wherein was a bedstead with furniture of satin embroidered and silk curtains; it had a down bed, a quilt, a mattress, four blankets, two pillows, one bolster, a red rug, a chair of "cope stuff," two chairs and a stool, covered with blue silk. There was tapestry in the apartment and curtains to all the windows. In the arras chamber was a "varnyshed bedsteed," with five curtains of green saye (the serge of Ghent, which usually formed the hangings in the best chambers). Tapestry is mentioned in two only of the apartments. The beds were either of down, wool, or flock; hangings of tissue, fringed with silver and silk, curtains of crimson silk, window curtains of yellow damask. The bulk of the linen seems to have been kept in coffers or chests in the closet within the arras chamber: here were table-cloths, cupboard cloths, towels, napkins, sheets, and "pillow-beeres" (pillow-cases, still

called " pillow-beeres in Shropshire).

Some of the sheets were of flax, others of hemp; and holland, diaper, and damask, were the materials of the finer linen. There were 66 flaxen napkins wroughte with blewe," and some of the "pillowbeeres were of calico. Twenty beds are specified in the inventory, but some of the domestics slept on mattresses only. The parson (they kept a family chaplain at Frankley) and the falconer had only a mattress each. "At the stayre head by the arras chamber dore" was also a chest with linen. As to the principal furniture, there were tables and sideboards on frames; many chairs covered with leather,

CURIOUS

2. MR. URBAN,-A curious relic is in the possession of the family of the late Major Cooke (see p. 389, ante), of which some of the readers of THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE may be interested to know the tradition.

Mr. Ellis, of Keddle Hall, Yorkshire, Major Cooke's maternal great-grandfather, while riding through a wood attended by his servant, was attracted by the screams of a person in distress. Spurring his horse in the direction of the cries, he came upon a party of robbers engaged in rifling a carriage. Bound naked to a tree was an unfortunate lady, while her coachman lay helpless on the ground, tied hand and foot. Mr. Ellis and his groom, paying no regard to the superior

66

others with silk; in one of the brushing rooms was a press, a great upstanding piece of furniture like a wardrobe-and in the other a chest containing a Turkey carpet and cushions. In most of the rooms were 'fermes," joined stools and low stools, tables on frames, and brass andirons (fire-dogs); in the upper wainscot chamber a "wermying panne," and elsewhere two maps and one picture. The kitchen contained the universal" brasse potts, possenetts, chaferns, chaffyng dishes, cobirons," spits, jacks, bellows, and pewter services; 19 casks and 6 barrels (valued at only 188, 4d. !) were in the cellar; whilst in the barn were noted "wayne bodies to carry deere," an old tumbrell (waggon), "plowmen's axletrees and bordes," &c.

66

Such establishments were never unprovided with armour, and accordingly in the gallery one armoury we find “214 browne bylls, and pole-ax, one partizen, and one globe (?), 71 picks, 81 quilted coats and jackets, thre sleves quilted with iron, five almayne rivetts, five lances, five short swords with plate and sculls, and 12 plated coates, two corsletts, five calivers, two cross-bows with arrows, and three short pistolls with flasks."

The sum total of the value of the entire goods was but 1247. 3s. 8d., but this must be multiplied by 15 or 20 to bring it down to the present value of money.

numbers of the highwaymen, attacked them sword in hand, and gallantly put them to flight. He then released the lady and her servant, and covering the former with his cloak, conveyed her behind him on his saddle to her home several miles distant. In gratitude to her deliverer from the ruffians, she presented him with a handsome silver salver, and a silver cruet-stand. His grandson, Admiral Cooke, to whom, in right of his wife, these heir-looms descended, happened to be serving abroad at the time of Captain Smith's death, and it is not known what became of the first of these articles. But the silver cruetstand came into his possession, and still remains in the family. It is of solid

silver, and contains three silver cruets, for sugar, pepper, and mustard, with two thick glass bottles having high silver caps instead of stoppers. A small silver ring is attached to each side of the stand, to hold these caps when removed from the bottles.

A coat-of-arms, supposed to be that of Ellis of Keddle Hall, is engraved on each of the silver cruets; but the most curious part of the story is, that the lady caused a figure of herself in the moment of her rescue to be engraved as a crest on the top of each shield, as well as on the ring of the stand, and on the two silver caps of the bottles. It is a nude figure of a woman, with her arms and legs

BISHOP

3. MR. URBAN, - For the following information, in reply to Mr. Gay's inquiries (G. M., March, 1867, p. 338), I am indebted to Britton's "6 Cathedral Antiquities of England," 1836, vol. iv., p. 74:-.

"Walter Curle, or Curll, was a native of Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, and probably the son of William Curll, Esq., Auditor of the Court of Wards to Queen Elizabeth, who has a monument in Hatfield Church. He was admitted a student at Peter House, Cambridge, in 1592. He afterwards travelled four years, and in 1602 entered into holy orders. About the same time he was elected Fellow of his college. In 1606, he proceeded B.D.; and in 1612, D.D. Being patronised by the Cecils, he was promoted in the Church, and became Chaplain to James I., who advanced him to the Deanery of Lichfield, in June, 1621. He was made Bishop of Rochester in 1628, and in the following year was translated to Wells. Three years afterwards he was translated to Winchester,

crossed. Her name has not been handed down.

There is an ancient silver watch in my possession (my mother being sister to Major Cooke), on the back of which is engraved (according to a memorandum inside) a view of Keddle Hall and its grounds, with two figures in the foreground.

If any reader of THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE can throw further light upon the story of this tradition, the family of Major Cooke would be interested to discover the name of the lady, and the fate of the silver salver.-I am, &c.,

The Vicarage, Sherborne.

CURLE.

E. HARSTON.

and also appointed Lord Almoner to the king, Charles I. He afterwards suffered considerably in the king's cause, and was among the Royalists who were besieged at Winchester, on the surrender of which city he retired to Soberton, in Hampshire, where he lies buried."

"Wood, in his Athenæ Oxoniensis,' states that his decease happened either in the spring or summer of 1647; but Dr. Richardson, in his additions to Godwin, says about 1650. He also affirms that he was not only deprived of his episcopal revenues, but also of his patrimonial inheritance. (De Præsulibus,' p. 242, edit. 1743)."

Burke, in his "General Armory," gives the arms of Curle (Soberton, Hants) Vert. a chev. engr. or; Crest, an eagle with wings expanded, ppr. beaked and legged or.-I am, &c.,

Newcastle-on-Tyne, March, 5, 1867.

4. MR. URBAN,-In your February number is opened the discussion of an interesting subject to Lancashire men, and I am sure most of us would be pleased if your correspondent succeeded in his purpose of showing "that Spenser was for some time a resident in, if not a native of, this county."

I am afraid, however, that we shall have to wait for other evidence than such as that which he has adduced in his letter. Before his argument can have any weight,

J. MANUEL.

he must show that the use of the words which he cites was confined to East Lancashire in Spenser's time. Even then, as he admits, it can only be used as presumptive and corroborative testimony, since it will not itself be admitted as a proof of what is at present only a probability. That their use was so confined, I think very doubtful. In the first place, many of them are of frequent occurrence in Chaucer's 'writings and those of his contemporaries; for instance :

Had the use of these become peculiar to Lancashire during the two centuries between the periods when Chaucer and Spenser wrote ?

It is very improbable. I have not had time to investigate the matter so carefully as is desirable, but I think many of the words in question were (so far as my recollection serves me) used by our poet's more immediate predecessors and successors. Sir J. Wyatt died about thirty years before the publication of the "Shepherd's Calendar," and in his poems two of them at least are to be found-viz., "brenning" and "narre":

"Fain would ye find a cloud
Your brenning' fire to hide."
"Your sighs you fetch from far,
And all to wry your woe,
Yet are ye ne'er the 'narre,"
Men are not blinded so."

Shakspeare, who immediately followed

LAZAR

5. MR. URBAN,—A farm in this parish is called "the Leper House." The house on the farm is timber-built, and there are in its neighbourhood three wells with several medicinal qualities; the water in the Leper's Well in the immediate neigh bourhood being peculiarly cool and agreeable. I have been unable to learn anything of its history, except that "the house was the place for receiving and lodging the lepers."

It is on the Chillington estate. On the suppression of the monasteries, the Giffards acquired the possessions of the two priories in Brewood; of one of which, Thomas Giffard, Esq. (the heir of Chillington), was seneschal. The leper house

Spenser, employs many of them. Is it likely that in every instance he borrowed them from him?

Thus, in All's Well, act 4, sc. 3:

"Men are to ' mell' with,

Boys are not to kiss."

In Coriolanus, act 3, sc. 1:

Cor. "Why this was known before.
Bru. Not to them all.

Cor. Have you informed them 'sithence.""

In Measure for Measure, act 4, sc. 3:

"For my poor self, I am combined with a sacred vow, and must be absent. -'Wend' you with the letter."

And in Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2, sc. 3:

Launce. "Now come I to my mother. -O would that she could speak now like a 'wood' woman.'

I have no doubt that a little research would confirm more fully what I have been endeavouring to establish-i.e., that the use of these words was not confined to Lancashire in Spenser's age. Even if it was, this would be no proof of the truth of the theory, since Spenser's fondness for words which even in his day were antiquated is well known; and many of these, as I have shown, were current two hundred years before.

In the hope that the question of the truth or otherwise of your correspondent's theory may be more fully discussed, I &c.,

am,

WILLIAM A. PART. 4, Wilton-street, Oxford-road, Manchester, March 8, 1867.

HOUSES.

would no doubt pass to the Crown under act 1, Edward VI. (which granted all colleges, hospitals, and chauntries to the Crown), and would be granted by the Crown to the Giffards; probably they had previously been guardians, or feoffees, of the charity. I should be happy to make any inquiry for Mr. Hoste, if he can suggest to me the points of inquiry, and the likely sources of information.

I have seen in the Record Office a return of the chauntries (query, and hospitals) in existence tempore Edward VI.; but I suspect it to be very imperfect. Many chauntries somehow escaped the meshes of the act. Bishop Repingdon's chauntry, which has descended to the

execution at Tyburn, probably to refresh, -possibly, like the "wine mingled with myrrh" at] Golgotha, to stupefy. When the Lazar house "chanced to come down," under Edward VI., no doubt the grantee of the Lazar house got rid of the obligation to provide this refreshment, and transferred the broad-bottomed bowl to the neighbouring public-house, where for two centuries afterwards it occasioned, in the procession to Tyburn, the revel so graphically described by Mr. Ainsworth. I am, &c.,

JAMES H. SMITH. The Dawscroft, Brewood, near Stafford, March, 1867.

6. MR. URBAN,-Your correspondent, Mr. Thos. Wright, in his haste to correct what he believes an error in my statement on this subject, has fallen into an error himself by overlooking the fact that what I said was (and this is not to be denied) that "this custom of assembling in Bury to eat Simnels, is confined to Mid-Lent Sunday only." The "Book of Days" I am perfectly familiar with as a newspaper, and Mr. Chambers has placed it in my hands for revision. While aware of the practice of eating cakes during Lent is quite general, yet am prepared to hold to the claim of Bury, Lancashire, as the place, where the custom is kept up

ON PLATE-ARMOUR WORN UNDER 7. MR. URBAN,-In the "Monumental Effigies of Great Britain," there is an observation made by its author, which I think ought to be corrected and explained; and having myself the power of doing so, I wish once more to intrude upon your space in THE GENTLEMAN's MAGAZINE.

My late brother, Mr. C. A. Stothard, on one occasion travelled to Lynn in Norfolk, and on visiting the church dis

covered a part of the brass celebrated as representing a certain mayor of the borough, who during his life entertained Edward III.,

concluded too hastily that the rest was destroyed. The fact was that the Rev. Mr. Edwards, finding it loose, wisely removed it into the rectory

in the way I have before described. But Mr. Wright's mention of the Shewsbury Cakes reminds me that these are properly "Ellesmere" cakes, or rather " PIES; and these are procured in the former place under the name of the latter, just as you find in Manchester "Real Bury Simnels" advertised, although in reality these had been made in the city itself.

Time will not allow my showing the difference between the Bury Simnels and the Ellesmere cakes, but I am now obtaining information respecting them, which, as Mr. Wright will find, throws light upon the question.-I am, &c.

W. M. BROOKES.

THE SURCOAT OF KNIGHTS, &c. until it could be rendered more secure. In his work of the Effigies, introduction, page 7, he writes-"On the subject of plate and mail-armour. It is, I believe, a most difficult thing to say when platearmour was first introduced, because no representations, however well executed, can tell us what was worn out of sight, and as inventories of armour, as well as notices of writers on the subject, the only sources whence we can gain information, are far from common. Daniel, in his 'Military Discipline of France,' cites a poet who describes a combat between William de Barres and Richard Coeur de Lion (then Earl of Poitou), in which he says that they met so fiercely that their lances pierced through each other's coat of mail and gambeson, but were resisted by the plate of wrought-iron worn beneath." This lower part of the brass explains what

the poet truly asserted, which induced me to give it on a scale sufficiently large for the purpose; I shall in all probability reproduce it in a collection of scraps taken from all parts of England (as John Carter did in his day), having walked through forty-two counties in England and Wales.

It appears in this brass, that all who are seated at the table where the peacocks are served have their surcoats removed, under which the plates of iron round the body still remain, which gave that prominent form of the chest which we see in those knights when wearing the surcoat, and which induced my brother to say, "It strikes me that plate was at all times partially used."

8. MR. URBAN,-Your correspondent, Mr. Boulter, inquires (GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, March, 1867, p. 342), "What is a 'deak?'" I find in Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary" daek," antemurale, under the word "dike," which, Scotticè, means a wall, whether of turf or stone. No doubt, deak in the "Grace" alluded to, is synonymous.

"Branks."-In Dr. Wilson's valuable work, "The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," 1851, p. 692, will be found an interesting description and an engraving of this "Scottish Instrument of Ecclesiastical Punishment;" and additional particulars, with several engravings, in the Archæological Journal, 1856, vol. 13, p. 256.—I am, &c.,

J. MANUEL.

9. MR. URBAN,-No doubt the word ‘deak,” which puzzles Mr. Boulter in the Scotch " Grace," is nothing else than "dyke," spelt as pronounced by the pious writer.

A few days since when I was at Feversham, Mr. Willeman, who resides at Davenham Priory showed me a steel cap which was found in some part of the building, and which evidently had been worn under some covering as a protection in a similar way to the plates, as seen in the subject of the peacock feast alluded to above. The pattern of the pieces of steel is concealed and wrought in the material. I give a sketch of it above. It greatly reminds one of the work on the surcoat of Sir Guy Bryan in the book above alluded to.-I am, &c.,

Stoke Newington, N. March 18.

"BRANKS."

R. T. S.

"O build a strang deak" would mean, "O build a strong embankment; " dyke being, says Richardson in his dictionary, "in some counties that which is cut out, sc., the mound or bank formed by digging out."

Such dykes were the Devil's - dyke, which borders on one side Newmarket Heath, in Cambridgeshire; Offa-dyke, in Radnorshire, thrown up by King Offa to separate the Britains from the Mercians; and Wansdyke, in Wiltshire.

Of the latter Camden says, in his "Britannia," that it is "a wonderful ditch thrown up for many miles together;" and again, "I always thought that it was cast up by the Saxons for a boundary between the dominions of the West Saxons and the Mercians."

I may add, that in East Anglia dyke is pronounced by the lower orders to this day like the Scotchman's "deak," and that Forby in his "Vocabulary of East Anglia" spells it "deke."-I am, &c., PHILIP HOSTE.

Cropredy Vicarage, March, 1867.

10. MR. URBAN,-In addition to my remarks concerning the authorship of the above mentioned work, which you inserted in your April number, I hope you will find a corner for the following, which I have accidentally come upon.

Rennie, in the "Complete Angler" (pub. 1836), p. 22, says―

"Some specious arguments have been

urged to prove that this person [Dr. Henry Hammond], was the author of 'The Whole Duty of Man,' and I once thought they had finally settled that longagitated question-"To whom is the world obliged for that excellent work?' But I in a book entitled Memoirs of Several find a full and ample refutation of them Ladies of Great Britain,' by George Ballard, quarto, 1752, p. 318, and that the