282
NOTES AND QUERIES, [us. vm. OCT. 11,1913.
by a Citisen—Alderman Langham met the King at the Hague in his Fur Gown & Gold Chain, his Majesty asked who that venerable Gentleman was & upon hearing his Name said, I am more obliged to that Man's Purse than to any private Man in England & then knighted him & his Son James who was with him—Soon after the King arrived in England he created him Baronet, being the Honour he chose, after being complimented with an Offer of the highest Titles of Honour.
When London was on Fire in 1666 Sr John offered 500l. to those who could extinguish it before it reached his House, which animated the People, that they succeeded & had the Reward. When the poor Sufferers were in the Fields, some sick, & all wanting Necessaries, Sr John put into the Hands of proper Persons 500l. for their Subsistance—the second Week he gave 400l. the third Week 300l. the fourth Week 200l. and 100l. ⅌ Week till the Field was cleared of the unhappy Sufferers. He gave a thousand Pounds towards building a Church in Cornhill—1000l. towards building the Company's Hall of which he was a Free Man—And 1000l. towards building the Royal Exchange & many other Benefactions. When the Clergy were restored to their Benefices, & those who had unjustly enjoyed them reduced to Want, Sr John said, they must not starve, tho' they are a mistaken, deluded People, & gave them a weekly Allowance of Bread & Meat from his Slaughter-House. He would sometimes give to a diligent young Man sufficient to set him up in his Trade—& would pay Debts for honest poor Men to keep them out of Joal—To every one of his Daughters he gave 10,000l. Fortune & spent 1000l. in equiping the Bride & Wedding Entertainment—When he visited any of them, he used to stay about a Month carrying with him 100l. which he gave to make the Pot boil, as his Expression was.
Sr John's Son William married a Daughter of Sir Anthony Haselwood of Maidwell a Lady with 3000l. which were paid down—the Lady died in six Week's Time. Sr John hearing that 2000l. of the Money was borrowed, made a Visit to Sr Anthony taking with him the 3000l. which he generously gave him back.—When any of his Servants grew old in his Service, he would ask them what they had got therein, & then would say Business is now tiresome to you, I will allow you so much a Year for your Life 5, 6, or 10 Pounds a Year as he thought proper, it is Time you should live free from Care, & leave serving an Earthly Master. He kept his Resolution of not seeing his Mother till he was in a flourishing Condition, tho' he assisted her, his Brothers & Sisters with his first Profits & then visited her in an Equipage suitable to his Circumstances. Sr John endowed his Free School at Guilsborough with 80l. a Year, & erected an Hospital at Cottesbrook which he endowed with 50l. a Year And he has been a great Benefactor to Sr [sic] Thos Hospital at North'ton. Besides his great Benefactions in his Life Time, he left many Charities by Will.
When Sr John left his Mother, he fell a Sleep upon the Ground & was awaked by Thunder & Lightning—He hastened to the next Town for Shelter, & feeling his Side a little uneasy, looked at it, & saw seven Stars—which remained there till after his Death.
Finis.
WEBSTER AND SIR THOMAS
OVERBURY.
(See ante, pp. 221, 244, 263.)
There is little in Webster's latest play, 'Appius and Virginia,' to suggest the influence of the 'Characters.' Possibly, however, an observation made by one of the Lictors entrusted with the task of arresting Virginia,
The calendar that we Lictors go by is all dog-days.
contains a reminiscence of ' A Prisoner,' one of the additional characters of 1616:—
" He is an Almanacke out of date ; none of his dayes speakes of faire weather." Rimbault, p. 159.
And we shall perhaps be justified^ in attributing a curious piece of information embodied in one of Virginius's speeches to a distant recollection of a not very edifying illustration from the description of * * A .Divellish Usurer.' Icilius, seeking to com- fort Virginius, observes that there is hope that he may yet live to " outwear the sorrow" of his daughter's death, whereupon Virginius dolefully replies :
O, impossible 1
A minute's joy to me would quite cross nature, As those that long have dwelt in noisome rooms, Swoon presently if they but scent perfumes.
' A. and V.,' V. ii. (Hazlitt, iii. 216).
an assertion for which one hesitates to believe that there can be any foundation in fact. An apocryphal story to which a casual allusion is made in ' A Divellish Usurer ' may account for it :
" He is a man of no conscience ; for (like the lakesfarmer that swouned ivith going into Bucklers- bury) he falles into a cold sweat, if he but looke into the Chauncery." Rimbault, p. 134.
It is scarcely necessary to explain that at this time Bucklersbury was the apothe- caries' and herbalists' quarter, where drugs and perfumes were sold. Students of Shake- speare will recall the reference in ' The Merry Wives of Windsor,' III. iii. 79 :
And smell like Bucklersbury in simple time.
This completes the tale of borrowings from the ' Characters ' and ' Newes ' to be found in ' The Duchess of Malfy,' ' The Devil's Law Case,' and ' Appius and Vir- ginia,' at least so far as I have been able to- identify them.
It is interesting to note that the influence of the ' Newes ' can also be detected in ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' the play in which
