304 Letter of Hartlib on Death of Des Cartes. tain to an old age, much longer and more Samuel Hartlib, the writer of the present epistle, was the son of a Polish merchant. He settled in England about 1640; and at the period when the country was impoverished by the civil war, and the country gentlemen were glad to forget their political misfortunes, and repair their shattered estates by agricultural employment, gained considerable celebrity by his scientific treatises on Husbandry.' Cromwell, in consequence, granted him a pension of 300l. a year. A memoir of him will be found in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary. Of his correspondent Dr. Henry More, there is also an article in that valuable repository of biography, and his life was published in 8vo, 1710, by the Rev. Richard Ward, M.A. On first repairing to Cambridge, More, as he himself tells us, "plunged himself immediately over head and ears in philosophy," and in the course of his studies, he became so captivated with the Platonic writers and mystic divines, as to acquire the character of an enthusiast. He passed the greater part of his life in close retirement at Cambridge, pursuing his philosophical studies; and, we are told, "had a great esteem for Des Cartes, with whom he held a correspondence upon several points of his philosophy.' Notwithstanding his speculative opinions, he was accounted a man of the most ardent piety, and wrote some theological works, particularly "The Mystery of Godliness," which were exceedingly popular. He died Sept. 1, 1687, aged 72. London, the 16 of March, 1649. SIR, I should have taken it for a great favor, if you had bestowed upon mee a second visit, when you were last at London. For j suppose it would not have been impossible, but that wee should have agreed with Mr. Word concerning time and place, when and where to have entertained you with the rare Perspective Glasse w'ch hee brought from beyond the Seas. But, to make amends, j shall never cease till j have obtained one of Hevelius' Selenographia for the Publique Library at Camb. as j have done already a most stately one for Oxf. Library, w'ch the Author sent lately to my hands, and w'ch j could have [April, shew'n you, if j had had the happines my Hee Yesterday I received a most sad and inixpected answer from friends at Amsterdam, bidding mee not to urge any more accounts from Mons. d. Carts, in as much as hee was departed this world at Stockholme the 1 of Febr. styl. nov. in the French Hee reAmbassador's house there. fused to take any physick but when it was too late; hee was let blood thrice a day, but all in vaine. The Q. doth hugely lament his death, and hath caused his whole effigies curiously to bee made in wax. dyed of the same disease that Dr. Kinner, w'ch was a pleurisy. One that knew him pretty well, told mee lately some strange th [things] of him. For hee said that hee had acquainted some of his best friends with the whole designe of his life and studies, w'ch should mainly tend to give us at last a compleate Philosophy, with the prolongation of natural life. For, privatly to his confiding friends he would not stick to assert that it was possible in nature so to order one's health as that wee might live without sicknesses to a thous. y. and that hims. did not despaire to arrive at such a period. And to accomplish the better his learned Designe, after he came from the Warres, he made choice of the Low c. as the freest Co'monw. where hee might live without controule and as hee pleased, having put the sum'e of 10 thous. gilders or more upon life-rent, as they call it, wherby hee had a full subsistence as long as hee should live. I shal now enquire not so much after the truth of this story, as what hee hath left of those excellent gifts yet vnpublished which are likelier to last a thous. y. and preserve the effigies of his soule far better then any wax can doe that of his body. Thus beseeching God so to teach us to number our days that wee may apply our hearts unto wisdome, I subscribe myselfe alw. Sir, your very respective and faithful friend to SAM. HARTLIB. serve you, For his worthy and much honoured Friend Mr. Henry More, Fellow of Christ's Coll, in Cambridge. 1831.] Rowdell and Shermanbury, Sussex. OLD MANSIONS IN SUSSEX. THE accompanying views are specimens of the vignettes with which, in addition to an unusual number of plates, the recently published volume of the History of Western Sussex, by the Rev. Edmund Cartwright, F.S.A. is very richly embellished.* They represent two old mansions in Sussex, one of which has been entirely pulled down, and the other materially altered. Washington is a name well known to the visitants of Worthing, as one of the last places on the road to that flourishing watering-place, on the confines of the downs. RowDELL, an estate consisting of 277 acres, is situated about a quarter of a mile on the west of the church. It was the residence of Thomas Byne, who died in 1513, directing his body to be buried before the image of St. Nicholas in the church of Washington, and bequeathing his estate of Rowdell to his son William. William married Alice, daughter of Richard Culpeper of Wakehurst, by whom he had John, whose epitaph in Washington Church is as follows: "Hic jacet corpus Johannis Byne, armig. qui duxit Elizabetham Bowyer, filiam Joh'is Bowyer de Camerwell [Camberwell near London], armig. et suscepit ex ea filios quinque filiasque duas, et obiit vicesimo-primo die Julii 1600, ao aetatis suæ 63." Sir John Byne was one of the numerous body of Knights dubbed by King James the First, on the day before his Coronation, at Whitehall, July 23, 1603. He was probably the builder of the house represented in the view; and to him and his family belongs the following entry in the parish register: "1631. Mem. the 14th of February. Lycence was granted from the Ordinary, under the Lord Bishop's seale, unto Sir John Byne, Knight, and Lady Awdrey his wife, and unto Mr. Edmund and Mr. John Byne their sonnes, and unto Mrs. Elizabeth Byne, wife of the said Edmund, to eat flesh in time of Lent, at the which time straightly by the King's proclamation according unto an ancient statute all persons were prohibited from eating of flesh." The last of the family of Byne at Rowdell was Edmund, who married Elizabeth, sister to Sir Henry Goring, * See the Review department of our last and present numbers. GENT. MAG. April, 1831. 305 of Washington, Bart. The estate afterwards passed through several hands to Charles Goring, Esq. who died in 1821; he pulled down the old mansion, and built the present house, which is of a much less picturesque appearance. SHERMANBURY is a parish contiguous to West Grinstead on the east. From the time of the Conquest to the year 1349, the manor belonged to the family of de Bucy. In 1349, Hugh de Bucy died, leaving two daughters, Sibil, the wife of Sir John de Islesbon, and Joan, the wife of Sir William de Fyfhide. Although a fine had been levied, in 1336, for settling the manor of Shermanbury on the former parties, on a division of the property, John and Sibil assigned it to Sir William de Fyfhide and Joan his wife; and also, by another deed, renounced in favour of William and Joan their claim to the right of the coat of arms, crest, and helmet belonging to the late Hugh de Bucy. Sir William de Fyfhide dying in 1362, the manor descended to his son of the same names; on whose death, in 1387, this manor and advowson were found to be held of the Earl of Nottingham, as of his Castle of Bramber, by the service of one-fourth of a Knight's fee, and that Joan, the wife of John Sonde, was his cousin and next of kin. In 1542, this manor was sold by William Lord Sandys, to William Comber, Esq. the grandfather of Thomas Comber, Dean of Carlisle, and great-grandfather of John Comber, Dean of Durham. Elizabeth, great-granddaughter of William, was the heiress of the family, and wife of Thomas Gratwick, Esq.; his great-granddaughter Ann was the wife of Thomas Lintot, Esq. who left an only daughter Cassandra, married to Henry Farncombe, Esq.; his only daughter and heiress, Cassandra, was the wife of John Challen, Esq. whose son, the Rev. John Gratwick Challen, D.D. is the present possessor. The old mansion, the accompanying representation of which is from a drawing in the Burrell collection,† + In further illustration of the county of Sussex, Mr. J. C. Smith, the engraver of wright's volume, has issued proposals for the most important plates in Mr. Cartpublishing a series of plates from the valuable collection of views presented to the British Museum by Sir William Burrell. 306 Bougier-Bouche au Court. was partly pulled down about fifty years ago, and the present house, erected on its site, was built by the late John Challen, Esq. It is enclosed in a small deer park, which gives it the present name of Shermanbury Park. Mr. URBAN, IN your last Supplement, p. 608, inquiry is made regarding the meaning and derivation of Bougier, the name formerly given to twelve officers or privileged practitioners in the Court of Chancery. It was found by your Discourse Correspondent P. R. in a on the office of Master of the Rolls," ascribed to the great Lord Hardwicke; and I conceive that some light will be thrown on the term by the following extract from an old manuscript, quoted in a late Treatise by Mr. Bennet on the office of Master in Chancery: They (the Masters) had diett at the King's charge, as may appear by the accompts of the Hanaper from tyme to tyme remayning in the Pipe Office, and they had Baidge in Court, as may appear by Otholon's Legative Constitution." A query is added "whether 'Baidge' means Badges of Honour?" but it may be safely replied, that the word (if not merely misread) has been miswritten for Budge or Bouge. It is therefore probable that the Bougiers derived their name from Bouge. This word (sometimes under its correct orthography, Bouche,) appears in the several Law Dictionaries. Its derivation is from the French bouche; whence also has come our modern butcher. The old English name for that trade was flesher, which is still not unknown as a surname. Cotgrave gives, "Avoir bouche à court, to eat and drink scot-free, to have budge-a-court, to be in ordinary at court:" and Puttenham, in his "Art of English Poesie," speaks of a good allowance of dyet, a bouche in court as we use to call it." The phrase was employed not only at the King's palace, but at the residences of all those powerful lords who, in the days of feudalism, exercised an authority, and lived with a state, little inferior to that of the Sovereign. Of this we have an instance so early as 1318, when the Earl of Lancaster "retained Sir John de Ewre, Knight, to serve him with ten men-at-arms in time of war, whereof three to be [April, Knights, allowing them bouch of court, with livery of hay, oats, horse-shoes and nails, as other Bannerets usually had. And in time of peace attending him to Parliament, or other assemblies, with all his knights in livery, to have bouch of court, as also hay, oats, horse-shoes and nails, for eight and twenty horse, and wages for as many grooms, with livery of wine, and candles for his chamber. And when he should come himself, with one Knight, then to have bouch of court, with hay and oats for seven horses, wages for so many grooms, and livery of wine, and candles for his chamber.* In Cowel's Law Dictionary, under Bouche, we find a similar document of the 6 Richard II. (1383), printed at length in the original French. It is an indenture by which Sir John Russel of Strensham, covenanted to live during life with Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick; to receive in time of peace an annual fee of 201. from the Earl's manor of Chedworth in Gloucestershire, and whenever he was summoned to attend the Earl, bouche "chamberlein" au cour, for himself, a or valet, and a "garson" or groom, and hay, provender, and farriery (ferrure) for three horses; and in war 401. bouche au cour or livery for himself, chamberlain, and three grooms, or wages in proportion, and hay, provender, and farriery, for five horses, in the same manner as others of his rank with the said Earl. And in case he were taken prisoner, that it should be with him as with the other bachelors who were of the Earl's retinue for term of life. In the book of Household regulations of Edward the Fourth, called Liber Niger Domus Regis,† the term continually occurs in its English form; the number of retainers which peers of each rank, and the several Officers of Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, p. 378. -In the Glossary the Bishop gives, in addition to the derivation "from the French bouche a mouth," various other far-fetched derivations for budge; but, as we find the word bouche in these early documents, and the perversion is so obvious, any further etymological inquiries are surely gratuitous and needless. Archdeacon Nares has not thought it necessary to notice them in his very judicious Glossary. Included in the Royal Household Ordinances, published by the Society of Antiquaries, 4to, 1790. |