a brazier’s to be regilt, and it lay on the counter by the side of the griffin (?), which also had come to be regilt. The Royal Exchange was burnt down soon after this meeting (1838), and I want to find out the whole story of the prophecy. W. B. Whittingham.
[Is the reference to the dragon on Bow Church, Cheapside?]
“Loose-girt Boy.”—Kindly inform me to whom this epithet was applied. E. K. A.
“The golden horde.”—What was this? A. Oldham.
Sir Timothy Thornhill, “of Barbados and Kent, Bart.,” created 1688.—He was one of the Thornhills of Ollantigh, in Kent. Can any reader inform me where the Barbados branch of this family joined on to the Kentish stock? F.S.A.
John Donaldson.—I have searched the periodicals in vain for a biographical notice of this once well-known writer on botany and agriculture. He was alive in July, 1860, when he published his ‘British Agriculture’; but had died by 1877, when his ‘Suburban Farming’ was issued under the editorship of Mr. Robert Scott Burn. On the title-pages of his books he describes himself as “Professor of Botany” and “Government Land Drainage Surveyor.” He is best remembered by his useful ‘Agricultural Biography,’ 1854. Even the approximate date of his death and the place would be of use. G. G.
“Pricking the belt for a wager.”—The above quotation is from Colquhoun’s ‘Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis,’ p. 135. What is its meaning? Henri le Lossigel.
Ballads on the Spanish Armada, and Poems relating to Drake and other Elizabethan Worthies.—I shall be thankful to receive copies of any such curiosities of English literature, which are not to be found in ‘The Roxburghe Ballads,’ pt. xvii. vol. vi., edited by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, M.A. (1887). My collection already comprises many of the ordinary ballads and poems; but there are, doubtless, some appended to miscellaneous works of the period which I may not have met with. Copies of black-letter ballads of the time of Elizabeth will be acceptable. W. H. K. Wright, Hon. Sec. Armada Tercentenary Commemoration.
Drake Chamber, Plymouth.
Spanish Armada Literature.—I am collecting bibliographical items relating to the above, and shall be glad to receive information from any of your contributors who may have works in their possession of a curious or out-of-the-way character, or such as may not be easily accessible to the ordinary reader. Dr. Garnett has kindly sent me a list of some rarities in the British Museum, and I am indebted to Mr. Sam. Timmins, Mr. T. C. Noble, Rev. H. C, Leonard, and others for other valuable contributions. To relieve your columns at this time of heavy pressure, I would suggest that communications might be sent to me direct. W. H. K. Wright, Hon. Sec. Armada Tercentenary Commemoration.
Drake Chamber, Plymouth.
John Hussey.—Can any of your readers throw any light upon the parentage and ancestry of John Hussey, of Old Sleaford, a Commissioner for Kesteven to raise funds for the defence of Calais in 1455; or trace his connexion with any other branch of the family, the main line of which was settled at Harting, in Sussex? John Hussey married Elizabeth Nessfield, and was the father of Sir Wllliam Hussey, Chief Justice of England, 1481–95. A. E. Packe.
1, Stanhope Place, Hyde Park, W.
Articulo.—This word occurs in a charter of Edward I., dated April 28, 1298, to the Barons of the Cinque Ports, and is translated by Jeake “tackling,” who tells us, however, in a marginal note, that “in the manuscript of Mr. Francis Thynn, Lancaster Herald, where this charter is transcribed, it is ‘Attilio’ for ‘Articulo.’ ” The whole passage runs as follows:—
Can any of your readers supply other instances of the use of the word in this sense, or explain its derivation? H. H. S. C.
Chronological Difficulty.—The Latin inscription on a monument in a Devonshire church to the memory of a noted Puritan member of the Long Parliament, states that he died
| Anno a Ducis sui | 
|
partu 1644 |
|
triumpho 1631 |
This computation, put in the form, 1644−1631=13, appears to give A.D. 13 as the date of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Failing to comprehend how this was arrived at, I had set aside the problem as possibly, after all, caused by an error of the sculptor until lately, when, in an entirely independent quarter, I met with a precisely similar computation made by a Puritan writer in the same decade. It occurs in a little book entitled ‘Mans badnes and Gods goodnes, or some Gospel truths laid down, explained, and vindicated,’ &c., London, printed by M. Symmons, 1647. The author,
