Kitabı oku: «Notes and Queries, Number 03, November 17, 1849», sayfa 4

OPINIONS OF WRITERS ON ENGLISH HISTORY, NO. 1

"Oh, do not read history, for that I know must be false."—SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

Sir,—I have, from time to time, made a few notes on our historical writers—rather I should say the conflicting opinions of critical writers on their relative value, and the dependence to be placed on them as historical guides. They are so opposite, as would in a great measure confirm the opinion of the celebrated statesman above quoted. I send, as a specimen, the opinions upon Burnet, and should its insertion in your "NOTES AND QUERIES" be deemed advisable, I will from time to time send others which I have in my note-book.

M.

Burnet, "A good historian and an honest man."—Lord Brougham.

"The History of his Own Times, which Burnet left behind him, is a work of great instruction and amusement.... His ignorance of parliamentary forms has led him into some errors, it would be absurd to deny, but these faults do not detract from the general usefulness of his work."—Lord John Russell.

"The most partial, malicious heap of scandal and misrepresentation, that was ever collected for the laudable design of giving a false impression of persons and things to all future ages."—Lord Dartmouth: note in Dr. Routh's edition.

"A rash and partial writer."⁷– Macaulay.

"It is a piece of justice I owe to historical truth to say, that I have never tried Burnet's facts by the tests of dates and of original papers, without finding them wrong."—Sir J. Dalrymple.

"Burnet had all the merits and all the faults of an ardent, impetuous, headstrong man, whose mind was honest, and whose objects were noble. Whatever he reports himself to have heard or seen, the reader may be assured he really did hear and see. But we must receive his representations and conclusions with that caution which must ever be observed when we listen to the relation of a warm and busy partizan, whatever be his natural integrity and good sense."—Smyth's Lectures on Modern History.

"His history is one which the present editor (Dr. Routh) truly says will never lose its importance, but will continue to furnish materials for other historians, and to be read by those who wish to derive their knowledge of facts from the first sources of information. The accuracy of his narrative has often been attacked with vehemence, and often, it must be confessed, with success, but not so often as to overthrow the general credit of his work."—Quarterly Review.

"Rarely polished, I never read so ill a style."—Swift.

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DOMESTIC ESTABLISHMENT

Your readers may be curious to see a list of the persons composing the domestic establishment (as it may be called) of Queen Elizabeth in the middle of her reign, and an account of the sums of money severally allowed to them out of the privy purse of the sovereign. The payments will seem remarkably small, even allowing for the great difference in the value of money then and now. What that difference may be, I am not prepared to say; and I will venture here to put it as a "Query," to be answered by some competent person who may read this "Note." I have seen it stated by more than one writer, that the difference in the value of money at the end of Elizabeth's reign was at least five times, i.e. that one pound then would go as far as five pounds now; but I am not aware of the data upon which the calculation was made. I apprehend, besides, that the difference was greater in 1582, to which what follows applies, than afterwards, and I should be glad to have the matter cleared up. The subsequent account is indorsed in the hand-writing of Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, in these words:—"1582. The payment of the Ladies of the Privy Chamber;" but it applies also to the gentlemen.

⁸ The names are spelt precisely as they stand in the document itself.

The above 673l. 6s. 8d. was the whole sum paid out of the privy purse; but it is to be borne in mind that these persons were allowed diet and lodging in the Court, so that, after all, the payments were not quite as insignificant as they may at first seem. Whatever also may have been the case with the ladies, it is certain that the gentlemen had other sources of emolument derived from the Crown, such as monopolies, valuable grants of royal domains, leases of customs, &c., which altogether made up an ample income. Sir Christopher Hatton, for instance, could not have built Holdenby out of his 50l. a year as Gentleman of the Privy Chamber.

ANTIQUARIUS.

EXTRACTS FROM PARISH REGISTERS OF EAST PECKHAM, KENT

Sir,—In my commonplace book I find the following notes, being extracts from the ancient Registers of East Peckham Church, Kent, which have never (I believe) been published, and which may perhaps be of service to the historian or antiquary.

1637. This yeare was the Communion-table rayled in by the appointment of Dr. Ryves, Dean of Shorham Deanery, and Chancellor to the most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who commanded this uniformity to be general throughout the kingdom.

1638. This time of lent being to be kept holy by fasting and abstinence from flesh, notwithstanding Sir Roger Twisden, Knt and Baronett and Dame Isabella his wife, being both very sick and weake, in my judgement and opinion [are] to be tolerated for the eating of flesh.

FRANCISC. WORRALL, Vicar.

A similar entry occurs for the three following years.

1648. Upon the third of June the following Infants all born in the parish of Brenchley were baptized in this parish Church, by an order granted from Sir John Sedley, Knight and Baronett, Sir John Rayney, and Sir Isaac Sedley, Knights:—

"Whereas complaints have often been made unto us by many of the principal inhabitants of the Parish of Brenchley, that they having desired Mr. Gilbert, minister of the said Parish, to baptize their children, and according to the Directorie offered to present them before the Congregation, he hath neglected or refused so to do; whereby divers infants remain unbaptized, some of them above a year old, expressly contrary to the said Directorie.

"We do therefore order that the parents of such children do bring them unto the Parish Church of East Peckham, where we desire that Mr. Topping, minister of the said Parish, would baptize them according to the sayd Directorie, they acquainting him with the day they intend to bring them beforehand.

"Dated ye 25th of May 1648.

"JOHN SEDLEY.

"JOHN RAYNEY.

"ISAAC SEDLEY."

The last extract may illustrate the progress of Anabaptism, under the Parliamentary rule, and serves by way of curious sequel to the preceding excerpta.

In a window of the same church I observed this inscription:—"Here stoode the wicked fable of Mychael waying of [souls]. By the law of Qvene Elizabeth according to God[s] Word is taken away."

C.F.S.

PAWNBROKERS' THREE BALLS

Mr. Editor,—The Edinburgh Reviewer, cited by your correspondent Mr. W.J. Thoms, seems to have sought rather too far for the origin of a pawnbroker's golden balls.

He is right enough in referring their origin to the Italian bankers, generally called Lombards; but he has overlooked the fact that the greatest of those traders in money were the celebrated and eventually princely house of the Medici of Florence. They bore pills on their shield, (and those pills, as usual then, were gilded,) in allusion to the professional origin from whence they had derived the name of Medici; and their agents in England and other countries put that armorial bearing over their doors as their sign, and the reputation of that house induced others to put up the same sign.

H.W.

THE LIONS IN THE TOWER

Mr. Editor,—Some one of your readers may be interested in knowing that there was a royal menagerie in the Tower of London in the reign of Edward III. In the Issue Roll of the forty-fourth year of his reign, 1370, there are five entries of payments made to "William de Garderobe, keeper of the king's lions and leopards" there, at the rate of 6d. a day for his wages, and 6d. a day for each beast.—pp. 25. 216. 298. 388. 429.

The number of "beasts" varied from four to seven. Two young lions are specially mentioned; and a "lion lately sent by the Lord the Prince from Gascony to England to the Lord the King."

Φ

[Our correspondent's NOTE is an addition to what Bayley has given us on this subject; who tells us, however, that as early as 1252, Henry III. sent to the Tower a white bear, which had been brought to him as a present from Norway, when the Sheriffs of London were commanded to pay four pence every day for its maintenance.]