h s. vii. may io, i9i3] NOTES AND QUERIES. 365 1577, from Audoenus Ludovicus, Arch- deacon of Cambrai (i.e., Owen Lewis, B.C.L., sometime Fellow of New College, Oxford, and subsequently Bishop of Cassano), to Dom Cesare Speciano, protonotary apostolic at Milan, as follows :— " I wish to recommend to you Dom John r.erbloeum, an English clerk of Rochester, doctor of Common Law, who spent five years at Bologna
- ind took an excellent degree, and won great
applause to the glory of that University by his public disputations at the reopening of the studies or the arrival of students from some other University or any public function in the schools. He is learned in philosophy, skilled in law, a fluent speaker, modest, gentle, upright, of keen intelli- gence, sound judgment and a hard worker, and indefatigable. His father frequently called him home to England, as it were to the" fleshpots of Egypt, but he remained in voluntary exile for the sxke of the Catholic faith. He wishes to devote tie remainder of his days, I believe he is barely f >rty, to the ecclesiastical life, if he can find a suitable benefice or office worthy of his education, and he might even bring over his father to the Catholic communion if what was given to him might suffice for both. I have tried long and often at Rome for him, but have not yet succeeded. Cardinal Paleotus [i.e., Gabriele Paleottil favours him and has often used his work, but has not yet provided for him, perhaps from lack of oppor- t unity. The whole Christian world knows the great qualities of Cardinal Borromco, the light of our age, and I doubt not that he can find a place for a labourer in the Ixird's vineyard worthy of this man; I ask for this, and shall esteem it a favour to myself. T have no doubt that it will redound to the service of the Church of God. " Prom my house at Rome, the 28th June, 1577." There can be no doubt that " Berbloeum " is a misreading for Berbloeum, i.e. Bearblock. The ' Concertatio Ecclesiae' mentions a John Berbloke, doctor of law, as an exile. Among the wills, either original or copies, preserved at the English College, Rome, in 1838, was one " 1588, Joannis Berblochi, Angli " (see Collect Topog. e.t Oenealog., v. 87); so it is to be presumed he died there. A relative, Thomas Bearblock, was com- mitted to the Counter in Wood Street on 12 or 22 Sept., 1586, and on 30 Nov. following the Council ordered him to be continued in prison, with this note : " He travelled into Itallie to obtaine relief by means of the Catholiques there. He offreth conformitie " (Cath. Rec. Soc, ii. 260, 263, 264, 269). John B. Wainewright. The ' Stamford Mercury.' — One of the oldest copies of a provincial news- paper in the British Museum Library is the Stamford Mercury, published 22 May, 1718 (vol. xi. No. 21). It is in a small volume containing four consecutive numbers, and was exhibited at the conference of the Institute of Journalists held in London, 1893 (cf. 'Ency. Brit.,' xxxi. 173 b, and Fenland N. & Q., April, 1901, art. 886). As I have recently bought four copies, all dated two years earlier, viz., 10, 22, 31 May, and 7 June, 1716, it may be useful to de- scribe them. The title-pages are precisely similar to the B.M. copies (except dates and number- ing), as follow :— Stamford Mercury: Being Historical and Political Observations on the Transactions of Europe Together with Remarks on Trade. May 10, 1716. No. 19 [Woodcut.] Printed by Tho. Baily and Will Thompson, at Stamford in Lincolnshire, 1716. Price Three Half-pence. It is a small quarto of twelve pages. The chief interest, it seems to me, of these discovered copies is that they confirm the opinion that this newspaper was numbered in half-yearly volumes, and if all the previous volumes were similarly issued, this would give us the date of the first number—Thurs- day, 1 (3) January, 1713. To complete the dates of the various years preceding my copies of vol. vii. and the B.M. copies of vol. xi., I subjoin the assumed list of half- yearly volumes :— Jan. to June, 1713 July to Dec, 1713 Jan. to June, 1714 July to Dec, 1714 Jan. to June, 1715 July to Dec, 1715 Thursday, Vol. VIL Vol. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. V1I1. IX. X. XI. Jan. to June, 1716 July to Dec, 1716 Jan. to June, 1717 July to Dec, 1717 Jan. to June, 1718 the and Which seems convincing proof that volumes were numbered half-yearly, that the earliest date of the Stamford Mercury was 1713 (or 1712 legal style), and not 1695, as is still maintained by some authorities. Whether the present Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury is a direct descendant of these 1716 and 1718 copies is most doubtful, but another question. Herbert E. Nobris. Cirencester.
