Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/290

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282


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[9 th S. I. APRIL 9, '98.


that coloured wood panels cover the walls. The beams of the ceiling here are richly carved ; indeed, carving appears throughout the house on nearly all available woodwork. The chief windows open on to the terraces, and command a view of the gardens, which have been greatly improved and partly re- modelled by the present owner. Beyond the gardens the lake stretches away into the distance, and is lost to sight among the foliage of the park.

During the reconstruction of the lake many articles of value which had been stolen from the hall years previously were recovered, and some of them may now be seen among the nick-nacks in the drawing-room. A very fine collection of miniatures, dating back for several hundred years, is among these treasures, and includes a portrait of the present Lady Kuggles-Brise when in her teens.

The library is shut off from the other end of the hall by a double door. This is not a large apartment, but looks smaller than it is owing to the massive and deep cases which have oeen fixed up to accommodate the large volumes of county and family history, <kc. Here the vertical timbers seem to groan under the weight of the heavily beamed ceiling, not one pillar being perfectly upright. There is much good carving here, but unfor- tunately this has been painted over for many decades.

Sir Samuel is now eighty-four years of age but is still active, and able daily to enjoy horse exercise and snooting. He is J.P., and for over forty years has been colonel of the West Essex Yeomanry.

Mr. Archibald Ruggles-Brise now resides at Spains Hall, and, as the " young squire,' is very popular among his tenants and the villagers, in whose welfare he takes a prac tical and personal interest.

FEED. HITCHIN-KEMP. 37, Dancer Road, Fulham.


SOME SMITHS.

THE 'Dictionary of National Biography vol. liii., notices more than one hundred am seventy Smiths, who occupy one hundred am sixty-eight pages, to say nothing of Smyths am Smythes. In the course of my miscellaneou reading I have met with the following scat tered members of the family who do not seem to have found a biographer. Perhaps som readers may tell us more about them.

" Master Smith, the Queenes Embroderer, built a hospital at Lambert Hill. Wille 4 Synopsis Papismi,' 1600, p. 962.


Mr. Smith " was one of the sequestrators f the see of Norwich in Bishop Hall's time, 641. Wordsworth, ' Eccl. Biog.,' 1818, v. 326.

"Mr. Smith's Vocabulary (if published)"

s recommended for learning Latin by Elisha

oles, ' Nolens Volens,' second ed., 1677, p. 49.

" Mr. Smith," a writer on tides, Philosophical transactions, No. 158, p. 564, mentioned by ohn Ray, 'Three Discourses,' 1713, p. 82.

" Elisha Smith, M. A., Lecturer of Wisbeech," >rinted these sermons :

(1) On the death of Queen Anne, Wisbeech, August, 1714. 2 Chron. ix. 8. 8vo., 16 leaves.

xmdon, 1714.

(2) On a new Vicar's settling at Wisbeech, Advent, 714. 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. 8vo., pp. 34. London, 715.

(3) On King George's Accession, Wisbeech, 20 January, 1714/5. 1 Thess. v. 13. 8vo., 13 leaves.

Condon, 1715. (Nos. 2 and 3 were issued together as 'Two Sermons.")

(4) At Lincoln Cathedral. 8vo., pp. 31. 1724.

For other things by him see Bohn's Lowndes.'

In 1682 Sir James Smith, Knight and Alder- man, was Vice-President of the Artillery Com- y of London (Bishop Sprat's 'Sermon' Defore the Company).

John Smith, of Snainton, in the North Eliding of Yorkshire (printed by himself and n the books "Snenton"), gentleman, was iving there 1661-4, at which time he bought some leasehold land in Snainton for 177/. original deeds). There is an account of him in ' N. & Q.,' 3 rd S. iv. 112. Gerard Langbaine, in his ' Account of English Dramatick Poets,' Oxford, 1691, p. 488, speaks of him as still Living at Snainton. He was the author of "Cytherea, or the Enamouring Girdle.* A new comedy. Written by John Smith, of Snenton in York-shire, Gent. Decies repetita placebunt. Licensed, May 30, 1677. Roger L'Estrange. London: Printed for Langly Curtis in Goat - Court on Ludgate - Hill. M.DC.LXXVII." 4to., 37 leaves.

Peter Smith, D.D., was the editor of Dr. Andrew Willet's 'Leviticus,' 1631, to whi>> he made some " worthlesse additions."

William Smith, an English merchant, robbed by Scotchmen " in Wespede insula." Roger Ascham, who died in 1568, wrote - letter for him, 'Epistolse,' 1602, p. 472.

Dr. William Smith, Master of Clare Hall, 1606, and afterwards Provost of King's Col- lege, Cambridge, is mentioned in Peckards ' Life of Nicholas Ferrar.'

The Rev. William Smith, rector of St. Mary's, Bedford, and the Rev. William Smith,


[* This comedy was "refused by the players (' Biographia Dramatica ').]