150 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s. VHJ. FEB. 19. 1021. which your own hands have raised) where, like the famed orator of old, when public cares permit, you pass so many rational, unbending hours : then, and at such times, to have been admitted, still plays in my memory more like a fictitious than a real enjoyment ! How many golden evenings, in that theatrical paradise of watered lawns and hanging groves, have I walked and prated down the sun in social happiness ! Whether the retreat of Cicero, in cost, magnificence, or curious luxury of antiquities, might not out-blaze the simplex munditiis, the modest ornaments of your villa, is not within my reading to determine : but that the united power of nature, art, or elegance of taste, could have thrown so 'many varied objects into a more delightful harmony, is beyond my conception." This parade of enthusiasm for classical archaeology reminds me of Dr. Blimber also, though there is a note in it of the subservient coxcomb which belongs specially to the ingenious and conceited author. V. R. (gruriea. WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct. SKELTON OF HESKET AND ARMATHWAITE CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. The following is copied from a note which was made by a great-grandson of Thomas and Amabilis Skelton : "On a tombstone in Hesket Church-yard
- Hie recubat Thomas Skelton et Amabilis uxor |
et cinis est unus qua? fuit una caro | Filius hos inter Gulielmus contuit ossa | Corpora sic uno pulvere trina jacent | Sic opifex rerum omni- potens qui trinus est unus j Pulvere ab hoc uno corpora trina dabit. ( Thomas Skelton A.D. 1720 JE. 78. Obiere -J Gulielmus filius A.D. 1726 M. 26. (Amabilis Skelton A.D. 1759 M. 94. Optimorum parentum memoria sacrum ac grati animi argumentum hoc posuere liberi superstites Thos. Isaacus, et Sarah Skelton A.D. 1762.' N.B. Of the ancient family of Skeltons." Evidently the writer had reasons for thinking the Skeltons buried in Hesket churchyard were related to the Skeltons who were at Armathwaite Castle until 17 12. From the sources open to me at present I cannot trace the relationship. Foster's ' Pedigrees of Lancashire Families ' does not show Thomas and Amabilis among the Skeltons. I shall be grateful to any one who can aid me in tracing the connection. E. W. BRUNSKILL. Cark-in-Cartmel. ARMS : IDENTIFICATION SOUGHT. I have a bookplate of arms, viz., a chevron, purpurc, between three (query) cat-a-mountain heads, or. Crest, a Hermit. Are these Barring- ton or Berington ? See Burke 's ' Landed Gentry ' (Berks. Chester, Hereford and Worcester). I have miniatures painted on ivory of Judge Berington and his wife, and my grandmother, his niece. My grandfather, Paul, came from Datchet, near Windsor, to Essex. I shall be glad if any reader could throw light 011 the arms ? HENRY GOODY. Colchester. JOHN CROOK, QUAKER : PORTRAIT WANTED. Is there any known existing portrait of John Crook (born 1617), Quaker ? Stated to have been of Lancashire stock but resided in Bedfordshire. According to the 'D.N.B.' he wrote a number of books several of which had a wide popularity during the eighteenth century. In 1653 he was recommended to the Protector as a fit person to serve as knight of the shire for Bedfordshire. He died at Hertford in 1699 and was buried at Sewel (Beds). F. CROOKS. Eccleston Park, Prescot. JOHN BEAR, MASTER OF THE FREE SCHOOL AT RIPON. Hearne in his ' Collections ' under Mar. 17, 1721-2, states that "Mr. John Bear, Bach, of Arts and Student of Ch. Ch., who determined the Lent, was about five months pgo made Master of the Free School ot Rippon in Yorkshire " (vol. vii. 339). I am unable to find any John Bear of Ch. Ch. in 'Alumni Oxon.,' or in the 'Cata- logue of Oxford Graduates,' and it would seem that there is a mistake somewhere. Can any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' give the name of the master of Ripon School, who was appointed in 1721 ? G. F. R. B. VOLUNTEERING IN "THE FORTIES. "- I entered an Edward VI. Grammar School in 1846. We were drilled by an ex-Sergeant of Militia. There was not then any semb- lance of a company or corps, but there survived memories of such an organization ; and I remember, as a child, seeing at this school a senior boy wearing, I think, some sort of uniform and certainly armed with a sword. Is there any recollection of any general drilling or enrolment of volunteers at this time ? and if so for what reason? France had been engaged with Abd-el-Kacler and the Sultan of Morocco, and this conflict
