Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853

And I have felt the last wild throb of that enduring heart:
Thy cold and tear-wet cheek has lain for the last time to mine,
And I have pressed in agony those trembling lips of thine."

    R. Jermyn Cooper.
The Rectory, Chiltington Hunt, Sussex.

Matthew Lewis.—Allow me to solicit information, through the medium of "N. & Q.," where I can see a pedigree of Matthew Lewis, Esq., Deputy Secretary of War for many years under the Right Hon. William Windham, then M.P. for Norwich, and other Secretaries-at-War. I rather think Mr. Lewis married a daughter of Sir Thomas Sewell, Kt., Master of the Rolls from 1764 to 1784; and had a son, Matthew Gregory Lewis, known as Monk Lewis, who was M.P. for Hindon at the close of the last century: a very clever but eccentric young man. I also believe Lieut.-Gen. John Whitelocke, and Gen. Sir Thos. Brownrigg, G.C.B., who died in 1838, were connected by marriage with the Sewell or Lewis families.

    C. H. F.

Paradise Lost.—In A Treatise on the Dramatic Literature of the Greeks, by the Rev. J. R. Darley, I read the following remark:

"In our own literature also, the efforts of our early dramatists were directed to subjects derived from religion; even the Paradise Lost is composed of a series of minor pieces, originally cast in dramatic form, of which the creation and fall of man, and the several episodes which were introduced subordinately to these grand events, were the subject-matter."

This statement being at variance with the received opinion, that Milton, from his early youth, had meditated the composition of an epic poem, I would inquire whether there is any evidence to support Mr. Darley's view? Milton has been charged with having borrowed the design of Paradise Lost from some Italian author; and this allegation, coupled with that made by Mr. Darley, would, if founded, reduce our great national epic to what Hazlitt has described as "patchwork and plagiarism, the beggarly copiousness of borrowed wealth."

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

Colonel Hyde Seymour.—Who was "Colonel Hyde Seymour?" I find his name written in a book, The Life of William the Third, 1703.

    H. T. Ellacombe.

Vault at Richmond, Yorkshire.—In Speed's plan of Richmond, in Yorkshire, is represented the mouth of a "vault that goeth under the river, and ascendeth up into the Castell." Was there ever such a vault, and how came it to be destroyed or lost sight of? One who knows Richmond well tells me that he never heard of it.

    O. L. R. G.

Poems published at Manchester.—Can any contributor to "N. & Q." inform me who was the author of a volume of Poems on Several Occasions, published by subscription at Manchester; printed for the author by R. Whitworth, in the year 1733? It is an 8vo. of 138 pages; has on the title-page a line from Ovid:

"Jure, tibi grates, candide lector, ago,"

and begins with an "Address to all my Subscribers;" after which follow several pages of subscribers' names, which consist chiefly of Staffordshire and Cheshire gentry. My copy (for the possession of which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Bliss, the Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford) was formerly in the library of Mr. Heber, who has thus noted its purchase on the fly-leaf, "Feb. 1811, Ford, Manchester, 7s. 6d." Dr. Bliss has added, on the same fly-leaf, "Heber's fourth sale, No. 1908, not in the Bodleian Catalogue." The first poem in the book is "A Pastoral to the Memory of Sir Thomas Delves, Baronet." It is probably a scarce book; but possibly some of your book-learned correspondents may help me to the author's name.

    W. Sneyd.

Denton.

Handel's Dettingen Te Deum.—Any information as to the circumstances under which Handel composed this celebrated Te Deum, and the place and occasion of its first public performance, will be welcome to

    Philo-Handel.

Edmund Spenser and Sir Hans Sloane, Bart.—As I believe myself (morally speaking) to be lineally descended from the former of these celebrated men, and collaterally from the latter, may I request that information may be forwarded me, either through your columns or by correspondence, regarding the descendants of the great poet and his ancestry; and also whether, among the many thousand volumes bequeathed by Sir Hans to the nation, some record does not exist tending to prove his genealogical descent? At present I know of no other pedigree than that Mr. Burke has given of him in his Extinct Baronetage. I shall feel exceedingly gratified if any assistance can be given me relating to these two families.

    W. Sloane Sloane-Evans.

Cornworthy Vicarage, Totnes.

Minor Queries with Answers

The Ligurian Sage.—In Gifford's Mæviad, lines 313-316, I read,—

"Together we explored the stoic page
Of the Ligurian, stern tho' beardless sage!
Or trac'd the Aquinian thro' the Latin road,
And trembled at the lashes he bestow'd."

The Aquinian is of course Juvenal; but I must confess me at fault with respect to the Ligurian.

    W. T. M.

[The Ligurian sage is no doubt Aulus Persius Flaccus, who, according to ancient authors, was born at Volaterræ in Etruria; but some modern writers conclude that he was born at Lunæ Portus in Liguria, from the following lines (Sat. VI. 6.), which seem to relate to the place of his residence:

"Mihi nunc Ligus ora
Intepet, hybernatque meum mare, qua latus ingens
Dant scopuli, et multa littus se valle receptat.
Lunai portum est operæ cognoscere, cives."

When approaching the verge of manhood, Persius became the pupil of Cornutus the Stoic, and his death took place before he had completed his twenty-eighth year.]

Gresebrok in Yorkshire.—Can you or any of your correspondents give me any information as to what part of Yorkshire the manor of Gresebrok lies in? In Shaw's History of Staffordshire (2 vols. folio), there is a "Bartholomew de Gresebrok" mentioned as witness to a deed of Henry III.'s times made between Robert de Grendon, Lord of Shenston, and Jno. de Baggenhall; which family of Gresebrok, it is said, "probably took their name from a manor so called in Yorkshire, and had property and residence in Shenstone, from this early period to the beginning of the century, many of whom are recorded in the registers from 1590 to 1722."

The above is quoted by Shaw from Sanders's History of Shenstone, p. 98., and perhaps some of your correspondents may possess that work, and will oblige me by transcribing the necessary information.

Any particulars of the above family will much oblige your constant reader

    Ἡραλδικος.

[According to Sanders, the family of Greisbrook was formerly of some note at Shenstone. He says that "Greisbrook, whence the family had their name, is a manor in Yorkshire, which, in the reign of Henry III., was in the great House of Mowbray, of whom the Greisbrooks held their lands. Roger de Greisbrook (temp. Henry II.) is mentioned as holding of the fee of Alice, Countess of Augie, or Ewe, daughter of William de Albiney, Earl of Arundel, by Queen Alice, relict of Henry I." Then follow some particulars of various branches of the family, from the year 1580 to the death of Robert Greisbrook in 1718. Sanders's History is included in vol. ix. of Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.]

Stillingfleet's Library.—The extensive and valuable library of Edward Stillingfleet, the learned Bishop of Worcester, who died in 1699, is said to be contained in the library of Primate Marsh, St. Patrick's, Dublin. Can any of your correspondents state how it came there? Was it bequeathed by the bishop, or sold by his descendants? He died at Westminster, and was buried in Worcester Cathedral.

    J. B. Whitborne.

[Bishop Stillingfleet's library was purchased by Archbishop Marsh for his public library in Dublin. A few years since Robert Travers, Esq., M.D., of Dundrum near Dublin, was engaged in preparing for publication a catalogue of Stillingfleet's printed books, amounting to near 10,000 volumes. The bishop's MSS. were bought by the late Earl of Oxford, and are now in the Harleian Collection. See The Life of Bishop Stillingfleet, 8vo., 1735, p. 135., and Biog. Brit. s. v.]

The whole System of Law.—On December 26, 1651, the Long Parliament, stimulated by Cromwell to various important reforms in civil matters, resolved,—

"That it be referred to persons out of the House to take into consideration what inconveniences there are in the law, and how the mischiefs that grow from the delays, the chargeableness, and the irregularities in the proceedings of the law, may be prevented; and the speediest way to reform the same."

The commission thus appointed consisted twenty-one persons, among whom were Sir Mathew Hale, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and John Rushworth. They seem to have set to work with great vigour, and submitted a variety of important measures to Parliament, many of which were adopted. They also prepared a document "containing the whole system of the law," which was read to the House on January 20 and 21, 1652; and it was resolved "That three hundred copies of the said book be forthwith printed, to be delivered to members of the Parliament only."

Is anything known of this work at the present day?

    A Leguleian.

[It appears doubtful whether this work was ever printed, for in a pamphlet published April 27, 1653, entitled A Supply to a Draught of an Act or System proposed (as is reported) by the Committee for Regulations concerning the Law, &c., the writer thus notices it:—"Having lately heard of some propositions called 'The System of the Law,' which are said to be intended preparatives to several Acts of Parliament touching the regulation of the law, we cannot but with thankfulness acknowledge the care and industry of those worthy persons who contrived the same, it containing many good and wholesome provisions for the future perpetual good and quiet of the nation.... We know not, at present, wherein we could give a more visible testimony of our affections to the peaceable government of the free people here, than by offering to them and the supreme authority, what we humbly conceive prejudicial and inconvenient to well-government, in case that System (as it is said to be now prepared) should take effect." A week before the publication of this work, the Long Parliament had been turned out of doors by Cromwell.]

Saint Malachy on the Popes.—Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, who flourished in the first half of the twelfth century, is said to be the author of a curious prophecy respecting the Popes. Some years ago I met with this prophecy in an old French almanack, and was particularly struck with its applicability to the life and character of the present Pope; but I omitted to make a Note.