Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/452

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446


NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. DEC. 0,1913.


In ' Legends and Traditions of Hunting- donshire,' by W. H. Bernard Saunders, 1888, p. 256 the "Fac Simile of Title Page of original Pamphlet, in the possession of Lord Esme Stuart Gordon," is illustrated by a process block. Even this is incorrect, as the particular word Gidding has only two d's instead of three. Does this point to two issues of the pamphlet or incorrect repro- duction ? I think the latter. Has any one ever seen an original copy without the three <f s ?

Then I have an interesting MS. copy of the pamphlet in the autograph of Hinton, the Oxfordshire collector, which was Phillipps MS. 6829. This, too, is incorrectly tran- scribed.

The only correct facsimile I have seen in a book is in ' The Life and Times of Nicholas Ferrar,' by H. P. K. Skipton, 1907, facing p. 88, but this, was taken from the <3renville copy in the British Museum. Another correct facsimile was given in a catalogue of a celebrated firm of booksellers in the Havmarket.

From the above notes we are led to agree with Hazlitt how difficult it is' to "tran- scribe with accuracy."

HERBERT E. NORRIS.

Cirencester.

VANISHING LANDMARKS OF LONDON. Pickaxe and shovel are busy with an exten- sive demolition of the few older houses left in Upper Brook Street, Park Street, and Green Street, Grosvenor Square. In all there are about twenty-five now being razed an unusually large area to be cleared at the same time. There have been many changes in this locality of late as the leases on the Grosveiior Estate fell in notably the erection of that fine block, part of "which overlooks the eastern side of the garden to Grosvenor House.

As regards the City, the old rectory house behind St. Michael's Church, Cornhill (see 11 S. vii. 247), is now gutted, and will soon be no more than a memory. The little square in front is almost covered by builders' sheds a very unsightly intrusion.

CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

WILL OF ANNE, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. In the will of Anne, Countess of Pembroke, widow of William, first Earl of Pembroke < dated 27 June, 1586, proved P.C.C. 1 Aug., 1588), the following bequests occur :

" To my entirely beloved son Henry Compton Knight, Lord Compton, my gowld ringe withe a diamond sett therein whiche I late had of the


guifte of Quene Marie, late quene of England .... To my entirely beloved William Compton, sonne and heir apparent of the said Lord Compton, my greate agarthe sett on gowlde, being white on the one side and havinge the pictxire of Nero on the other side ... .To my godson Thomas Compton, second son of the said Lord Compton, a table- 1 of gowlde havinge diamondes and rubies sett therein .... To my entirely beloved Margaret Compton, daughter of the said Lord Compton, one crosse of diamondes with thre pearles hanginge at the same, and one Juell of gowlde havinge an esmerald and a Rubie sett therein with little gowlde and a faier pearle hanginge at the same."

Lady Pembroke was a daughter of George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, and widow of Peter Compton, Esq. P. D. M.

CROSS - LEGGED EFFIGIES. (See ante, p. 207, and references there given.) Much discussion has already taken place as to the reason why some effigies of thirteenth - and fourteenth -century knights are cross- legged, but no satisfactory answer has been brought forward. The popular idea that such effigies portray Knights Templars who went as Crusaders to the Holy Land still persists, probably because an old one.

" Standing cross-legged, like our effigies of Croisaders in Churches." ' Tour of Great Britain,' by De Foe, vol. iii. p. 169, ed. 1769.

Bishop Lyttelton, an antiquary (d. 1768), expressed the opinion that these cross- legged monuments represent only such as had been, or vowed to go, to the Holy Land.

Gough in his ' Sepulchral Monuments,' 1786, says that although these effigies are vulgarly thought to represent Knights Templars who went to the Holy Land Crusade, many are not such.

And although it has been shown by some authorities that many of the knights repre- sented in their effigies as cross-legged did not go to the Holy Land, even so recent an author as the Rev. H. W. Macklin, in his work on ' The Brasses of England,' pub- lished in 1907 ("The Antiquary's Books"), pp. 22-3, says :

" But the crossing of the legs need not indicate more than that the knight was a benefactor of the church, either by some conspicuous act of piety, such as going upon a pilgrimage, or joining in cru- sade, or by a benefaction in church-building, or the foundation of a place or object of religion."

I am not aware of any evidence to support Mr. Macklin's statements, nor do I think them tenable.

The question therefore still remains, What is the significance of the cross-legged attitude in which these effigies are portrayed ? Xo one apparently has suggested that this crossing of the legs in sculpture may be of