Princess Carolina, and all the Royal Family." By Francis Hoffman, London, 1722, 8vo. The two verses quoted by F. C. H. beginning: form the commencement of a carol which is "As I sot on a Sonday bonk," &c. still printed in London, or at least used to be of Christmas carols, which have been published, some years ago; for I have an alphabetical list to be sung by old and young in the streets. Amongst these come the lines referred to above. I have only seen the first verse of a carol, which used to be sung in Warwickshire, which thus begins : "As I passed by a river side, And there as I did rein (run), But I conclude, lest I should occupy too much of your space. J. DALTON. DERIVATION OF "HACKNEY." (3rd S. ii. 335, 378.) Some time ago I took great pains to endeavour to find the origin of this word. The earliest use of it (unless the Tournament of Tottenham be older, which is very improbable), I believe to be in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose. Riches is there described as accompanied by a young man, who, among other luxuries, loved well to have hors of prise; In Miége's Dictionary, the English word "hackney" is interpreted "cheval de louage," the French "haquenée," an ambling horse; and "pas d'haquenée," an ambling pace. The glossary to the black letter Chaucer (1687), on the contrary, says "hackeney," a trotting horse. Of course I referred immediately to the passage in the original Roman de la Rose (1125, &c.), from which Chaucer has translated almost line for line : "Si avoit des chevaulx de pris, S'en son estable n'eust roucin." The glossary to this last-named work simply gives "roucin, cheval," but that appended to the excellent Pantheon Rabelais, says "Roussin, roucin, cheval de service, à l'usage des domestiques; et, par consequent, fort inférieur au coursier ou dextrier." It is clear Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and also Chaucer and Miége, mean an inferior sort of horse; but there is nothing in these authors to intimate a hireling. The town of Hackney has always been associated with hired horses by two opposite traditions. One, that it was so named because many Londoners visited it on "hackney" or hired horses; the other, that such horses were so named after the town for the like reason. If the latter be correct, the French must have borrowed their term "haquenée" from us. They have done so since with the words "trot," "jockey," "sport," and several more; but it may be questioned whether they did so at such an early period. If the former be true, the place must have given its name to the horses at least as early as Chaucer's time. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers were accustomed to name their towns from their natural local peculiarities. The knoll rising from the vale, the marshy pool, the wood jutting out of the sandy ground, the landing-place, any such circumstances have given names to thousands of localities, which retain them to this day-as Holmsdale, Merton, Sandhurst, Greenhithe, and a host of others testify. I believe all must agree that Hackney has certainly a strong Anglo-Saxon sound with it. The present visitor would be wholly at a loss to find anything there which existed in olden times, unless he went to the hamlet of Homerton, which still stands on the holme or rising ground overlooking the vale of the Lea, which, before the Bromley Lock was made, was a "mere" or pool at every tide, and therefore might very properly still be called Holm-mere-town, or Scarce a hundred years ago the case was very the town on the rising ground close to the mere. different as to Hackney proper, or Old Hackney as it is now called. The Londoner started then from Shoreditch church, and went to Hackney across pleasant open fields,—a walk of little more than a mile and a half. It was then a village, across the main street of which a bright clear brook flowed. It was, in fact, the confluence of two streams, one coming at the west from Dalston, and the other northward from Stamford Hill and Hornsey. In flood times it was scarcely fordable; and, though now its contents are discharged through the new gigantic sewer, and are lost to sight, it was then a conspicuous object. A curious rhyming MS. account of the visit of some ringers to try Hackney bells, now in Guildhall, says it was famous for "Roach and gudgeon, dace, and eels." And it must have been a pleasant sight to " one long in populous cities pent." Now if this divided brook gave the name to the place, it might have suggested to the Anglo-Saxon the appellation of "Haccan-ey," or the "cut" or "separated" running water. It would have been the first conspicuous object which met his view. Of course any such vague conjecture as this is too weak a matter for any theory to depend on; but sometimes these suggestions do the service of straws thrown up, "to show which way the wind blows." I should be very glad to know from your readers-whether there is any mention of the word "hackney," meaning an inferior horse, earlier than the one I have quoted from Chaucer? How early can the French word "haquenée" be traced, and what is supposed to be its derivation? early can the term "hackney" be found clearly associated with a hired horse or vehicle? Is there How "Boscobel was so called from its beautiful situation on a moderate elevation, and the agreeable woods* that lay all around the house, which are now entirely destroyed as well as the Royal Oak, which stood in the midst of them; and was so thickened by ivy that the soldiers, who were in search of the King, and believed him to be in the wood, could not espy him. This tree was divided into more parts by the Royalists than perhaps any oak of the same size ever was, each man thinking himself happy if he could produce a tobacco-stopper, box, &c., made of this wood-though all that were showed as sacred were not genuine. The place where this famous tree once flourished is yet to be discovered by a square wall built about it, where is another tree from one of its acorns; and over the door on a large stone is a Latin inscription," from which it appears that the wall was built by Basil and Jane Fitzherbert. As the Book of Boscobel was printed in 1660, the Royal Oak had then perished. The oak stood in Shropshire, but near the boundary of Staffordshire (Shaw, p. 73). And in the map to Plot's Staffordshire, opposite to Chillington (which may be found by the Index to places in the map), the situation of the oak is marked; and also that of Boscobel House, of which Shaw (p. 79) gives a picture taken in 1796. On Saturday, January 17, 1863, I inspected the tree in Hyde Park. From 200 to 300 yards west of the receiving house, and close to the footpath running on the north side of the carriage drive, there is an oblong mound some dozen yards long, and two feet higher than the common ground, and this is surrounded by iron fleaks or hurdles. The tree stands at the western end of this inclosure: its bole appears about eighteen inches in diameter, and about six feet high to the first branch; its bark is gone, and it exhibits plain symptoms of decay close to the ground, but it does not appear to be hollow. A luxuriant plant of ivy covers the upper part of the tree, and surmounts its summit. It may be about twenty feet from the ground to the top of the ivy. Two or three bare limbs project out of the ivy. The tree has never been a large one, and probably never was a flourishing one. It is impossible to say how long it lived, as the growth of an oak varies so much in different soils; and even in the same wood I have known many trees of a hundred years growth larger, and many less than this oak. The tree appears to have been long dead: it was so when I first remember it, as well as its companion, which was no larger than it is. The stem of the ivy may be from eight to ten inches in circumference; and, therefore, it must be of considerable age-and this suggests the question, whether it was not planted in order that the oak might be covered with ivy like its parent? Boscobel is "the beautiful wood," from boscus, the old law-Latin word for wood; Old Fr. bos; and bele, Old Fr., beautiful. (Kelham's Dict.) In a letter in The Times, a few days ago, it was stated that there is an oak from an acorn of the Royal Oak, still existing at Boscobel, and this may well be the case. There is an old saying, that the oak is a hundred years in coming to maturity, a hundred years at maturity, and a hundred years in going to decay. Having all my life been an enthusiastic admirer of the oak, I have paid considerable attention to the age to which it lives and my conviction is, that an oak rarely attains its full size in a hundred years, and that three hundred years are by no means the limit of its existence. C. S. GREAVES. Whether the two old oaks, now one, standing as described by your correspondent D. P. in 3rd S. iii. 46, were grown from Boscobel acorns, I know not; but the tradition really and truly connected with them, is, the fatal duel fought by the fifth Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton. In Nov. 1712, Lord Mohun fell by the hand of the Duke, while the latter was killed through the treachery of Lord Mohun's second, General Ma1716, in the Court of King's Bench, and acquitted cartney; who was tried for the offence June 18, of the murder, but convicted of manslaughter. It may have been then, that in those days of the "King over the Water," that the oaks were known as the children of Richard Penderell's monarch of the forest; but as a local antiquary, I only ken of the spot where they grew, in connection with the extinct peerage of Mohun of Boconnock, or rather alas! of the race of the stout Sir Wm. de Mohun, of Oakhampton, for so the patent ran; how few, who fought with forty-seven good knights at Hastings, are left: · "The knights are dust, and their good swords rust; Their souls are with the saints we trust." A correspondent, D. P. in "N. & Q." (3rd S. iii. 46), inquired if a tree, supposed to have been planted by Charles II. from an acorn of the memorable oak in which he was concealed at Bosco bel, is still standing in Hyde Park. Leaving others to answer this query, I send some particulars of the present state of the Boscobel Oak, which cannot fail to be interesting. They have been obtained from a correspondent residing near Boscobel. Of course it is well known that the existing oak at Boscobel is not the identical tree in which the fugitive monarch was concealed. That tree was destroyed soon after the Restoration by the zeal of the royalists, who carried it off piecemeal for relics, as in later times visitors to the field of Waterloo did Wellington's tree. The present oak sprang from an acorn of the old tree planted on the exact spot where the actual Royal Oak stood. It was raised soon after the demolition of the previous tree, and may be already two centuries old. Indeed, it already exhibits signs of decay. It was enclosed within a square brick wall by Sir Basil Fitzherbert, which was replaced by a circular iron railing in the year 1814, which still remains for the protection of the tree. It is not a tree of noble dimensions, and is not likely to grow any larger; for, as already observed, it appears now to be hastening to decay. Some of its branches are dead, and some have dropped off. Three patches of lead indicate the care taken for the preservation of the venerable tree; but at the same time tell a sad tale of its decay. I made a copy, more than fifty years ago, of a drawing taken on the spot at the time, and when the brick wall surrounded the tree; but half a century has done its work since upon us both. F. C. H. "HOME AND FOREIGN REVIEW" (3rd S. iii. 80.) The following occurs in a short notice of the Home and Foreign Review, No. III.:-"This Review is, we believe, the recognised organ of the Roman Catholic Church in this country." This is an unfortunate mistake; and appearing in a paper of so high a character and so extensive a circulation as those of " N. & Q.," is calculated to create a very wrong impression. May I beg, therefore, to inform you and your many readers, that this Review has been censured by the Cardinal Archbishop and all the Catholic Bishops in England, who have all issued warnings to their flocks against its perusal. So far from its being the organ of the Catholic Church, it is denounced by the Cardinal as "grazing ever the very edges of the most perilous abysses of error," and for "its habitual preferences of uncatholic to catholic instincts, tendencies, and motives." Bishop Ullathorne has condemned it in much stronger terms, and charged his clergy to guard the faithful, "lest by reading those productions, they imbibe their uncatholic sentiments and their errors." F. C. HUSENBETH, D.D. SIR ADRIAN FORTESCUE (3rd S. iii. 69.)-MR. ESTCOURT, in expressing a doubt of Sir Adrian Fortescue having belonged to the order of St. John of Jerusalem, was both right and wrong. He did belong to that order, inasmuch as he was a Knight of Devotion, that is, was allowed to wear the cross of the Order out of devotion, and share all the spiritual privileges accorded to every member of it. But he was not a Knight of Justice in gremio religionis (he being a married man), and the Knights of Justice are alone considered as strictly belonging to the Order according to the Rule. It has always been, and still is, a custom in the Religion of St. John, to confer the Cross of Devotion, as a mark of favour, on in dividuals who have deserved well of the Order. There are in the records at Malta two Bulls, of the Grand Master d'Amboise, I think, granting the privilege of wearing the Cross of Devotion to Thomas Stanley, third Earl of Derby; to his Countess (a Hastings?), and to his eldest son; and also to Charles Somerset, first Earl of Worcester, and to his Countess also (a Dudley, if I remember). There are others to less distinguished persons. There are, in Malta, two pictures of Sir Adrian Fortescue; one in the church of St. John, where he is (improperly) represented in the sopravest of the Order, and holding the palm of martyrdom. The other is in the Capitular Convent of St. Paolo at Rabato, in which he is painted, with the axe, the instrument of his martyrdom, struck deep into the back of his neck. If it would be any satisfaction to KAPPA, I could show him a copy of the first of these portraits, on my return to town, probably in the beginning of April. JOHN JAMES WATTS. Stafford Club, 2, Savile Row. DEACON BRODIe and the Drop (3rd S. iii. 47.)— Some interesting particulars as to Deacon Brodie will be found in The Leisure Hour, No. 204, p. 745 et seq. (November 22, 1855.) Your correspondent is mistaken on two points. Brodie suffered for robbing the Excise Office, not the Bank; and though there is a popular tradition that he invented the drop, and was the first victim on it, I have heard it stated by old people who lived at the time that neither of these was the fact. Edinburgh. G. PETRUS LUDOVICUS MILL (3rd S. iii. 48.)—The Rev. P. L. Mill was a French priest, one of the many who took refuge in England at the French Revolution. His name was Moulin, but he Anglicised it to Mill. He succeeded to the charge of the small Catholic congregation of Brigg, in Lincolnshire, on the death of the previous missioner, who was also a French exiled priest, the Rev. John Toussaint Froment, formerly of Dieppe, in the diocese of Rouen; who died on the 24th of May, 1810, after serving the Mission of Brigg sixteen years. Mr. Mill, as recorded on his gravestone at Brigg, died May 9, 1822, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. F. C. H. KELD (3rd S. iii. 26.)-In one part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, keld and well are very different. On the northern border of the vale of Pickering, several of the becks (brooks) suddenly sink into the earth, and after a shorter or longer distance-half a mile to a mile, or more-rise to the surface. One rises at Pickering, and is called Keldhead; another rises near the hamlet of Keldholm, seven miles west of Pickering; and a third, two miles further in the same direction, is known |