Queries.

LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL.

Can any of your correspondents inform me where the virtuous and patriotic William Lord Russell was buried? It is singular that neither Burnet, who attended him to the scaffold, nor his descendant Lord John Russell in writing his life, nor Collins's Peerage, nor the accounts and letters of his admirable widow, make any allusion to his remains. At last I found, in the State Trials, vol. ix. p. 684., that after the executioner had held up the head to the people, "Mr. Sheriff ordered his Lordship's friends or servants to take the body and dispose of it as they pleased, being given them by His Majesty's favour." Probably, therefore, it was buried at Cheneys; but it is worth a Query to ascertain the fact.

My attention was drawn to this omission by the discovery of the decapitated man found at Nuneham Regis ("N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 386.), and from observing that the then proprietor of the place appears to have been half-sister to Lady Russell, viz. daughter of the fourth Lord Southampton, by his second wife Frances, heiress of the Leighs, Lords Dunsmore, and the last of whom was created Earl of Chichester. But a little inquiry satisfied me this could not have been Lord Russell's body; among other reasons, because it was very improbable he should be interred at Nuneham, and because the incognito body had a peaked beard, whereas the prints from the picture at Woburn represent Lord Russell, according to the fashion of the time, without a beard.

But who then was the decapitated man? He was evidently an offender of consequence, from his having been beheaded, and from the careful embalming and the three coffins in which his remains were inclosed. The only conjecture I see hazarded in your pages is that of Mr. Hesleden (Vol. vi., p. 488.), who suggests Monmouth; but he has overlooked the fact stated in the original communication of L. M. M. R., that Nuneham only came into the possession of the Buccleuch family through the Montagues, i.e. by the marriage of Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch, to Lady Elizabeth Montagu; the present proprietor, Lord John Scott, being their grandson. This marriage took place in 1767, or eighty-two years after Monmouth's execution, and thirty-three years after the death of his widow, the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, who is supposed to have caused the body to be removed from Tower Hill.

Notwithstanding the failure of heirs male in three noble families within the century, viz. the Leighs, the Wriothesleys, and the Montagus, the present proprietor is their direct descendant, and there are indications in the letter referred to, that the place of interment of his ancestors, as well as of this singular unknown, will no longer be abandoned to be a depository of farm rubbish.

W. L. M.

ANCIENT FURNITURE—PRIE-DIEU.

Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." will be able to give me some information as to the use of an ancient piece of furniture which I have met with. At Codrington, a small village in Gloucestershire, in the old house once the residence of the family of that name, now a farm-house, they show you in the hall a piece of furniture which was brought there from the chapel when that part of the building was turned into a dairy. It is a cupboard, forming the upper part of a five-sided structure, which has a base projecting equally with the top, which itself hangs over a hollow between the cupboard and the base, and is finished off with pendants below the cupboard. The panel which forms the door of the cupboard is wider than the sides. All the panels are carved with sacred emblems; the vine, the instruments of the Passion, the five wounds, the crucifix, the Virgin and child, and a shield, with an oak tree with acorns, surmounted by the papal tiara and the keys. The dimensions are as follows:

Depth from front to back, 2 feet 4½ inches.

Height, 4 feet 8 inches.

Height of cupboard from slab to pendants, 2 feet 6 inches.

Height of base, 9½ inches.

Width of side panels, 1 foot 8 inches; of centre panel, 1 foot 10½ inches.

Width of the door of the cupboard, 1 foot 5 inches.

The door has carved upon it a scene representing two men, one an old man sitting upon a chair, the other a young one falling back from a stool; a table separates them and in the next compartment (for an arcade runs through the group) a female figure clasps her hands, as if in astonishment. This I can hardly understand. But the panel with the papal ensigns I think may throw some light on the use of the whole. In the year 1429, John Codrington of Codrington obtained a bull from Pope Martin V. to have a portable altar in his house, to have mass celebrated when and where he pleased. I find that such a portable altar ought to have "a suitable frame of wood whereon to set it." Such altars are frequently mentioned, though I believe very few remain; but I never could hear of the existence of anything to show what the frame would be. It occurs to me as possible that this piece of furniture may have been used for the purpose. The whole question of portable altars is an interesting one, and if this account should by the means of "N. & Q." fall into the hands of any one who is acquainted with the subject, I hope he would consider it worth a communication.

For some time I was at a loss for another instance; however, I have just received from a friend, who took interest in the subject, a sketch of something almost identical from the disused chapel at Chillon in the Canton Vaud. Of this I have not the measurements, but it stands about breast-high. It is there called a "prie-dieu," and is said to have belonged to the Dukes of Savoy, but the size is very unusual for such a use. I send sketches of each of the subjects of my Query, and hope that, if this should be thought worthy of a place in "N. & Q.," some one will be able and willing to afford some information about them. I would add as a farther Query, the question of the meaning of the battle-axe and pansy, which appear on the "prie-dieu" at Chillon. Is it a known badge of the Savoy family?

R. H. C.