12 8. IL JULY 22, 1918.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
It appears as if admission to the Feast
was by ticket. A friend writes to me :
" I remember, when searching some MSS. in the British Museum, seeing an invitation ticket to some such feast. I forget to whom it was addressed, but it had four or five sealing-wax seals of the stewards on it."
I looked through many of the Add. MSS. and others without finding it. Perhaps some reader of ' N. & Q.' will be more fortunate, and kindly supply me with the information.
[For a somewhat similar ticket see ' Descendants' Dinners,' 12 S. i. 469.]
FEAST No. 2, JUNE 24, 1697. CUTHBEKT BEDE wrote in 3 S. v. 497 : " I have a copy of Trimnell's Sermon. . . .1 am desirous to learn some particulars concerning this Feast, which is not mentioned in Brayley and those other topographical accounts and directories which, up to the present, are the only ' Countv Histories ' of which Huntingdonshire can boast.
I subjoin the full title and dedication :
The | DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN I Toward his | Neighbour Considered. | in a | SERMON, | Preached upon Occasion of the | Huntingdonshire Feast, | at | St. Su-ithin's Church, LONDON, I The 24th of June, being the Feast of St. J. Baptist. \ By CHARLES TRIMNELL, A.M. Prebendary | of Norwich, Rector of Briwjton in Northamptonshire, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sunderland. \ LONDON, Printed for John Weld, at the Croicn between the | Temple-Gates in Fleet-street | MDCXCVII. To my
Honoured Friends and Countrymen. /"Thomas Newman. I Charles Bainton. , r I John Foster. Mr - | Robert Purchase. I Anthony Ashton. \.John Bromhall.
Stewards of the Huntingdonshire Feast. Gentlemen,
Having Preached the following Sermon at your Request, To whom our Country owes so much for the Reviving of an Useful Society, out of a Charitable design, I hnd no Room left to refuse the making it Publick, when you were also pleas'd to insist upon that. For if you (for whose Use and Service it was mwe immediately designed) received any benefit from it, I cannot be without hopes, but it may be of some advantage to others ; and I have nothing to say against Communicating what has the least appearance of turning to any serious Account, when 1 am duly required to do it : I wish only it had been better prepared to have answered my own and your design, however, you have it at your desire, such as it is. And that it may not wholly fail of that success which (from your readiness to bear an Expence at this time in Love to your Count ry, and the good Order observ'd by you in the discharge of your office) / am per- tttaaed //on /</*// It; I must intreat you to joyn your earnest ' Prayers for a Blessing upon it, to the f- ft Petitions of Your very Affectionate Countryman,
and very Faithful Friend and Servant, C. TRIMNELL.
The Rev. Charles Trimnell, D.D. (1663-
1723), was Prebendary of Norwich, 1691 ;
Bishop of Norwich, 1707 ; translated to
Winchester, 1721. He published about
fifteen single sermons, &c. Trimnell was
baptized at Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon-
shire, May 1, 1663, where his father was
rector 1656-1702. Hence the term so appro-
priately used : " countryman."
I fancy this feast was closely connected with the one previously described. If an annual feast, it sometimes lapsed, and this is an instance of its revival. The sermon is recorded in the Term Catalogues, 1668-1709, vol. iii. p. 50.
FEAST No. 3, JUNE 26, 1702.
Another sermon I possess on this subject has not been recorded, and as it give? further useful information I subjoin full particulars of it. The title is :
A | SERMON | preach'd at the | Huntingdon- shire -FEAST, | June the 26th, 1702. | at | St. Michael's Cornhil, London. \ By ANTHONY HILL, | Lecturer of Stratford le Bow, and (.'1 i.-i plain to j His Grace the Duke of RICHMOND. London, | Printed by J. L. for Edward Evets, at the Green Dragon in St. Paul's Church-yard, \ MDCCII.
The Epistle Dedicatory :
To
Sir Charles Duncomb, "\ C _ Knt. and Alderman, Thomas Cotton, Rsq. ;
The Honourable -j Capt. Martin Lacy,
Charles Boyle Esq. ; Mf John Newman>
Peter Pheasant, Esq. ; ' v STEWARDS of the
GENTLEMEN
THIS SERMON, that was first Preach'd at Your Request, and is now Printed, Intreats Your Candour in the Reading : And if it can any way Promote the Honourable Design of Your FESTI- VAL, I shall think my self Doubly Happy ; first, in having had so favourable an Opportunity nf Pleading for the POOR ; and then the Satisfaction of hereby approving my self to be GENTLEMEN
Your most Affectionate Humble Servant,
ANTHONY HILL.
The stewards all belonged to well-known Huntingdonshire families. The Buncombes were of Great Staughton ; the Hon. Charles Boyle was M.P. for the Borough of Hunting- don in 1702 with Anthony Hammond^ the Hammonds being of Somersham Park ; the Phesants were of Upwood- Phesant, the Judge, died at his manor of Upwood, Oct. 1, 1649; the Cottons were of Connington, to whom belonged Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, the celebrated antiquary; of Capt. Martin Lacy's residence I have no
