Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/497

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ii s. VIIL DEC. 20, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


491

The next sentence shows that the name of the son who died was William (Guilhelmus).

In the second of the two poems addressed to Elizabeth Weston by the famous Janus Dousa (Jan Van der Does), op. cit., p. 112, and 'Jani Douzæ a Noortwyck Poemata pleraque selecta,' 1609, p. 451, the same surname is mentioned:—

Me miserum! te suada ista, probitate fideque;
Tot nixam ac tantis nuper amicitiis,
Immeritam, heu! pœnas alienæ pendere noxæ?
Et dare Kelleæ materiam invidiæ?

Dousa is condoling with her on the loss of her father's estate. Elsewhere Elizabeth speaks of envy and calumny being the cause of this loss:—

Livor <fe usa suis vesana Calumnia technis, Vt uocuere Patri, sic nocuere mihi. P., 19.

The property of Elizabeth's father was at Briisc, in Bohemia, and after the family lost this at his death, the widow and daughter went to Prague to petition the Emperor Rudolf for justice. Now, it is at least a curious coincidence that the name Kelley had been well known in this part of the world a few years before. The notorious Edward Kelley, who had at one time been patronized by Rudolf, and afterwards fallen under his displeasure, met with his death in 1595. From September, 1586, to March, 1589, Dr. Dee, at the invitation of William Ursinus, Count Rosenberg, had lived at the latter's castle at Tribau (Trebona). During a great part of this time Kelley had acted as Dee's " Skryer " and assistant in alchemy. It was from the count's elder brother Peter that Weston had obtained his estate. Thomas Kelley, Edward's younger brother, was also staying at Tribau, and Dee records his marriage as having taken place on 14 June, 1587 (" Nuptiae Domini Thorn Kelei," ' The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,' Camden Soc., 1842, p. 23).

Thomas Kelley's wife is mentioned else- where in the ' Diary 'as " Mistres Lidda K." (p. 26) and " Domina Lyrlda uxor D. Thorn a) Kelly " (p. 30). She and her husband crossed "to England in the summer of 1589, a few months before Dr. Dee him- self returned. On 19 April, 1590, the ' Diary ' records :

"I delivered my letters to Mr. Thomas Kelley tor his brother Sir Edward Kelley, knight, at the Emperor's court at Prage. Francys Garland was by, and Mr. Thomas Kelley his wife. God send them well thither and hither agayn ! "P. 33.

On 17 March, 1593, " Francis Garland cam home and browght me a letter from Mr. Thomas Kelly." On 28 March of the next year " Mr. Francis Garland browght me


Sir Edward Kelley and his brother's letters." On 18 Sept. Dee " sent letters to Sir Ed. K. and T. Kelly." On 25 Nov., 1595, he receives " the newes that Sir Edward Kelley was slayne."

What became of Thomas Kelley after his brother's death ? Could the Ludomilla Kelley, of whom John Francis Weston writes in 1598 that she has at last realized her wish of getting to England, be the " Lidda Kelley " who was the wife of Thomas ? Perhaps she was by this time widowed. The Christian name Ludomilla, that of the patron saint of Bohemia, might seem to show that the " affinis " of the Westons was a native of that country. I have given the name Lidda, or Lydda, on the strength of the printed edition of Dee's 'Diary.' But it appears to have been very inaccurately transcribed by the editor, Halliwell-Phillipps (' John Dee,' by Charlotte Fell Smith, p. 37). The Index, it may be added, is abominable. I have not the books at hand to investigate the matter any further.

EDWABD BENSLY.

University College, Aberystwyth.


JOHN COTTINGHAM (US. viii. 409, 454). - John Cottingham of Westminster School, born 1708, cannot be the son of Charles Cottingham and brother of Charles Cotting- ham of Trinity College, Dublin, because the youngest brother of the latter, Thomas, was born in 1700 ; but he may be John Cotting- ham, son of Richard Cottingham of Chester by Mary, only daughter and heiress of John Gregg of Elton. There is a mural tablet, with coat of arms and crest, in the church of Thornton-le-Moors, near Chester, and further details can be found in ' The Churches of Stoak, Backford, and Thornton-le-Moors,' by Paul Rylands and H. C. Beazley.

E. R. C.

BRITISH INFANTRY (11 S. viii. 428). The saying is Marshal Bugeaud's :

"L'infanterie anglaise est la plus redoutable de 1'Europe ; heureusement, il n'y en a pas beaucoup." It is in his ' (Euvres Militaires,' collected by Weil, Paris. JOHN W. THACKERAY.

County Club, Nottingham.

[MR. H. D. ELLIS thanked for reply.]

ANCIENT WIT AND HUMOUR (11 S. viii. 289, 334, 434). See 'The Humour of Homer,' by Samuel Butler, just issued by Mr. Fifield. This is a reprint of the post- humous volume of ' Essays on Art, Life, and Science,' with the addition of the title-essay on Homer. WM. H. PEET.