12 s. vii. NOV. 20, 1020,] NOTES AND QUERIES.
417
'The Gobelin family had, in the middle of the
fifteenth century, a workshop in the Fau-
bourg St. Marcel in Paris. So rapidly did
vthe wealth of the family increase that in the fourth generation they purchased titles of nobility and introduced the figure of a -peacock on the products of their looms,
ithis being the crest granted them, as the peaoock is a proud bird and thzy were proud of their manufasture. See Lacordaire,
- Notice historique sur les manufactures de
tapisseries des Gobelins,' (Paris, 1853), and
- also Ginspach, 'Repertoire detaille des
Ttapisseries ' (Paris, 1878).- These authors were directors of the Gobelins manufactory.
F. J. ELLIS.
EARLIEST ENGLISH POETESS (12 S. vii. 351). One of the earliest of note is Mary Her 'bert, Countess of Pembroke (1555?-! 621), whose biography occurs in the 'D.N.B.,' and ~to whom Shakespeare presumably referred an his third Sonnet:
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime.
W. JAGGARD, Capt.
The late Prof. Henry Morley thought -that many of our old English ballads were written by women, and in his ' Shorter English Poems ' argues at some length in favour of the female authority of ' The Nut Brown Maid ' especially. I have not seen this suggestion anywhere else. Queen Eliza- beth wrote poetry, or at least verses, and '.Sidney's sister helped him in versifying the Psalms. Other names could doubtless "be added to these. C. C. B.
THE ROYAL SOVEREIGN (12 S. vii. 367). In connexion with the recent correspondence on this subject, the remarks of Peter Mundy, an eye-witness of the ship during con- struction and after completion are of interest. Early in the year 1636 Mundy having taken service with Sir William
Oourteen, was sent to Woolwich. He writes ( ' Travels of Peter Mundy, ' ed
'Temple, hi. pt. 1, 15-16) :
"Woolwich: The great ship on the Stocks
Wee went all a shoare to se the great Shipp now on the Stocks a buildiner in Woolwich Docke, where Mr Pett the younger, Cheife Carpenter or Artist shewed and related unto the Esquire [ Wm
' Courteen junr. ] what hee desired to see and heere concerninge her, then carried him to his howse, where wee sawe the Modell or Molde of the said shipp, which was shewne unto his Majestie before hee began her. The said Model was of exquisite and admirab'e Workemanshipp, curiouslye painted
- and guilte with azur and gold, soe contrived that
verye tymber in her might bee seene, left open
irid unplaucked for that purpose, verye neate and
delightsome. There were also the Modells of divers
ther shipps lately built, but nothinge comparable
- o the former.
" The great shipp itselfe, they say, wilbe ready x> be lanched in Aprill Anno 1637, and supposed that shee wilbe the greatest and fairest that ever was water borne of Eaglish built. For my part I was astonished to see such a prodigeous length and breadth, being 145 foote by the Keele and [blank], att the beame. Likewise such a number of huge,
\assie, squared, solid tymbers were never seene before in one Vessell. And therefore I thincke (as before is said) shee is worthy to carry e the Flagg as Admirall of the Seas Theis 2 wonderfull Struc- tures St Paules for the Land and our great new Shipp for the Seas, 1 conceave are not to bee pirralelled in the whole World."
On Sept. 26, 1639, Mundy was at Chat- ham (vol. iv. of the 'Travels,' under pre- paration for the Hakluyt Society). From Chatham he went to
"Jillirigame, beeffore which rode the great RoyaU Sovereigns which shippe I saw on the stockes in Aprill 1636 when wee wetitt Forth our China voyage, Her head, wast, quarter and sterne soe largely inritchei with Carved worcke overlaid with golde thatt itt appeares Most glorious even From a Farre, especially her s nations loffty stately sterne W heron is expressed all that art and cost can doe in Carving and guilding ; her beakehead about 23 Foote over, where it is joyned to her bowes, her inside as admirably contrived For strength, comeli- nesse, nett spacious Cabins, roomes, etts ; steered by takles on the Tiller, as Carrickes ; directed From aloft by a truncke, wherein the voice is con- veyed to them below; her Cookeroome in hold, the worcke therein don by Candlelight. Shee is said to have carried 92 brasse peeces off Ordnance. Shee hath 5 greatt lanr.hornes. In the biggest may stand 12 or 13 Men. Her [blank] was cutt in brasse by thatt excellent grayer and painter, Mr. John Paine, and a large discription of her sett Forth in a book by [blankj. The Bucintoro att Venice may be compared to her, butt For greattnesse as a Frigatt to a Galleon. "
Mundy's allusion to Payne fixes the date of his engraving between 1637 and 1639. The "large discription " of the vessel must refer to Hey wood's "true description" (see Times Lit&rary Supplement of Sept. 30, 1920). The existence of Payne's engraving was probably the reason why the Royall Sovereigne is not included among the numerous pen and ink drawings with which Mundy embellised his MS.
L. M. ANSTEY.
PARLIAMENTARY PETITIONS (12 S. vii. 338). In The Canterbury Diocesan Gazette for October, 1908, there is printed a copy of a Petition of John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, 1624-41, intituled "To 'the King's Most Excellent Majestie. The humble Petition of
