368
NOTES -AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL NOV. 2, 1901.
Somerset. It is about five miles from Bristol,
and was formerly the seat of a family of the
same name. JAMES R. BRAMBLE, F.S.A.
UNIVERSITY DEGREES (9 th S. viii. 206). Exchange and Mart for Wednesday, 4 Septem- ber, p. 641, contains :
" The University of London grants degrees with- out residence, and after examination only, and the fees are almost nominal. The University of Phila delphia, U.S.A., used to grant degrees after certifi- cates of fitness were furnished ; and Dr. Sturman a schoolmaster somewhere in the north of London was the agent. Another American university was represented a few years ago by a Cambridge gentleman named Broughton Rouse."
H. J. B.
COLUMBARIA (9 th S. vi. 389, 471 ; vii. 15, 116, 216, 318). At Norton St. Philip, near Bath, there is a fine columbarium at the Manor Farm, formerly called the Grange. I believe it provided nests for 600 pigeons, but it is now used as a pig sty and for other purposes unconnected with doves. ST. SWITHIN.
SHARES IN MERCHANT SHIPS (9 th S. v. 228, 320). In an action in Court of Session as to a ship in 1680, the pursuer had "one thirty- two part of the said ship."
J. G. WALLACE-JAMES, M.B.
Haddington.
WEARING THE HAT IN THE ROYAL PRE- SENCE (8 th S. vii. 148, 338, 391). I am endea- vouring to compile a complete list of persons who received a licence to remain covered in the royal presence, and should be grateful for any additions to the names given below, with the reference to such licence and the date.
The form of licence to Walter Copinger given in 'N. Q.,' 8 th S. vii. 338, is a very typical one, and the words are almost identical with those in other licences that I have seen. It seems to me perfectly clear that these grants were personal and not hereditary ; that they were made because of some disease of the head ; and that they only lasted during the reign of the monarch who 'granted them. In these licences the monarch restricts the wearing of the bonnet to "our presence," and does not mention "the presence of our heirs arid successors." It is curious, too, that they were mostly granted by Henry VIII. Can any reader tell me (1) What was this common disease of the head which led to so many grants being made by King Henry VIII. ? (2) In what class of documents are they pre- served at the Public Record Office? I have searched the Privy Seals and the Close and latent Rolls, but have failed to find them there.
The persons licensed to remain covered in
the king's presence as yet known to me are
these :
Walter Copinger, of Buxhall, 24 October, 4 Henry VIIL (' N. & Q.,' 8 th S. vii. 338.)
Richard Wrottesley, Esq., of Wrottesley, 4 March, 6 Henry VIII. ('History of the Family of Wrottesley,' p. 254.)
John Forster, of Wellington, gent., 22 No- vember, 12 Henry VIII. (Original at Willey Park.)
Richard Verney, of co. Warwick, 1516.
Thomas Went worth, of Wentworth, Esq., 1528. ('Strafford Letters,' ii., appendix, 438.)
Richard Guest, Prolocutor of Convocation and Archdeacon of Middlesex, 9 July, 1540. (' N. & Q.,' 8 th S. vii. 148.)
Christopher Brown, of Tolethorp. (Ibid., p. 338.)
Two of Henry VIII. 's chaplains. (Ibid., p. 338 ; and Leland's * Collectanea,' ii. 678, 679.)
The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, is said to have this privilege ; but by what authority 1 Is there any record of any such grant? (Ibid., p. 148.)
John de Courci, who died 1219, is said to have had a similar grant from King John ; and Lord Kingsale by virtue of this claimed to appear covered in the presence of Wil- liam III. (Burke's * Peerage '). Mr. Round in his new work calls this alleged privilege a later addition to the late legend of his won- drous deeds, and says there is no instance known of the exercise of this *' right" before the days of William III. Moreover, it could not be hereditary, as it is certain from the testimony of Giraldus that John de Courci left no heir. Are there any documents that bear on this De Courci grant? May it not have arisen from some Lord Kingsale in the reign of Henry VIII. having had a disease in his head, as in the case of most of the other grants? W. G D. FLETCHER, F.S.A.
St. Michael's Vicarage, Shrewsbury.
FRANK FOSTER (9 th S. viii. 304). "Frank Foster " was the pen-name assumed by Mr. Daniel Puseley, several of whose books are to be found in the British Museum Catalogue. There is a notice, of him in the 'D.N.B.' Neither of these authorities chronicles an interesting tract which he printed in 1869 :
" My Review ; or, Public Men and their Censors* By Frank Foster, author of ' Number One ; or, the Way of the World,' <fec. London : John Snow & Co., Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row." 8vo, pp. 32.
This deals mainly with the old topic of the relation of author and critic. Incidentally he refers to his "friend Richard Cobden," and the famous controversy of the great Free- trader with Delane. Apropos of Thackeray's
- Four Georges,' he has this foot-note :
