narrated in Robert Browning's well-known poem, "How we brought the good news from Ghent to Aix." N. B.

Adelaide, South Australia.

ST. JEROME AND RUFINUS.-The controversy and strife between St. Jerome and Rufinus have become proverbial, affording a sad proof of the mutability of human friendship :

"What loving heart is secure in its loyalty?" said St. Augustine; "into whose bosom shall we dare to pour out our confidence? What friend may not one day become an enemy, if we have thus to lament the separation of Jerome and Rufinus ?"-Epist. 73.

The general belief is, that the controversy arose about the doctrine of Origen. (See a long note on the subject in Alban Butler's Life of St. Jerome, Sept. 30.) But in an able and very interesting article on St. Jerome, in the Dublin Review (New Series, No. XX., April, 1868), the writer makes the following remarks:

"Whether Rufinus ever cared about Origen is a question; whether he had ever really cared about Jerome is also, to say the least, doubtful. Was Bethlehem eclipsing Olivet? Was the whole quarrel on the part of Rufinus an intrigue, got up for the purpose of ruining the reputation of a rival? There is very little doubt that it was?" -P. 421.

Query: Can any of your correspondents who have read the "Apology" of Rufinus, confirm the decided opinion of the writer in the Dublin Review? St. Jerome must have had strong reasons to have induced him, in his two books" against Rufinus," to use the severe language and invective against him that he did. J. DALTON.

St. John's, Norwich.

SPIRAL STAIRCASE. Some years ago I read an account of a tourist spending a night at a village in a valley where the people communicated with the high land by means of a very high spiral staircase of some thousand steps. When any one wished to ascend a signal was made from the bottom to some one on guard at the top, and vice versa. I think the place was in the South of Europe or in Switzerland. Can any of your readers inform me ? E. A. D.

Torquay.

STANTON-HARCOURT.-In this church, near the principal entrance, is a round-headed arch, and hear it a small door used by females only, as by ancient custom they never pass through the same entrance with the men. It would be interesting to hear of any other parish in which this custom prevails. By a canon of the Roman Church females were not allowed to be in the chancel. In several churches in England the males and females sit apart on opposite sides of the aisle, but Mr. Britton could not recognise the custom of separate entrance in any other case, nor can I now. CHR. COOKE.

London.

THOMAS MAY'S TRAGEDY of "AGRIPPINA."Was there an edition of Agrippina in 1654 ? Lowndes mentions the edition of 1639, 12mo; and also

"Two Tragedies, viz. Cleopatra, Queene of Egypt; and Agrippina, Empress of Rome." London, 1654, 12mo.

Hazlitt mentions the edition of 1654 in the same words as Lowndes; but of the edition of 1639, he copies the error of the Biog. Dram., varying from both Lowndes and the work itself, the title really being

"The Tragedy of Julia Agrippina, Empresse of Rome. By T. M. London: Printed by Ric. Hodgkinsonne for Thomas Walkly, and are to be sold at his shop at the Flying Horse, neare Yorke house. 1639."

On the back of the second leaf (the front being occupied with a list of "The Speakers," and "acted 1628,") occurs the censor's sanction, "Octob. 26, 1638. Imprimatur, Matth. Clay."

Now occurs the subject of my query: Was there really an edition of Agrippina in 1654, or was it a re-issue with a new general title-page? My copy has the three title-pages-the general

Lowndes is Thomas James's, which appeared in 1599. What translations of this curious book are there? I know of none except the anonymous one into English (said to be by J. B. Inglis), which appeared in 1832. I think there must be a German and a French version. A. O. V. P.

[The best edition of the Philobiblon by Richard de Bury, is that edited by Samuel Hand of Albany in America, 8vo, 1861, with the original Latin and the literal English translation of John B. Inglis. There is also a French translation, entitled " Philobiblion, excellent traité sur l'amour des Livres, par Richard de Bury, traduit pour la première fois en Français, précédé d'une Introduction et suivi du texte latin, revu sur les anciennes éditions et les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale par Hippolyte Cocheris. A Paris, chez Aug. Aubry, 1856, 8vo." This translation forms a part of the collection entitled "Le Trésor des Pièces rares ou inédites." It is stated in the new edition of Brunet, that "This edition, of which 500 copies were printed, is executed with care, and enriched by the translator's Introduction and Notes."]

omissions: John Butts, 1819. George Meredith, 1823. Richard Borrodaile, 1826. Edmund Darby, 1827. Richard Davis, 1828. George Paxon, 1829. Samuel Weddell, 1833. John Clarke, 1835. John Potter, 1836. Charles Wrench, 1837. Charles Fourdrinier, 1838. Jame: Newman, 1839. John Deshons, 1840. Samuel Goldney, 1841. Alexander Simson, 1843. Joseph Williams, 1842, 1848. Thomas Walker, 1844. Thomas Dickinson, 1845. Robert Browne, 1846. William James Pistor, 1847. Thomas Mitchell, 1849. Samuel Lawford, 1850. Henry Garrett

Key, 1851. John Gregory, 1852.]

CHALLE.-I shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents who will give me some information about a French artist of the name of Chale [Challe ?], who painted about the same time and in the same style as Fragonard. I cannot find any mention of him in the ordinary works containing the names of artists. W. M.

[Charles-Michel-Ange Challe, professor of the Academy of Painting at Paris, was a successful imitator of the works of Guido and Salvator Rosa. His most esteemed production is at St. Hippolito, and represents the clergy of Rome congratulating that saint on his conversion. He was honoured with letters of nobility and the order of St. Michael. He died at Paris in 1778, and left a manu

"Here lieth interred Dorothy Pentreath, who died in 1778; said to have been the last person who conversed in the ancient Cornish language, the peculiar language of this county from the earliest records, till it expired in the 18th century in this parish of St. Paul. This stone is erected by the Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, in union with the Revd J. Garrett, Vicar of St. Paul, June, 1860.

"Gura Perthi de Taz, Sta. de Mammal de Dythiow Bethenz hyr war au tyr neb au Arleth de Dew Ryes dees. Exod. xx. 12."

J. G. HARDING.

[It has frequently been stated that the following epitaph on Dolly Pentreath was to be found in St. Paul's Churchyard, Mousehole, Cornwall:

"Old Doll Pentreath, one hundred aged and two,
Both born, and in Paul parish buried too;
Not in the church 'mongst people great and high,
But in the churchyard doth old Dolly lie!"

This is Mr. Pettigrew's version of it (Chronicles of the Tombs, p. 219); but, curiously enough, none of our modern antiquaries could ever find the tombstone. (Vide "N. &Q." 1st S. xii. 407, 500; 2nd S. i. 17, 359.) The one communicated by our correspondent is more correctly printed in Murray's Handbook for Devon and Cornwall, edit. 1865, p. 342, with which it has been verified.]

DRAPERS' COMPANY. - Where can I find a list of the Masters of the Company of Drapers? G. W. M. [A list of the Masters and Wardens of the Drapers' Company is given by Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Companies, i. 393, between the years 1800 and 1834. This list, however, is imperfect, as we find the following

Italy. See more respecting him in the new edition of the Biographie Universelle, vii. 410.]

STOUND.In The Barrister (London, 1792), a reprint of articles from The World (anonymous, but written by a Mr. Const), in a description of Mansfield's speech on the reversal of Wilkes's outlawry, the author mentions "the hushed attention which continued for a stound after the Chief Justice had concluded." What is a stound?.

[The correct reading is — "Who builds a church to God, and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name." Pope, Moral Essays, ep. iii. 1. 285.] "GIDEON."-Who wrote the libretto of the oratorio Gideon, the music of which was composed by Dr. Stainer of Oxford ? I believe the poem was compiled or written by several authors. R. I.

[This libretto is attributed to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Morell. For some account of him and his works see Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, i. 651–656.]

Replies. RICHARD CRASHAW: HIS TRANSLATION, ETC. (4th S. i. 208, 280, 416.)

In my notes on Richard Crashaw and his translations from the Italian (4th S. i. 416) I have forgotten to mention that Mr. Willmott also speaks of the other translation of Marino's Sospetto di Herode, alluded to by J. H. C. (See antè, 208.) This English translation appeared about twenty-five years after the death of Crashaw,* And Mr. Willmott pronounces it inferior to that of the latter, for he says

"The Sospetto di Herode has also been translated in 1675, by an unknown writer, who prefixed the initials T. R. It is often spirited and poetical, but generally inferior to the version of Crashaw.". See Willmott's Lives of the English Sacred Poets, 2nd ed. 1839, p. 346, Additional Notes.

It may be also well here to add another extract from the Lives regarding Marino himself: —

"The author of La Strage degl' Innocenti was Giambattista Marino, upon whose style Crashaw formed his own, and who is, therefore, entitled to a brief notice in this place. His Rime Amorose, Sacre e Varie came out in 1602, and quickly diffused his fame, which subsequent works contributed to increase. His death, in 1625, removed him in the flower of his days. He was buried with the honours of a prince; all the nobles of the land attended his funeral, bearing torches in their hands, and his coffin was covered with crowns of laurel. Men of genius emulated each other in exalting his memory, and Italy bewailed her Homer, the delight of poesy, and the glory of the Muses. Such are the terms in which his biographer, Loredano,† mentions his talents; but a reaction of opinion has now taken place, and he, whose compositions were to be co-existent with the world, has been called by Tiraboschi the chief corruptor of the Italian taste. Marino has experienced a fate by no means uncommon, that of being eulogised and calumniated with equal extravagance and impropriety. His powers have been measured by his lighter Rime, while his sacred poetry has been left almost entirely unexplored. But we had nothing before Fletcher, upon a religious theme, to oppose to the Slaughter of the Innocents. What might not the author of that powerful production have accomplished, if the nerves of his fancy had not been relaxed by dalliance with a more earthly muse, and if he had consecrated the morning of his life to Him from whom all poetry descends! In his closing hours he lamented the

"In the margin of the folio edition of Cowley's works, he is said to have died of a fever at Loretto, but the time is not mentioned. He was certainly dead before 1652, for in that year his Carmen Deo Nostro, Te Decet Hymnus, &c, were published at Paris by his friend, Thomas Car, to whom the poet's manuscripts appear to have been bequeathed: for he says

'Twas his intent That what his riches penn'd, poor Car should print.' See Willmott's Lives of the English Sacred Poets, 2nd ed. 1839, p. 308.

In Vita del Marino, da G. F. Loredano. He says: "Tutti i titolati e tutti i principi l'accompagnarono con doppieri accesi nelle mani la bara era coperta di veluto nero con gli adornamenti cavallereschi e con le corone d'allori."

profanation of his genius, and directed all his amatory verses to be burnt in his presence. But the dragon's teeth were sown, and if they have not sprung up to a deadly harvest, we owe no gratitude to the sower."-See Lives, &c. p. 317.

The elegant and often brilliant Campbell speaks of Marino as "the most quaint and conceited school of Italian poetry," on which Crashaw had formed his own style. (See Essay on English Poetry, with Notices of the British Poets. Lond. ed. 1848, p. 223.) To some few readers the Italian original and the English version will, both of them, be a curiosity that will occupy some of their leisure; to most readers, original and version will remain but title-pages; but let us hope that both authors have

M. de Gerville, Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, is of opinion that the De Veres came from Ver on the River Ver, below Coutance, in Normandy, the manor of Ver being held of the superior manor of Gavray. A De Vere gave land in Felstead and Halstead to the Convent of the Holy Trinity of Caen; and on one occasion the abbess sailed from Caen to London, and proceeded on horseback to Felstead, to visit the property.

The silver mullet of the De Veres had its origin according to the following legend:

"In the year of our Lord, 1098, Corbovant, Admiral of the Soudan of Perce (i. e. the Soldan or Sultan of Persia), was fought with at Antioche, and discumfited by the Christianes. The night cumming on yn the chace of this Bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes beyng four miles from Antioche, God willing the saufte of the Christianes, shewed a white Starre or Molette of fyve pointes, on the Christen Host, which to every mannes sighte did lighte and arrest upon the Standard of Albry the 3rd, there shyning excessively."-Leland, Itin. vol. vi. p. 40.

In Sylvanus Morgan's Sphere of Gentry (1661), it is stated that "Urania, leaving the starry firmament to become a comet in the shield of Aubrey de Vere, and lighting upon his lance point, served to portend destruction to the Saracens." Boutell says the mullet may be regarded as representing the rowel of a spur, and is often pierced as if to exhibit the adjustment of the rowel to its axis.

Mr.

Aubrey de Vere, third of that name, was the first Earl of Oxford. His countess, Lucia, founded and became first prioress of a small Benedictine nunnery at Hedingham before the year 1190. At the dissolution of monasteries this was granted to the De Veres. (Tanner, Notitia Monastica, 131.)

Robert de Vere, the third earl, died 1221. He

married Isabel, daughter of Hugh, and sister and heir of Walter, de Bolebec; his father having given to Richard I. five hundred marks "to make a wife for his son Robert," at that time a younger son.

His grandson, Robert, was the fifth earl, who died 1296; married Alice, daughter and heiress of Gilbert de Samford, his father having given Edward III. a thousand marks for her wardship and marriage.

John, the seventh earl, who died 1360, married Maud, daughter of Bartholomew Lord Baddlesmere, and sister and coheir of Giles his only son. Thomas, eighth earl, died 1371.

Robert, ninth earl, was by Richard II. created Marquess of Dublin in 1387. Richard II. is said to have been present at his funeral, with all his court, at the Priory of Colne, Essex. Two other instances only are known of a monarch attending the funeral of a subject-viz. Edward III., who came to the funeral of Alexander Bogle, Bishop of Chester; and King John, who, with the King of Scotland and Griffin of Wales, attended the funeral of Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. Robert bore on his arms three crowns given by special grant. This may be seen on the porch of Lavenham church, Suffolk.

Aubrey, tenth earl, died possessed of the castle and manor of Hadleigh, with appurtenances, and a water-mill, which had been granted to him by Richard II. for life, with reversion to the crown. Richard, eleventh earl, married Alice, daughter of Sir Richard Serjeaulx, a knight of ancient family in Cornwall. Their second son, Robert, married the daughter of Sir Hugh Courtney, who was heiress to her mother, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Sir Warine Archdeacon, Knight; and as their issue succeeded to the earldom of Oxford, this will account for the arms of Archdeacon being quartered by them. (Trans. Essex Archæo. Soc. i. 84.)

John, the thirteenth earl, was godfather to Henry VIII. in 1491. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Scroop, Knight, and widow of William Lord Beaumont. She desired by her will to be buried in the church at Wyvenhoe (near Colchester), and her fine brass still remains. The earl died in 1513.

John, the fifteenth earl, married Elizabeth, sister and heir of Sir Edward Trussell, Knight Banneret, son and heir of Sir Edward Trussell, Knight. A bedstead in the castle was made for this earl, a shield upon it being thus charged. One fourth is occupied with the arms of De Vere quartering Trussell. The rest is divided into six parts, and the coats are arranged thus in successionColebrook (or Kilvington), Archdeacon, Serjeaulx, Baddlesmere, Samford, and Bulbeck. Another shield is charged with a plain cross, and Mr. Ashurst Majendie, in a paper in the Trans. of the Essex Archæol. Soc. (i. 85), thinks this is the coat

of Sir Robert de Vere, grandson of Sir Robert, the brother of the first earl, who was standardbearer to William Longespè, Earl of Salisbury in the Crusades, and he assumed these arms-Argent, a cross gules. He is commemorated by a crosslegged effigy at Sudborough, Wilts. John, the fifteenth earl, has a fine tomb in St. Nicholas Church, Castle Hedingham. This tomb has the arms of the earls of Oxford impaled with Trussell, and the effigies of the earl and his wife. Supporters, a harpy and blue boar. At the sides are the four sons-John, Aubrey, Geffrey, and Robert; and his four daughters-Elizabeth, Ann, Frances, and Ursula. Their mother was descended from William, brother to Archbishop Chichele, founder of All Souls, Oxford. John became the sixteenth earl.

Edward, the seventeenth earl, was a courtier poet in Elizabeth's time. In 1586 he held the office of Lord High Chamberlain, and as such he sat upon the trial of Mary Queen of Scots; he also had command in the fleet against the Spanish Armada. Died 1604.

Aubrey, the twentieth and last earl (1632-1701), is buried in Westminster Abbey in the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, on the side of the tomb of Sir Francis Vere, without any monument or inscription. This Sir Francis was nephew to John, the sixteenth earl. He was born in 1654, and distinguished himself in the war between the Spaniards and the Dutch after the declaration of independence by the United Provinces. He contributed to the victory over the Spaniards at Nieuport in 1600, and defended Ostend in 1601-2. He held out for eight months with 1700 men against 12,000 of the enemy. Died 1608. His younger brother Sir Horace served with him in these wars, and greatly distinguished himself. He was the first person raised to the peerage by Charles I. Sir Horace, Baron Tilbury, died in 1635.

Mr. Majendie, in the paper before quoted, remarks that in the reign of George III. there was a claimant to the title of Earl of Oxford, in the person of a tradesman who kept a china shop on Tower Hill. The documents were submitted to the Attorney-General, who was favourable to the claim; but the death of his only son made the father unwilling to prosecute his claim to a vain honour. JOHN PIGGOT, JUN., F.S.A., F.G.S.

SCOTCH LAND MEASURES: DE MULCASTRES:

DE NENHAMS.

(4th S. i. 98, 496.)

These ancient and very curious, but uncertain measures, merit a much fuller consideration than they have yet received. A carrucate and a plough, or ploughgate of land, are the same measure. Generally it is understood that thirteen

acres, Scotch, form a bovate (bovata terræ, the same as the oxgate, or oxgang), and that eight such bovates make a plough—that is, 104 acres. It is well ascertained, however, that in all districts a ploughgate was not invariably of the same extent, even anciently; and it is hardly to be doubted that it was less or more according to the quality of the land for raising crops, or to the number of cattle which it would pasture and afford fodder to in winter.

The monks of Dryburgh during the reign of William the Lion, which ended in 1214, had first two oxgates of land given them by a William de Nenham, an English or Norman settler in the barony of Giffyn, Beith parish, Ayrshire. These lay under the castle of Giffyn, and on them was a chapel. Then they received other two oxgates from his son Richard, in the same place. Richard was succeeded in Giffyn by his brother Alexander de Nenham, who made an exchange of these four orgates with the monks, giving them instead, land described as half a ploughgate of his lands of Triern, lying in the same barony, on which another chapel stood, dedicated to St. Bridget; and in the deed or charter granted by the latter De Nenham, which is to be found in the register of Dryburgh, the marches of this last portion are so particularly described that they can still be easily traced. The extent within these bounds is about fifty acres, Scotch: thus showing, first, that half a ploughgate was, in this district at least, of this acreage; and, secondly, supposing the land exchanged equal, that eight bovates were equal to a ploughgate. An Act of the Scotch Parliament (1621, cap. 31), still in observance, makes possession "of a plough of land in heritage" the qualification for hunting and hawking; but, although various decisions under this Act have been given by the Supreme Court, none of them were such in circumstances as to oblige the Court to determine the acreage of a plough. Balfour, one of the oldest writers on Scotch law (Practicks, p. 44), allows only twelve acres to the bovate instead of thirteen, and eight bovates to the plough. Sir John Skene, not however quite unexceptionable for accuracy, says that a forty-shilling land of old extent was equal to a plough, consisting of eight bovates, or of 104 acres; and with him agrees Mr. George Chalmers, the author of Caledonia (i. 807), as to the extent of the ploughgate, who grants, however, that in all districts it was not by any means uniform; and also Nimmo in his History of Stirlingshire (edition by Rev. Mr. Macgregor, Stirling). Reference may also be made to Irvine's Treatise on the Game Laws (Act 1621). On the other hand, some English authorities hold a ploughgate to consist of sixty acres only; and in some County Road Acts for Scotland a rule is fixed by which value, and not extent, regulates the ploughgate. MR. VERE IRVING refers to a Local Act for Lanarkshire of

1807, in which there is this provision, which seems to require explanation: "Provided that it shall not be in the power of the Trustees of any Parish to diminish the extent or number of ploughgates therein;" showing, as it would appear, that there was a determinate number in each parish of the county to which the Act applied.

A Walter de Mulcastre was the predecessor in this barony of Giffyn of the De Nenhams. Both unquestionably were English settlers; and if they resided in Scotland permanently for any length of time, they must have returned to England, as they are not known in Scotland much after the beginning of the thirteenth century. The De Mulcastres were probably a Cumberland family (vide Hutcheson's History, "Moncastre Parish," &c.), and any information regarding them, or the De Nenhams, or the Scottish occupation of either, would be gladly welcomed by many Scotch antiquaries. De Mulcastre received Giffyn, as is probable, from one of the De More villes from Burgh-on-the-Sands, Cumberland, and who were High Constables of Scotland early in the twelfth century, continuing in that office under David I., Malcolm IV., and William the Lion. Their extensive possessions in Scotland were carried to the ancient lords of Galloway by Ela or Helena, the daughter of Sir Richard de Moreville, and sole heiress of her brother William, marrying Roland Lord of Galloway, who by her was father of Alan, the great Lord of Galloway, and husband of the eldest daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon, the younger brother of Malcolm IV. and William the Lion. Sir Richard was the son of Sir Hugh de Moreville, who was the first High Constable of that family; and although Pont says, in his Topography of Cuninghame, that Sir Richard was one of the murderers of à Becket, and, as an atonement, founded and endowed the Monastery of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, in this he is not allowed to be correct, this being the work of his father, Sir Hugh. ESPEDARE.

QUOTATIONS: "THE WATERLOO WALTZ."

(4th S. ii. 81.)

The four lines, the authorship of which is inquired for by H., are the beginning of a spirited poem, which appeared soon after the battle of Waterloo, occasioned by seeing in a list of new music The Waterloo Waltz. They were written by a lady, and generally attributed to Mrs. Hemans. They are so admirable in sentiment and exquisite in composition, that I think their resuscitation in "N. & Q." cannot fail to be acceptable to many of its readers:

"A moment pause, ye British Fair,

While pleasure's phantom ye pursue;
And say, if sprightly dance or air
Suit with the name of Waterloo.