been an English statesman, who was knighted and appointed attached to them, by which they were formerly secured Secretary of State by Charles II., a post he retained until under open cages." his death. FREDERICK RULE.

of the Protector's family, with many notes and extracts to the antiquity of the town and church. As regards the relating to his descendants, which refute some of the absurd former, Hasted quotes Camden, who wrote, "Lid is a J. P. EARWAKER, B.A., F.S.A. pretty populous town, whither the inhabitants of Promhill stories that have at different times been circulated about betook themselves after the inundation which destroyed that them. village in King Edward the 1st's reign." (Crowned, 1272; COACHES IN ENGLAND (Vol. iv. 167, 182).—I noticed d., 1307.) Further on, Hasted relates that-"The seawith much interest the inquiry started by Mr. Bosanquet in shore, about a mile eastward from the town, is called Stonea late number of the Antiquary, under the above heading, end, where no doubt was placed the stone at the extremity and entertained the hope that a reply would have been of the land, mentioned as the southern boundary of the elicited more satisfactory than the one furnished by Mr. estate given in the year 774, by King Offa" (King of Edwards, on p. 182, ante. The romantic story connected Mercia), "to Archbishop Janibert." This is the earliest with Queen Elizabeth's Dutch coachman has been so often mention of Lydd, by Hasted. As regards the church, it is repeated on both sides of the Atlantic, that it may seem said that the "parish of Lydd is within the ecclesiastical very much like impertinence in a Yankee were he to doubt jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanery of its truthfulness in the presence of so many endorsers-and Limne." Then follows a description of the church which yet he is sceptical. I will not consent-especially since is dedicated to All Saints. There is a figure and inscription we want nothing but facts," and the Alabama question on brass for John Montelfont, B.L., vicar, obt. 1420. The has been amicably settled-that your Continental neigh-vicarage was endowed anno 1321. It was, in 1799, of the bours shall longer monopolize the honour of making your first coach, without at least one effort to disprove it.

66

At the coronation of English monarchs, previous to the reign of Elizabeth, carriages were sometimes used, although there were exceptions; covered chariots, with ladies therein, followed the litter of Catherine on her coronation with that old sinner, who "never spared man in his anger, nor woman in his lust "-Henry VIII.-and likewise that of Anne Boleyn, at a subsequent day in his history. The "Bloody Mary" rode through London to Westminster in 1553, "sitting in a chariot of cloth of tissue, drawn by six horses." In 1556 Sir T. Hoby offers the use of his coach to Lady Cecil. M. Donce says, "Although this quotation from the Burleigh Papers (iii., No. 53) presents probably the earliest specific date of the use of coaches in England, we must infer they were known before, though probably not long before. Bishop Kennet, in a note that I found among his papers, mentions that J. Chamberlayne, Esq., of Petty France, has a picture of his grandfather, on which is this inscription- Sir Thomas Chamberlayne, of Prestbury, in Gloucestershire, Ambassador from England to Charles V., Philip II., and to the King of Sweden. In Flanders he married a lady of the House of Nassau, and from thence, also, he brought the first coaches and the first watches that were ever seen in England. He was born in the reign of Edward IV., and died in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.' This curious inscription, therefore, leaves the exact time of the introduction of coaches into England in a state of uncertainty."+

Now, notwithstanding the assertions of such old fogies as Stow, and the endorsement of such deadly enemies to coaches as Taylor, can we in view of the foregoing, and much more that might be produced of the same kind, receive their testimony cum grano salis, especially when we know that under the names of chares, cars, chariots, car roaches, and whirlicotes, carriages were used in England for a century, or more, before the time of "Good Queen Bess ?" Men simply literary may, but old coachmakers like myself must at least be permitted to dissent. I intend, however, to treat this subject more in detail in a forthcoming volume, entitled, "The World on Wheels," now in course of preparation. Meanwhile I trust that your contributors in England will give this subject further consideration.

New York.

E. M. STRATTON.

Lydd, Kent (Vol. iv. 226).-Lydd, written in ancient records Hlyda, a name probably derived from the Latin word littus, a shore, alluding to the situation of it close to the shore of the sea, is a town of very great antiquity. Hasted, in his "History of Kent," 2nd edit., 1799, gives a long and minute account of the town and parish of Lydd. Your correspondent seems chiefly to desire information as

* D'Avenant's Works, fol. 1673, p. 351, et. seg.
+ Archæologia, Vol. xx., p. 493, note.

clear value of 260l. Now, I have heard, the value is more
than quadrupled. I cannot glean from Hasted anything
of the tower having been built by Wolsey, but the noted
further as to the antiquity of the church. Nothing is said
cardinal is stated to have been the vicar in 1506.
FRED. RULE.

Lydd, named from Littus, a shore, is 4 miles south of
Romney. It contains a fine Perpendicular church. In
Murray's "Hand Book to Kent and Sussex "
we read
(Route 14, p. 262) as follows,-

"The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a large cruciform Perpendicular building, with a fine pinnacled tower. It was once a possession of Tentern Abbey, having been given to it by one of the De Clares. In the north chancel is the altar-tomb, with the effigy of Sir Walter Meynell, temp. Edward III.; and there are also the following brasses (some of them loose) :-John Motesfont, vicar, 1420; John Thomas, 1429; Thomas Godefray, 1430, and his wife; a civilian, c. 1510; a civilian, c. 1530; Thomas Harte and his wife, 1557; Peter Godfrye, 1566, and wife; Thomas Bate, 1579; a civilian and wife, 1590; John Berrey, 1597; Clement Stuppeny, Jurat and bailiff, 1608; Laurence Stuppeny, 1613."

wrecked on this shore.
There is a legend that SS. Crispin and Crispianus were
A. D.

66

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF (Vol. iv. 226).—Mr. Little will find in Hepworth Dixon's 'Her Majesty's Tower some reference to the connection between Shakespeare and Old. castle. It appears that the monks and friars in their spectacles," then in fashion, used to try to damage the memory of the " good Lord Cobham" (as Oldcastle was called by the common people), by representing him as a buffoon and fool. Shakespeare, when writing the play of Henry IV., misled by these false representations of Oldcastle's character, called his buffoon by that name, and so it appears in the first draft of the play. Afterwards he appears to have discovered his mistake, and altered the name to "Sir John Falstaff;" and, to make complete amends, in the epilogue to the second part of Henry IV., he says, in a hint that Falstaff will appear again-"for anything I know Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." The late Charles Knight gave some interesting information about Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, in his introduction to Henry IV., Merry Wives of Windsor, &c., and also the original play of "Šir John Oldcastle," by some attributed to Shakespeare. In the "Bye-gones" column of the Oswestry Advertiser, recently, it is stated that a place in North Wales is yet pointed out where Lord Cobham took refuge from his persecutors, and where he was captured, and which goes by the name of "Cobham's Garden."

ASKEW ROBERTS.

66

F. S. A. CHINGFORD CHURCH, ESSEX (Vol. iv. 216). — It is stated in Hughson's "History of London,” p. 226, that

"Dr. James Marsh, of Merton College, in Oxford, was rector of this parish anno 1630. He was Archdeacon of Chichester, and dying in 1643, his archdeaconry was given to the excellent and learned man Dr. Henry Hammond." There is an account also in the same work of the lordship, but nothing further with reference to the church.

GRAY'S ELEGY (Vol. iv. 180, 206, 238).-I will give Mr. almost time immemorial" up to the year 1778, when it was Appleby my authorities for having said Stoke Pogis was the re-modelled to its present shape. Will he kindly give any scene of Gray's elegy. In Maunders "Treasury of Know- evidence for this statement-the earlier, of course, the better. ledge," it is said-"The churchyard of Stoke Pogis was the To repeat the assertion of local and ignorant guides book scene of Gray's celebrated elegy." In the "National Ency-manufacturers is hardly desirable now-a-days. clopædia" (Mackenzie) the same statement is made; and Mr. J. C. Bellew, in his "Poets' Corner" (Routledge), says, Stoke Pogis, near Slough, was the particular spot described." Such statements, I admit, do not answer Mr. Appleby's query, as they do not prove that the elegy was begun at Stoke. As regards the idea of the opening line, I have already stated whence Gray is said to have drawn his inspiration. And in Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," article, 66 Poetical Imitations and Similarties," it is said"Gray appears to me to be indebted to Milton for a hint for the opening of his elegy: as in the first line he had Dante and Milton in his mind," &c. Now, if Gray really borrowed his first line from Dante, it seems immaterial whether the "curfew was rung at or near the place where Gray then resided," as the line was not his own, but the imagination of Dante. Gray's mother is said to have resided at Stoke Pogis; she certainly died and was buried there in 1753, and Gray erected a monument, and placed an inscription upon her grave. He, too, was buried at Stoke Pogis, and by the side of the "careful, tender mother of many children."

Since my communication (p. 206 ante), I have read in the "Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography" (Mackenzie, Paternoster-row), that "The poem was commenced in 1742, and finished in 1749, under the influence of sorrow for the death of his aunt. Walpole saw it in MS., and showed it to many admiring friends. There is a tradition that the elegy was composed in the precincts of the church of Grantchester, and the curfew is supposed to have been the great bell of St. Mary's." Perhaps Mason's "Life of Gray" may contain the information Mr. Appleby requires. FREDERICK RULE.

WINWICK (Vol. iv. 222).-Your correspondent, "J. P. S.,” in his article on the above subject, ignores all the theories on the subject of the site of the death of Oswald, save the least probable, i.e., the one that places the scene in Lancashire. Mr. Tew, M.A., in Notes and Queries, August 9. 1873, quotes Professor Hussey, Sharon Turner, Jeremy Collier, Fuller, Lingard, and others, as holding to the belief that Oswestry was the place whence the saint "did to heaven remove." The late Mr. Hartshorne says the place was Maesbrook (five miles from Oswestry); Mr. Anderson (“Antiquities of Shropshire "), says Maesbury (three miles from Oswestry), and "H. W. L.," in an interesting contribution to the " Bye-gones" column of the Oswestry Advertiser, October 15, 1873, says a good deal in support of the theory that Coedwae-the Wood of Woe (fourteen miles from Oswestry), "may be safely identified with the Codoy of Nennius," and was therefore the scene of Oswald's death. our eyes; Oswald's Well, and Maserfield at our doors; it is only natural that we in Oswestry decline to give up the saint who gave us a name, without some better reasons than the ipse dixit of J. P. S.

With the Base of Croes-Oswallt-Oswald's Cross-before

OLD OSWESTRY.

W. S. LONGMAN.

COTSWOLD GAMES (Vol. iv. 203, 230).-For the earliest reference to these once celebrated games, refer to Clement Barksdale's "Nympha Libethris, or the Cotswold Muse," 1651; and "Annalia Dubrensia. Upon the yearely celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympick Games upon Cots wold Hills" (in verse), p. 36. Both these are excessively rare books, but probably are to be found in the British Museum. See also "Bibliotheca Anglopoetica," Vol. ii., Chetham Society, under Barksdale, &c.

India set on foot the movement for the systematic examinaARCHEOLOGY IN INDIA.-In 1867 the Government of tion, preservation, or record by photography and other means, of ancient buildings, inscriptions, and monuments. from the then Secretary of State (Sir Stafford Northcote, The year following, the scheme having received an impetus for Western India; but from that time until quite recently an establishment to carry out those purposes was sanctioned only intermittent archæological operations have been carried out, the most important and successful being the delineation School of Art. At last a systematic enterprise is determined of Ajunta frescoes by Mr. Griffiths, of the Sir Jamsetjee upon in this direction, Mr. James Burgess having just been and record throughout the Bombay Presidency, the Govern appointed to carry out the work of archæological research ment of India having declined to sanction extension to the Berars, Central Provinces, and the Nizam's dominions. Probably his Excellency Lord Northbrook intends to include those provinces in some other plan. Nothing has been heard of General Cunningham, the Archæologist-General, for some time past; but it is understood he is steadily working away somewhere in Northern India.

DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT COFFINS AT LEICESTER.

Before your correspondent, "J. P. S.," writes again on Lancashire archæology, he would do well to consult the published volumes of the Chetham Society, where he Besides the discovery recorded on p. 159 ante, some workwill find much valuable and interesting information relating men, recently engaged in excavating for a cellar in connec to that county (and to Cheshire), which corrects and greatly tion with the new spinning works of Messrs. Brierley and adds to Baines's history. He would confer a favour on many Son, Newarke-street, found two leaden coffins, contain people if he would give the exact date, &c., from the parish ing human remains. The coffins lay from two to three feet register, of Arrowsmith's birth, together with his father's

and mother's names.

F. S. A.

WHITE HORSE OF WESTBURY (Vol. iv. 19, 109, 181). Mr. C. Golding makes the following dogmatic assertion :"A smaller and ruder one (that is horse) stood there from

apart, and were about three feet below the surface. When

uncovered they were about three parts filled with earth, but the bones of the different parts of the bodies were visible. One of the coffins measures about five feet eight inches in length, and the other is some two inches longer. Both are about a foot in depth. Several skulls have previously been

picked up in this locality; and the leaden coffin previously discovered was found only some forty or fifty yards further up the street. The coffins were removed to the Museum. BRANDON CHURCH.- The parish church of Brandon, Suffolk, has just been reopened, after restoration under the direction of Mr. Charles Pertwee, architect, of Chelmsford. The church appears to have been built piece meal at various periods, the first portion having been built about the year 1050, During the work of excavation several fine old carved memorial-stones were found, with beautiful floriated crosses thereon, turned bottom upwards, and made to answer for floor pavements. Upon one found buried at some depth beneath the chancel, was a brass scroll bearing the inscription “Orate pro anima Rogeri Wheevle." Built into the walls of the tower were also found some old stone coffins.

Proceedings of Societies.

:

Obituary.

JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, ESQ., F.S.A.-It is our painful duty to record to-day the death of the above gentleman, whose name for nearly half a century has been well known in the world of literature, more especially in those branches of it which appertain to history, biography, and heraldic research, and other kindred matters of an antiquarian nature. He died on Thursday the 13th instant, at his residence, Holmwood, near Dorking, in the 68th year of his age. The deceased gentleman was the eldest son of the late John Bowyer Nichols, Esq., F.S.A., and grandson of the late John Nichols, Esq., F.S.A., the author of "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," and of the " History of Leicestershire." He was born in London, in the year 1806, and having received his education at Merchant Taylors' School, at once devoted himself to literature, in connection with his business as a printer, and largely assisted his father and grandfather in their work of editing the Gentleman's Magazine. It need hardly be said that he had inherited from his father a taste for antiquarian and topographical research, and in early life he became a Fellow of the OXFORD ARCHITECTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Society of Antiquaries, to whose publications he was a frequent The members of the above society have decided to continue and valuable contributor. From 1824 down to the year the series of Saturday Walks and Excursions commenced in 1856-when the proprietorship of the Gentleman's Magazine 1870; and, on account of the shortness of the days at this was relinquished by the Nichols family-Mr. John Gough season of the year, they will be restricted to Oxford. The Nichols contributed many historical essays and reviews to following have been arranged:the pages of that important publication, and also compiled its very copious obituary, a department in itself which has rendered that work invaluable to the future biographer and historian. His first separate work was a collection of and Remarkable Personages of English History, from the Reign of Richard II. to that of Charles II., with biographical memoirs." This was published in 4to., in 1829, and "London was followed two years later by an 8vo volume on Pageants," which was received with considerable favour. About this time he set to work to complete the "Progresses of King James I.," which had been left in an unfinished state at his grandfather's death. In 1833 he produced another valuable 4to. work on the "Monuments in the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick," and in 1838 he published, in folio, "A Description of the Frescoes discovered in the Guild Chapel at Stratford-on-Avon, and of the Records relating thereto." In 1834, on the formation of the Surtees Society, Mr. Nichols was appointed its treasurer, a post which he held for many years; and in 1838 he suggested the Camden Society, for the publication of historical documents, which met with extraordinary success, and has been the model on which other popular printing societies have since been established. Of the hundred and odd volumes illustrative of our national history issued by the Camden Society, several were edited by Mr. Nichols, while nearly all the others contain acknowledgments from their respective editors of their obligation to that gentleman, whose extensive knowledge was always most freely placed at the service edited for the above society, are "The Chronicle of Calais " of others. Among the many interesting works which he (1846); "The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen of London, from 1550 to 1563" (1847); "The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and two years of Queen Mary" (1850); "The Grey Friars Chronicle of London," in 1852; "Grants, &c., of King Edward V." (1854); and in the same year "Inventories of the Wardrobe, &c., of Henry Fitz-Roy, Duke of Richmond, and of the Wardrobe Stuff at Baynard's Castle On Wednesday last, at 8 p.m., the members met, when of the Princess Dowager;" and "Narratives of the Days the Rev. Prebendary Wilkinson, M.A., of Merton College, of the Reformers (being the unpublished papers of Fox read a paper on "The Origin of the Sorbonne, in the the Martyrologist)," issued in 1860. He also edited, in University of Paris, and its possible connection with the conjunction with the late John Bruce, Esq.," Wills foundation of Merton College." The secretaries also gave from Doctors' Commons," issued in 1863. In 1841 an account of their correspondence with the Bishop of he prepared for the Berkshire Ashmolean Society the Oxford, with reference to the preservation of the old church" Unton Inventories," with a memoir of the Unton family; at Hatford, Berkshire. besides which he edited some of the volumes for the Rox

To-day, at 2.30 p.m., it is proposed to meet in the hall of Pembroke College, when the Rev. the Master will receive the members, and the bursar will conduct them over the various parts of the college. They will afterwards visit"Facsimiles of Autographs of the Royal, Noble, Learned, Bishop King's house, an interesting example of domestic architecture of the sixteenth century.

On Saturday next, at 2.30 p.m., it is proposed to meet in the hall of Queen's College, where the Rev. the Provost hopes to receive the members. Some member of the foundation will then conduct the party to the most interesting and important parts of the college. There are several interesting portraits of benefactors to the college to be seen, and the library contains many valuable books and MSS. The old horn, and other curious plate, will also be exhibited. They will next proceed to the Church of St. Peter-in-the-East, where the Vicar (the Rev. J. R. King) has consented to meet the members, and point out the several alterations that have been made since their last visit in 1870. Those who were not then present will have an opportunity of seeing the interesting crypt beneath the church.

On Saturday last the members met in the hall of Brazenose College, where the Rev. the Principal received them and their friends, and conducted them over the buildings of the college, the chapel, library, &c. They afterwards proceeded to All Souls' College, to view the progress which has been made in the restoration of the Chichele Professor Burrows met the members, and explained the nature of the work in progress.

reredos.

The following meeting will also be held (by permission of the Curators) in the Taylor building :

On Wednesday next, at 8 p.m., Mr. W. H. Turner (of the Bodleian Library) will read a paper entitled, "Curious Extracts from the Ecclesiastical Court-books of the Diocese of Oxford." This will be considered the annual meeting of the society, when the officers and committee for the ensuing year will be elected.