Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/91

ii s. vii. Feb. i, wis.] NOTES AND QUERIES. $S [Enter Beelzebub.] Beelzebub. Here comes I, Beelzebub, And over my shoulder I carry my club, And in my hand a dripping pan ; I t liink myself a jolly old man. If you don't believe what I say, enter Little Devil Dowt and he '11 clear the way. [Enter Little Devil Dowt.] Little Devil Dowt (icho sweeps the room round the feel of the spectators). Here comes I, Little Devil Dowt, I f you don't give me money I '11 sweep you all out. Money I want and money I crave, If you don't give me money I '11 sweep you all to your grave. If you don't believe what I say, enter into Little Johnny C'onny and he '11 clear the way. [Enter Little Johnny Conny.] Little Johnny Conny. Here comes I, Little Johnny Conny, I 'm the man that carries the money, Big long pockets down to my knees Holds two bob bits and two bawbees. All 's silver, no brass, bad ha'pence won't pass. The traditional rimes end here with a collection, but of recent years a modern song is often added to complete the performance. R. S. Lepper. t'arnalea, co. Down. THE LORD OF BURLEIGH AND SARAH HOGGINS. (See 7 S. xii. 221, 281, 309, 457, 501; 8S. i. 387, 408; II S. vii. 61.) A doubt was thrown by Mb. Woodall as to whether the Rev. William Sneyd was ever actually married to Emma Vernon, Henry Cecil's divorced wife, as stated in The Gentleman's Magazine ; he thought it looked Like a hoax ! I think there is little doubt that they took advantage of the Act of Parliament, and were really married on 13 Oct., 1791. The tradition is that the cere- mony took place at Lisbon. Mr. Sneyd was curate of Hanbury at the time that he alienated Emma Vernon's affections from her husband. When he died or where he was buried I do not know, but his death must have taken place before 1796. In that year (1796) Emma Vernon was the wife of John Phillips of Winterdyne, near Bewdley, where they lived until Henry Cecil's death on 1 May, 1804, when they moved to Hanbury, Worcestershire, her ancestral home. Here they resided until her death, which took place on 21 March, 1818, at the age of 63 years. She was buried at Hanbury, at the extreme north edge of the churchyard, and her tombstone bears this inscription :— " Sacred to the memory of Emma, daughter and heiress of Thomas Vernon, esquire, late of Hanbury Hall in this parish, and wife of John Phillips, esquire. She died 21" day of March, 1818, aged 03, and was by her own desire buried here." The story is that in regret for her mis- doings she would not be buried in the Vernon vault in the church with her ancestors, but in the more unworthy place that she chose. Mr. John Phillips, her third husband, was a native of Droitwich ; was B.A. of Merton College. Oxford, 1780; a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, 1792; High Sheriff of Worcestershire, 1803; had a grant of arms and crest 16 Feb., 1825; and died at his residence, Edstone, near Stratford-on-Avon, 30 Jan., 1836, then aged 75. I should mention that Emma Vernon had by her first husband a child, who was named Henry Vernon Cecil. He was baptized at Hanbury, 12 June, 1777, but died in infancy, and was buried 11 July, 1777. She had no other children. Lord Exeter behaved with great kindness to his wife's brothers after her death. I have copies of a number of letters written by him to members of the family between 1798 and 1803, and in them he enters minutely into farming details, showing some considerable knowledge of agriculture. He sent his young brothers-in-law to school, and one of them to college, and put them in professions afterwards. One became a clergyman, two were officers in the Army, and the fourth was a farmer, Lord Exeter expending 1,0002. in setting him up on" a suitable farm. He also seems to have allowed each of them an annuity, apparently 50Z. a year apiece for their lives. There is no male descendant of the Hogginses of Bolas now living, and I think only one female descendant—a great-niece of the Countess Sarah, to whom I am in- debted for some of the information here given. Mb. Woodall seemed to think that Mr. " John Jones " did not come to Bolas much before June, 1789, because his wife did not elope with the Rev. William Sneyd until that month. I do not quite agree with him here. The tradition at Bolas and in the Hoggins family was that he came in the winter in a heavy, driving snowstorm, having lost his way, and his chaise being unable to proceed further. Presumably his wife's affections had been alienated from him and given to the Rev. William Sneyd before