Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/86

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xi. JAN. 23, 1915.


Esq r of Stoney Thorpe and of Byes in the County of Essex. She died 8th April, 1825, in her 74th year."

They were married 13 Oct., 1787, and died without issue.

The flagon in use at this church is thus inscribed :

" Francis and Thermuthes Fauquier of Stoney- thorpe in the County of Warwick, to the parish of Long Itchington, 1795."

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

AUTHORS WANTED : ' HAIR-SPLITTING AS A FINE ART' (11 S. x. 48 ; xjL 13, 54). My copy has the name of " Percy Fitzgerald " written in pencil on the title-page, and I find it included in the list of works appended to the second volume of that gentleman's ' Me- moirs of an Author,' 2 vola., 8vo, 1894, though not in that in his ' Output,' privately printed, N.D. (1913).

EDITOR 'IRISH BOOK LOVER.'

(11 S. xi. 28.)

' GLOSSOGRAPHIA ANGLICANA NOVA.' The 1707 edition was probably founded on the

" Glossographia ; or, A dictionary interpreting all such hard words, whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Teutonick, Belgick, British, or Saxon, as are now used in our refined English tongue. .. .very useful for all such as desire to understand what they read. By T. B. of the Inner Temple, barrester."

The "T. B." is Thomas Blount, and the first edition was published in 1656, 8vo, and has no pagination ; other editions followed in 1670 and 1671, both 8vo. A fifth edition, with additions, was issued in 1681. An enlarged edition was edited by William Nelson in 1717, folio. Much of the material was adopted by Edward Philips in his ' New World of English Words,' which appeared in 1658. A copy of the first edition is in the Bodleian Library.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L. [C. C. B. also thanked for reply.]

NAMES ON COFFINS (11 S. xi. 29). There is a vault partly beneath and partly beyond the Harvey Chapel in Hempstead Church, in the north of Essex, which contains fifty-one coffins of the Harvey family, forty- four of which bear inscriptions either on the lead casing or on plates affixed. These date from 1655 to 1830, and the fourteen earliest are of lead, mostly shaped to the features pf the deceased, and resembling Egyptian mummy cases in appearance. The majority of these have the names and dates on the lead cases in raised letters. Upon most of the others, which are ordinary coffins, a


plate gives the particulars. The coffins in themselves are interesting, one being of enormous size, and several being covered with crimson velvet, still in excellent preser- vation. The Harvey family was seated at Hempstead and Chigwell in Essex, and included amongst its members William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, and Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey.

Only last year the daughter of the Rector of Birch, also in Essex, discovered in the drawer of an old writing-table a coffin -plate inscribed,

The Lady Elizabeth

Saltonstall her body A Dmi 1630 ;

and as the Rector of South Ockendon, in Essex, found the burial entry of this lady in the Parish Register, the plate has been sent to him to be put up in the church.

STEPHEN J. BARNS.

Frating, Woodside Road, Woodford Wells.

When the vault under the chancel of St. Giles's Church in Durham was opened in 1893 or 189 4, 1 took notes of coffin -plates with names, dates, and arms of members of the Tempest family, viz., Frances Tempest, ob. 1771 ; John Wharton Tempest, ob. 1793.

Durham. J - T - F.

SHAKESPEARIAN A : ' ALL "s WELL THAT ENDS WELL ' (11 S. xi. 30). In reply to the query as to the meaning of the passage Has led the drum before the English tragedians," I offer the following quotation from The European Magazine for June, 1788. It refers to the early history of the drama in Birmingham :

"In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor St., which rather gave a spring to the amuse- ment. In the daytime the comedian beat up for volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare, and roared out an encomium on the excellence of the entertainment.

"In 1751 a company arrived, which announced themselves ' His Majesty's Servants from the Theatres Royal in London,' and 'hoped the public would excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the dignity of a London company.' The novelty had a surprising effect ; the performers had merit ; and the house was continually crowded."

It is evident, therefore, that the custom was prevalent long after Shakespeare's death. I may add that there is a well- known portrait of Tarlton the actor, which represents him with a tabor or small drum. HOWARD S. PEARSON.

Parolles's ridicule of C'apt. Dumain's soldiership, by saying that " he led the drum before the English tragedians " (IV. iii. 298), may be compared with lago's " That never set