Notes and Queries, Number 179, April 2, 1853.

"The man whose place they thought to take,
Is still alive, and still a Wake,"

are erroneously written on the print referred to; but I have no doubt of having seen a print of which (with the variation of "ye think" for "they thought") is the genuine engraved motto.

    B. C.

Lady High Sheriff (Vol. vii., p. 236.).—There is a passage in Warton's History of English Poetry (Vol. i. p. 194., Tegg's edition) which will in part answer the Query of your correspondent W. M. It is in the form of a note, appended to the following lines from the metrical romance of Ipomydon:

"They come to the castelle yate
The porter was redy there at,
The porter to theyme they gan calle,
And prayd hym go in to the halle,
And say thy lady gent and fre,
That comen ar men of ferre contrè,
And if it plese hyr, we wolle hyr pray,
That we myght ete with hyr to-day."

On this passage Warton remarks:

"She was lady, by inheritance, of the signory. The female feudatories exercised all the duties and honours of their feudal jurisdiction in person. In Spenser, where we read of the Lady of the Castle, we are to understand such a character. See a story of a Comtesse, who entertains a knight in her castle with much gallantry. (Mém. sur l'Anc. Chev., ii. 69.) It is well known that anciently in England ladies were sheriffs of counties."

To this note of Warton's, Park adds another, which I also give as being more conclusive on the subject. It is as follow:

["Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was a justice of peace. Sir W. Dugdale tells us that Ela, widow of William, Earl of Salisbury, executed the sheriff's office for the county of Wilts, in different parts of the reign of Henry III. (See Baronage, vol. i. p. 177.) From Fuller's Worthies we find that Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Lord Clifford, was sheriffess of Westmoreland for many years; and from Pennant's Scottish Tour we learn that for the same county Anne, the celebrated Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, often sat in person as sheriffess. Yet Riston doubted of facts to substantiate Mr. Warton's assertion. See his Obs. p. 10., and reply in the Gent. Mag. 1782, p. 573.—Park."]

    T. C. S.

I can answer part of W. M.'s Query, by a reference to a personage who could not have been very far from being the first instance of the kind (Query, was she?).

"About this time (1202) Gerard de Camville, his old and faithful adherent, was restored by John to the possession of the honours of which he had been deprived by King Richard; and it is a remarkable circumstance that, on the death of the said Gerard, in the eighteenth year of the king's reign, his widow, Nichola Camville (who is described by an ancient historian as being 'a martial woman of great courage and address') had the sheriffalty of the county of Lincoln committed to her; which honourable and important trust was continued to her by a grant of Henry III.," &c.

The above quotation is taken from Bailey's Annals of Nottinghamshire, now publishing in Numbers (Part III. p. 107.). Should I be wrong in asking correspondents to contribute towards a list of ladies holding the above honorable post?

    Furvus.

St. James's.

Burial of an unclaimed Corpse (Vol. vii., p. 262.).—E. G. R.'s question is easily answered. The parish of Keswick proved that some years before they had buried a body found on a piece of land. This was evidence of reputation that at the time of the burial the land was in Keswick, otherwise the parishioners would not have taken on themselves this work of uncalled-for benevolence. The fact of their having incurred an expense, which, unless the land was in their parish, would have been the burden of Markshall, satisfied the commissioner that the land must have belonged to Keswick. I have no doubt this was the reason, though I never heard of the question in connexion with Keswick and Markshall. Battersea Rise, I heard when a boy, had formerly belonged to Clapham, and been given to Battersea for the same reason as E. G. R. states to have been the cause of Markshall losing its territory to Keswick.

    J. H. L.

Surname of Allan (Vol. vii., p. 205.).—I think A. S. A. will find that this name was introduced into Britain from Normandy. It occurs in early Norman times as a personal name, and afterwards as a patronymic. Thus Alan, the son of Flathald, who had the castle of Oswestry granted him by the Conqueror, had a son, William Fitz-Alan, ancestor of the great baronial house of Arundel. In the Hundred Rolls, temp. Edward I., it is very common under the orthographies of fil. Alan, fil. Alain, Alayn, Aleyn, Aleyne, Aleynes, Aleynys, &c. Allen has always remained a baptismal name, and hence it is probable that there is no more affinity between the numerous families now bearing it as a surname, than between the various Thompsons, Williamses, and others of this class. The MacAllans of Scotland may have a separate Celtic source, though it is far likelier that this name (like MacEdward, MacGeorge, and numerous others) is the English appellative with the patronymic Mac prefixed.

    Mark Antony Lower.

Lewes.

The Patronymic Mac (Vol. vii., p. 202.).—The present Earl of Stair has collected and printed, under the title of Almacks Extraordinary, a list of seven hundred Scotch and Irish surnames with the prefix "Mac;" and a highly esteemed correspondent promises me a supplementary list of "a few hundreds" of such appellatives, which must therefore be in the aggregate upwards of a thousand in number. I hope to include all these in my forthcoming Dictionary of British Surnames.

    Mark Antony Lower.

Lewes.

Cibber's "Lives of the Poets" (Vol. v., p. 25.).—When Mr. Crossley inserted in your pages, at great length, the original prospectus of Cibber's Lives, he was not aware that it had been reprinted before. Such, however, is the case, as may be seen by turning to the sixth volume of Sir Egerton Brydges' Censura Literaria, ed. 1808, p. 352. It was communicated to the columns of that work by that diligent antiquary in literary matters, Joseph Haslewood. Mr. Crossley says, "It is rather extraordinary that none of Dr. Johnson's biographers appear to have been aware that the prospectus of Cibber's Lives was furnished by Johnson." Where is there the slightest proof that Johnson wrote one line of it? Haslewood believed it to have been the production of Messrs. Cibber and Shiels. Does Mr. Crossley ground his claim for Johnson merely upon a fancied resemblance in style?

    Edward F. Rimbault.

Parallel Passages, No. 2.—Stars and Flowers (Vol. vii., p. 151.).—Other parallels on this subject are given in "N. & Q." (Vol. iv., p. 22.), to which may be added the following:

"Silently, one by one, on the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossom'd the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."

    Longfellow's Evangeline, Part I. iii. p. 187. of the Liverpool edition.
    Zeus.
Schomberg's Epitaph (Vol. vii., p. 13.).—I find this entry in my note-book:—The following inscription is written on a black slab of marble, affixed to the wall of the choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The remains of the duke were removed to this cathedral immediately after the battle of the Boyne; and on the 10th July, 1690, they were deposited under the altar. The relatives of this great man having neglected to raise any monument to his memory, Dean Swift undertook and caused the above slab to be erected, having first vainly applied to the connexions of the deceased. His sword is in the possession of the society of the "Friendly Brothers," Dublin.

The following is the inscription on the slab:

"Hic infra situm est corpus Frederici Ducis de Schonberg ad Bubindam occisi A.D. 1690. Decanus et Capitulum maximopere etiam atque etiam petierunt, ut hæredes Ducis, monumentum in memoriam parentis erigendum curarent. Sed postquam per epistolas, per amicos, diu ac sæpe orando nil profecere, hunc demum lapidem statuerunt; saltem ut scias hospes ubinam terrarum Schonbergenses cineres delitescunt.

"Plus potuit fama virtutis apud alienos quam sanguinis proximitas apud suos, A.D. 1731."

    Clericus (D.)

Dublin.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land (Vol. v., p. 289.).—There is still another book to be added to the curious list of old pilgrimages to the Holy Land, furnished by your correspondent Peregrine A. I derive my knowledge of it from Brunet's Manuel, sub voce Capodilista (Gabriele), where it is described as follows:

"Itinerario di Terra Santa, e del Monte Sinai." (Without date or printer) 4to.

It is a journal of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, made in the year 1458 by a Padua nobleman, accompanied by a relative, Antonio Capodilista, a canon of the same place, and several other noble personages. It is one of the earliest productions of the press at Perugia, and the date assigned to it by M. Brunet is 1472, but by Vermiglioli 1473 or 1474. The latter authority, in his Principi della Stampa in Perugia, calls it "Veramente un prezioso cimelio di tipografia e bibliografia." I am anxious to know where a copy of this very rare work is deposited, as I have been told that there is none at the British Museum.

    W. M. R. E.

Album (Vol. vii., p. 235.).—The origin and the earliest notice of this kind of friendly memorial book is to be traced to the registers of the deceased that were formerly kept in every church and monastery. Such a book was called the album, i. e. the blank book, in which the names of the friends and benefactors to the church or monastery were recorded, that they might be prayed for at their decease, and on their anniversaries. The earliest writer belonging to this country who uses the word is the Venerable Beda, who in his preface to his prose life of St. Cuthbert, written previous to the year 721, reminds Bishop Eadfrith that his name was registered in the album at Lindisfarne, "in albo vestræ sanctæ congregationis." (Bedæ Opera Minora, p. 47., ed. Stevenson.) Elsewhere Beda calls this book "the annal" (Hist. Eccles., lib. iv. c. 14.). At a later period it was called, both in England and abroad, the Liber Vitæ, or Book of Life, a name borrowed from St. Paul (Philippians, iv. 3.).

The earliest specimen of an English album, and perhaps the most elegant one that this or any other country ever produced, may be seen in the British Museum (Cotton MSS., Domitian VII.). It is the Album, or Book of Life, of the monastery of Durham. Nor need we add that this album affords a relief to the eye wearied with looking over the pages of a modern album, and to the mind sick of the endless but monotonous repetition of imaginary ruins, love sonnets, and moss roses.

    Ceyrep.

Gesmas and Desmas (Vol. vii., p. 238.).—For the information of your correspondent A. B. R., I copy the passage referred to by you in the disputed Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate. The extract is from an English version, printed for William Hone, Ludgate Hill, 1820:

"But one of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus, whose name was Gestas, said to Jesus, If thou art the Christ, deliver thyself and us."—vii. 10.

"But the thief who was crucified on his right hand, whose name was Dimas, answering, rebuked him, and said, Dost not thou fear God, who art condemned to this punishment? We indeed receive rightly and justly the demerit of our actions; but this Jesus, what evil hath he done?"—vi. 11.

"After this, groaning, he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."—vi. 12.

It thus appears the names have been differently received: here they appear GESTAS the impenitent, and DIMAS the penitent.