9* s. ii. DEC. io, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.
465
actually descriptive, do yet suggest some
characteristic of the person bearing them.
The best instance I can think of in Scott is
Guilbert Glossin. C. C. B.
CROMWELL'S LIBRARY. On a fly-leaf from an old binding there is written the following manuscript note in pencil :
"March, 1788. This book cost at Mr. White's sale 21. Lot 207.
" Oliver had probably the same value for this Book that Richard 3 d had for his Prayer Book ; and bought it most likely with the same design."
Below this there is pasted a cutting, evi- dently taken from an old catalogue :
"Voragine (Jacobi de) Legenda Aurea, black letter. Lugd. Bat., 1524.
"With autograph of Oliver Cromwell on the Title.
" This volume was purchased at the sale of the Library of John White, Esq., in 1784 ; a catalogue of the sale is appended."
Perhaps this may interest somebody. The prayer book allusion doubtless comes from Shakespeare's ' King Richard III.,' Act III. sc. vii. lines 47, 98. >GEO. NEILSON.
Glasgow.
SIR RALPH HOPTON. (See 7 th S. xi. 46.) Another example can be supplied of the im- pression created upon contemporaries by the frequently circulated story of the killing in battle of this Royalist general. In John Cleveland's 'The Character of a London Diurnall,' as printed in 1647, it is said of the newspapers that
"they kill a man over and over, as Hopkins and Sternhold murder the Psalmes, with another to the same ; one chimes all in, and then the other strikes up, as the Saints- Bell. I wonder, for how many lives mv Lord Hoptons Soule tooke the Lease of his Body. First, Stamford slew him : then Waller out- killed that halfe a Barre : and yet it is thought the sullen corps would scarce bleed, were both these Man-slayers never so near it."
ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
SIE HENRY MONCRIEFF (WELLWOOD). (See ante, p. 392.) In vol. iv. of Chambers's 'Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scots- men is a well-engraved portrait of this eminent divine from the original picture by Sir Henry Raeburn in the possession of the family. Sir Henry is represented as a large, fine-looking man, with his coat buttoned, but the badge of the Nova Scotia baronet is not worn. He had assumed the name of Well- wood, and died in 1827.
In vol. v. of the same work is also an engraved portrait of his son, Sir James Well- wood Moncrieff, Bart., one of the Lords of Session, after the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, in which the countenance depicts
intellect of the highest order. He is
represented as wearing the badge of the
Nova Scotia baronet suspended by an orange-
coloured ribbon over his waistcoat. Sir
James died in 1851, and had taken a leading
part in the Free Church movement.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
SIR BARTHOLOMEW ASCOCK, KNT., M.P. FOR CHESHIRE, 1604-11. The Blue - book Parliamentary return gives as members for Cheshire in the first Parliament of James I., Sir Thomas Holcroft and Sir Bartholomew Ascock, Knights, elected 27 February, 1604. This return reads definitely enough, and is, moreover, corroborated by Browne Willis, with the slight difference in the rendering of Ascock V name as Astlock. Clear and definite though this return appears, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that some error exists as to Ascock. I have found no reference or mention whatever of any such knight, nor indeed to such a name. From other authorities we gather that during some portion of this Parliament one of the mem- bers for Cheshire was the well - known Sir Roger Aston, Knt., Groom of the Bedchamber to the King, and it has been supposed upon the evidence of a misread reference in the Commons' Journals dated 14 February, 1609/10 that he was returned at a by-election in 1610 in the place of Sir Thomas Holcroft. But nothing can be more certain than that Holcroft and Aston both sat through this Parliament from beginning to end. They are both named as serving on important com- mittees from the opening week of the Parliament in March, 1604, until its close in 1611. If Aston did not represent Cheshire, for what place did he sit 1 If, as seems fairly certain, Aston was M.P. for Cheshire, what becomes of Ascock ? And who was Ascock ? It would be a far-fetched supposition that Sir Bartholomew Ascock has been erroneously inserted in the return for Sir Roger Aston. Yet any other explanation is difficult.
W. D. PINK.
Leigh, Lancashire.
THE COLOUR GREEN AND THE GRAHAMS AND ST. GLAIRS. In a past number I think a notice appeared to the effect that the colour green was unlucky to the Grahams. I know of no authority or tradition warranting it, and never heard of the superstition, but lately came across one applying to the Sinclair's or St. Clairs. No gentleman of that name in Caithness (up to the end of last century at least) would put on green apparel or think of crossing the Ord upon a Monday.
