348
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY i, 1909.
It is possible that either or both of these
may have found their -way into some private
collection. I shall be glad of any informa-
tion which might assist in tracing them.
T. A. O'MoKCHOE, M.A.
Kilternaii Rectory, co. Dublin.
RINGELDBIA OB RiNGiLDA. What does this name mean ? Was it a district or a division ? JOHN HATJTENVILLE-COPE.
18, Harrington Court, Glendower Place, S.W.
LLANGOLLEN. Is there any good history of this locality, giving its owners, &c., prior to Henry VIII. ? (Mrs.) COPE.
BIBTHS, MABBIAGES, AND DEATHS : THEIB REGISTBATION. Will any one kindly ex- plain whether in foreign countries the regis- tration of these is the same as in England, and at what date it was begun in France, Italy, Germany, &c. ? (Mrs.) COPE.
18, Harrington Court, S.W.
BLIND INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND. I have always understood that the Bristol Blind Asylum, founded in 1793 by two Quakers (Messrs. Bath and Fox), was the oldest institution of the kind in England. A contemporary, however, disputes this. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give me the date of the earliest asylum for the blind ? FBEDEBICK T. HIBGAME.
BISHOP BEBKELEY. Did Bishop Berkeley pronounce his name "Berk'li" or "Bark'li" ?
D. M. Philadelphia.
JAMES PBESTON OF HOTJNSLOW. In an old account-book formerly belonging to a Bradford (Yorks) financier of the year 1771 I find entered a considerable number of bills accepted by him, and drawn by Bradford merchants upon James Preston of London. I should like to learn more of the life of this man and of the business in which he was engaged. I have been able to find the date of his death, which occurred in 1807. He was buried in Isleworth Church beside his wife, who died some years earlier. Her Christian name was Elizabeth, but I should like to know her full maiden name and where she was married. A short notice of Preston's death appears in The Gentleman's Magazine of January, 1807, as follows : ' Aged 78, James Preston of Hounslow, Middlesex, a character of great benevolence, of whom hereafter." Un- fortunately, no later notice of him appears, to my knowledge, in the magazine. His bequests to charitable institutions were
numerous. Amongst those receiving
legacies were St. George's Hospital, Hyde
Park Corner ; Society for Promoting Chris-
tian Knowledge ; and the Protestant Dis-
senters of Hounslow. If a portrait of him
is in existence, I should be glad to hear of it.
WM. EASTEBBBOOK PBESTON. Levland's Lane, Heaton, Bradford.
BENJAMIN WOLFF LAZABSON STBASBUBG r SOLOMON STBASBOUBG. I have just pur- chased a small stipple engraving of B. W. L.. Strasburg. The watermark is J. Whatman, 1813. Affixed to the print is the following cutting from a newspaper or magazine :
" Yesterday se'nnight died, at Bath, aged 70 r Solomon Strasbourg, a Polish Jew, and well known for many years last past in this University as a teacher of the Hebrew language. His death was- awfully sudden : being seized with an apoplectic fit whilst in the act of purchasing meat at a shop in the Grove, he fell down and instantly expired. He was a man of singular habits. He was in the habit of making occasional excursions from this City on foot to Bath, Cheltenham, &c. and always conducted the expences of his journies, and of his whole system of life, upon principles of the most rigid economy. Although possessed of considerable property in the Funds, he never could be induced, on any occasion, to deviate from his contracted and grovelling plan ; and so excessive was his parsimony, that at the time of his death he was without a shirt ! "
It is evident from this obituary notice that he was a teacher of Hebrew at Oxford. I should be pleased to have further informa- tion about him.
Who was Benjamin Wolff Lazarson Stras- burg ? Was he related to Solomon Stras- bourg ? ISBAEL SOLOMONS.
91, Portsdown Road, W.
THOBNTON ABBEY : ABBOT THOMAS- GBESHAM. In Allen's ' History of the County of Lincoln,' published in 1834, it is- stated that
" in taking down a wall in the ruins of the abbey [when ?] a human skeleton was found with a table, a book, and a candlestick. It is supposed [by whom ?] to have been the remains of the fourteenth abbot, who, it is stated [by whom ?], was for some crime sentenced [by whom ?] to- be immured : a mode of capital punishment not uncommon in monastic institutions."
The general question raised by the last clause has been recently dealt with (9 S. xii. 25, 131,. 297, 376, 517 ; 10 S. i. 50, 152, 217), and I do not wish to reopen it ; but as the state- ment in Allen was endorsed by the then Editor of ' N. & Q.' at 1 S. viii. 470, and has- recently been repeated by H. Claiborne Dixon at p. 109 of ' The Abbeys of Great Britain,' I shall be grateful to any one who- can answer the above queries in brackets, and can also say what became of the skeleton,.
