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King's Bench bar, His Majesty's pardon, for the murder in 1694, of Richard Wilson, Esq., better known in history as Beau Wilson].

To Charles King, Esq., for charges and expences in printing "The British Merchant," [printed in three volumes, 8vo.]

395 16s. To Gabriel Bourdon, Merchant, for twenty-six bustoes with marble pedestals, for His Majesty. 6007.

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To several persons for their houses and goods burned at Preston. 4730l. 18s. 6d. To Joseph Downing, printer for "The Soldier's Moni268/. 19s. 11d. To Peter Waller, for Henry [fourth] Earl of Clarendon, in consideration of resuming the Mansion-house gate at Whitehall. 60007. To Thomas Pain, Gent., for transcribing the Journals of the House of Lords and Commons. 16371. 178. To Dr. Edward Halley, to furnish Her Majesty's observatory at Greenwich, with instruments 5007.

To William Elliot, Gent., for funeral charges of the late Earl of Clarendon. 2001.

[Edward Hyde, the third Earl, who died March 31, 1723; he was succeeded by his cousin and heir, Henry Hyde, the fourth Earl, and second Earl of Rochester].

To Robert Saunderson, Esq., for making three additional Volumes to Rymer's Fœdera.

7007.

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To the same, for watering the Ring, 2007. per annum. To David Casley, Deputy Keeper of Cotton Library, 827. per annum. 3871. To Thomas Coke, Esq., Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, 600l. per annum.

25051. 8s. 2d.

To Richard West, Esq., 300l. per annum. 2257. To Joseph Roberts, Keeper of Her Majesty's Water Engine at Windsor, 40l. per annum.

To Charles, Duke of St. Albans, Master of the Hawks. Fee, 10s per diem. Thirty shillings per month, and 8007. per annum. 61761. 48. 9d. [Charles Beauclerk, second Duke of St. Albans, the grandson of King Charles the Second and Nell Gwynne. He had also an annuity of 1000l. per annum; was Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, and Governor of Windsor Castle. He died July 27, 1751].

To Hugh Howard, Keeper of the Records in Whitehall. 8007. To Thomas Chaplin, Esq., Keeper of the Tennis Court, Fee, eight pence per day; and 120l. per annum.

4951. 9s. 4d. To Dr. Richard Bentley, Clerk of the King's Library, Fee, 2001. per annum. 750%.

To Charles Killigrew, Esq., Master of the Revels, Fee, 107. per annum. 321.10s. To L'Estrange Syms, Comptroller of the Revels, Fee, eight pence per diem. 397. 10s. 10d.

To William Lee, Latin Secretary, Fee, 801. per

annum.

To the same, Annuity of 2007.

3201.

6501.

To the Kings, Heralds, and Pursuivants of arms on their several Fees. 16751. To Jane Grace Incledon, Keeper of the Palace at Westminster, Fee, sixpence per diem. 371.8s. To Sir Christopher Wren, Queen's Surveyor of the Works, 2s. 6d. per diem. 117. 6s. 3d.

[Sir Christopher Wren, who after the great fire in 1666, had been constituted Surveyor General for the rebuilding the Cathedral and other public edifices; and in 1669, Surveyor General of the Royal Works, was ungratefully displaced by party influence in 1718. He died in the ninety-first year of his age, Feb. 25, 1722-3 ]

To Christopher Wren, Esq., Clerk of the Queen's Works, Fee, One hundred marks per ann. 167. 13s. 4d. Palace at Westminster, Fce, sixpence per diem. 47. 11s. To John Incledon, Esq., late Keeper of the Queen's

CORBEL IN BRECHIN CATHEDRAL TOWER.

Brechin was created a bishoprick in 1150, by David the First, King of Scotland, who also founded the church, which was built by the side of the celebrated Round Tower of that place, but the time is not exactly known; no record remains of the progress of the work, or that it was finished. At the time of the Reformation, induced by John Knox, the infuriated zealots sternly adopted the advice of their leader, "to pull down the trees, and cause the rooks to fly away," and Brechin shared the fate of many of the old Popish fanes in Scotland: it was nearly destroyed, but the remains shew that in its palmy days the church of Brechin had been an edifice of considerable extent and of much elegance in its construction. The ruins of the chancel still present some beautiful examples of the early English style of Gothic architecture. The west window, approaching in similarity to the flamboyant tracery of the famous window in the church of St. Ouen at Rouen, is yet in good preservation; but the principal door of entrance, immediately below that window, has suffered sadly from the storms of ages, and the reed enrichment, of which at one time it could boast, and was supposed to be an unique feature in Gothic architecture, has almost wholly crumbled away.

The nave, at the time of the Reformation, was appropriated as a parish church, but in a sorry attempt at some misnamed improvements, in 1806, the old aisles and cloisters were wholly demolished.

The square tower, or belfry, is at the north-west corner of the church, and with its octagonal spire, one hundred and twenty-eight feet in height, is a beautifully proportioned and imposing object. The bartizan, or top of the tower, is ascended by a spiral staircase, and the

tower itself may be said to be divided into several compartments. The lowermost, having a groined roof, the arches springing from illuminated corbels terminating in a plain circle, is the meeting place of the presbytery, and session of Brechin; and in the upper part the great bell is suspended. In the latter compartment rises the base of the spire of the tower, and the four corbels, on which the base rests, bear beautiful carvings in high relief. The sculptures are about seven inches in height, and from ten to twelve inches in length. Three of the ornaments are floral, and bear no particular peculiarity, excepting the broad and effective manner in which they are executed; but the fourth, here represented, is more remarkable

It abuts from the north-east corner of the tower, and, as will be seen, represents-a whimsical freak in design -a dog with its tail strangely turned over the back, picking a bone, and supported by a ram's head and horns-it is the only corbel of this description I have yet seen.

THE TREATY OF PEACE PEN.

So, after all the high-flown descriptions of eaglewinged pride, that the pen with which the Plenipotentiaries were to sign the Articles of Peace was being richly jewelled by the jeweller of the Emperor's household, the incident simply solves itself into these particulars.

The pen with which the Treaty of Peace was signed, was made from a quill taken from the wing of an eagle, at the Jardin des Plantes. Immediately after the signatures, it was placed on a sheet of white paper, and the seals of all the Powers represented at the Congress, accompanied by the signatures of the Plenipotentiaries, were attached about it, and below it was written the attestation :

I certify that this pen was taken by me from the Imperial Eagle, at the Jardin des Plantes, and that it served for the signature of the Treaty of Peace of the 30th of March, 1856.

FEUILLET DE CONCHES,
Chef de Bureau du Protocol.
The whole was then placed in a gilded frame, and a
glass fixed over it, to be presented to the Empress.
Athenæum Club, April 4.

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CLERICAL BELL FOUNDER.

M.

In Bowen's Manuscript Collections for Shropshire, among Gough's Topographical books, deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is the following extract from the register of Thomas Botelar, vicar of Wenlock, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth. 1546. May 26, buried out of tow tenements in Mardfoldstreet, next St. Owen's well, Sir William Corvehill, priest of the seruice of our lady in this church, which 2 teuements belonged to the said seruice; he had them in his occupacon in part of his wages, which was viij marks and the said houses in an ov.'plus. He was well skilled in geometry, not by speculation but by experience: could make organs, clocks and chimes; in keruing in masonry, and silkweauing and painting, and could make all instruments of musick, and was a uery patient and gud man, borne in this borowe, and somtyme monk in the monastery;* two brethren he had, called dopne John, monk in said monasre-tery; and Sir Andreu Corvehill, a secular priest, who died at Croydon in Surry; on whose souls God haue mercy. All this country had a great loss of sir William, for he was a good bell founder and maker of frames.

A deed in the Registrum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis de Brechin, now in the press, may be said to afford some data for believing that the square tower or steeple, in which this singular corbel is found, was either built or repaired by Patrick de Leuchars, bishop of Brechin, from 1354 to about the year 1373, and who for sometime held the office of Chancellor of Scotland. This is the only deed having any reference to the building or storing any part of the Cathedral. Possibly some reader of Current Notes may have seen a similarly devised corbel elsewhere; if so, the date of the building in which it appears might be useful in ascertaining the exact period of the erection of the square tower at Brechin, which, notwithstanding the passing notice in the deed referred to, is as yet an unauthenticated surmise. Brechin, April 10.

A. J.

CHIFNEY.-Are there any particulars known of the death of the once celebrated jockey Samuel Chifney, whose volume entitled-Genius Genuine, and published at Five guineas! occasioned no little stir in its day? Newmarket, April 5.

M. He died in January, 1807, in the rules of the Fleet prison.

Wenlock olim Wimnicas was first a nunnery erected about 680 by St. Milburga, daughter to King Merwald, who presided over it. It was destroyed by the Danes, but restored by Leofric, Earl of Chester, in the time of King Edward the Confessor; but being abandoned, and falling into decay, it was in 1080 rebuilt and endowed for a prior and convent of Cluniac monks, by Roger of Montgomery, dedicated to St. Milburg, who was said to have been buried Earl of Arundel, Chichester, and Shrewsbury. It was here; and upon the dissolution of all monastical institutions in 1537, was granted by King Henry VIII. to Augustine de Augustinis. William somtyme monk,' appears on the suppression to have conformed to the new faith.

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The shadow'd livery of the burning sun. Merchant of Venice, Act ii. sc. 1.

Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun has looked upon me. Song of Solomon, ch. i. v. 6. I took by the throat the circumcised dog, and smote him thus. Othello, Act. v. sc. 2.

I caught him by his beard, and smote him. 1 Samuel,

ch. xvii. v. 35.

Let this pernicious hour stand aye accursed in the calender. Macbeth, Act iv. sc. 2.

Cursed his day; let it not be joined unto the days of the year. Job, ch. iii. v. 6.

We will die with harness on our back. Macbeth, Act v. sc. 5.

Nicanor lay dead in his harness. 2 Maccabees, ch. xv. v. 28.

An old manuscript in my possession, has with many more, the following lines:

:

While night's black muffler hoodeth up the skies,
The silly blind man misseth not his eyes;
But when the day summons to worke againe,
His night eternall then hee doth complaine
That he goes groping, and his hand, alas!

Is faine to guide his foot and guard his face.
They are margined thus-Du Bartas, Impost., page
263. Are they original, or from any translation of Du

Bartas?

H. J. LITTLE. These lines commence a simile in The Imposture, a poem printed in Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes, translated by Josvah Sylvester, 1641, folio, p. 94, col. 1.

Letter from Richard Grenville, first Earl Temple, K.G., but second in the Earldom of Buckingham; addressed to the Right Honourable Hans Stanley.

Norwich, March ye 8th, 1768.

My dear Stanley. You will excuse my reminding you of your kind engagement to lend me a thousand pounds from Lady-day for six months. If not inconvenient I would wish it might be paid into Mr. Drummond's hands, and that his receipt might be accepted as a voucher till my return to London.

My Friends have made a handsome figure in our County Battle; Mr. Coke would have succeeded as well as Sir Edward Astley, if he had been supported by those from whom he had an indisputable right to expect it.

An account which has just reached me of Lady Buckingham's having brought me a third daughter, a circumstance

Possibly some of your readers may be both able and which distresses me upon account of my own feelings, and willing to add to the above passages? Thornhill, April 8.

T. B. G.

PEPYS. In some notices of Parliamentary representatives, 1677, it is stated, SAMUEL PEPYS, the member for Castle-Rising, was originally a taylor, then servingman to Lord Sandwich, now Secretary to the Admiralty; has got by passes and other illegal wayes 40,0002.

much more from my knowledge of her's, will hope
apologise for my not adding more than that assurance,
which flows naturally from my pen, of the regard and
affection, with which I am,
Your most faithful and obedient servant,
BUCKINGHAM.

Thomas Chambers, of Hanworth, co. Middlesex, Esq.;
Lady Buckingham was Anne, da. and coheir of
a lady of some celebrity, whose poems were printed in
1754, at Strawberry Hill. The Earl, born in 1711,

ANGEL'S VISITS.-In what writer or poem occurs the died without surviving issue, Sept. 11, 1779. line commencing

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The lines are

What though my winged hours of bliss have been,
Like Angel's visits, few and far between.

Campbell, however, seems to have been indebted for this poetical expression to Blair, in whose admirable poem entitled the Grave, first printed in 1743, are the linesThe good he scorn'd

Stalked off reluctant like an ill used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, its visits

Like those of Angels, short and far between.

English Poets, by Chalmers, 1810, vol. xv. p. 67, col. 2.

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66
THE FORGET ME NOT FLOWER.
Bishop Mant gives the traditionary creed for the
name of this flower. Where are the complete verses
to be found, and by whom were they written?

Then the blossoms blue, to the bank he threw,
Ere he sank in the eddying tide;
And Lady I'm gone, thine own Knight true,
Forget me Not! he cried.

The farewell pledge the Lady caught,

And hence, as legends say

The flower is a sign to awaken thought

Of friends who are far away.

Crakemarsh, April 15.

M. A. C. S.

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

No. LXV.]

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

OXFORDSHIRE PAROCHIAL MEMORANDA.

In Current Notes, pp. 30-31, are some interesting memoranda relative to the manor of Glympton. The earliest Register book of that parish, made of parchment, does not commence till "the 25th of June, in the year of our Lord, 1667;" one hundred and twenty-nine years after the issuing of the injunction by Thomas Lord Cromwell, for the keeping of registers. Possibly the following extracts, which with many others, by the kind permission of the late Rev. T. Nucella, I made from that register may be worth adding.

At p. 23, is an entry made by the rector, it appears in 1686, 2 James II., to the following effect.

Memorandum: Least the not demanding any other offerings att Easter then what are given att the Sacrament should be thought a neglect of mine, I am concerned to leave to my successors, this account which I had from some of the most understanding of the parish.

Whereas anciently there was a barbarous custom here for all the house-keepers, and which is worse the (judicious) rabble, to come to the Minister's house on Easterday after the Sacrament, to demand bread and cheese, and drink themselves full of ale, and in process of time, meate, pigeon pyes, etc. This rudeness was broken off by way of exchange, that is, the quitting the Easter two-pences; and whereas long afterward, my predecessor demanded Easter-offerings, the parish came and demanded their ancient custom, which he was forced and glad to be ridden of. This I had from the mouth of an honest neighbour, who was one of those who came to demand it.

Ita est STEPH. PENTON, Rector. Under another heading there is a subsequent reference.

CUSTOMES AND USAGES IN GLYMPTON.

1. A Fee Farm: rent payable at Michaelmas to Mr. Samuel Barton. 6s. 8d. 2. A dinner at Christmas, not on any certain day, for such house-keepers as take no almes.

3. The poor who take alms, have one peck of wheat, and one shilling.

4. Noe two-pences demanded att Easter, above the ordinary Oblations att the Sacrament, for a reason ascertained at p. 23. [As above.]

The Glympton register, with many others in the north of Oxfordshire, which I have examined, contains items relative to the sums being collected for the redemption of the English who were captives and in slavery in Turkey; a curious contrast with the present state of the two countries.

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[MAY, 1856.

ST. ANDREW'S OLD CHURCH, PORTLAND. This edifice, at the southern extremity of the island, very near to the sea, was erected and dedicated to St. Andrew, in 1475. The tower was plain, and had no bell, it was detached by nearly three feet from the body of the church. The woodcut is from a very old drawing of the principal entrance; inscribed over the doorwayPsalmes the 122. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.

Alex. Pearce. Phil. Dorent. Churchwardens, 1686.

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that this church was then in a ruinous condition, occasioned by several settlements in the foundation from time to time; further, that it was in a very dangerous situation, the cliff having fallen into the sea, by which the verge of the remaining part was within thirty-six feet of the foundation; upon these representations, the demolition of the old and much decayed church was commenced in 1754, and the materials used in the new one. Dorchester, May 2. JOHN GARLAND.

TRADITION OF RICHARD THE THIRD'S BEDSTEAD.

A paragraph in Current Notes, p. 27, has recalled to my mind a circumstance communicated to me some years since, by an eminent English antiquary, respecting the bedstead on which Richard the Third slept, August 21, 1485, on the night previous to the battle of Bosworth Field, at the Blue Boar Inn, Leicester. The bedstead so occupied by the king, according to my informant, is still extant, the history of which, as related by Sir Roger Twysden, is not a little curious.

When King Richard marched into Leicestershire against Henry Earl of Richmond, he lay at the Blue Boar Inn, in the town of Leicester, where a large wooden bedstead, gilded in some places, after his defeat, the bedding being all taken from it, was either through haste, or as a thing of little value, left to the people of the house. Thenceforward this old bedstead, which was boarded at the bottom, as the manner was in those days, became a piece of standing furniture, and passed from tenant to tenant with the inn. This house, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was kept by one Clarke, who put a bed on this bedstead, which, his wife going to make hastily, and tumbling the bedstead, a piece of gold dropped out, this excited the woman's curiosity: she narrowly examined this piece of furniture, and finding it had a double bottom, took off the uppermost with a chisel, upon which she discovered the space between them filled with gold; part of it coined by King Richard III., and the rest in earlier times. Clarke concealed this good fortune, though by degrees the effect made it known, for from a low condition, he became rich, and in the space of a few years, Mayor of the town, and then the story of the bedstead came to be rumoured by the servants. At his death, he left his estate to his wife, who continued to keep the inn, though she was known to be very rich, which put some wicked persons upon engaging the maid-servant to assist in robbing her. These folks to the number of seven, lodged in the house, plundered it, and carried off some horse loads of valuable things, yet left a considerable quantity of valuables scattered about the floor. As for Mrs. Clarke, who was very fat, she endeavoured to cry out for help, upon which her maid thrust her fingers down her throat, and choaked her, for which act she was burnt, and the seven men who were her accomplices, were hanged at Leicester, some time in the year

1613.

In addition to the foregoing statement by Sir Roger Twysden, I have heard that the bedstead was subsequently possessed by one Alderman Drake; I am however of opinion, that it is not at all likely such a piece of furniture would or could be carried about, by a person like Richard III.; it is far more probable that it had been the best in the inn, and that the gold might

have been secreted where it was subsequently discovered, by the king himself, to be available for his purposes after the battle.

Could Mr. Kelly, or any reader of Current Notes say what has become of this bedstead, or in whose possession it now remains?

King Richard's body after the battle, was, it is asserted, exposed for some time, and then buried in the church of the Grey Friars, in Leicester. It is also stated, that King Henry VII. bestowed a monument upon his rival, which, on the dissolution of religious houses by Henry VIII., was demolished, and Richard's stone coffin actually served for a horse trough, at the White Horse Inn, in Leicester. Downpatrick, May 1. JAMES A. PILSON.

The tradition quoted by your correspondent, Mr. J. A. PILSON, is well known in this locality, and generally speaking is, in all its details, as an article of faith, popularly believed. Sir Roger Twysden, in his Decem Scriptores, 1652, first placed these assertions upon record; and he is said to have "had it from persons of undoubted credit, who were not only inhabitants of Leicester, but who saw the murderers executed," and from him, these assertions have been transmitted by subsequent writers, down to Miss Halstead, in whose biography of Richard III., they have been garnished by some slight poetical embellishments. The advance however that has been made of late years in the study of archaeology, and the distinguished characteristics of architecture, furniture, and moveables, has been the means of exposing many falsely supposed reliques, and the so long vaunted King Richard the Third's bedstead is among the number. Among the most prominent of those who expressed their doubts on the subject, was Mr. J. G. Nichols, who, proceeding to the opposite extreme, in an article some years since in the Gentleman's Magazine, and more recently in the Literary Remains of Mr. J. S. Hardy, edited by him, endeavoured to prove that the whole tradition, which rested solely on the authority of Sir Roger Twysden, was nothing more than " an old Boar at all; and still more, that there was no such inn wife's tale," nay, that the king never slept at the Blue

at Leicester.

Without attempting a thorough investigation of these assertions, I shall content myself with noticing the more salient points of the story, and of Mr. Nichols's doubts. That the Blue Boar Inn at Leicester, was well known in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there are ample documentary proofs; whilst the traditionary story of the murder of Mrs. Clarke, has since the publication of Mr. Nichols's denial of the fact, been confirmed in the main relation, by the discovery in the Borough Muniment Room, of the original depositions of the witnesses in the case, taken before the Justices of the Peace, at the time of the murder. From these documents, the

following facts are derived :— Shortly before Christmas, 1603, one Thomas Harrison came out of Staffordshire to Leicester, and lodged

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