Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/316

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MARCH go, 1907.


we take Mr. Dobell's word, Fletcher must be de- prived of the credit of the lines to Melancholy which inspired Milton, and which, with little hesi- tation, are assigned to Strode. Their appearance in ' The Nice Valour ' cannot be held as establish- ing any indefeasible claim on behalf of Fletcher. So far as can be judged, Mr. Dobell's conjectures .are admirably sane, and his introduction constitutes a very sound' and valuable piece of scholarship. A few poems are given with some dubiety. One thing .at least is certain : the book forms a notable addi- tion to our stores of English poetry and an added claim upon scholarship on the part of Mr. Dobell, whose services to English poetry are not easily .acknowledged.

_Northern Notes and Queries : a Quarterly Magazine devoted to the Antiquities of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham. Edited by Henry Reginald Leighton. Vol. I. No. 5. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, M. S. Dodds.) .Northern Notes and Queries makes steady progress. We welcome each succeeding number with in- creasing satisfaction. The most widely interesting paper will, we think, be found to be 'A Newcastle Lady at St. James's,' for it contains a letter re- cording the appearance of a ghost which is either a most cunningly devised fable, or one of those truths which it was once the fashion to reject without examination as impossible. We have in a letter written at Queen Charlotte's request by a Lieut. "Stewart, the original of which is yet in existence, a narrative of what occurred, in the island of Dominica. Therein we read that a gentleman, named "Bomberg, of German extraction, who had married -.a Miss Laing, was a subaltern in the same regiment as the writer. Bomberg had one child, soon after whose birth the mother died. When the little boy was about two years old his father was ordered to Dominica, and took the little fellow with him. About nine months after he had been stationed in the island Bomberg received orders, it would seem, to take a rather long journey. There were no barracks at this time in the island, so the officers were quartered in the Governor's residence, in rooms having in them two beds each. A few nights after Bomberg had gone on his journey and Lieut. Stewart had been in bed a quarter of an hour, he heard some one enter the room, come -towards his bed, and draw back the curtain. It was Bomberg. Stewart, no little surprised at his early return, asked him when he arrived. The reply was that he had died that very night, and in a most pathetic manner he recommended his child to the lieutenant's protection and then departed. Calling to an officer who slept in the other bed, Stewart asked if he had heard any one enter the room. The reply was yes, and he thought it was Bomberg. He heard him speak also, but could not catch what he said. The next morning Stewart related what had occurred, and was of course made fun of by his companions, but in the evening news arrived that Bomoerg was really dead. The rest of the paper, though interesting on other grounds, has no psychological or folk-lore value.

' The Three Family Histories ' here continued, gathered from the Halmote records of the Bishops of Durham, furnish facts which cannot but be of importance to future genealogists. It is much to be desired that these valuable papers should find safety in print if not in extenso, at least in .abstract.


'A Note upon the Family of Dale of Monk- wearmouth ' supplies materials for a pedigree of the family from the reign of Charles I. to that of George it. It is compiled from records of the Court of Chancery which give details of a most embarrassing character.

The father of Akenside the poet was a butcher at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He entered memoranda as to the births and deaths of his children, not, as was the custom, in the family Bible, but in the English version of Diodati's 'Annotations.' These have been copied by some one into the register of the Nonconformist chapel where the Akensides were accustomed to worship, and are now, we believe, printed for the first time.

The charters of Crosthwaite, Cumberland, are concluded. They are valuable not only as throwing light on places and place-names, but also as giving evidence as to the intimate connexion between religious houses far apart. One of these is a report to the Abbot of Citeaux and others assembled in chapter as to a dispute between the Abbots of Furness and Fountains, dated at Boston in Lincoln- shire in 1302. A charter of King John is printed confirming to the Abbot and monks of Fountains certain lands which Alicia de Rumilly had given to them. It is dated 13 Sept., 1212, and, strange to say, has not been found entered on the Close, Charter, or Patent Rolls.

The family notices from The Newcastle Weekly Courant embrace parts of the years 1747-8. The laudatory terms used regarding both the living and the dead will sometimes cause the modern reader to smile.

WE have received from 1, Mitre Court Build- ings, Temple, E.G., a pamphlet concerning 'The Manorial Society : its Aims and Objects.' A recent Report of the Parliamentary Local Records Com- mittee indicated the expediency of preserving and examining records of national as well as local im- portance, and the present Society seems well fitted by its constitution to give organized attention to manorial records and institutions, on which ad- mirable work has been done by scholars like Mary Bateson. The Council of the Society already in- cludes representatives of about 340 manors in Eng- land. We hope it will be possible for the Society to include in its publications not only facsimiles of records, but also illustrations of some of the fine manor houses in this coxmtry, such as, for instance, the beautiful house at Cranborne.


PH. HEMS ("Netting-mokes"). Halliwell says that moke is the mesh of a net, and that hence the word is applied to any wickerwork.

L. P. (Paris). Contributions will be welcome, and be printed as space permits.

W. M. Kingsley's words were inquired for not Burke's as suggested by you.

NOTICE.

Editorial communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers" at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, B.C.