128
NOTES AND QUEEIES. [10* s. i. FEB. 13, im.
Denny, third baronet of Tralee Castle. Judge
Day, in his will, leaves several crayon por-
traits of the Potts family to the Ven. Dr.
Pott (sic), Archdeacon of London, " to be
disposed of by him amongst the descendants
of our late brother-in-law, Samuel Potts,
Esq." (Rev.) H. L. L. DENNY.
9, Queen Street, Londonderry.
DOWDALL'S 'TRADITIONARY ANECDOTES OF SHAKESPEARE.' These were collected in War- wickshire in 1693, were edited by J. P. Collier, and published by Thomas Rodd in 1838. In the advertisement it is stated that the letter in which the anecdotes were communicated to a Mr. Edward Southwell "came into the hands of the publisher on the dispersion of the papers of the family of Lord De Clifford, which were sold by auction in the year 1834." Is the original MS. now in existence 1
J. W. G.
SICILY. I am anxious to work up the history of the two Sicilies ; I am far in the country, and unable to consult library cata- logues, which must be the excuse for my ignorance. I have Freeman's works, the big and the little ; Amari's two books ; Mrs. St. John's ' Court of Anna Carafa ' ; De Reumont's ' Carafas of Maddaloni ' ; ' The Normans in Sicily ' (author's name has escaped me) ; Warburton's ' Rollo and his Race ' ; and the two recent books by Messrs. Marion Crawford and Douglas Sladen. These hardly cover all the ground, and are certainly, except the Freeman books, not exhaustive. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' expand my list for me 1
ROWLAND THURNAM. Nordrach-upon-Mendip, Bristol.
CHASUBLE AT WARRINGTON CHURCH.
(9 th S. xii. 507.)
THE facts concerning the chasuble, or two chasubles, found in the Warrington Parish Church are far from clear. The late William Beamont, in his book called 'Warrington Church Notes. The Parish Church of St. Elfin, Warrington, and the other Churches of the Parish' (Warrington, 1878), gives either two accounts of one event, or else accounts of two events without clearly differentiating the one from the other. He says (p. 120) that in 1824 Mr. Rickman, the architect, suspecting that one of the but- tresses on the north side of the chancel, which was wider than the others, contained a stair- case, opened it, and found in it
" a winding stair, which had led from a crypt below,
to a doorway opening high up in the wall of the
chancel above, and probably upon the rood loft."
On the steps
"was found a richly embroidered chasuble, upon which were embroidered the figures of St. Paul with the sword, St. James the Less with his club, and St. Elphege with his long-handled axe."
" The vestment was ultimately given to the Reverend Dr. Molyneux, the Roman Catholic priest at Warrington, and is now part of the furniture of the Roman Catholic chapel there."
Beamont says, however, earlier in his book (p. 61), that in the year 1830
"a blocked-up doorway near the place of the rood screen was reopened, and a staircase was exposed leading up to the rood loft, and another staircase leading down into the crypt. Upon one of the steps of the latter, there lay a parcel carefully made up, which on being opened was found to contain a chasuble, the work of the latter end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century. It waa curiously embroidered on the back and front, but except for the diapering or grounding, which was excellent, the work was poor. It had two orphreys with niches, in which were figures wrought m coloured silks after the mode of the ' opus pluma- rium,' or feather stitch, of which the golden threads of the diapering, owing to their having been wound round with the pure metal, looked as bright as on the day when they were first put in. On the back was the cross in the shape of a Y with three angela, each with a golden chalice standing by it to receive the Saviours blood, two lily plants with pink flowers shooting up, one on each side from the foot of the cross. The figures of Abel, Abraham, Mel- chisedeck, and two of the apostles were recog- nizable upon the chasuble ; but there was another figure of a man in armour bearing a battleaxe upon his shoulder, not so easy to be recognized, which, very fancifully, as I think, has been supposed to be meant for Thomas of Lancaster, who was beheaded in 1322."
A foot-note refers to Archaeological Journal, 1870, No. 106, p. 135. (Robert Atherton Raw- storne was rector 1807-32.)
These two accounts do not agree together. At first sight they would appear to point to two discoveries of stairways, and the finding of a chasuble on each occasion. But in a communication made by the late Dr. James Kendrick (another local antiquary) to the Warrington Examiner (date uncertain, but subsequent to 1870), he gives 1824 as the date of the finding of " a parcel containing a rich sacerdotal vestment, which, for the payment of a few shillings, was handed over to the Rev. Mr. Molyneux, of Warrington " (Mr. or Dr. Molyneux pronounced Mullinix was the priest of St. Alban's Roman Catholic Church, or chapel, which was until some thirty years ago the only Roman Catholic church in Warrington). Kendrick goes on to speak of the chasuble, after having been repaired, being eventually exhibited in 1870
