288
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. v. APRIL u, im
SMITH (10 th S. iv. 407). In the British Museum
Catalogue the author is put under Proust
(Paul Proust de la Gironiere) ; but Lorenz
has him under La, and is silent as to the
character of the book, and does not give
Gironiere's family name of Proust. Is the
book fact or fiction 1 ? RALPH THOMAS.
- SPECULUM EPISCOPI.' I wish to know the
name of the author of this anonymous work, the second edition of which appeared in London in 1849. The criticisms of the bishops which the book contains were only too true, and I have heard that the author was a curate, who remained in that position -all his life, his connexion with the book having been established. R. B. P.
[Halkett and Laing state that the author was the Rev. George Roberts, referring to Darling,
- Cyclop. Bibl.']
LAWRENCE ARMS. I should be obliged if any one would tell me of any persons named Lawrence (Laurence), earlier than the eighteenth century, who bore the following arms : Sable, three birds rising or. Crest : two cubit arms, holding a wreath of laurel.
G. O. B.
THOMAS BAGNALL was admitted on the foundation at Westminster School in 1753. Any particulars of his career would be of use.
G. F. R. B.
JOHN DOWNS was a King's Scholar at Westminster School in 1753. I should be much obliged by any information concerning him. G. F. R. B.
DYER FAMILY. I shall be obliged if any one can tell me the dates of marriage of Sir William Dyer, first Baronet, with Thomasina Swinnerton, and of Sir John Swinnerton Dyer with Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Rowland Johnson, of Gray's Inn, and where the marriages took place. E. H. MARTIN.
Westhope, Craven Arms, Salop.
THE AMERICAN GOTHAM. It is commonly asserted that Washington Irving and his collaborator, in their work * Salmagundi,' 1809, were the first to apply the now familiar term "Gotham" to New York, "in satirical allusion to the singular wisdom of its inhabitants." 'Salmagundi' first appeared serially, but was issued in book form in 1811. Chap. cix. relates "the chronicles of the renowned and antient city of Gotham." I recorded this matter in my book * All about the Merry Tales of Gotham,' 1900. Since then I have seen it stated that ' Salmagundi' did not originate the nickname of New York, which is said to have been current
earlier than 1809. I should be very glad to
be referred to evidence or quotations ia
support of the prior existence of the term.
A. STAPLETON. 158, Noel Street, Nottingham.
HOBSON'S CHOICE. Will some one oblige me with a copy of Vincent Bourne's Latin verses on Hobson, the Cambridge carrier, who is remembered by the popular saying ? Charles Waterton's translation of these lines is printed in C. G. Harper's * Cambridge and King's Lynn Road.' Please reply direct.
II. L. MORETON. Greenford, near Southall, Middlesex.
SPARTH. What is the derivation of the word Sparth ? Several places in Lancashire are called by this name.
RICHARD TRAPPES-LOMAX.
THE FISTULA : CANNA. Is it possible to see in London an actual specimen (or authentic copy) of the tube (otherwise called canna, siphon\ formerly used for imbibing the consecrated wine of the Communion in some parts of the Latin Church now apparently used only by the Pope? Q- V.
ROGER LUDLOW AND THE FAIRFIELD RECORDS. Roger Ludlow, a lawyer of Dorchester, England, was one of the chief men of the early Massachusetts Bay Colony. Disappointed in his political ambitions there, he removed to Connecticut, and was one of its leading founders, probably draft- ing its constitution. Feeling himself over- shadowed at Hartford, he founded Fairfield, on Long Island Sound. Angry because the New England commissioners would not sanction a war against the Dutch, and with a sense of failure for which his own con- tentious and impatient disposition seems to have been largely responsible, he finally left the colony, taking the town records with him, and, after apparently spending some time settling his brother's estate in Virginia, went to Holyhead, Wales, where he passed the remainder of his life or most of it. The loss of these records has always remained a sore gap in the earliest history of Connec- ticut, and the finder would earn the immense gratitude of the State, besides a very hand- some price for them. It seems to me that a search at Holyhead would not be Jiopeless, and I suggest it as a field for investigation.
Hartford, Conn.
GAINSBOROUGH AND POMERANIAN DOG. Will your readers give me a list of pictures by Gainsborough, in which a white Pome-
