Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849

"For Bath.

A good Coach and able Horses will set out from the Black Swan Inn, in Holborn, on Wednesday or Thursday.

Enquire of William Maud."

"Exeter Flying Stage Coach in Three Days, and Dorchester and Blandford in two days.

Go from the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and from the New Inn, in Exeter, every Tuesday and Thursday, perform'd by

JOAN PAYNE,

JOHN SANDERSON,

THOMAS BURY.

Note.–Once a week there is an entire Dorchester and Blandford Coach from Dorchester on Mondays, and from London on Fridays.

The stage begins Flying on Monday next, the 16th instant."

"The old standing constant Froom Flying Waggon in Three days

Sets out with goods and Passengers from Froom for London, every Monday, by One o'clock in the morning, and will be at the King's Arms Inn, at Holborn Bridge, the Wednesday following by Twelve o'clock at Noon; from whence it will set out on Thursday morning, by One o'clock, for Amesbury, Shrewton, Chittern, Heytesbury, Warminster, Froom, and all other places adjacent, and will continue allowing each passenger fourteen pounds, and be at Froom, on Saturday by twelve at noon.

If any Passengers have Occasion to go from either of the aforesaid Places they shall be supplied with able Horses and a Guide by Joseph Clavey; the Proprietor of the said Flying Waggon. The Waggon calls at the White Bear in Piccadilly coming in and going out.

Note.–Attendance is constantly given at the King's Arms, Holborn Bridge aforesaid, to take in Goods and Passengers' names; but no Money, Plate, Bank Notes, or Jewels will be insured unless delivered as such, perform'd by

    JOSEPH CLAYEY.

N.B. His other Waggons keep their Stages as usual."

From Cruttwell's Sherborne, Shaftesbury, and Dorchester Journal, or Yeovil, Taunton, and Bridgewater Chronicle, of Friday, February 6th, 12th, and 20th, 1767.

"Taunton Flying Machine,

Hung on Steel Springs, in Two Days

Sets out from the Saracen's Head Inn in Friday Street, London, and Taunton, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at Three o'clock in the morning: and returns every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, lays at the Antelope in Salisbury, going Up and Down; To carry Six inside Passengers, each to pay

Outside Passengers and Children in the Lap, Half-Fare as above, each Inside Passenger allowed Fourteen Pounds Luggage; all above, to Taunton Two-pence per Pound and so in Proportion to any Part of the road.

Note. No Money, Plate, Jewels, or Writings, will be accounted for if Lost, unless Entered as such, and Paid for accordingly.

Performed by {JOHN WHITMASH, THOMAS LILEY.}"

From the same Paper of Friday, April 17th, 24th, and May 1st, 1767:–

"Frome, 1767.

The Proprietors of the

FROME STAGE MACHINE

In Order to make it more agreeable to their Friends in the West, have engaged to set out Post Chaises from the Christopher Inn, in Wells, every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday Evenings, at Five o'clock, to stop at the George Inn, at Shepton Mallet, and set out from thence at a Quarter past Six, to carry Passengers and Parcels to Frome, to be forwarded from thence to London in the One Day Flying Machine, which began on Sunday the 12th of April, 1767; Also a Chaise from Frome every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Evenings to Shepton and Wells, as soon as the Coach arrives from London, if any Passengers, etc. go down, at the following Prices:–from Wells to Frome Four Shillings, from Shepton Three Shillings, small parcels from Wells to Frome 6d. each, from Shepton 4d., large ditto a Halfpenny per Pound from each place. All Passengers who intend taking the Advantage of this method of travelling, are desired to take their Places at the above Inns in Wells and Shepton as follows: viz. those who intend going on Sunday enter the Tuesday before going, those who go on Tuesday enter the Thursday before, and for Thursday the Sunday before, that proper notice may be given at Frome to secure the places: If at any time more than three Passengers an extra Chaise to be provided.

Fare to and from London £1 8s. 0d. Trowbridge, £1 6s. 0d. Devizes £1 2s. 6d. One half to be paid at Booking, the other at entering the machine. Inside passengers allowed 10lb. wt., all above Three Half-pence per pound from Frome as usual. The Coach will set out from the Crown Inn in Frome, at Ten o'clock in the evening of every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday; and from the Bull Inn in Holborne, London, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Evening, at the same Hour.–Books are kept, Places taken, and Parcels received, at the Christopher in Wells, the George in Shepton, the Crown in Frome, the Woolpack in Trowbridge, and the Bull in Holborne, London; calls going in and coming out, at the White Bear Inn, Piccadilly, and the new White Horse Cellar.

Perform'd by

R. MESSETER, at the Crown, at Thatcham,

and

J. HITCHCOCK, at the Catherine Wheel, Beckhampton.

"N.B. No Jewels, Plate, Money, Writings, or other things of Value, will be paid for if lost, unless enter'd as such, and paid for accordingly."

With regard to G.G.'s Query as to the time occupied in the journey of Schultz from Colchester to London, do not the circumstances sufficiently prove that by some means six must have been written for sixteen? Sixteen hours would give a rate of travelling nearer the average of those days, and was about the time occupied on the return to Colchester. For if we allow a due time after twelve for dinner, settling accounts, and going to the inn whence the "Stäts-Kutsche" started, and for partaking of the meal there provided, we shall very easily get to seven or eight in the evening; sixteen hours after that time would be "towards noon" in the following day.

    A.D.M

PRISON DISCIPLINE AND EXECUTION OF JUSTICE

Sir,–I am glad that you devote some part of your columns to the good work of bringing forward facts and anecdotes which, though not generally known, your readers individually may have happened to notice, and which illustrate the manners of our ancestors. I dare say few of your correspondents have met with the London Magazine for the year of 1741. An imperfect copy fell into my hands when a lad; ever since which time I have been in a state of great wonderment at the story contained in the leaf which I enclose. I need hardly say that the italics are mine; and perhaps they are hardly necesssary. Yours, etc.,

    BETA.

"TUESDAY, 21 [June].

"A very extraordinary Affair happen'd at the County Gaol in Hertford, where four Highwaymen, very stout lusty Fellows, viz. Theophilus Dean, Charles Cox (alias Bacon-Face), James Smith, and Luke Humphrys, lay under Sentence of Death, pass'd on them the last Assizes, and were intended to have been executed the following Day; Mr. Oxenton, the Gaoler, who keeps an Inn opposite to the Prison, went into the Gaol about four a Clock in the Morning, as was his Custom, attended by three Men, to see if all was safe, and, having lock'd the outward Door, sent one of his Men down to the Dungeon, where the four Felons had found means to disengage themselves from the Pillar and Chain to which they had been lock'd down, and one of them, viz. Bacon-Face, had got off both his Hand-Cuffs and Fetters; on opening the Door, they disabled the Man and all rush'd out; then coming up Stairs they met the Gaoler and his other two Men, of whom they demanded the Keys, threatening to murder them if their request was not immediately comply'd with: they then forced his men into the Yard beyond the Hatchway, and a Battle ensu'd, in which the Gaoler behav'd so manfully, tho' he had but one Man to assist him, that he maintain'd the Possession of his Keys till he was heard by his Wife, then in Bed, to call out for Assistance, who fortunately having another Key to the Gaol, ran to rescue him; the Fellows saw her coming and demanded her Key, threatening to murder her if she offer'd to assist her Husband: By this Time the Neighbourhood was alarm'd, and several Persons got to the Gaol Door, when Mrs. Oxenton, notwithstanding their Threats, at the utmost Hazard of her Life, open'd the same and caught hold of her Husband, who was almost spent, and with the Assistance of some Persons, got him out and lock'd the Door without suffering the Fellows to escape: They continued cursing and swearing that they would murder the first Man that attempted to enter the Gaol. In the mean Time Robert Hadsley, Esq., High-Sheriff, who lives about a Mile from the Town, was sent for, and came immediately; he parley'd with them some Time to no Purpose, then order'd Fire-Arms to be brought, and, in case they would not submit, to shoot at them, which these Desparadoes refusing to do, they accordingly fired on them, and Theophilus Dean receiving a Shot in the Groin, dropt; then they surrender'd, and the Sheriff instantly caus'd Bacon-Face to be hang'd on the Arch of the Sign Iron belonging to the Gaoler's House, in the Sight of his Companions and great Numbers of People; the other three were directly put into a Cart and carried to the usual Place of Execution, and there hang'd before seven a Clock that Morning."–Lond. Mag. July, 1741, p. 360.

SATIRICAL MEDAL OF THE PRETENDER

I am well acquainted with the medal described by Mr. Nightingale, and can confirm his statement of the difficulties which numismatists have experienced in attempting to explain the circumstances allueded to by the lobster which is the badge of "the order of the pretended Prince of Wales," and upon which, on the other side of the medal, Father Petre is represented as riding with the young prince in his arms. Upon other medals also the Jesuit appears carrying the prince, who is decorated, or amsing himself, with a windmill. There is likewise a medal on which a Jesuit is represented concealed within a closet or alter, and raising or pushing up through the top the young prince to the view of the people, while Truth is opening the door and exposing the imposition. Similar representations of the Jesuit's interference occur upon caricatures and satirical prints executed in Holland. Upon one, entitled, "Arlequin sur l'Hippogryphe, a la croisade Lojoliste," the lobster, on which the Jesuit is mounted, carries a book in each claw; the young prince's head is decorated with a windmill. All these intimate the influence of Father Petre upon the proceedings of James II, and of the Jesuits in general in the imposition, as was by many supposed, of the pretended prince. The imputation upon the legitimacy of the young child was occasioned in a great degree, and almost justified, by the pilgrimages and superstitious fooleries of his grandmother, increased by his mother's choosing St. Francis Xavier as one of her ecclesiastical patrons, and with her family attributing the birth of the prince to his miraculous interference. This may have provoked the opposers of popery to take every means of satirising the Jesuits; and the following circumstances related in the Life of Xavier probably suggested the idea of making the lobster one of the symbols of the superstitions and impositions of the Jesuits, and a means of discrediting the birth of the prince by ridiculing the community by whose impositions they asserted the fraud to have been contrived and executed.

The account is given by a Portuguese, called Fausto Rodriguez, who was a witness of the fact, has deposed it upon oath, and whose juridical testimony is in the process of the Saint's canonization.

"'We were at sea,' says Rodriguez, 'Father Francis, John Raposo, and myself, when there arose a tempest which alarmed all the mariners. Then the Father drew from his bosom a little crucifix, which he always carried about him, and leaning over deck, intended to have dipt it into the sea; but the crucifix dropt out of his hand, and was carried off by the waves. This loss very sensibly afflicted him, and he concealed not his sorrow from us. The next morning we landed on the Island of Baranura; from the time when the crucifix was lost, to that of our landing, it was near twenty-four hours, during which we were in perpetual danger. Being on shore, Father Francis and I walked along by the sea-side, towards the town of Tamalo, and had already walked about 500 paces, when both of us beheld, arising out of the sea, a crab fish, which carried betwixt his claws the same crucifix raised on high. I saw the crab fish come directly to the Father, by whose side I was, and stopped before him. The Father, falling on his knees, took his crucifix, after which the crab-fish returned into the sea. But the Father still continuing in the same humble posture, hugging and kissing the crucifix, was half an hour praying with his hands across his breast, and myself joining with him in thanksgiving to God for so evident a miracle; after which we arose and continued on our way.' Thus you have the relation of Rodriguez."–Dryden's Life of St. Francis Xavier, book iii.

    EDW. HAWKINS.

JOHN AUBREY

As the biographer and editor of that amiable and zealous antiquary JOHN AUBREY, I noticed with peculiar interest the statement of your correspondent, that the date of your first publication coincided with the anniversary of his birthday; but, unhappily, the coincidence is imaginary. Your correspondent has, on that point, adopted a careless reading of the first chapter of Aubrey's Miscellanies, whereby the 3rd of November, the birthday of the Duke of York, afterwards James the Second, has been frequently stated as that of the antiquary himself. See my Memoir of Aubrey, 4to. 1845, p. 123. In the same volume, p. 13, will be found an engraving of the horoscope of his nativity, from a sketch in his own hand. So far as his authority is of any value, that curious sketch proves incontestably that "the Native" was born at 14 minutes and 49 seconds past 17 o'clock (astronomical time) on the 11th of March, 1625-6; that is, at 14 minutes and 49 seconds past 5 o'clock A.M. on the 12th of March, instead of the 3rd of November.

Few things can be more mortifying to a biographer, or an antiquary, than the perpetuation of an error which he has successfully laboured to correct. It is an evil, however, to which he is often subjected, and which your valuable publication will go far to remedy. In the present case it is, doubtless, to be ascribed to the peculiar nature of my Memoir of Aubrey, of which but a limited number of copies were printed for the Wiltshire Topographical Society. The time and labour which I bestowed upon the work, the interesting character of its contents, and the approbation of able and impartial public critics, justify me in saying that it deserves a far more extensive circulation.

After this allusion to John Aubrey, I think I cannot better evince my sympathy with your exertions than by requesting the insertion of a Query respecting one of his manuscripts. I allude to his Monumenta Brittanica, in four folio volumes–a dissertation on Avebury, Stonehenge, and other stone circles, barrows, and similar Druidical monuments–which has disappeared within the last thirty years. Fortunately a large portion of its contents has been preserved, in extracts made by Mr. Hutchins, the historian of Dorsetshire, and by the late Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart.; but the manuscript certainly contained much more of great local interest, and some matters which were worthy of publication. In the Memoir already mentioned, p. 87, the history of the manuscript down to the time of its disappearance is fully traced. Referring such of your readers as may feel interested in the subject to that volume, and reserving for the future numbers a long list of other interesting Queries which are now before me, it will gratify me to obtain, through your medium, any information respecting the MS. referred to. I remain, Sir, yours truly,