prevailed upon to let it drop. This I know to be fact, for I had it not only from the last-mentioned Gentleman, but others of that family, especially a son of the Secretaries. As soon as I knew this, I took the first opportunity of searching the study, and found some very curious Letters, which one time or other I design to publish together with the account of that affair. My mother being Niece to the Secretary, hath often heard him say that Charles the Second was not only very base in not keeping the least of the many things that he had promised; but by debauching the Nation, had rendered it fitt for that terrible fellow (meaning the Duke of York) to ruin us all, and then Monk and him would be remembred to their Infamy. (To be continued.)

BURIAL-PLACE OF ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

On a visit this autumn with some friends to the picturesque village and church of HorstedKeynes, Sussex, our attention was forcibly arrested by the appearance of two large pavement slabs, inserted in an erect position on the external face of the south wall of the chancel. They proved to be those which once had covered and protected the grave of the good Archbishop Leighton, who passed the latter years of his life in that parish, and that of Sir Ellis Leighton, his brother. On inquiry, it appeared that their remains had been deposited within a small chapel on the south side of the chancel, the burial-place of the Lightmaker family, of Broadhurst, in the parish of Horsted. The archbishop retired thither in 1674, and resided with his only sister, Saphira, widow of Mr. Edward Lightmaker. Broadhurst, it may be observed, is sometimes incorrectly mentioned by the biographers of Archbishop Leighton as a parish; it is an ancient mansion, the residence formerly of the Lightmakers, and situated about a mile north of the village of Horsted. There it was that Leighton made his will, in February, 1683; but his death occurred, it will be remembered, in singular accordance with his desire often expressed, at an inn, the Bell, in Warwick Lane, London.

The small chapel adjacent to the chancel, and opening into it by an arch now walled up, had for some time, as I believe, been used as a school. room; more recently, however, either through its becoming out of repair, or from some other cause, the little structure was demolished. The large slabs which covered the tombs of the good prelate and his brother were taken up and fixed against the adjoining wall. The turf now covers the space thus thrown into the open churchyard; nothing remains to mark the position of the graves, which in all probability, ere many years elapse,

will be disturbed through ignorance or heedlessness, and the ashes of Leighton scattered to the winds.

In times when special respect has been shown to the tombs of worthies of bygone times, with the recent recollection also of what has been so well carried out by MR. MARKLAND in regard to the grave of Bishop Ken, shall we not make an effort to preserve from desecration and oblivion the resting-place of one so eminent as Leighton for his learning and piety, so worthy to be held in honoured remembrance for his high principles and his consistent conduct in an evil age? ALBERT WAY.

Minor Notes.

Grammars, &c. for Public Schools.-Would it not be desirable for some correspondents of "N. & Q." to furnish information respecting grammars, classics, and other works which have been written might be useful to book collectors; and would for the various public schools? Such information

also serve to reflect credit on the schools whose learned masters have prepared such books. My contribution to the list is small: but I remember a valuable Greek grammar prepared by the Rev. Hook, formerly head master of the College School at Gloucester, for the use of that establishment; as also a peculiar English grammar prepared by the Rev. R. S. Skillern, master of St. Mary de Crypt School, in the same place, for the of the Romance Historie Anthologia, for the use of use of that school. I also possess a copy (1640) Abingdon School, and Moses and Aaron, or the Rites and Customs of the Hebrews (1641), both by Thos. Godwin, though the latter was written after he ceased to be master of the schools.

Stroud.

P. H. FISHER.

"Fairfax, Baron, Charles Snowdon Fairfax, 1627, Baron Fairfax, of Cameron ; sue. his grandfather, Thomas, ninth baron, 1846. His lordship resides at Woodburne, in Maryland, United States,"

Fairfax is not a Scotch name, And I can find no trace of any person of that family taking a part in Scotch affairs. Cameron is, I suppose, the parish of that name in the east of Fife.

I wish to ask, 1st. For what services, or under what circumstances, the barony was created? 2ndly. When did the family cease to possess land or other property in Scotland, if they ever held any?

3rdly. Is the present peer a citizen or subject of the United States? if so, is he known and addressed as Lord Fairfax, or how?

4thly. Has he, or has any of his ancestors, since the recognition of the United States as a nation, ever used or applied for permission to exercise the functions of a peer of Scotland, e. g. in the election of representative peers?

5thly. If he be a subject of the United States, and have taken, expressly or by implication, the oath of citizenship (which pointedly renounces allegiance to our sovereign), how is it that his name is retained on the roll of a body whose first duty it is to guard the throne, and whose existence is a denial of the first proposition in the constitution of his country?

Perhaps UNEDA, W. W., or some other of your Philadelphia correspondents, will be good enough to notice the third of these Queries. W. H. M.

Tailless Cats. - A writer in the New York Literary World of Feb. 7, 1852, makes mention of a breed of cats destitute of tails, which are found in the Isle of Man. Perhaps some generous Manx correspondent will say whether this is a fact or a Jonathan.

SHIRLEY HIBBERD,

surgeon's being cautious in pronouncing on the character of any wound, adds that "this is particularly necessary on board ship, where, as soon as any man is pronounced by the surgeon to be mor tally wounded, he is forthwith, while still living and conscious, thrown overboard," or words to this effect, as I quote from memory. That such horrid barbarity was not practised in 1810, it is needless to say; and if it had been usual at any previous period, Smollett and other writers who have exposed with unsparing hand all the defects in the naval system of their day, would have scarcely left this unnoticed when they attack much slighter abuses. If such a thing ever occurred, even in the worst of times, it must have been an isolated case. I have not met elsewhere recorded in it, and would be glad of more informwith any allusion to this passage, or the atrocity ation on the subject.

J. S. WARDEN.

land in 1331, it is said thatTurlehydes. During the great famine in Ire

"The people in their distress met with an unexFor about the 24th pected and providential relief. June, a prodigious number of large sea fish, called turlehydes, were brought into the bay of Dublin, and

cast on shore at the mouth of the river Dodder. bulky that two tall men placed one on each side of the They were from thirty to forty feet long, and so fish could not see one another." The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin from the Earliest Accounts, by Walter Harris, 1766, p. 265. This account is compiled from several records of the time, some of which still exist. As the term turlehydes is not known to Irish scholars, can any animal is meant by it, or give any derivation or of the readers of "N. & Q." say what precise reference for the term?

Dublin,

U. U.

Foreign Orders- Queen of Bohemia. It is well known that in some foreign Orders the decorations thereof are conferred upon ladies. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the Order of the Annunciation of Sardinia, formerly the Order of the Ducal House of Savoy, at any time conferred its decorations upon ladies; and whether the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia, ever had the decoration of any foreign order conferred upon her? In a portrait of her she is represented with a star or badge upon the upper part of the left arm.

S. E. G.

Irish Chieftains.-Some account of the following, Historical Reminiscences of O'Byrnes, O'Tooles, O'Kavanaghs, and other Irish Chieftains, privately printed, 1843, is requested by JOHN MARTIN. Woburn Abbey.

General Braddock.-Can any of your readers furnish me with information relative to this officer? His disastrous expedition against Fort Du Quesne, and its details, are well known; but I should like to know something more of his previous history. Walpole gives an anecdote or two of him, and mentions that he had been Governor of Gibraltar. I think too he was of Irish extraction. Is there no portrait or engraving of Braddock in existence? SERVIENS.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Lawless Court, Rochford, Essex. - A_most extraordinary custom exists, in a manor at Rochford, in the tenants holding under what is called the "Lawless Court." This court is held at midnight, by torch-light, in the centre of a field, on the first Friday after the 29th Sept., and is presided over by the steward of the manor, who, however, appoints a deputy to fulfil this part of his duty. The tenants of the manor are obliged to attend to answer to their names, when called upon, under pain of a heavy fine, or at all events have some one there to respond for them. All the proceedings are carried on in a whisper, no one speaking above that tone of voice; and the informations as to deaths, names, &c. are entered in a book by the president with a piece of charcoal. I may add, the business is not commenced until a cock has crowed three times, and as it is sometimes a difficult matter to get Chanticleer to do his duty, a man is employed to crow, whose fee therefor is 5s.

Now Morant, in his History of Essex, merely cursorily mentions this most singular custom, and has nothing as to its antiquity or origin; I should therefore feel much obliged for any information concerning it. RUSSELL GOLE.

[The singular custom at Rochford is of uncertain origin in old authors it is spoken of as belonging to the manor of Rayleigh. The following account of "The Lawless Court," at that place, is printed by Hearne from the Dodsworth MSS. in the Bodleian, vol, exxv. :-"The manor of Raylie, in Essex, hath a custome court kept yearly, the Wednesday nexte after Michael's day. The court is kept in the night, and without light, but as the skye gives, att a little hill without the towne, called the King's Hill, where the steward writes only with coals, and not with inke. And many men and mannors of greate worth hold of the same, and do suite unto this strange court, where the steward calls them with as low a voice as possibly he may; giving no notice when he goes to the hill to

keepe the same court, and he that attends not is deepely amerced, if the steward will. The title and entry of the same court is as followeth, viz.: • Curia de domino rege, Dicta sine lege,

Tenta est ibidem,

Per ejusdem consuetudinem,
Ante ortum solis,
Luceat nisi polus,
Seneschallus solus,

Scribit nisi colis.
Clamat clam pro rege
In curia sine lege :
Et qui non cito venerit
Citius pœnitebit:
Si venerit cum lumine
Errat in regimine.
Et dum sine lumine
Capti sunt in crimine,
Curia sine cura

Jurata de injuria

Tenta est die Mercuria

prox. post festum S. Michaelis.'” Weever, who mentions this custom, says, that he was informed that "this servile attendance was imposed, at the first, upon certaine tenants of divers mannors hereabouts, for conspiring in this place, at such an unseasonable time, to raise a commotion."] Motto on old Damask. Can your correspondents furnish an explanation of the motto herewith sent? It is taken from some damask table napkins which were bought many years back at Brussels; not at a shop in the ordinary way, but privately, from the family to whom they belonged. I presume the larger characters, if put together, will indicate the date of the event, whatever that may be, which is referred to in the motto itself.

The motto is woven in the pattern of the damask, and consists of the following words in uncials, the letters of unequal size, as subjoined:

"SIGNUM PACIS DATUR LORICE." the larger letters being IUMCIDULIC. If the U's are taken as two V's, and written thus X, it gives the date MDCCLXIII. Perhaps this can be explained.

H.

[The chronogram above, which means "The signal of peace is given to the warrior," relates to the peace proclaimed between England and France in the year 1763. This event is noticed in the Annual Register, and in most of our popular histories. Keightley says, "The overtures of France for peace were readily listened to; and both parties being in earnest, the preliminaries were readily settled at Fontainebleau (Nov. 3rd). In spite of the declamation of Mr. Pitt and his party, they were approved of by large majorities in both Houses of Parliament, and a treaty was finally signed in Paris, Feb. 18, 1763." The napkins were probably a gift, on the occasion, to some public functionary. For the custom of noting the date of a great event by chronograms, see " N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 585.]