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defender, expresses the apprehension of an immediate assault by the roundheads; the enemy's horse being "drawn up in the parke, and many of their foote with roasemary in theire hattes."

One of the marks for the archers in Finsbury Fields, was named the Rosemary Branch; and in an old map the position is represented as a tree, inscribed Ros' Bra'ch, but in 1737, here was a hostelry, called the Rosemary Branch, or Nevil's House. It was long celebrated as a place of public entertainment, but at length having become part of Walker's lead-works, a new Rosemary Branch was in 1783, erected just beyond the former, at the junction of the parishes of Shoreditch and Islington. W. HYLTON DYER LONGSTAFFE, F.S.A.

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VERSES IN LANDULPH CHURCH BELFRY, CORNWALL.

Let awful silence first proclaimed be,
And Praise unto the Holy Trinity;
Then Honour give unto our noble King,
So with a blessing let us raise this ring.
Hark how the chirping treble sings most clear,
And covering Tom comes rowling in the rear;
And now the bells are up, come let us see,
What laws are best to keep sobriety.
Who swears, or curses, or in choleric mood,
Quarrels, or strikes, although he draw no blood;
Who wears his hat, or spur, or o'erturns a bell,
Or, by unskilful handling, mars a peal;
Let him pay sixpence for each single crime,
"Twill make him cautious 'gainst another time;
But if the sexton's fault an hind'rance be,
We call from him a double penalty.
If any should our Parson disrespect,
Or Warden's orders any time neglect,
Let him be always held in full disgrace,
And ever more be banished this place;
So when the bells are ceased, then let us sing,
God bless the Church-God save the King.

PATTERN VICTORIA FLORINS.

THOUGH the want of a coin of a value between the shilling and half-crown had long been felt, it is only within the last few years that it was determined to supply it. It was considered also a favourable opportunity for an attempt at the introduction of a decimal system of coinage. In the present case considerable trouble was taken and many trials even made before one suitable to the taste of the exalted individuals whose pleasure is

taken on the subject was produced. The success of the experiment has not, unfortunately, answered the expectations of the public, while the mistakes arising from the slight difference in size between it and the halfcrown leads to continual dissatisfaction. Few persons are aware of the varied patterns which were made in the hope of gratifying the desire of making a handsome coin, but the collection of choice patterns and rare coins, of Mr. Chaffers, 20, Old Bond Street, has enabled the writer to enumerate the following varieties

Obv. the Queen's head, crowned, to the left, VICTORIA REGINA, 1848. Reverse, an oak wreath, the prong of a trident, from the early coins of Greece, placed within. ONE DECADE. Above the wreath, 100 MILLES. Below the wreath, ONE-TENTH OF A POUND, as shewn in the woodcut.

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Obv. the same. Reverse, the same, but in place of One Decade, are the words ONE CENTUM. Obv. the same. Reverse, within the wreath, ONE FLORIN, and below it, ONE-TENTH OF A POUND.

Obv. the Queen's head, to the left, a riband binds the hair, VICTORIA REGINA; 1848 below the head. Rev. the field, within a quatrefoil, occupied by a shapeless V. R. conjoined, the Shamrock, Rose, and Thistle, in the three upper quarters; the Prince's plume in the lower compartment. The legend, ONE CENTUM. ONE-TENTH OF A POUND, as shewn in the woodcut.

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ONE FLORIN.

These constitute no less than nine varieties of pattern pieces; the first issue of the florin was a junction of the dies, the obverse first shown of the Queen's head crowned, the date altered to 1849, with the reverse of the ninth pattern. The omission of the initials D. G. or DEI GRATIA, on the obverse, combined with the dumpy character of the piece, occasioned much dissatisfaction. Another variety, struck on a wider flan, has the obverse legend in old English characters, Victoria: D:g: brit: reg: f: D: mdcccliii. Reverse, the arms as before, but a quadrupled trefoil ornament displaces the double rose in the centre. The legend, One Florin, and below, one-tenth of a pound. The high rim in which they are struck deprives them of their metallic sound as silver, and occasions many to be doubted as counterfeits.

STRUTT'S QUEEN-HOO HALL. SOME years since, I purchased of the author's son a printed copy of "Queen-Hoo Hall," by the late Joseph Strutt, containing manuscript memoranda by him, which, among other matters stated, the original manuscript of that romance, prior to its being printed, was submitted to Mr., subsequently Sir Walter Scott, who retained it a long time. In that writer's" Waverley" Mr. Strutt junior, accuses Sir Walter of taking facts and hints from his parent's work. He also states the story of the illuminator in Queen-Hoo Hall, is a memoir of his father, the author of so many popular works in elucidation of English antiquities.

These four volumes, printed at Edinburgh, in 1808, I presented to my friend and patron, Mr. John Broadley, whose very fine and choice library was, after his decease, sold by auction. Can any reader of Current Notes say, in whose possession is now this copy of Strutt's QueenHoo Hall? I have a beautiful miniature portrait of Joseph Strutt, by J. Jackson, R.A. Jan. 15. J. BRITTON,

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principal political journals of Paris is thus defined: FRENCH NEWSPAPERS.-The daily circulation of the tionnel, 26,000; Pays, 16,000; Patrie, 15,000; JourThe Presse, 41,000 copies; Siècle, 36,000; Constitunal des Débats, 9000; Univers, 6000; Assemblée Nationale, 5000; Union, 4000; and the Gazette de France, 3000.

LOVE AND HONOUR.-Mrs. Jameson, in her "Ethical Fragments," gives the following as a wise saying of Landor's:

Love is a secondary passion in those who love most, a primary in those who love least; he who is inspired by it in the strongest degree is inspired by honour in a greater.

ever, is certainly not his, it belongs to a poet of Charles The expression as quoted is Landor's; the idea howthe First's time, I think, as the two following lines will I should not love thee half so well,

prove:

Loved I not honour more.

CONCORDANCE.-The first to any portion of the English Bible was entitled "A Concordance of the New Testament, most necessary to be had in the handes of all I do not remember where these lines are, and should be soche as desire the communication of any place con- obliged if any of your readers will assist my memory? tayned in ye New Testament. Imprinted by me T. Apropos of ideas borrowed-borrowed is too strong a Gibson, 1535, sm. 8vo." From the Epistle to the reader, word when applied to minds like Landor's and Cowper's it appears that Gibson, the printer, was asisted in the-do you not think that our poet Cowper got his cue for compilation by John Daye. It is of extreme rarity; a copy, defective of the title and four leaves, sold on the 11th inst., among Mr. Pickering's books, for 91. 17s. 6d.

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his beautiful lines, beginning

Yon cottager who weaves at her own door;
from Corneille's paraphrase of the "Imitation of Jesus
Christ," chap. ii.?

Un paysan stupide et sans expérience,
Qui ne sait que t'aimer et n'a que de la foi,
Vaut mieux qu' un philosophe enflé de sa science,
Qui pénêtre les cieux, sans refléchir sur soi.
J. W.

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

No. L.]

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

INEDITED LETTERS OF LAURENCE STERNE.

THE following letters addressed to John Hall Stevenson, Sterne's " Eugenius," are more characteristic of that writer than any of those already printed with his works, and are a sufficient evidence that all the letters which passed under the editorial emendations of his daughter Madame Lydia de Medalie, have been despoiled of their raciness from an erroneous estimate of what was due to his memory.

Antecedent to these two letters, the following extracts present much in elucidation of Sterne's position and sentiments, as expressed in them. There was a certain waywardness in the conduct of Mrs. Sterne, which greatly accounts for the alleged indifference towards her, so generally laid to the charge of her husband; in fact, there is no question, that the marriage tie between them was anything but a happy junction of persons. M. Tollot, an acquaintance of all the parties, in a letter to John Hall Stevenson, dated Bordeaux, le 8 Janvier, 1764, describing the onward course of his journey in France, writes

Nous arrivames le lendemain à Montpellier où nous trouvames notre ami M. Sterne, sa femme, sa fille, et quelques autres Angloises: j'eu, je vous l'avoue, beaucoup de plaisir en revoiant le bon et agréable Tristram, qui me parut être toujours à peu prez dans le même état où je l'avois laissé à Paris. Il avoit été assez longtemps à Toulouse, où il se seroit amusé sans sa femme qui le poursuivoit partout, et qui vouloit être de tout: ces dispositions dans cette bonne dame lui ont fait passer d'assez mauvais momens: il supporte tous ces désagrémens avec une patience d'ange. Son intention étoit retourner en Angleterre avec sa famille, mais il paroit que ces deux dames veulent passer encore un an en France pour finir Miss Sterne: pour lui, il est déterminé à quitter Montpellier dans le mois de Février et de venir à Paris.

• Sterne's apparent equanimity of temper in society was unhappily too frequently assumed under very inauspicious circumstances. A home not very agreeable, ill health, and disappointments in his hopes, had their effect on a temperament sufficiently susceptible of their baneful influence. M. Tollot, in a previous letter to John Hall Stevenson, dated Paris, April 4, 1762; after describing the violence of the wind and the rain, which impelled him to take divers glasses of Bordeaux to make himself gay, adds

Cela me fait envier quelques fois les heureuses dispositions de notre ami Mr. Sterne; tous les objets sont couleur de rose pour cet heureux mortel, et ce qui se présente aux yeux des autres sous un aspecte triste et lugubre, prende aux siens une face gaye et riante: il ne poursuit que le plaisir, et il ne fait pas comme d'autres, qui quand ils l'ont atteint ne sçavent pas le plus souvent enjouier pour lui il boit le bole jusques à la dernierre goutte, et encore n'y a t'il pas moien de le désaltérer.

VOL. V.

[FEBRUARY, 1855.

Je l'ai beaucoup exhorté à venir nous y joindre: j'aurai soin d'avoir une bonne chambre pour lui dans le même hotel où nous serons; nous y aurions une bonne table où il aura toujours son couvert; et s'il veut, nous le ramenerons en Angleterre avec nous: comme ce parti m'a paru lui convenir, je me flatte de le voir à Paris à la fin du mois prochain. Je voudrois bien que vous voulussiez être de la partie; ce seroit une grande augmentation de plaisir pour nous et pour lui, et nous pourrions nous y amuser pendant deux ou trois mois.

Montpellier, Jan. 20, 1764, Sterne alludes to this deIn a letter to Foley, his banker at Paris, dated from termination on the part of Mrs. Sterne. "My wife returns to Toulouse, and purposes to spend the summer the church, in Yorkshire. We all live the longer, at at Baguieres. I, on the contrary, go and visit my wife, least the happier, for having things our own way; this is my conjugal maxim. I own 'tis not the best of maxims, but I maintain 'tis not the worst." Later, in a letter to his daughter, from Paris, May 15, he parentally expresses himself, "by this time I suppose, your mother and yourself are fixed at Montauban."

As usual, Sterne was at Paris the soul of gaiety, and practically in himself adopted the motto-vive la bagatelle. The time was however approaching for his appearance at Coxwould, and the first of these letters, not included in his works, was then sent to England.

Paris, May 19, 1764.

My dear Cosin,-We have been talking and projecting about setting out from this city of seductions every day this month, so that allowing me three weeks to ruminate upon yr letter, and this month passed in projections, and some other things of the same termination, I account for this sin of omission to you, without pretending to excuse itGod be merciful to me a sinner,” —or sometimes, dear Sir, or dear Madame, be merciful, etc, just as the case happens, is all I have generally to say for what I do, and what I do not: all which being premised, I have been weeks smitten with the tenderest passion that ever tender wight underwent. Iwish, dear cosin, thou couldest conceive, perhaps thou canst without my wishing it, how deliciously I canter'd away with it the first month, two up, two down, always upon my haunches along the streets from my hotel to hers, at first, once then twice, then three times a day, till at length, I was within an ace of setting up my hobby horse in her stable for good an all. I might as well, considering how the enemies of the Lord have blasphemed thereupon. The last three weeks we were every hour upon the doleful ditty of parting-and thou mayest conceive, dear cosin, how it alter'd my gait and air-for I went and came like any louden'd carl, and did nothing but mix tears, and Jouer les sentiments with her, from sunrising even to the setting of the same; and now she is gone to the South of France,

C

and to finish the comedie, I fell ill, and broke a vessel in my lungs, and half bled to death.a Voilà mon Histoire ! We are now setting out without let or hindrance, and shall be in London ye 29th, Dijs, Deabusque volentibus. Tollot sends a thousand kind greetings along with those of our family, to you. He has had a very bad spring of it, from a scoundril relaxation of his nervous system wch had God sent us warmer weather, he would have recovered more speedily; his journey wth its change of air, will I hope sett him up; why may we not all meet for a fortnight at Scarborough this summer? I wish you would say you would, and I would settle the party, before I leave London. Write a line to us at Thornhils', where I shall be whilst in town. We want sadly to see yr preachment-the report from me made yr heroc an inch higher. I see him every day, and without much, or indeed any precaution, as well by Ins as Outs. You will scarce believe I dined with him and Lord Tavistoc, t'other day, and with Lord Beauchamp, our ambassador's son, and him, etc., three days ago. He is eternally joyous and jockundissm.; and I think to a greater degree than in those days when he had more occasion. I pity him from my soul: he talks of decamping from home to sojourn in Italy, as soon as the take of his hotel is expired,wch was for a year; I think Italy is not the place for him; but he has reasons wch I see not. On Thursday morning, we set out from foutre-land, tho' we ought not to abuse it-for we have lived, shag rag and bobtail, all of us, a most jolly nonsensical life of it; and so dear cosin Antony,d adieu, in full hopes on my side, that I shall spend many still more joyous deliriums with you, over many a pint of Burgundy-so be it,

Superscribed.

Angleterre.

Yr affectte Cosin, L. STERNE. To John Hall Stevenson, Esqre., at Skelton Castle, near Guisbro',

Yorkshire.

He was probably in London at the close of May; the newspapers of June 5 announced his being then in town. On June 23, he arrived at York. Two years later, the ensuing letter was addressed by him to John Hall Stevenson, at Skelton Castle, near Guisborough.

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a The old story de novo. Writing to the same friend from Toulouse, on August 12, 1762, Sterne apprised him, "about a week or ten days before my wife arrived in Paris, I had the same accident I had at Cambridge, of breaking a vessel in my lungs."

b Sterne failed in this expressed desire; he went alone to Scarborough, in September following.

c Lawson Trotter, Mr. Stevenson's uncle, by the mother's side, the former possessor of Skelton Castle, but who as a friend of the Pretender, and an avowed Jacobite, fled from England in 1745, when the castle and estates devolved to his youngest sister Catherine, then married to Joseph Hall. Lawson Trotter was then living in exile.

d A distinctive title assumed to himself, by John Hall Stevenson, in his Crazy Tales.

and own I had not wrote now, but that I profited by the transit of a Craselite,e by my door, of whom I have learned all welcome accts of thee, that thou farest well, and art good liking; for my own part, I have had my menses thrice this month, which is twice too often, and am not altogether according to my feelings, by being so much, which I cannot avoid, at Lord Falconbridge]'s, who oppress me to death with civility.f So Tristram goes on busily what I can find appetite to write, is so so. You never read such a chapter of evils from me-I am tormented to death and the devil by my Stillington inclosure; and am every hour threatened with a journey to Avignon, where Mrs. Sterne is very bad; and by a series of letters I've from Lydia, I suppose is going the way of us all.

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AMBRY.-I observe in your number for January a communication from a correspondent signing himself" A. J.” which commences, "The Ambry, scot., almeric, or almoric, a recess in churches for depositing the alms for the poor." Allow me to correct this false etymology; the " Ambry," means neither more nor less than a cupboard; "almorium," in the latinity of the middle ages, as the quotation which your correspondent gives from Ducange, indicates. The same word exists in modern French in the slightly altered shape of armoire.

"Alms" is derived from the Greek "eleemosyna," through the French term aumône. The Ambry never was used in our medieval churches "to deposit the alms for the poor." It was used for depositing the vessels required for the Holy Communion. Hence its position in the chancel or side chapel, or else in the sacristy.

F. S. A.

e A member of the merry fraternity who met and partook of the festivities in Skelton Castle. In the prologue to the Crazy Tales, it is thus described :—

There is a castle in the north,
Seated upon a swampy clay,
At present but of little worth;

In former times it had its day:
This ancient castle is called Crazy.

f Sterne, in 1760, was presented by Lord Falconbridge to the Curacy of Coxwould.

g The alum works then carried on near Skelton.

h The Rev. Robert Lascelles.

i Addressed by Sterne, in the previously published letters as "My witty Widow."

LORD GRAY'S ASSERTED SACRILEGE REFUTED. In the Irish Churchman's Almanac, for 1855, is an

interesting Historical Notice of the Cathedral of Down, attributed to the Venerable Archdeacon Mant, in which the following passage occurs:

Ware records the death in 1526, of Tiberius, Bishop of Down and Connor who "very much beautified the cathedral;" but no further record remains to show in what

particulars this beautifying consisted; and the work of Bishop Tiberius, as well as most of his predecessors, was destroyed in 1538, by Leonard Lord Gray, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who, in an incursion into Ulster, burn'd the Cathedral of Down, and converted it into a stable; for which and other acts of sacrilege he was deservedly impeached and beheaded three years after.

A grave error has long prevailed on this subject-an error into which not only the venerable author, but every writer who has preceded him on the same subject has likewise fallen. It appears that if Lord Leonard Gray had any share in the demolition of the Benedictine Abbey of Down (now Down Cathedral), which, to say the least, is very doubtful, it is quite certain that the act, if committed, did not form one of the charges upon which he was condemned, and for which he suffered. Through the whole of the ninety articles of accusation against him, not a single allusion is made to any act of sacrilege supposed to have been committed by Gray, either at Down or elsewhere; so that for these oft repeated idle tales, no other authority is to be found than the dull fabler Stanihurst. Moore, in this respect, vindicates the character of Lord Gray, and not only insinuates, but asserts that he never became a convert to the reformed religion. Speaking of the Lord Deputy's having entered Lecale, the district in which Down is situated; in the course of a "hosting," when he took from Macgennis the "bold Castle of Dundrum, one of the strongest holds in the kingdom," Moore says: "He (Lord Leonard Gray) is accused of having in the course of this expedition burn'd the Cathedral Church of Down, defaced the monuments of the Saints Patrick, Bridget, and Columb-kill, and committed many other such acts of sacrilege; but for this generally received story there appear to be no more real grounds than for the similar charge brought against him, respecting the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, at Galway. Lord Leonard Gray remained to the last attached to the ancient faith; and at this time, when historians represent him as defacing and destroying the monuments of Catholic worship, he was, on the contrary, provoking the taunts of some of his reformed fellow-statesmen, by kneeling devoutly before the Idol of Trim-as an ancient image of the Virgin, in the church of that town, was thus mockingly styled and hearing three or four masses in succession." Hist. of Irel. vol. III. p. 283, referring to State Paper, T. Alen to Cromwell, numb. 257. Thus, it is not at all probable that he who had "come in the chapell, where the Idoll of Trym stode, veray devoutely kneling before Hir, and hard thre or fower masses," would commit the sacrilege so repeatedly imputed to him. Downpatrick, Feb. 14. JAMES A. PILSON.

CUP-BEARER TO THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND.

THE office of Pincerna, or King's Cup-bearer in Scotland, is of remote antiquity and importance, but, although said to be hereditary in some families, so little is known respecting that officer, that the following memoranda are advanced, in the hope of eliciting further information.

hold of the kings of all nations, and is evidently of The office of Cup-bearer was common to the houseEastern origin; it is noticed in the sacred writings, and the inspired Nehemiah (ch. i. v. 11) is there said to have been Cup-bearer to the kings of Jerusalem. But, without entering into the history of the office in other kingdoms, it appears from chartularies and other early records, that in Scotland, not only the monarch, but also the more potent churchmen had their cup-bearers. Chalmers, in his Caledonia, vol. i. p. 512, observes that Ranulph de Sules was pincerna Regis for some time, and died not long before the year 1170; again, at p. 538, he notices that the first of the family of Hay, in Scotland, held the same office, and died about the same year; adding that the first Hay was "succeeded by his son William, who inherited his lands, but not his office, which passed to the family de Sulis, with whom it seems to have become hereditary." These assertions it is the purport of this inquiry to reconcile, for as these particulars have been followed, without due consideration, by other writers, Chalmers' representation of the historical points is at least but vague and uncertain.

The earliest notice known to the writer of the office of pincerna Regis in Scotland, is that of Alfric, who in that capacity was an attesting witness to several of the charters and grants of King Edgar, who reigned from 1097 till 1107; as also to another grant to the monks of Scoon, by Alexander the First, the successor to Edgar.

During the first years of the reign of William the Lion, as observed by Chalmers, the office was held by Ranulph de Sules, who died in or about the year 1170. His successor appears to have been William de Hay, who as pincerna Regis Scocie granted freely to the Prior and Canons of St. Andrew's, for the space of twenty years, a carrucate of land in Pitmully, Fifeshire. This charter, confirmed by his sons Eva and David,* is the only deed known to the writer, in which Hay is distinguished by his office of pincerna; and the name of Philip de Valoniis Camera appearing among other witnesses at that confirmation,† the date is ascertained to be within the years 1180 and 1211, the period of Philip de Valoniis being the King's Chamberlain, and affording incontestable proof that the office of pincerna, or cupbearer, was held not by the first Hay, as erroneously asserted by Chalmers, but by the very son William, whom the same writer states "inherited his father's lands, but not his office."

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