Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851

"To Mr. Anthony Deeringe,
"Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London."

    "2. October, 1602.
"I have receyed Mr. Wryght from Mr. Derynge, Deputy Lieutenant, and have comitted him to the Clincke according the direction from Mr. Secretary above expressed.

    "Ric. London."
    L. B. L.

Gloves.—Prince Rupert.—In your First Vol., pp. 72. 405., and in other places in Vol. ii., there are notices with respect to the presentation of gloves. If what is contained in the following paper be not generally known, it may claim an interest with some of your readers:—

"At the Court of Whitehall, the 23rd of October, 1678. Present

The Kings most excellent Majesty,
His Highness Prince Rupert,
Lord Archbp. of Canterbury,"
[with twelve others, who are named.]

"Whereas formerly it hath been a custom upon the Consecra[~c]on of all [~B]ps for them to make presents of Gloves to all Persons that came to the Consecra[~c]on Dinners, and others, w

amounted to a great Su[~m] of Money, and was an unnecessary burden to them, His Ma

this day, taking the same into his considera[~c]on, was thereupon pleas'd to order in Council, that for the future there shall be no such distribu[~c]on of Gloves; but that in lieu thereof each Lord B[~p] before his Consecra[~c]on shall hereafter pay the Su[~m] of 50l. to be employ'd towards the Rebuilding of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. And it was further ordered, that his Grace the Lord Archb[~p] of Canterbury do not proceed to consecrate any B[~p] before he hath paid the s[~d] Su[~m] of 50l. for the use aforesaid, and produced a Receipt for the same from the Treasurer of the Money for Rebuilding the said Church for the time being, w

as it is a pious work, so will it be some ease to the respective B[~p]s, in regard the Expense of Gloves did usually farr exceed that Sum.

    "Phi. Lloyd."

Tanner's MSS. vol. 282. 112. al. 74.

One of your correspondents, I think, some time back asked for notices of Prince Rupert posterior to the Restoration. Besides the mention made of him in this paper, Echard speaks of his having the command of one squadron of the English fleet in the Dutch war.

    J. Sansom.

Inscription on a Gun (Vol. iii., p. 181.).—Your notes on "the Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes" remind me of an old gun, often handled by me in my youth, on the stock of which the following tetrastick was en-nailed:—

"Of all the sports as is,
I fancies most a gun;
And, after my decease,
I leaves this to my son."

Whether this testamentary disposition ever passed through Doctors' Commons, I know not.

    C. W. B.

Richard III. (Vol. iii., pp. 206-7.).—The statement by Mr. Harrison, that Richard was not a "hunchback," is curiously "backed" by an ingenious conjecture of that very remarkable man, Doctor John Wallis of Oxford, in his Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ, first published in 1653. The passage occurs in the 2d section of chapter 14, "De Etymologia." Wallis is treating of the words crook, crouch, cross, &c., and says:

"Hinc item croisado de militibus dicebatur ad bellum (quod vocant) sanctum conscriptis (pro recuperanda terra sancta) qui à tergo gestabant formam Crucis; et Richardus olim Rex Angliæ dicebatur crouch-backed, non quod dorso fucrit incurvato, sed quod à tergo gestare gestiebat formam Crucis."

    G. F. G.

Edinburgh.

Lines by Pope.—On the back of a letter in my possession, written by the poet Gray, are the following lines in the handwriting of his friend Mason:—

    "By Mr. Pope.

"Tom Wood of Chiswick, deep divine,
To Painter Kent gave all this coin.
'Tis the first coin, I'm bold to say,
That ever Churchman gave to Lay."

"Wrote in Evelyn's book of coins given by Mr. Wood to Kent: he had objected against the word pio in Mr. Pope's father's epitaph."

If these lines are not already in print, perhaps you will insert them amongst your "Notes" as a contribution from

    Robert Hotchkin.

Thimbleby Rectory, March 13. 1851.

Origin of St. Andrew's Cross in connexion with Scotland.—John Lesley, bishop of Ross, reports, that in the night before the battle between Athelstan, king of England, and Hungus, king of the Picts, a bright cross, like that whereon St. Andrew suffered, appeared to Hungus, who, having obtained the victory, ever after bore that figure. This happened in 819. Vide Gent. Mag. for Nov. 1732.

    E. S. T.

Snail-eating (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—Your correspondent C. W. B. does not seem to be aware that "a ragout of boror (snails)" is a regular dish with English gypsies. Vide Borrow's Zincali, part i. c. v.

He has clearly not read Mr. Borrow's remarks on the subject:

"Know then, O Gentile, whether thou be from the land of Gorgios (England), or the Busné (Spain), that the very gypsies, who consider a ragout of snails a delicious dish, will not touch an eel because it bears a resemblance to a snake; and that those who will feast on a roasted hedgehog could be induced by no money to taste a squirrel!"

Having tasted of roasted hotchiwitchu (hedgehog) myself among the "gentle Rommanys," I can bear witness to its delicate fatness; and though a ragout of snails was never offered for my acceptance, I do not think that those who consider (as most "Gorgios" do) stewed eels a delicacy ought to be too sever on "Limacotrophists!"

    Hermes.

Snail-eating.—Perhaps you will permit me to remark, in reference to the communication of C. W. B., that snails are taken medicinally occasionally, and are supposed to be extremely strengthening. I have known them eagerly sought after for the meal of a consumptive patient. As a matter of taste, too, they are by some considered quite epicurean. A gentleman whom I used to know, was in the constant habit as he passed through the fields, of picking up the white slugs that lay in his way, and swallowing them with more relish than he would have done had they been oysters.

That snails make a no inconsiderable item in the bill of fare of gypsies, and other wanderers, I proved while at Oxford, some time ago; for passing up Shotover Hill, in the parish of Headington, I unexpectedly came upon a camp of gypsies who were seated round a wood fire enjoying their Sunday's dinner: this consisted of a considerable number of large snails roasted on the embers, and potatoes similarly cooked. On inquiry, I was told by those who were enjoying their repast, that they were extremely good, and were much liked by people of their class, who made a constant practice of eating them. I need hardly say that I received a most hospitable invitation to join in the feast, which I certainly declined.

    L. J.

Queries

HENRY SMITH

In Marsden's History of the Early Puritans (a work recently published, which will well repay perusal) there occurs (pp. 178, 179.) the following notice of Henry Smith:—

"Henry Smith was a person of good family, and well connected; but having some scruples, he declined preferment, and aspired to nothing higher than the weekly Lectureship of St. Clement Danes. On a complaint made by Bishop Aylmer, Whitgift suspended him, and silenced for a while probably the most eloquent preacher in Europe. His contemporaries named him the Chrysostom of England. His church was crowded to excess; and amongst his hearers, persons of the highest rank, and those of the most cultivated and fastidious judgment, were content to stand in the throng of citizens. His sermons and treatises were soon to be found in the hands of every person of taste and piety: they passed through numberless editions. Some of them were carried abroad, and translated into Latin. They were still admired and read at the close of nearly a century, when Fuller collected and republished them. Probably the prose writing of this, the richest period of genuine English literature, contains nothing finer than some of his sermons. They are free, to an astonishing degree, from the besetting vices of his age—vulgarity, and quaintness, and affected learning; and he was one of the first English preachers who, without submitting to the trammels of a pedantic logic, conveyed in language nervous, pure, and beautiful, the most convincing arguments in the most lucid order, and made them the ground-work of fervent and impassioned addresses to the conscience."

Would it not be desirable, as well in a literary as a theological point of view, that any extant sermons of so renowned a divine should be made accessible to general readers? At present they are too rare and expensive to be largely useful. A brief Narrative of the Life and Death of Mr. Henry Smith (as it is for substance related by Mr. Thomas Fuller in his Church History), which is prefixed to an old edition (1643) of his sermons in my possession, concludes in these words:—