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Chaps,

3. ATHLETICS and EDUCATION. By Hely Hutchinson Almond.

4. CHRISTMAS and ANCESTOR WORSHIP in the BLACK MOUNTAIN. By Arthur J. Evans. Part 11.

5. Mr. FRANK BUCKLAND. By Spencer Walpole.

6. RUGBY, TENNESSEE. By Thos. Ilughes, Q.C.

7. "The CUP." By Lady Pollock.

8. The PREVENTION of FLOODS. By Urquhart A. Forbes.
MACMILLAN & CO. London.

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This Day's ATHENEUM contains Articles on

FURNISH your HOUSES or APARTMENTS SKENE'S CELTIC SCOTLAND, Vol. III.

THROUGHOUT on

MOEDER'S HIRE SYSTEM.

The Original, Best, and most Liberal.

Cash Prices

No extra charge for time given.

Illustrated Priced Catalogue, with full particulars of Terms, post free. F. MOEDER, 248, 249, 250, Tottenham Court Road; and 19, 20, and 21, Morwell Street, W. C. Established 1862.

The SHORES of the BODEN SEE.

The AMANDA GROUP of BAGFORD BALLADS.
TRAVELS in MOROCCO and ALGERIA.
NOVELS of the WEEK.

LIBRARY TABLE-LIST of NEW BOOKS.
PARALLEL PASSAGES.

MILTON'S DIVORCE PAMPHLETS.
INEDITED POEMS by S. T. COLERIDGE.

MOEDER begs to announce that the whole of The FREE LIBRARIES.

F. announce that the wadapted

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Bed-Room Suites, from 61. 68. to 50 Guineas.
Drawing-Room Suites, from 91. 98. to 45 Guineas.
Dining-Room Suites, from 71. 78 to 40 Guineas.
And all other Goods in great variety.

F. MOEDER, 248, 249, 250, Tottenham Court Road; and 19, 20, and 21, Morwell Street, W.O. Established 1862.

OLD MARSALA WINE,

Acknowledged to be the finest imported, free from acidity or heat,
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Selected dry TARRAGONA, as supplied to the Public Hospitals,
Asylums, &e. 208. per dozen. Rail carriage paid.

W. D. WATSON, Wine Merchant,

373, Oxford Street, and 56. Berwick Street, London, W.
Established 1841. Terms cash.

HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT and PILLS.

SALE.

"The TEMPLE or the TOMB."
CHAUCER'S GRANDFATHER.

LITERARY GOSSIP.

ALSO

SCIENCE-Dr. I loyd; Societies; Meetings; Gossip.

FINE ARTS-The Royal Academy; Mr. Alfred Elmore, R.A.;
Sale; Gossip.

MUSIC- The Week; Borough of Hackney Choral Association;
Gossip.

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Rheumatism, Neuralgia.-It is sometimes difficult to determine which of these diseases is afflicting the sufferer, but this ignorance will not matter if Holloway's remedies be used. alleviate and cure all muscular and nervous pains. In hereditary rheumatism, after bathing the affected parts with warm salt water, Holloway's Ointment hould be well rubbed upon the spot, that it may penetrate and exert its soothing and regulating properties on the deeper vessels and nerves which are unduly excited, and cause both the pain and swelling. Holloway's treatment has the merit of removing the disease without debililating the constitution, which was the inevitable result of the ble ding, mercury, and colchicum practice has my Name, Trade-Mark, and Signature on a Buff-Coloured Wrapper. formerly adopted in these complaints.

PYRETIC

SALINE

H. LAMPLOUGH, 113, Holborn.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1881.

CONTENTS.- N° 57.

Harcourt Papers".

The

and Bishop Andrews preached before them in the ancient church which is at the west end of the mansion, and connected with it by a covered NOTES:-A Rare Engraving of Burley-on-the-Hill House, way. Ben Jonson's masque of The Gypsies was Rutland, 81-John Wilson Croker-Parish Clerks, 84-The also produced at Burley for the entertainment of Tennyson s "Ballads and other Poems Cheese-making at Cheddar, 85-"Boot and the king, Prince Charles, and the court, the perSaddle"-Crows and Fir Cones-A Surname made easy-formers being all members of the nobility. Wrexham Organs-Mnemonic Lines-The Three F's, 86. Duke of Buckingham spent large sums of money QUERIES:-The Collar of SS., 86-The late Snowstormon the improvement of the mansion and grounds. Dean Swift-" Pilgrim's Progress" Illustrations-Angling Described-Sprye's Devonshire Collections-Jodocus Crull, Fuller says that Burley was inferior to few for M.D.-Mace Family-Lenton, co. Notts-E Hull-"Weeds the house, and superior to all for the stables, where and Onfas"-Darvell Gadarn, 87-Cambridgeshire M.P.s- the horses were the best accommodated in England." Esher-"Systema Horticultura"-" Windlestrae "-Lincoln Bell Foundry-Rev. W. Herbert 88-"Zoedone"-Pyanot Wright also says of these stables that they are "the noblest (or at least equal to any) in England." The eastern portion of these stables remains to this day, the western stables being built to correspond with them.

-"Bilwise and Polmad"—Authors Wanted, 89.
REPLIES:-" Cut off with a shilling," 89-"Fog"-The
Temporal Power of Bishops. 90-The "White Quey"-C.
Marshall, 91-Miss Drax-Two Letters from Teresa Blount
-The House of Keys, 92-The Gender of Death-Suicide:
Imagination, 93-"Carminative"-John Pinkerton-Cutts

Family-Hall Marks-Friday an Unlucky Day for Marriages
"Guffin"- Numismatic - The "Religio Medici"
"Busby," 94-The Bagpipe in Lincolnshire-Edmund Curll
-A Key to "Endymion"-"The grey mare," &c., 95-
"Rickets"-Lucy (?) Wentworth, &c.-Old Houses with
Secret Chambers-Josselyn of Horksley, 96-"Whom" for
"Who"-Morice of Werrington-A Widow's Signature-
Sorts of Ales, 97-"The land o' the leal "-" Brag "-" A
bobbin of thread "-" Wrap"-Tablet in Ilfracombe Church

-The Bells of King's College, Cambridge-" Boycotting," 98
-Authors Wanted, 99.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-Carnota's "Memoirs of the Duke of
Saldanha"-"Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft"

Longman's "Frederick the Great and the Seven Years'
War"-" The Genealogist," &c.

Notices to Correspondents, &c.

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Charles I., with his Queen Henrietta Maria, also visited Burley in 1626, on which occasion Jeffrey Hudson, the Oakham dwarf, who had been taken by the Duchess of Buckingham as her page, was served up in a cold pie at dinner before the king and queen. He was then seven years of age and scarcely eighteen inches high. This ludicrous introduction to royalty led to the dwarf being afterwards taken into the service of the queen. A full-length, life-size portrait of Sir Jeffrey Hudson hangs in the western corridor at Burley. After the murder of the Duke of Buckingham by Fenton in 1628, George Villiers, the second duke and favourite of Charles II., took possession of Burley. In 1645 the Parliament army, in order to protect their County Committee, being then in power, seized Burley and garrisoned it. But when the army retired from the neighbourhood, the garrison, findThe small county of Rutland is wholly agricul- ing themselves unable to cope with the larger tural, and contains many houses of the nobility force of the Royalists by whom they were surand country gentry. Of these the chief are Nor- rounded, set fire to the furniture and all the manton Park, one of the seats of Lord Aveland; contents of the house, and retreated, leaving it to Stocken Hall, another of Lord Aveland's seats, its fate. The mansion in consequence was totally but now occupied by Lord Francis H. P. Cecil; destroyed; but the stables (already spoken of), Exton House, the seat of the Earl of Gainsborough, being at some distance, escaped. After this delord lieutenant of the county; and Burley-on-the-struction the duke was too much involved in Hill House, the seat of Mr. George Henry Finch, one of the members for the county.

Notes.

A RARE ENGRAVING OF BURLEY-ON-THE-
HILL HOUSE, RUTLAND.

Burley is rightly termed "on the hill," for it is situated on the brow of the lofty ground overlooking the town of Oakham and the Vale of Catmos. From its grand position, as well as from the beauty of its surroundings, it has been called "a second Belvoir." It would be out of place on the present occasion to give the long but interesting history of the estate, from the time of Gilbert de Gant, one of the favourites of William the Conqueror, till the days of Queen Elizabeth, when it was sold to the Harringtons. It was bought from that family by King James I.'s favourite, "Steenie," Sir George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham. He entertained the king and his court at Burley,

debt to bear the expense of rebuilding the house; he therefore sold the estate to Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, a descendant of Sir Henry Finch, author of Nomotechnia and Serjeant at Law in the reign of James I. Other members of this family were Sir Heneage Finch, Recorder of London in the reign of Charles I., and Sir John Finch, Queen's Attorney and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was the Speaker who was forcibly held in his chair when he refused to countenance the proceedings of the House in

the expense of Mr. Finch. Among other monuments it The church was well restored a few years since at contains an exquisite life-size marble female figure, by Chantrey (dated 1820), in memory of Lady Charlotte Finch.

the debates on the ship money; and to him we owe the axiom, "Authority must be vindicated from contempt, since the life of Government is reputation."*

Daniel Finch, son of Heneage Finch, the first Earl of Nottingham, was born in 1647, two years after the burning of Burley. At the age of thirtytwo he was appointed First Commissioner of the Admiralty, and at the Revolution was made Secretary of State, after declining the offer of the Lord Chancellorship. He resigned office in 1694, but resumed the same post in the reign of Queen Anne, again resigning it in 1704. On the accession of George I. he was made President of the Council, was created Earl of Winchelsea, and died Jan. 21, 1729/30. He distinguished himself in literature by writing a work on the Trinity against Whiston. It is this Daniel Finch, Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, who renewed the glories of Burley, after the mansion had remained for many years an unsightly heap of charred ruins. The stone for the building of the new mansion was not quarried on the spot, but was brought from Ketton and Clipsham, two places at opposite extremities of the county, and about eight miles distant from Burley. The house, which still remains, and is in the possession of Mr. G. H. Finch, M.P., was greatly improved and renovated by the ninth Earl of Winchelsea early in the present century. It is in the Doric style, with elaborate ornamentation; the south and north fronts are similar in elevation and treatment, and are 196 feet in length and lighted by sixty-six windows. On the south front is a magnificent terrace, 290 yards in length by 12 in breadth, from which there is a widely diversified view over the distant country and the well-wooded park beneath the terrace. The chief feature of the north front, which faces to the high road between Oakham and Cottesmore, is the wide sweep of lengthy colonnades on either side, leading to the stables and offices. The distance between the two blocks of stables and other buildings is about 300 yards, along which is carried a range of ornamental iron railings, having in their centre handsome iron gates. The distance from these gates to the flight of steps at the entrance is 270 yards. The space thus enclosed is said to be the largest courtyard in England. Besides several wide gravel walks and drives, it has five level grass plots, which are sufficiently large to be marked in the Ordnance Map. A stretch of the park, which was surrounded by Daniel Finch with a stone wall six miles in circuit, comes between the courtyard and the high road, whence the passer-by has a view of Burley-on-the-Hill House that cannot fail to attract and please him.

It is of this north front of Burley-on-the-Hill

Burke said that "All Government is founded on compromise and barter."

The

House that a fine engraving came into my possession some six years ago. It is not only remarkable, but I believe it also to be rare. During the ten years that I have been "collecting" on the county of Rutland I have neither heard of nor seen another copy. Its existence was not known to the present possessor of Burley, and I have therefore begged him to accept the engraving, which has been framed and hung in the east corridor, immediately over the old oil painting on panel which would appear to have formed the original for the print, although the contrary is possible. painting, which has been preserved at Burley as long as can be remembered, corresponds with the engraving in nearly every particular, though there are a few figures in the print that are not in the painting. The latter is also much smaller than the former. The dimensions of the picture are 3 ft. 6 in. long by 1 ft. 6 in. deep; those of the engraving are 6 ft. 10 in. long by 1 ft. 9 in. deep, exclusive of margin. It has been printed in three parts, joined together, and the view is slightly isometrical in its treatment, so that the tops of the roofs and chimneys can be looked down upon. It shows the north front of the mansion, with the two semi-circular colonnades, the two blocks of stables, the walks, and five grass plots, a low wall between the outer four and the fifth inner grass plot, and a high wall on either side the iron entrance gate. This outer wall was removed some time in the last century (the exact date is not known) by the advice of "Capability" Brown,* who thought that the view from the house and courtyard would be improved by a fuller sight of the fine trees in the park; and, accordingly, the stone wall was taken down, and a light, open-work railing was substituted. With the exception of these two walls, the engraving faithfully represents the mansion as it now stands.

In the upper part of the left-hand portion of the engraving is the following inscription, placed within an ornamental border, and surmounted by

Lancelot Brown was also employed at the other Burghley, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter, near Stamford, ten miles, as the crow flies, from Burley-on-the-Hill. He may have directed the works at these two places at Burghley about the year 1775, when he substituted the same time. He was making the alterations at a green circular lawn for the pond that had been in front of the chief entrance, laid out the lake, covering thirtytwo acres, spanned by a stone bridge of three arches, and effected several improvements in the park and in the Pagoda Room at Burghley, where there are so gardens. There is a fine three-quarter length of L. Brown many valuable portraits. It was painted by Sir N. Dance, who also painted the portraits of David Garrick and Angelica Kauffman that hang in the same room. I shire, after the mention of this picture, it is stated that may note that in Murray's Handbook to NorthamptonBrown died in 1773, at which date he was in full employment at Burghley. He died Feb. 6, 1783, being then head gardener at Hampton Court.

the arms of the Earl of Nottingham: "A North Prospect of Burley on the Hill, in Rutlandshire, the Seat of the Rt Honble the Earl of Nottingham, Baron Finch of Daventry, and Baronet," &c. Beneath this is the monogram "D.N.," which, with an earl's coronet, is also carved over the entrance door, and may stand for "Daniel Nottingham." In the upper part of the right-hand portion of the print is the following inscription, placed within an ornamental border surmounted with armorial bearings: "Nobilissimo Viro Danieli Domino Finch, Hunc suæ paternæ sedis Prospectum Borealem, D.D.D. Anton. Twyman, Armig., amicitiæ simul et observantiæ pignus." I need hardly say that these, and the other inscriptions and letterings on the engraving, do not appear in the oil painting.

Beneath the print is marked a scale of feet, up to 210 on either side from the centre-410 feet in all, with the following instructions :

"The Use of the Scale of Feet. To measure the breadth of any part of this Building, draw two Lines from the Point of View to the Scale, passing them over the Extremities of the Part you desire to measure, and the same Measure you find on the Scale, will give you the Measure you demand. Ex. gr. If you would find the Breadth of the Pediment, a line drawn from the Point of View to the Scale, passing over the Extremities of the Base of the Pediment, will fall upon 25 in the Scale, which is half the Measure; in like manner on t'other side it will fall again on 25, wch is the Breadth of the Pediment. To measure the Height of any part of the Building, take it with your Compasses, and bring on a Line at the Base of the Building you measure, parallel to the Scale, and then drawing the Lines from the Point of View as before directed, will give you the Height demanded. Ex. gr. If you would find the Height of the House from the Balustrade to the ground, having taken it with your Compasses, and measured a line parallel to the Scale at the foot of the Building, you will find it measure 60 Feet by the Scale. I might have added a Scale of distance in Perspective, by the sides of these Plates, but it suffices to let the Reader know, that the Distance from the Gates to the House is 800 feet, and

the Stables are in Front 200."

The plate is subscribed "Ant. Twyman Arm. delin."; "I. van Lintz cognom. studio Romæ fig. fecit"; "Gravé par françois Blondel a Paris." Although there is no date to the engraving, yet this signature of François Blondel, the French architect and author, who died in 1686, together with the inscription to the Earl of Nottingham, the date of whose title is 1681, fixes the production of the plate somewhere about the year 1683. It was, doubtless, to display the glories of the new house that this large plate was produced and inscribed to the new possessor, "his paternal seat " being a figure of speech. The Roman artist has enlivened the prospect of the house by the introduction of an unusual number of figures. There are no less than 138 figures of men (including a few boys), 10 women, 1 baby, 23 horses, 4 carriages, 12 dogs, 2 mules, 1 donkey, and 1 horned sheep. The figures are disposed in various parts of the

gravel walks, and they are as careful to keep off the grass as though they were in a college quad. Even the dogs do not transgress in this particular. The figures are costumed in the fashions of the latest part of Charles II.'s reign. The ladies wear loose-flowing dresses, cut low in the neck, with wide sleeves, showing the arms bare from the elbows. Each lady carries a fan. The gentlemen wear loose square-cut coats with lappets, and lace cravats tied under the chin and hanging down square in front. All wear huge periwigs and bear swords; a few in addition have walking-sticks. The majority carry their square flapped hats in their hands or under their arms; and in a few of the hats are feathers. Nearly all wear stockings and shoes, but a few have jack-boots, including two who are mounted on prancing horses, in front of the stables to the right. A coach, drawn by a pair of horses, has driven up to the flight of fourteen steps in front of the mansion, and the servants are receiving the visitors. Up the central drive is proceeding a stately coach, drawn by six horses a postillion being seated on one of the leaders. The coach is accompanied by two mounted servants, each leading a horse, and followed by s servant on foot, carrying a long staff. Another servant is closing the iron entrance gates. A third carriage, drawn by a pair of horses, is coming through the colonnade on the left.

A remarkable circumstance about the figures in the immediate foreground, outside the wall, is that the greater portion of them are purely Italian figures, and might well be supposed to have been peasants suddenly transported from the neighbourhood of Rome into Rutland. There is a singular carriage, which the Roman artist had evidently studied on the spot, as also two mules with plumes and trappings, and a classical-looking woman, carrying on her head an equally classical watering-pot. The figure of this woman does not appear in the oil painting.

I imagine that this old engraving throws some light on the question, Who was the architect of Burley-on-the-Hill House? The name of the architect is unknown, and also the exact date of the erection of the mansion. The family tradition is that Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham, always boasted that he was "his own architect" of the new mansion. This seems highly improbable, except in the sense that he gave general directions as to the form and plan of the house. There is also a family tradition that the roof of the house was finished with the century-that is to say, it was not finally completed until the year 1700. This is compatible with the engraving having been made about the year 1683, because it could have been executed from the drawings of the architect, whoever he may have been. The Burley of the Duke of Buckingham is said to have been built by John Thorpe, who built the other Burghley, between the years 1575-87; but, beyond the tra

dition that Daniel, Earl of Nottingham, was "his own architect," the real architect of the modern Burley-on-the-Hill is unknown.

perfect recollection of it, and shall have 'dum
spiritus hos reget artus'-I hope next time you
come to Town I shall not only have the pleasure
of meeting you at Dinner, but that of having your
company to dine with me
"Believe me

"To

"Very truly yours,
"E. PHIPPS."

"The Right Hon. John W. Croker."

I would suggest that this old engraving helps us to a solution that the architect was no other than François Blondel, the French architect and author, who engraved the plate. Both it and the oil painting may have been made from his designs. Daniel, Earl of Nottingham, is known to have travelled much on the Continent, and he may have procured from Blondel the designs and plans for his new mansion. I have no knowledge, nor PARISH CLERKS.-A writer in the November have the family, who was the Roman artist who number, 1880, of All the Year Round has given put in the figures, nor who was the Antony Twy-two amusing chapters on the history and eccenman who dedicated the plate to the new Earl of Nottingham. Perhaps he was connected with the Heralds' College? These are points which some reader of "N. & Q." may be able to clear up.

One significant fact has yet to be mentioned. Along the tops of the two colonnades are a number of ornamental stone vases, which give a great finish and elegance to the effect of the whole. These vases appear both in the oil painting and engraving, but were never seen until the present possessor of the mansion placed them in position. He was induced to do so from seeing them depicted in the oil painting. There was no trace to show that such vases had been placed there, and that subsequently they had been removed. CUTHBERT BEDE.

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"DEAR CROKER,

"I was very sorry not to meet you yesterday at Sir Francis Burdett's dinner. I hope the sore throat complaint that prevented you from coming was slight, and that prudence has relieved you of it.

"As I hear you are still occupied on the subject of Dr. Johnson, I will give you a saying of his, which I heard him make. When I was very young my eldest Brother took me to dine at Streatham-I was placed at table next to Mrs. Thrale, and opposite to Dr. Johnson. She, seeing me looking at him with amazement, said, 'You need not be afraid of Dr. Johnson, he is very good humoured'-The Dr. said, "Yes, Madam, I am good humoured, I am pleased with little things, & not displeased with little things." I was so much struck with this Definition of Good humour, that now, in my 76th year, I have a

tricities of parish clerks. The history of this church dignitary might, I think, be enlarged, and the anecdotes which the genial writer has recorded admit of being increased almost without limit. Some of these are old and traditional; some are old with new features; and some are new, at least to me. But there must be a vast store of such anecdotes floating about in the parochial world, embedded in scattered books and treasured in the memories of the older clergy, and it appears very desirable that these should be collected and stereotyped before they go the way of the parish clerk himself, and pass into oblivion. I would therefore suggest that the pages of "N. & Q." should be open to receive contributions of this kind, and I feel sure that the result would be both curious and amusing.

In the

As regards the history of parish clerks, we are told that towards the close of the sixteenth century they were sometimes made the subject of inquiry in the Articles of Visitation. By Grindall's Injunctions they were required to "read the first lesson, the epistle, and the Psalms." In 1577 Aylmer asks the question whether they were sufficiently qualified for such a duty. present century, in Devon and Cornwall, it was the custom in some places for the parish clerk to read the first lesson. (See Lathbury's Book of Common Prayer, p. 87.) I know of an instance in Norfolk where the vicar within the last few years used often to pass the Bible to the clerk, who sat beside but below him in a desk, for him to read the lessons. I also knew of a female clerk some years ago at Shelley, in Suffolk.

Towards the close of the seventeenth century this statement is made by Lathbury, pp. 405-6, in regard to the dress of parish clerks. The inquiry is made in Visitation Articles: "Have you a large and decent surplice (one or more) for the minister to wear, and another for the clerk, if he hath heretofore been accustomed to wear it, when he assisteth the minister?" That the parish clerk was here intended, and not a clerk in orders, is clear from another question under the heading "Parish Clerks." "Doth he wear a gown when he so attendeth, and a surplice

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