NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. JULY -29, me.
I am confident that Ellis Mews, who
hoads the pedigree in the Hampshire
Visitation, was one of the Caundle Purse
Mewses. The Dorsetshire Mewses had cer-
tainly been settled in that parish from a
.somewhat early date.
Richard Mew of Caundle Purse was taxed in poods in 1523 and 1542-3.
William Mew of Caundle Purse was taxed in goods in 1523.
Joan Mew, widow, was taxed in goods in 1523. G. O. B.
I send a copy of the pedigree recorded in the Visitation of Hampshire, 1686 :
Ellis Mews of Stourton Candle in com. Dorset.
Richard Mews, of=
the city of .
Winchester,
ob. c. 1646,
fetat. 60 annor.
et amplius.
pGrace, dau. of John Mews,
- Ford, of the
of Winchester. city of
Winchester.
-Joane, Ellis Mews, Esq., 11
wife at present
of Mayor of the city
of Winchester,
aetat. c. 63 ann.
supstes,
A 1686.
=Christiana, John,
only dau. of ob.
Oliver coelebs.
St. John,
of Farley
Chamberlain
in com.
South ton, Esq.
,
Henry, Ellis, William, Anne,
aetat. setat. aetat. aetat.
18 annor., 16 annor. 14 annor. 19 annor.,
A 1686. coelebs.
STEPNEY GBEEN.
COVERLO (12 S. i. 328; ii. 33). This celebrated fortress, cut out of the living rock, is some 80 to 100 feet above the Canale di Brenta gorge, and not very far below Primolano, the first Italian village reached by the traveller going from Trent to Bassano through the \ 7 al Sugana, of the fighting in which one reads daily in the news- papers. Thus it was just at the spot where of old the territory of the Bishop of Trent met that of the Venetians. It was taken by the latter in 1509, but the Austrians were allowed to garrison it till 1798, when it was captured by the French under Ausereau.
It is marked on all the old maps of the Tyrol as " Covolo " or " Kofel." That of Matthias Burgklehner (1611) calls it " Koffl," and gives a small engraving of it, with a man -climbing up to it by a rope. In 1649 Matthew Merian's ' Topographia Provin- -ciarum Austriacarum ' (Frankfort, p. 152) gives a long and most amusing account of it. It is there stated that it was generally garrisoned by a captain and fourteen soldiers.
The first time a man climbed up to it, his
comrade, in order to impress the fact on his
mind, bumped his head against a ereat
shield bearing the Imperial arms, which was
hewn out of the rock. Merian gives a
double folding-plate of this singular fortress
to illustrate his text.
Murray's ' Handbook for South Germany,' third edition, 1844, p. 280, prints a descrip- tion of this curiosity, written by the author of ' Vathek,' who passed under it in 1780. For a modern description see John Ball's 'Alpine Guide: Eastern Alps' (1868), p. 414. Badeker's ' Sudbayern, Tirol,' &c., thirty-second edition, 1913, p. 454, just mentions the fort, and says it is now in- accessible. W. A. B. COOLIDGE.
Grindelwald.
According to Baedeker's ' Oesterreich- Ungarn,' ed. 26, 1903, p. 191, there are some inaccessible ruins of the fort of Covelo or Kofel in a cavern on the left - hand side between Primolano and Bassano, where the road from Trent passes through the rocky gorge of the Canale di Brenta. This cavern is presumably the " large cave in the mountain " (12 S. i. 263) in which part of the garrison were quartered.
EDWARD BENSLY.
Thanks to MR. LETTS' s reply at the latter reference, I now find that Baedeker (' Eastern Alps,' ed. 1907, at pp. 402-3) says, speaking of the Canale di Brenta near Primolano : "In a rocky grotto, 100 ft. above the road, are the ruins of the old fortress of Covolo, now in- accessible." He uses similar language in his 'Northern Italy,' ed. 1913, at p. 27. The word means " nest."
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
SHEFFNER : HUDSON : LADY SOPHIA SYDNEY: SIR WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM (12 S. ii. 29). Lady Sophia was the eldest daughter of William IV., and sister of the first Earl of Munster; she d. 1837, having married, 1825, Philip Charles Sydney of Penshurst Place, Kent, afterwards G.C.M., 1831, and first Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, 1835, an equerry to the King, 1830-34.
James Hudson was Assistant Private Secretary to the King, 1830-37 ; Envoy to Sardinia, 1852-63 ; G.C.B., 1863 ; and died 1885. He was known as " Hurry* Hudson " from the speed with which he travelled to Italy to summon Peel home to become Premier in 1834.
Thomas Shifmer was of Westergate, Essex, the fourth and youngest son of Sir Geo. Shiffner, first Baronet, M.P., born in
