long.

TOMBSTONE BLUNDERS.

That implicit reliance is not to be placed on tombstone inscriptions is a maxim accepted by all careful genealogists. How or when the numerous blunders-examples of which may be found in every antiquary's collections-were originally perpetrated it is generally impossible to determine, but it is probable that they may be all attributed to one of two causes, ignorance or sheer carelessness. As a rule, however, so far as my experience goes, they were not in the original inscriptions, but occurred in recutting.

difficulty and interest in baronial history. For dale supplied by this chartulary, for it contains example, the details of Eudo Dapifer's career, materials for better pedigrees of the baronial famihitherto imperfectly known, can be picked out lies of Lanvallei, Martel, Magnaville, Sackville, from the series of royal grants of his acquisitions | St. Claro, and others; but this note is already too subsequent to Domesday. The charter of Henry I., EDMOND CHESTER WATERS. by which Eudo was reinstated in all his estates as he held them on the day that William II. died, is dated "on the first day of the week after the Purification of the B. Virgin, after the concord made between me and my brother Robert apud Wesbian," viz., February, 1102; whilst the grant of the city of Colchester, with the tower there and the castle and all firmitates, "to hold as freely as my father King William and I myself held them," is dated at Westminster on the first Christmas after the same concord with Robert Curthose. This chartulary also contains positive proof of an error which I have long suspected, for it is asserted in Dugdale and all the Baronages that Eudo Dapifer left a daughter Margaret, who married William de Magnaville, and was the mother of Geoffrey, the fictitious dates thus engraved have been Earl of Essex, who played so prominent a part in accepted and perpetuated as historical. the reign of King Stephen. I must reserve for case of the Princess Mary is one in point. another occasion how this error arose, when it was On her monument in Westminster Abbey it patent that the Magnavilles, whether in or out of is stated that she died on December 16, 1607, favour at court, never inherited Eudo's Honour or while it is certain that she died on September estates. It is sufficient to say now that the 16 in that year, but it is the former date which chartulary contains both negative and positive always appears in the pedigrees of the royal family. evidence that Eudo Dapifer and his wife Rohese A more flagrant blunder of this sort was made at never had any children. This appears negatively the Abbey within the last few years, when, on a from the silence of the movent clauses in their stone placed over the grave of Ambrose Fisher, benefactions to St. John's. For example the "Blind Scholar," the year of his burial was "I Rohais, widow of Eudo Dapifer, grant to the monks given as 1630, although the Abbey register records of St. John's the manor of Hallingbury and the lands it on November 24, 1617 (see "N. & Q.," 4th S. which my brother Gilbert gave me, for the souls of King vi. 177, 203). A few other examples of such William and Queen Matilda, and of my father and mother, inaccuracies may be found interesting. and of my husband Eudo Dapifer, and of my brother Gilbert, and of all my kindred, and for my own salvation." Witnesses, Turstin, Archbishop of York, and Roger his

brother.

:

This is only one of many charters which imply that they left no child, but positive proof of the fact is contained in the solemn instrument by which the church of St. Mary West Cheap in London, then called New Church, was confirmed to Abbot Gilbert by Henry I. :—

"Recognitum fuit coram Rege Henrico in curia sua apud Westmonasterium, that on the day that King William II, was alive and dead, the church called New Church London was included in the fee of Eudo Dapifer. This was certified by the testimony of Hamo de St. Claro,

Ralph de Ambli, Robert de Caron, Esmelin de Argentine, Amfrid, formerly Eudo Dapifer's chaplain, and others of his barons. Then the court resolved ista debere remanere sicut erat quum rex suscepit coronam regni, quum non existente herede aliquo res Eudonis venit in regis arbitrio et jure, ita rex reddidit Abbati Colecest. Gilberto ecclesiam,' &c."

In some instances

The

In the south ambulatory of the Abbey Church of Romsey, Hants, is an elaborate monument, a portion of the inscription on which I quote (the church by Charles Spence, published in 1951) :— whole may be found in the little history of the

"Here lyeth interred ye body of John Storke,
Who was twice Mayor of this Corporation,
Who died the XIXth of December MDCCXI, aged LXXI:
Also Mercy his wife, who died XXIII of May MDCCXI:
And John Storke, their eldest son.
Who died the III of July, MDCCXXIII, aged LVI;
Also Mary his wife,

Who died the xxxth of November, MDCCXXIV
aged XXXII."

of this inscription I obtained a careful rubbing, Lest there might be an error in the printed copy from which I quote. The blunders in these few lines are twofold. Mercy, wife of the first John Storke, actually died on May 23, and was buried on May 25, 1702, not 1711, as appears by an entry in the register and on a small stone over her This is by no means the only correction of Dug-grave, and also by the facts that her husband reNone of the chronicles give the name of the place at which this concord was made between King Henry and his brother.

married the next year, and his second wife, Martha, survived him. The second error is curious, for the dates and ages are correct in themselves, although

In the chancel of the church of Little Compton, Warwickshire, is a flat stone over the remains of Sir William Juxon, Bart. The inscription states that his mother was "Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir John Walter, of Sarsden, in the county of Oxford, Bart.," while nothing is more certain than that she was a daughter of Sir William Walter. Another inscription in the same chancel states that Eliza-more than half serious on this occasion. Subsebeth Pory (née Juxon) died in 1652-3, in her thirtieth year, hence born in 1623. In the affidavit on which her marriage licence was issued, dated September 21, 1640, her age was sworn to be then twenty-eight, hence really born in 1612, and therefore in her forty-first year at her death.

assumed by the counsel of the two peers abso- Under these circumstances it seems to me that lutely governed the law of the case for all future the resolution of the House of Commons amounted ages. I cannot help thinking that if, even on only to this-that the Earl of Manchester had, in this assumption, the circumstances of that notable the opinion of the House, done wrong in voting, case had been a little more carefully inquired into, but that, as he actually had voted, his vote could the learned counsel would have acted otherwise, not be set aside. It was for this reason, I take and the court would have come to a very different it, and to protest as much as possible against a decision. It is quite true that after the election practice for which there was felt to be no legal in question the House of Commons instituted an remedy in those days, that the resolution, as framed inquiry, and after the inquiry passed the resolution, in the Parliament of 1699, "that no peer of this which has ever since been repeated," that no peer kingdom hath any right," &c., was repeated in of this kingdom hath any right to give his vote in following Parliaments, until it came to be conthe election for any member to serve in Parlia-sidered-what it certainly is not-an authoritative ment." But on the other hand it is obvious, and statement of the law. was indeed expressly admitted, that a mere resolution of one House of Parliament could not disfranchise any person or body of persons whatsoever. On the authority of Coke and Blackstone, however, it was considered that in matters which concerned the right of an individual member to sit in either House, that House constituted a court whose decision could not be called in question; and as it seemed that the House of Commons in 1699 sat as a court touching the validity of the Malden election, the principle embodied in the resolution on that occasion must be considered to have the force of a judicial decision.

I wish to add that I write this with no desire to reopen a question which is considered to have been set at rest, but solely for the better understanding of a point in constitutional history. JAMES GAIRDNER.

Record Office.

ANOTHER OLD VIEW OF COVENT GARDEN
MARKET.

I have recently met with a curious oil painting, representing old Covent Garden Market, at Wimpole Park, Cambridgeshire, the residence of the Earl of Hardwicke. The view, like those recently Such, it seems, was the legal theory by which noticed in "N. & Q." (5th S. xii. 441, 469, 481), is the Court of Common Pleas was governed; and if taken from the eastern extremity of the square, it could be shown that in 1699 the House of Com- and from an upper window of a house towards mons successfully vindicated its jurisdiction as a the north-east corner. The portico of the court, the case, no doubt, would be complete. church in the centre looks low, and the column Unfortunately, the historical side of the question also appears small. The north side of the square was not sufficiently examined, else it would have is very much foreshortened, with a dark shadow been found that the facts were quite otherwise. sloping across it on the right side as if caused There is not merely no evidence whatever that the by an early morning sun. The same shadow House of Commons was "sitting as a court" when extends over the whole of the front of the picture. the resolution was passed, but there is very strong The open area is not paved, but covered with green evidence indeed against it. For, in fact, the case litter or rushes. The space is crowded with figures had been already disposed of; the election Com-in gay dresses, and presents a very animated scene. mittee had brought up their report in favour of Workmen are seen repairing the arcade on the the sitting member; that report had been approved right side. Between the opening of James Street by the House, and the Malden case had thus been and the front of the picture, eight arches may be completely settled when the House proceeded to counted, and lamps are observable beneath them. the resolution above quoted. And if it be con- From one of the piers on the north side projects tended in this nineteenth century that such a a large square board inscribed, "Haddock's Bagnio. resolution had the force of law, all I can say is, it Sweatings, Cuppings and Bathings at 2." was not so contended by that very House of Com-figures are very varied, and the costume of the mons in which the resolution was passed; for, if ladies indicates a period about 1760. One lady, it had been so, the member for Malden ought to buying flowers, is attended by a black boy in a have been unseated. The point seems utterly to turban, as seen in the pictures of Hogarth and have escaped observation that the Malden election Jervas. The men wear hats, excepting a young was carried by a majority of one in favour of the clergyman, who is bare-headed, and figures in a black candidate for whom the Earl of Manchester had gown. Market carts, waggons, and sedan chairs are voted; yet the House of Commons, instead of introduced. There is no brazen pot on a post at the declaring the election void as having been carried corner of King Street, nor are dishes suspended along only by the vote of a peer, declared by a large the eaves of the shop-front belonging to it. A long majority that the sitting member, Ireby Montague, row of flat-roofed sheds occupies the ground near, Esquire, was "duly elected a Burgess to serve in and to the south of, the central column. this present Parliament for the borough of Malden." clock, as shown by Hogarth, in his print of

The

The

"Morning," in the eastern pediment of the ment of the British Museum might identify the church 18 very elaborately ornamented. A handwriting, and so recognize who had been the weathercock surmounts it, and the western tower original collector. is very small. The present spire of St. Martin's Church rises conspicuously over the houses to the left. The sky is pale blue, with light clouds, and the outline of the dark buildings cuts harshly against it. The buildings are drawn in a formal, architectural style, and wanting in what may be termed physiognomical peculiarities.

The distance at which the picture is hung in its present locality and the objects by which it is surrounded preclude the possibility of a fuller examination. No name of artist was associated with the picture, and no signature could, under the circumstances, be detected. Herbert Pugh, the painter referred to by MR. AUSTIN DOBSON "N. & Q.," 5th S. xii. 442), resided in Covent Garden Market, and as this view is seen from above, it may prove to be the work of his hand, taken from his own window.

The picture is on canvas, and about four feet by three. The "Morning Visit to Covent Garden," exhibited by Pugh at the Society of Artists in 1775, corresponds with a smaller picture looking towards the north-east corner of the Market, and showing, on the extreme left, the house, now the "Unicorn Tavern," at the corner of Henrietta Street. This picture is also in the collection of the Duke of Bedford in Eaton Square. In this picture the arrangement of the shadows shows it to be a very early morning scene. The costumes of the figures in the latter painting suggest a date about 1780, of which no history is known.

GEORGE SCHARF.

CHAP-BOOK NOTES.

NO. II.-MR. DOUCE ON PENNY HISTORIES.

MR. EBSWORTH'S article on the subject of chap. books in "N. & Q." (5th S. xii. 461), has recalled to my mind some fragments of an interesting conversation which I had in the year 1827 with my kind and learned old friend Mr. Douce on the subject of Penny Histories. It probably had its rise in my having had the good fortune to pick up rather an interesting collection of them while hunting over bookstalls for materials for my series of Early English Prose Romances, the publication of which commenced in that year.

My lucky find consists of two volumes, the second and third of what had originally been a series in three. The tracts are all described on their title-pages as Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, London." In some of them the words "Bow Lane" precede "London."

66

The volumes have been uniformly half-bound, but each has lost one cover. The second is lettered "Ancient Histories, Vol. 2, F-M," the first tract being Partridge and Flamsted's New and Well Experienced Fortune Book, and the last, The Famous History of the Seven Wise Mistresses of Rome, &c. The third volume, which is lettered "Ancient Histories, Vol. 3, M-W," commences with Doctor Merryman; or, Nothing but Mirth, and ends with The World Turned Upside Down; or, the Folly of Man Exemplified in Twelve Comical Relations, &c.

My learned friend pointed out to me, in a way which, after the lapse of half a century, I will not attempt to follow in detail, how many of these very Penny Histories were only degenerated, modernized, and abridged versions of the Romances of Chivalry which had been centuries ago the delight of our ancestors, and of which the earliest versions were preserved in old manuscripts of extreme rarity and of great value. Guy of Warwick was one to which he specially referred, and of this there is a copy in my second volume.

In illustration of this part of the subject, Mr. Douce mentioned a curious conversation with a great dealer in books of this class, resident, if I remember rightly, in Shoe Lane, who explained to him that, as printing became more expensive, the publishers of penny histories used to strike out some of the letter-press and supply the place of it by inserting additional woodcuts.

These woodcuts he characterized as being sometimes of considerable interest, for the illustration they afford of bygone manners and customs; as, for instance, on the title-page of the Strange and Wonderful Relation of the Old Woman that was Drowned at Ratcliff Highway a Fortnight Ago, &c., there is one of the earliest known representations of the old ducking stool. And with reference to this very woodcut, he related an amusing anecdote of Miss Banks, the sister of Sir Joseph, who took great interest in historical and antiquarian inquiries, as her collections on the Order of the Garter in the British Museum sufficiently prove.

Mr. Douce having told her of this engraving, she became very anxious to procure a copy of the story of The Old Woman of Ratcliff Highway, and on his telling her she could get it in Shoe Lane, she made up her mind to go there. Miss Banks, who was a plain, homely-dressing old lady, took an early opportunity of visiting Shoe Lane, and on arriving at the shop, seeing there was a great variety of these chap-books, asked for a dozen Each volume contains twenty-seven Penny His- of them. A large parcel was put before her to tories, alphabetically arranged, with a very neatly choose from, and she eventually selected twelve. written MS. index. I think it very likely some The bookseller, supposing from her appearance of the accomplished gentlemen in the MS. Depart-that she was in the trade, and had purchased them

to sell again, reminded her that she was entitled able from "amorini," save for the name. Above to thirteen to the dozen. Miss Banks took the them, in the high empyrean, are sitting the patrons extra book, and putting a shilling upon the counter of the bishopric. Beneath, on mother earth, to pay for them, was leaving the shop, when she | Rauracia and Alsatia, representing the lands subwas recalled and rather sharply rebuked for not ject to the prince, are congratulating their new knowing her business and waiting for the three-ruler on his election. Young persons of both pence change out of the shilling, to which, as being in the trade, she was entitled. Miss Banks quietly pocketed the affront and the coppers, and used to tell the story, to the amusement of her friends. WILLIAM J. THOмS.