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NOTES AND QUERIES. [IIS.XIL JULY 17,1915.
NEW STREET, MANCHESTER SQUARE.
Can any one give the exact position of this
now demolished thoroughfare ? T. S.
SWEEDLAND OR SWEDELAND COURT,
BISHOPSGATE. Can any one say which is the correct way of spelling this name ?
T. S.
THE BIRTH OF EDWARD VI. The late Major Martin Hume, in ' The Wives of Henry VIII.,' at p. 306, says :
" Ominous rumours were rife in London that her life had purposely been jeopardized in order to save that of the child at birth. They were not true."
He adds in a note :
"The assertion, almost invariably made, that Bishop Nicholas Sanders, the Jesuit writer, * in- vented' the story that the Caesarian operation was performed at birth is not true. The facts of this time are, to a great extent, copied textually by Sanders from the MS. 'Cronica de Enrico Otavo,' by Guaras, and the statement is there made as an unsupported rumour only."
There are two questions I should like to ask as to this :
(1) What is the contemporary evidence that the rumours were not true V
(2) What is the evidence that Dr. Nicolas Sander (as he spelt his own name) had ever seen the MS. ' Cronica ' of Antonio de Guaras ?
There was a MS. which Dr. Sander (who, by the way, was neither a bishop nor a Jesuit) had almost certainly seen. This was written by Nicholas Harpsfield, LL.D., Archdeacon of Canterbury, late in Queen Mary's reign.
Harpsfield's ' A Treatise on the Pretended Divorce between Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon ' was first printed (from a collation of four MSS.) by Nicholas Pocock, M.A., in 1878, for the Camden Society (2nd Series, vol. xxi.). At p. 280 of this printed edition Archdeacon Harpsfield says :
"That she should die, though for the safeguard of the child, in such manner as she did, yea, the child to be born, as some say the adders are, by gnawing out the mother's womb."
Dr. Harpsfield (who was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, when Edward VI. was born) may well have got his information elsewhere than from Don Antonio de Guaras ; and if he got it from Don Antonio, the latter might well have amassed evidence to convert the rumour of his ' Cronica ' into an attested fact.
Whether Harpsfield's statement is based on his own researches or from De Guaras' s information does not seem to matter very
much. At any rate, we have a contemporary
writer asserting as a fact that the life of
Queen Jane Seymour was sacrificed to that
of her son.
What is the contemporary evidence to the contrary ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.
J. M. (1859) : ERASMUS. In ' N. & Q./ 10 Sept., 1859 (2 S. viii. 203), there is a brief contribution signed " J. M.," referring to a work of Erasmus presented by a Scotsman, Florentius Volusenus, to a fellow-country- man, John Ogilvie. As this book contains on the fly-leaf an important MS. letter, I should be greatly indebted to any one who can put me in communication with " J. M.'*
C. M. MACDONALD. Ardenmhor, Sandbank, Argyllshire.
AUTHORS WANTED. (1) Would anj* of your correspondents inform me from whom, the following quotation is taken ? I have looked through many dictionaries of quota* tions, but cannot find the author.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, Since, seldom coming, in the long year set, Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
RICHARD HARGREAVES. [Shakespeare, Sonnet LIL]
(2) Where does the following stanza occur ?
But what most showed the vanity of life Was to behold the nations all on fire, In cruel broils engaged and deadly strife : Most Christian kings, inflamed by black desire, With honourable ruffians in their hire, Cause war to rage, and blood around to pour : Of this sad work when each begins to tire, They set them down just where they were before Till for new scenes of woe peace shall their force restore.
H. SELLERS. Oxford.
OLD MAP OF THE LONDON-HOLYHEAD ROAD. Could any reader help me to get at an approximate date for an old map in my possession bearing the following title ? " The continuation of the road from London to Holy -head. By lohn Ogilby, Esq., His Ma tie Cosmographer. Plate 4 th & Last. Commencing at the City of Chester & extending to Holyhead abovesaid."
T. LLECHID' JONES. Yspytty Vicarage, Bettws-y-Coed.
CREST ON A SEAL. A rough man's head, heavily bearded and moustached, with a cap and open collar looks like a sailor or navvy. Under this a pair of scales. Under that the motto " Utere tuo." Which family does this belong to ? B. C. S.
