n s. i. FEB. 26, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
175
on the look-out for evidence in corrobora-
tion, but as yet have failed to find it. His
story is told circumstantially and may be
true, but it can hardly be accepted without
further substantiation. It should be noted,
by the way, that in both of the books cited
above Peters spells the name " Verdmont."
ALBERT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S.
It seems by reference to Apple ton's
- Cvclopaedia of American Biography,' iv.
742, that Peters (1735-1826) received holy orders in London, 1759, returning speedily to Connecticut. " He kept a coach, and looked with scorn upon Republicans.'* In 1794 he was chosen Bishop of Vermont, but was never consecrated. At the time of the Revolution his property was confis- cated, and his letters were intercepted. He was execrated by the revolufionists and by their successors.
In The Yale Lit. Mag., xxi. 271 (June, 1856), a paper is devoted to him, under the " caption " of ' The Yankee Munchausen,' in which it is said that
"the venerable Dr. Trumbull, who was in college
- it the same time with Peters, informed the late
Prof. Kin^sley that of all the men whom he had known, Samuel Fetors was the most unreliable, even in narrations of trivial importance."
And John Trumbull mentions him in his
' McFingal ' :
What warnings had ye of your duty From our old rev'rend Sam Auchmuty ; Prom priests of all degrees and metres, To our fag-end man, Parson Peters.
In his 'General History of Connecticut,' London, 1781, p. 127, Peters tells of a chasm, formed by two lofty shelving moun- tains of solid rock, where
" water is consolidated, without frost, by pressure* by swiftness, between the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a degree of induration that no iron crow can be forci-d into it: here iron, lead, and cork have one common weight."
The copy of this book in the British Museum contains many old marginal notes, such as
- ' shameful perversion," " infamous false-
hood," &c. RICHARD H. THORNTON.
- W, I'pp.'r Heilf,,rd Place, W.C.
HENRY VI I. 's CHAPEL : ITS ARCHITECT (11 S. i. 127). William Bolton, Prior of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, is indeed desig- nated in the King's will "Master of the Works " ; but Robert Vertue was the architect. He was. probably father or brother of William Vertue, who about the same time was working at Windsor, and, at a later date, at Eton and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Robert had built for
Henry a new tower in the Tower of London,
and was the designer of the Palace of
Pleasaunce at Greenwich. One of the
Vert ues probably drew the design for the
tomb of Henry VI. which is preserved among
the Cottonian MSS. (Aug. A. 2).
Camden preserves a tradition that in 1524, on the soothsayers predicting a sudden rise of the Thames, Prior Bolton fled for safety to Harrow, of which place he was vicar, and where he eventually died. But the Thames, unlike the Seine in 1910, behaved as usual, and London escaped immersion.
See W. R. Lethaby's ' Westminster Abbey and the Kings' Craftsmen ' (1906), pp. 223-6, 234 ; and Francis Bond's ' Westminster Abbey' (1909), p. 132. A. R, BAYLEY.
The architect was Sir Reginald Bray, Privy Counsellor to Henry VIII. ; his por- trait is given in Carter's ' Ancient Sculpture and Painting,' vol. ii. The ' D.N.B.,' vi. 238, says :
"The design of Henry VII.'s Chapel at West- minster is supposed to have been his [r.e., Bray's] ; and the first stone was laid by him, in conjunction with the Abbot Islip and others, on 24 Jan., 1502/3. JOHN HODGKIN.
Sir Henry Cole ("Felix Summerly") in his ' Illustrated Handbook of the Abbey ? says that the merit of its design is ascribed to various persons : by some to Bishop Fox ; by others to Sir Reginald Braye ; to Alcocko Bishop of Ely ; and to the Prior of St. Bar- tholomew's, who is called ' ' Master of the Works of our said Chapel '* in Henry VII.'s
will. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
[MR. ALAN STEWART also refers to Mr. Lethaby's work.]
NELSON AMONG HIS INTIMATES (11 S. i. 124). My mother remembers reading these interesting reminiscences of Nelson and Lady Hamilton in ' The Remains of the late Mrs. Richard Trench,' 1 862. The privately issued ' Tour ' (1861) was incorporated in the later volume.
Melesina Chenevix married in 1786 Col. Richard St. George, who died two years later ; and in 1803 she married Richard Trench, by whom she was mother of Arch- bishop Trench, Stanley's predecessor in the Deanery of Westminster. Dean Stanley's mother was Catherine Leycester. For Melesina Trench see 'D.N.B./ Mi. 189 of the original edition. A. R. BAYLEY.
[MR. W. T. LYNN and NORTH MIDLAND also point out that the reference to Dean Stanley is a mistake.]
