Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/148

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NOTES AND QUERIES

140


NOTES AND QUERIES.


S. fl 7., FEB. 16. '56.


qnly record he ever met with of Denham, during a long residence at Upminster, was a brick, with W. D. (Derhain's initials) impressed thereon, which the rector (Mr. Holden) possessed ; which was found in sinking a well in his, the rector's, garden.

Dr. Derham was a Canon of Windsor, and it is possible there may be some record of him there ; although the pleasing memoir of him, prefixed to the edition of his Physico- Theology, published in 1798, by Strachan (Cadell & Davies), distinctly states that he died at Upminster, April 5, 1735, in his seventy-eighth year.

It may not be amiss to remind the inhabitants of Upminster, that it is not too late to repair the negligence of former parishioners by at once erect- ing some memorial to so worthy and amiable a man as their former rector. R. W.

Sussex Place, Eegent's Park.

P.S. Your correspondent, UPMINSTER, has, I conclude, consulted Morant's Essex for answers to his heraldic Queries.

Rochefoucaulfs Maxim (2 nd S. i. 53.) I know nothing of M. Aime-Martin's edition ; but I have found the celebrated "Maxime" in all the edi- tions that I have seen, and especially in that by Didot, 1815, where it stands No. 241. C.

Andrea Ferrara (2 nd S. i. 73.) CLERICUS is informed that the value of an Andrea Ferrara blade is quite nominal ; many hilts of Highland claymores are beautifully worked, and they fetch a good price generally. The temper of these blades is much overstated. I should be very sorry to place two specimens I have under such treatment as Wilkinson, of Pall Mall, submits his sword-blades every Wednesday : the proof is well worth seeing, and any one, I believe, can witness it by asking. As far as I recollect. I gave for my best claymore (the make of Andrea Ferrara) SI. 10s. ; but in this specimen the hilt is not in- laid with silver, as is the case with many of them. I cannot give him the name of any work in which he will find information upon the subject.

CENTURION.

Athenaeum Club.

Planche, in his History of British Costume, p. 448., engraves one of these sword-blades from the Meyrick Collection, and says that they were highly prized in Scotland about 1574. Their value has risen since the Highland gatherings annually at Braemar, &c., as a genuine Andrea Ferrara to wear on that occasion is considered " the thing." Of the maker I believe nothing satisfactory is known. The name is variously en- graved on them, ANDRIA, ANDREA, FERRARA, and FERARA, and some are said to be spurious. I subjoin a description of one I purchased in Glen- finlus, and which I have every reason to believe


was "out" in the "Forty-five" with its owner, Macgregor. Length 34 inches, exclusive of the basket-hilt; breadth 1| inches, tapering to a rounded point. The blade is three-grooved, and bears the inscription and marks :


X X ANDREA


FERARA X X


Will any owner of another specimen enable me to compare inscriptions ? After all, the best test of genuineness is the quality ; mine is incomparable for elasticity and flexibility. E. S. TAYLOR.

Lord of Vri/houven (1 st S. x. 307. 394.) The Lord of Vryhouven, Pieter Huguetan, left by his will, dated Sept. 10, 1780, among other legacies, 1001. to each of the city schools of the reformed Protestant religion in Leyden ; the testator re- quiring and ordaining that no part, of the legacy should ever be employed for building, repairing, or adorning ; but that the whole should be de- voted to the profit and immediate use of the chil- dren of the above-named schools. This legacy was paid through Messrs. Kops & Kousemaker, London, in January, 1793. We learn from the will, that Mr. Huguetan, lord of the manor of Vryhoeven, in South Holland, resided in King Street, Covent Garden. He died in London, June 10, 1791. His will is in the care of John Schabrarge, notary, in London. From The Na- vorscher. J. SCOTT.

Norwich.

Epigram in a Bible (1 st S. xi. 27. 73.) The author of this epigram was the learned theologian S. Wehrenfels ; who, in the early part of the last century, was pi'ofessor of divinity at Basil. It has for title, S. Scripture abusus, and is the forty- ninth in his collection of epigrams. See his Opuscula, published in two volumes 4to. (Leyden and Leeuwaarden, 1772). As a warning against bibliolatry, it stands in its true place at the be- ginninf of the Bible. From The Navorscher.

J.'S.

De La Fond (1 st S. ix. 272.) Concerning the person represented by this portrait, I have as yet found no very decided information. That he was the newspaper-writer, may be safely inferred, from the sheet of paper in his left hand, and the pen in his right. On this paper, between the an- cient and the present arms of Amsterdam, are the words : " La gazette ordinaire d'Amsterdam. Du Lundi, 5 Decembre, 1667; De Madrid, 10 Nov." In the Bibliotheque de la France, by Le Long (vol. iv. p. 186.), this portrait is mentioned as that of " N. de la Fond, fameux gazetier de la Hol- lande, Francois H. Gascar, pinx., Lombart, sc., 1680, avec un distique de Santeuil." In the Catalogue of Van Ilulthem, 1846 (p. 727., No.