Replies.

REPLY TO MR. HICKSON'S OBJECTIONS.

Vol. v., pp. 554. 573.)

That Mr. Hickson should have discovered no graver objections to certain suggestions of mine respecting the text of Shakspeare than those he has brought forward, is of itself no slight testimonial in their favour.

In one instance I have already (Vol. v., p. 210.) shown Mr. Hickson (I trust satisfactorily) that his then somewhat similar objection had no weight; nor do these now advanced appear much more formidable.

As to the passage from As You Like It, which Mr. Hickson remarks is capable of a moral as well as a physical interpretation—undoubtedly it is! But, in the first place, it must still remain a matter of opinion which sense best accords with the context: and, secondly, even admitting the moral sense to be the true one, still it does not necessarily disturb the analogy between it and Imogen's allusion to the jay of Italy. In that case, also, the moral sense may be understood as implying the absence of all principle other than that derived from her own gaudy vanity.

Were I disposed to cavil, I might, in my turn, question Mr. Hickson's estimate of Phebe's beauty. Surely Rosalind's depreciation of it is not real, but only assumed, for the purpose of humbling, Phebe! Inky brows, black silk hair, bugle eye-balls, cheek of cream—these are not items in a catalogue of ugliness!

Mr. Hickson's second objection (p. 573.) is to my explanation of the demonstrative that in the Duke's opening speech in Measure for Measure. He thinks that, according to "the language we in England use," the Duke would have used the word this instead of that.

Does Mr. Hickson seriously mean to say that Shakspeare's language is to be scanned by our present ideas of correctness? Is the bold sweep of the Master's hand to be measured by the graduation of modern convention? Are there no instances in Shakspeare of the indiscriminate substitution of personal and impersonal pronouns—of active and passive participles—of words and phrases waiting upon the magician's wind, like familiar spirits, to be moulded to his will, and acknowledging no rule but of his creation?

But, in the present case, I will not admit that any such licence is necessary. To Mr. Hickson's question, "Is this the language we in England use?" I answer, It is!

We do, even at the present day, say to a messenger, "Take that to," &c., even before we have transferred the missive from our hand to his. I can even fancy an individual, less anxious perhaps about grammar than benevolence, stretching forth to some unfortunate, and exclaiming, while yet his intended gift was in his own keeping, "There needs but THAT to your relief—there it is!"

It does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Hickson that the same "fatal objection" which he brings forward against that, might also be pleaded against there. When the Duke says, "There is our commission:" why not, "Here is our commission"? There stands precisely in the same relation to that, as here does to this!

A. E. B.

Leeds.

THE TERM "MILESIAN."

(Vol. v., p. 453.)

In reference to the communication of Mr. Richards, but I have not seen Mr. Fraser's Query, I beg to observe, for the honour of "Old Ireland," that upwards of thirty years since, the Royal Irish Academy awarded to me a prize of 80l., with the Cunningham gold medal, for an Essay on the Ancient History, &c. of Ireland. It was published in the sixteenth volume of their Transactions to an extent of 380 pages quarto; and Mr. Moore has done me the honour to write to me, that it was his guide throughout the first two volumes of his history of this country. In that Essay, I have written very fully of the "Milesian" colonisation; so called, not directly from Milesius himself, but from his two sons, Heber and Heremon, who led the expedition. The native annalists represent the course of the emigrants through the Mediterranean by such progressive stages as indicate the state and progress of the Phœnicians after their exodus under the conduct of Cadmus; though the ingenuity of the Bards occasionally introduced that colouring of romance, which perhaps can alone make very remote objects distinguishable. External testimonies of these oriental wanderers are traceable through Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 42.; Pliny, c. 86.; Nennius, Hist. Britt., c. 9.; Thomas Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustriæ ad ann. 1185. The venerable Wintoun adopts all the traditions of the Irish Chronicles on the subject (Cronyk. of Scotl., lib. ii. c. 9.); and Macpherson declares (Dissertation, p. 15.) that such of the ancient records of Scotland as escaped the barbarous policy of Edward I. support this account. The writers on Spanish history, the Hispania Illustrata, De Bellegarde's Hist. Gen. d'Espagne, vol. i. c. i. p. 4., Emanuel de Faria y Sousa, &c., carry the links through Spain; and such indeed has been the long and general faith in the tradition, that it has been actually embodied, even to the names of those alleged leaders Heber and Heremon, in an act of parliament (of Ireland I must admit) in the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and through an occurrence therein engrafted upon it is expressly derived one of Her Majesty's—

"Auntient and sundrie strong authentique tytles for the Kings of England to this land of Ireland."

John D'Alton.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

BEN. JONSON'S ADOPTED SONS.

(Vol. v., p. 537.)

I doubt if Alexander Brome was one of Ben. Jonson's adopted sons. It is not improbable, however, that Richard Brome (author of the comedies of The Northern Lass and the Antipodes) was one. In Ben. Jonson's Underwoods is a poem to Richard Brome "on his comedy of The Northern Lass," which commences thus:

Thomas Randolph was certainly one of Jonson's sons. See in his Poems (4th edit. p. 17.): "A gratulatory to M. Ben. Jonson for his adopting of him to be his son."

In Jonson's Underwoods is a poem "To my dear Son and right learned Friend Master Joseph Rutter." This is in praise of his "first play," but I am unable to state what that play was; nor can I give further information respecting Master Joseph Rutter, than that he is apparently the author of "An Elegy upon Ben. Jonson" in Jonsonus Viribus.

Of William Cartwright Ben. Jonson used to say, "My son, Cartwright, writes all like a man." (Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets, ed. 1841, p. 183.)

James Howell was another of Jonson's sons, and has, in Jonsonus Viribus, some lines "Upon the Poet of his Time, Benjamin Jonson, his honoured Friend and Father."

Shackerley Marmion seems to have been another son. See in Jonsonus Viribus, "A Funeral Sacrifice to the sacred memory of his thrice-honoured father Ben. Jonson."

If Jonson really had twelve sons, it is not improbable that some of the following were of the number: Sir Kenelm Digby, Thomas Carew, John Cleveland, Sir John Suckling, Thomas May, Edward Hyde (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), Owen Feltham, Jasper Mayne, Richard West, John Vaughan, Thomas Hobbes.

I should have been disposed to have added to the above illustrious list the name of Edmund Waller, but for a statement of Aubrey, who says, "He told me he was not acquainted with Ben. Jonson" (Aubrey's Lives, p. 564.).

Aubrey (Lives, p. 413.), speaking of Ben. Jonson, says:

"Serjeant Jo. Hoskins, of Herefordshire, was his father. I remember his sonne (S^r Bennet Hoskins, baronet, who was something poeticall in his youth), told me, that when he desired to be adopted his son, 'No,' sayd he, ''tis honour enough for me to be your brother; I am your father's son, 'twas he that polished me, I do acknowledge it.'"

I observe that, prefixed to Randolph's Poems, are some lines by Richard West, B.A., and student of Christ's Church: "To the pious Memory of my dear Brother-in-Law, Mr. Thomas Randolph." As West must have been unmarried, and as I believe Randolph was also unmarried, it is possible that West calls him his brother-in-law from his being also an adopted son of Ben. Jonson.

C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

SHAKSPEARE'S SEAL.

(Vol. v., p. 539.)

There is a very full and curious account of a ring-seal (of which I possess two red wax impressions), supposed to have belonged to Shakspeare, in a work unassumingly entitled A Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, by R. B. Wheler, published in 1814. I presume that is the seal—or, rather, ring-seal—to which reference is made; but how far Mr. Wheler's statements and speculations may encourage "belief in the genuineness of this relic," your correspondent, and others taking any interest in such matters, must for themselves determine.

As the publication above named is before me, it may not be unacceptable to give a summary of Mr. Wheler's narrative, which occupies eight concluding pages of the Guide. It appears that on the 16th March, 1810, an ancient gold ring, weighing 12 dwts., and bearing the initials "W. S.," engraved in Roman characters, was found by a labourer's wife upon the surface of the mill-close adjoining Stratford churchyard, being the exact spot whereon Mr. Oldaker since erected his present residence. It had undoubtedly been lost a great many years, being nearly black; and, continues Mr. W.,—

"Though I purchased it upon the same day, for 36s. (the current value of the gold), the woman had sufficient time to destroy the 'precious ærugo' by having it unnecessarily immersed in aquafortis, to ascertain and prove the metal, at a silversmith's shop, which consequently restored its original colour. It is of tolerably large dimensions, and evidently a gentleman's ring of Elizabeth's age. Similar seal-rings are represented on cotemporary paintings and monuments: and the crossing of the central lines of the 'W.' with the oblique direction of the lines of the 'S.' exactly agree with the characters of that day. For proof we need wander no farther than Stratford Church, where the Totness and Clopton tombs will furnish representations of rings, and Shakspeare's monument of letters, perfectly corresponding in point of shape. The connexion or union of the letters by the ornamental string and tassels" [or True Lover's Knot, according to your correspondent], "was then frequently used, of which numberless instances may be found upon seals and upon inscriptions, in painted windows, and in the title-pages of books of that period; and for further coincidence of circumstances, it may be observed over the porch leading into the hall of Charlcote House near Stratford (erected in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, by the very Sir Thomas Lucy said to have prosecuted Shakspeare for deer-stealing), that the letters 'T. L.' are surrounded in a manner precisely similar."

After adverting to many vain efforts made by him to discover whether there existed anywhere Shakspeare's seal attached to letter or other writing, Mr. Wheler states that he had examined—

"A list of all the inhabitants of Stratford assessed to the levies in 1617, wherein I cannot discover any apparently respectable person the initials of whose name agree with 'W. S.:' but from this assessment, though probably copied from an anterior one, nothing conclusive can be estimated, it being made in the year subsequent to Shakspeare's death; and I should, from a close observation of the ring, be inclined to suppose that it was made in the early part of the poet's life. Mr. Malone, in a conversation I had with him in London," (adds Mr. Wheler), "the 20th April, 1812, about a month before his death, said that he had nothing to allege against the probability of my conjecture as to its owner."

Mr. W. afterwards proceeds:

"That such a seal was used by a person connected with Shakspeare by a marriage is certain; for I possess an impression of the seal (and apparently a seal-ring) of Adrian Quiney, bailiff of Stratford in 1559-60; and who, I have every reason to believe, was the uncle of Thomas Quiney, our poet's son-in-law. This seal of Quiney's, which is appended to a deed dated June 28, 9 Eliz., 1567, being a conveyance of property in Bridge Street, Stratford, very minutely corresponds with the Shakspeare ring in size, and has a very near resemblance to it in the string and tassels uniting the Roman initials 'A. Q.;' which ornamental junction is carved somewhat similar to what is now called The True Lover's Knot, and in the Shakspeare ring the upper bow or flourish resembles a heart."

In Shakspeare's age—

"Seal-rings were very fashionable, but were probably more limited than at present to the nobility and respectable families; for I still confine myself to the respectability of its proprietor.... After numerous and continued researches into public and private documents, I find no Stratfordian of that period so likely to own such a ring as Shakspeare."

Mr. Wheler concludes—

"At present, I possess no positive proof whatever. Let it be remembered that my observations are merely relative. I yet hope to meet with an impression of the ring in my possession; and in this I am more particularly encouraged by the fact, that should success attend the investigation, this seal-ring would be the only existing article PROVED to have originally belonged to our immortal poet."

When Mr. Wheler wrote, the signatures in Montaigne's work, &c. had not been restored to the light.

A Hermit at Hampstead.

REASON AND UNDERSTANDING ACCORDING TO COLERIDGE.

(Vol. v., p. 535.)

Your correspondent C. Mansfield Ingleby will pardon me if I deny the discrepancy in Coleridge's statements on the difference between these faculties. Coleridge refuses to brutes the possession of reason as a contemplative faculty; he allows them, that which in kind differs from reason, the understanding in a certain degree, and asserts that they do possess, in a very marked and characteristic manner, instinct, which, in degree only, falls below understanding. Instinct is distinguishable in degree from understanding. Reason is distinguishable from it in kind. Some kinds of brutes, as dogs and elephants, possess more intelligence than others, as tigers and swine; and some individual dogs possess more of this intelligence than others. This intelligence arises from the superior activity of the "faculty judging according to sense;" and, when Coleridge says that it is not clear to him "that the dog may not possess an analogon to words," he might have gone, I think, further, and have said, with much probability of truth on his side, that the dog has this analogon of words. I am sure I have often known a dog's thoughts by his own way of expressing them, far more distinctly than I am sometimes able to gather a fellow man's meaning from his words. Nay, much as I love and venerate Coleridge—his goodness, his genius, his writings, his memory—I find a dog sometimes far more intelligible. Language is a property of the understanding, but it cannot be developed in words unless there be in the creature an adequate degree of the faculty. This degree of the faculty, dogs have not. If they had it, they might fairly be expected to speak, read, and write. What we want is the man, or the observation and experiment, which shall show us where the line is to be drawn, if in the nature of such gradations lines can be drawn at all, which shall distinguish the degree at which instinct overlaps understanding. The case is perhaps too hopelessly complicated. Coleridge has carefully guarded his expressions, that they should not seem to assert for brutes more than he can prove that they possess, by the use of the words "analogous or fully equivalent." That brutes can and do reflect, abstract, and generalise, it needs but an understanding of the terms, and some observation of their habits, to feel assured.

Caspar.

GENERAL WOLFE.

(Vol. v., pp. 185. 398. &c.)

Since my last communication relative to this celebrated soldier, I have fallen in with a volume of the London Chronicle for the first half of the year 1760, and from it I send the following extracts: although there is more information relative to the battle, these only I thought worth insertion in "N. & Q." The first is entitled:

At p. 120., June 31st, is "A New Song, entitled and called, Britain's Remembrancer for the Years 1758 and 1759." The fourth verse runs as follows:

May 10th, p. 449.: "Capt. Bell, late Aide-de-Camp to the great Gen. Wolfe, is appointed captain in the fifth regiment," &c. Under the date of June 28th is Gen. Murray's despatch.

Among the advertisements are, "A Discourse delivered at Quebec," &c., by the Rev. Eli Dawson (dedicated to Mrs. Wolfe); "Two Discourses by Jonathan Mayhew, D.D. of Boston;" and "Quebec, a Poetical Essay, in imitation of the Miltonic Style, composed by a Volunteer in the service; with Notes entertaining and explanatory."

A notice of the death of Sir Harry Smith, Bart., aide-de-camp to Wolfe, appears in the Examiner for October 22nd, 1811.

Among other instances of the name is a notice of Major J. Wolfe in Gentleman's Magazine for 1836, p. 334.

H. G. D.

"THE MILLER'S MELODY," AN OLD BALLAD.

(Vol. v., p. 316.)

The original ballad of "The Miller's Melody" is the production of no less a person than a "Doctor in Divinity," of whom the following are a few brief particulars.

James Smith was born about 1604, educated at Christ Church and Lincoln Colleges, in Oxford; afterwards naval and military chaplain to the Earl of Holland, and domestic chaplain to Thomas Earl of Cleveland. On the Restoration of Charles II. he held several Church preferments, and ultimately became canon and "chauntor" in Exeter Cathedral. He was created D.D. in 1661, and quitted this life in 1667. Wood informs us he was much in esteem "with the poetical wits of that time, particularly with Philip Massinger, who call'd him his son."

I have an old "broadside" copy of the ballad in question, "Printed for Francis Grove, 1656," which is here transcribed, verbatim et literatim, for the especial benefit of your numerous readers. It may also be found in a rare poetical volume, entitled Wit Restored, 1658, and in Dryden's Miscellany Poems (second edition, which differs materially from the first).

As this old ditty turns upon the making "a viol," it may be as well to add that this instrument was the precursor of the violin: but while the viol was the instrument of the higher classes of society, the "fiddle" served only for the amusement of the lower. The viol was entirely out of use at the beginning of the last century.

Moll (or Mall) Symms (mentioned in the thirteenth stanza) was a celebrated dance tune of the sixteenth century. The musical notes may be found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, in the Fitzwillian Museum, Cambridge; and in the curious Dutch collection, Neder Lantsche Gedenck clank, Haerlem, 1626.

Edward F. Rimbault.

SURNAMES.

(Vol. v., p. 509.)

I shall endeavour to answer some of Mr. Lower's Queries.

1. Names having the prefix Le and ending in er or re. They are undoubtedly Norman or French, and generally relate to personal trade or employment, as Le Mesurier, Le Tellier, Le Tanneur, Le Fevre. Another class with the prefix Le, but of various terminations, are obviously of French origin, as Leblanc, Lenoir, Lebreton, Lechaplin, Lemarchant. All these came to us by the French Protestant refugees, or from Jersey and Guernsey.

2. The meaning of worth. This word generally implies a military work, and, I think, an earth-work; and I doubt whether worth and earth are not from the same root; I personally have been able to trace works in many places whose names end in worth. I am satisfied all such surnames were local, that is, derived from places so named from military mounds or earth-works.

3. The meaning of Le Chaloneur. It is evidently the same as our English name Challoner, which Cole admits into his dictionary as "the name of an ancient family." It means in old French either the boatman, from "chalun," a boat; or a fisherman, from "chalon," a kind of net. As we have in English Fisher, in modern French Lepécheur, in Italian Piscatory.

4. Le Cayser. The same as Cæsar, a name now, we believe, extinct amongst us, but preserved in our literature by Lord Clarendon and Pope. I suspect that it was of a class of fancy names which I shall mention presently.

5. Baird and Aird are Scotch names, and probably local. Jameson (whose authority is very low with me) derives Baird from bard, and Aird he does not mention. Aird or ard is Celtic for high, and is a common local denomination in Scotland and Ireland.

6. For the rest of the out-of-the-way names Mr. Lower mentions I can give no more explanation than of many thousands others which have been probably produced by some peculiarity or incidents in the first nominee, or some corruption of a better known name. As to this class of fancy names, I can give Mr. Lower a hint that may be of use to him. It used to be the custom at the old Foundling Hospital and in all parish workhouses, to give the children what I venture to call fancy names. I remember being shocked at the heterogeneous nomenclature that was outpoured on fifty or a hundred poor babes at the Foundling. I happened once to accompany a noble lady—the daughter of a great sea officer—to one of these Foundling christenings, when the names of Howe, Duncan, Jervis, and Nelson, were in fashion, and they were each given to half-a-dozen children; and while this was going on, my fair and noble friend whispered me, "What a shame! all these poor little creatures will grow up to be our cousins." Sometimes the names given were grotesque, such as ought not to have been permitted; and sometimes the children brought into the hospital, pinned to their clothes, names in which I suppose the poor mother may have had a meaning, but which seemed to us fantastical and extravagant.

Illegitimacy is a considerable source of strange names. I could give some droll instances. Corruption is another; there are half-a-dozen names of labourers in my village which are mere corruptions by vulgar pronunciation of some of the noblest names of the peerage.

Mr. Lower cannot have failed to observe the great tendency in the United States to vary the orthography, and of course, I suppose, the pronunciation of some of their old English patronymics; not from any dislike to them, for the contrary sentiment, I believe, is very prevalent, but the emigrants who carried out the names were ignorant or indifferent as to the true orthography or pronunciation, and in time the departure grows more wide. Instances of this may be also found in the small towns of England, where Mr. Lower will find on the signs frequent deviations from the usual spelling of the commonest as well as of the rarer names.

C.

In glancing through Cole's MSS. in the British Museum, my eye rested on two paragraphs, which perhaps may be unknown to Mr. Lower. In Additional MSS. No. 5805. p. iv., Cole says:

"Before surnames were in use they were forced to distinguish one another by the addition of Fitz or Son, as John Fitz-John, or John the son of John, or John Johnson, as now in use. This was in the first Edward's time: nay, so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in some places in France they had no surnames, but only Christian names, as the learned Monsieur Menage informs us: 'Il y a environ cent ans, à ce que dit M. Baluze, qu'à Tulle on n'avait que des noms propres, et point de surnoms.'—Menagiana, tom. i. p. 116. edit. 1729."

Again, in Cole's MSS., vol. xliii. p. 176., relating to a deed of the Priory of Spalding, Cole says:

"One observes in this deed several particulars: first that the Priory used a seal with an image of the Blessed Virgin, together with one of their arms; if possibly they used one of the latter sort so early as this John the Spaniard's time, in the reign, as I conceive, of King Richard I., when arms for the chief gentry were hardly introduced. Among the witnesses are two Simons, one distinguished by his complexion, and called Simon Blondus, or the Fair; the other had no name as yet to distinguish him by, and therefore only called here 'another Simon.' This occasioned the introduction of sirnames, and shows the necessity of them."

J. Y.

Hoxton.

SIR JOHN TRENCHARD.

(Vol. v., p. 496.)

Your Querist E. S. Taylor will find an interesting account of the manner in which a pardon was obtained for John Trenchard, afterwards secretary of state under William III., in Mr. Hepworth Dixon's work on William Penn. Mr. Taylor is evidently wrong in supposing that the pardon, of which he furnishes a copy, was issued in 1688, and at the very critical period to which he refers it. It was issued in 1686, that being the third year, reckoning by the old style, of King James's reign; so that his quotation from Pepys, and his suggestion of a reason for the pardon, are beside the purpose. It appears from Mr. Dixon's account, that William Penn was the mediator between Trenchard and the king; but the circumstances which led to it were so curious, that I transcribe part of the statement from page 276 of the new edition.

"Lawton, a young man of parts and spirit, had attracted Penn's notice; in politics he was a state whig, and it was at his instance that he had braved the king's frown by asking a pardon for Aaron Smith. One day over their wine at Popples, where Penn had carried Lawton to dine, he said to his host, 'I have brought you such a man as you never saw before; for I have just now asked him how I might do something for himself, and he has desired me to obtain a pardon for another man! I will do that if I can; but,' he added, turning to Lawton, 'I should be glad if thou wilt think of some kindness for thyself.' 'Ah,' said Lawton, after a moment's thought, 'I can tell you how you might indeed prolong my life.' 'How so?' returned the mediator, I am no physician.' Lawton answered, 'There is Jack Trenchard in exile; if you could get leave for him to come home with safety and honour, the drinking of a bottle now and then with Jack would make me so cheerful that it would prolong my life.' They laughed at the pleasantry, and Penn promised to do what he could. He went away to the Lord Chancellor, got him to join in the solicitation, and in a few days the future secretary was pardoned and allowed to return to England."

It appears also frown Mr. Dixon's narrative, that Trenchard was employed by Penn to dissuade James from his bigoted and violent course, and that he had interviews with the king for this purpose. Mr. Taylor will find in the same place curious particulars, given on the authority of Lawton himself, concerning the intrigues which preceded the fall of James.

Sydney Walton.

PAPAL SEAL.

(Vol. v., p. 508.)

I have in my possession a leaden seal, which has on the one side a precisely similar impression to that described by H. F. H. in p. 508. of "N. & Q.:" viz. two heads, with a cross between them, and the letters "S P A S P E" over them. The head under "S P A" has straight hair and a long pointed beard. The other head, under "S P E," has curled hair and a short curled beard, the whole surrounded with a circle of raised spots. On the other side of the seal is the following inscription, also surrounded by a circle of raised spots:

· E V G E N I V S . P.P · I I I I ·

It was attached by a strong cord that runs through the substance of the seal to a parchment document that, some thirty years since, I found being cut into strips for labels for a gardener. The few fragments I was enabled to preserve showed that the document related to some conventual matter, from the repetition of the words "Abbati, Conventii, et Monasterii." One of the lines commences with an illuminated capital of about half an inch in height, as follows:

"Militanti ecdie licet immeriti disponente domino presidente"....

Another line commences—

"Persone tam religiose qua seculares necnon duces Marchione"....

On one of the fragments, apparently an endorsement on the back of the document, are the names "Anselmus," and beneath it "Bonanmy" or "Bouanmy." There are unfortunately no traces of the name of any place, or of a date. The writing is very clear and in good condition. Is the document a papal bull? I shall be obliged by any reply to my inquiries.

R. H.

Kensington.

MARKET CROSSES.

(Vol. v., p. 511.)

It is stated in Gillingwater's History of Bury St. Edmunds, edition 1804, that "The theatre, an elegant structure, originally the Old Market Cross, was erected in the year 1780, from a design by Mr. Adams."

In Alexander Downing's Plan of the ancient Borough of Bury St. Edmunds, published in 1740, there is a very good view of the old Cross. It appears from this print to have been a fine old building; the lower part open. It is possible that there might have been a chapel in the upper part of the cross, as it appears in the print on Downing's map to have been three stories high, with a bell turret or tower.

Downing's Plan is not scarce: it is one large sheet, and is engraved by W. C. Toms, sculpt.

In Thomas Warren's Plan of Bury, subsequently published, there is a view of the New Cross, with the theatre above it, as built in 1780.

J. B.

Since I sent you a hasty Note respecting the Old Market Cross at Bury St. Edmunds, with reference to your correspondent's Query, I bethought me of the old market cross which formerly stood in the Great Market Place at Norwich. Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 652., gives an account of that ancient cross, which is too long to quote but he states that "it was a neat octagonal building, with steps round it, and an oratory or chapel in it, with a chamber over it."

Now possibly there might have been such a "chapel" in the old cross at Bury, wherein "Henry Gage was married in 1655;" for I put faith in all that Mr. Rookwood Gage said or wrote.

There is still standing, at Wymondham in Norfolk, an old wooden market cross, with a chamber over it, supported by wooden columns: it is an octagon building. Blomefield makes no mention of it. An etching was published of this cross, by — Dixon, of Norwich, some few years back.

J. B.