Beaconsfield.

THE

AMBROSE HEAL.

(To be continued).

HE STONESTREET FAMILY. For some time I have had in my possession a Bible of 1622, with which are bound up a prayer book (slightly defective), 'The Genealogies recorded in the Sacred Scriptures,' and The Whole Book of Psalmes: collected into English Meeter by Thomas Sternhold, Iohn Hopkins, and others. Conferred with the Hebrew, with apt notes to sing them with all.' (1621). The interesting part about this volume is the fact that it appears to have once belonged to the Stonestreet family, and contains several entries of their births, marriages and deaths.

At the beginning of the Old Testament it is recorded that

Margaret Stonestrete was borne the 22 day of Nouember 1630."

"Edward Stonestrete was borne the 14 day of fbruarie 1634."

Between the Apocrypha and the New Testament is noted that

"Mother died the 22 of January 1639 at 4 oclock." (Then follows some faded writing which I cannot decipher).

"We were maried ye 29 October 1629." "The father & mother of Thomas & Phillip (the binder has cut off the rest of this entry).

Another entry on this page has been crossed out; it is possible to read: "The 10 day of September. was... 1627."

ateen called Lè Mars with 12 nine & 6 pounders & 28 Swivels and man'd with 146 men which Brigatine Capt Burges attacked, though he had but 83 of his worst men left on Board, all his Officers, excepting first Lieutenant, Gunner & second Mate, on board the Prizes, & 96 Prisoners on board, & after an engagement of two hours, Yard Arm to Yard Arm he took the Brigatine Lè Mars: four valuable loaden Vessels bound for the West Indies lay then at Sandy Hook, & must have fallen into the hands of the French Privateer the next day, and two Days after the Ship Elizabeth Capt Skinner arrived at Sandy Hook, from London with a Cargo of upward of £60,000 Sterling, who would imevitably have fallen into the hands of the French Privateer, with many others that were at that time falling down; As I think this was not only a very brave Action, & of great Service to the Nation, I must beg to recommend Capt Burges, and his People to their Lordships favour to be paid what head Money may be due to them, on the taking the French Privateer, they having been poorly rewarded, considering the Service they did the Merchants here, as it is the custome of this Place to forget favours done to them very soon. I am Sr

E. H. FAIRBROTHER.

tran

THE WEARING OF SWORDS. Henry William Herbert (Frank Forester "), who died in New York in 1859, writing to his infant son, immediately before his death, sends him "Your beloved mother's portrait and my broadsword."

When was the wearing of a sword discontinued (1) in England, (2) in America? Was a broadsword the type of sword worn by a civilian? P. D. M.

ITALIAN MAYORS.-I have noticed that in recent Italian documents the Mayor of a town is styled the " podestà " instead of sindaco." No doubt this change is connected with the general reorganisation of the administration by Mussolini, but what is the exact significance of this particular alteration? Is it merely a question of nomenclature, or does it imply any alteration in the official's functions? G. H. WHITE.

23, Weighton Road, Anerley.

THE REPUTED PORTRAIT OF JOAN

OF ARC. When in Orleans last summer, I hunted in vain for the carved head from the destroyed church of St. Maurice, the reputed portrait of Joan of Arc, which Mr. Shaw reproduced on the programme of his play. I think I tracked its former restingplace in the Musée de Jeanne d'Arc in the rue de Tabour, but the case in which it

appeared to have been kept, now encloses a plaster cast of it only. Can any of your say where the original is to be seen?

readers

of a register, it so appears. I drew the attention of the person who sent me the extract, to the probability of its being an error for Annis. He informs me that in the MS. it is clearly written as Annie, and that Annis appears a few lines before, and Anne a few lines later.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

HEART BURIAL AT CARDIFF.-During excavations at Kingsway on the site of the church of the Greyfriars, an instance of this, probably six centuries old, was discovered; it is thought to be that of the son of Sir Gilbert de Clare, founder of the Cardiff Greyfriars, 1280 (cf. Daily Mail, 22 Nov., 1927). J. ARDAGH.

R.

tion of Guido Colonna, which is dubiously attributed to Lydgate, and is preserved in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University (Laud. K. 76, f. 1. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Cod. Memb.) the names of a number of heroes of romance are enumerated as follows:

Many speke of men that romaunces rede of Bevys, Gy and Gawayne of Kyng Rychard and Owayne of Tristam and Percyvale, of Rowland Ris and Aglavaule, of Archeroun, and of Octavian of Charles, and of Cassibedlan of K(H)eveloke, Horne, and of Wade, In romaunces that of hem bi made That gestours dos of him gestes At mangeres and at great festes Here dedis ben in remembraunce In many fair romaunce.

55, Cavendish Road, N.W.6.

AND THEIR DUTIES.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY OFFICIALS I would be glad to obtain particulars of the official positions of Under-secretary for State. Surveyor of the Customs, Clerk (or Secretary) of the Presentations, and Clerk of the Council to the Prince of Wales, in the early eighteenth century. I have consulted Chamberlayne's State of England,' the Customs MSS. at the Record Office, and the Royal Calendar among others, but these merely give the names of the officials and their salary; they do not mention their duties. Can anyone refer me to any books giving further information?

ALFRED JACKSON.

[SE OF MASONIC SIGN IN WAR.-An USE article on Freemasonry in the Windsor authority of Sir Archibald Alison the story Magazine for April, 1901, quotes on theof an English officer who in the attack on the Redan was about to be bayoneted,

when he chanced to catch the hand of a: Russian officer, and had presence of mind enough to give him The a masonic grip. Russian officer in a moment struck up the bayonets of his soldiers, led his newly found brother to the rear, and treated him with the

kindness of a Mason.

The writer then goes on to tell how during the Boer war, then in progress, a colonel' of a Canadian regiment on a Sunday morning stroll, had strayed too far from camp and found himself covered by the rifle of a Boer.

By a fortunate impulse he made the cusBoer immediately threw down his gun, and tomary sign and cried out "Don't shoot." Thehurried to the colonel, informing him that he belonged to De Broederband' in Pretoria. He begged him to return at once to his camp, and made him accept a valuable coin as a souvenir of his escape.

The following appeared in the press in the early days of the Great War:

A Press Association telegram from Ostend says it is reported that at the time of the sacking of Louvain the Germans seized fifty men whom they bound and told they were going to be shot. The firing party were taking aim when one of the fifty, a Freemason, made a masonic sign. The German officer in command

was himself a Freemason, and just as he was going to give the order to fire he saw the sign and recognized a brother. He ordered the Freemason to leave the ranks and told him to go away. No," replied the citizen of Louvain, my fellow citizens are no more guilty than I am. If you are going to kill them, I shall not go away and I shall be killed with them." Touched by this act of devotion, the officer ordered the release of the fifty unfortunate men, who thus owed their lives to the intervention of a Freemason fellow citizen.

Some of your correspondents, who have recently been discussing this subject, might like to express an opinion on the strange occurrences above detailed. Can it be that they have their origin in the anecdote relating to the adventures of Billy Blades on the continent of Europe which the irrepressible Mr. Bouncer told to his gullible friend, Mr. Verdant Green, preparatory to the latter's initiation into the Order of Cemented Bricks? A. S. D.

MAI
ALTSTERS TEMP. QUEEN ELIZA-
BETH.-Can any reader inform me if a
guild of maltsters existed, temp. Elizabeth?

"VESTINA, GODDESS OF HEALTH.".

-In the latter years of the eighteenth century the notorious earth-quack, Dr. Graham, conducted what he called The Temple of Health in Adelphi Terrace, London. He had a female assistant whom he dignified with the high-sounding title of Vestina, Goddess of Health.” This person, I have seen it stated, was no other than Emma Lyon alias Emma Hart, who after wards became the wife of Sir William Hamilton. Is this story true, and if so, for how long was she associated with the notorious quack?

Another person said to have been connected with Dr. Graham was Dr. Mitford, the father of Mary Russell Mitford.

Spennymoor.

H. ASKEW.

Replies.

NICHOLAS SANDERS AND
EDMUND CAMPION

(cliii. 189, 223, 250, 255, 281, 300, 353).

PARTICULARS additional to those heretofore published in the authoritative biographies of Sanders and Campion are to be obtained from sources accessible to the ordinary reader for the last half century. Whilst such sources do not supply sufficient material for new and more accurate accounts of the lives of either Sanders or Campion, they may furnish information that will aid a systematic historian.

The Domestic State Papers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish State Papers contain references between the years 1580, and 1590, of which some results are summarised below.

Vol. cxliv. 1580, Nov. 22, Richmond. Certificate given by John Lych poole to Sir John William Pitts, a papist, who shewed him a Fetiplace of the conversation he had with one writing by Mr. Campion, which he had from one Mr. Saunders.

This William Pitts was, as will appear from later references, nephew of Dr. Sanders, and son of Sanders's recusant sister, Elizabeth. The Mr. Campion was probably Edmund Campion, and not William Campion, a recusant whose name is closely associated with the closing days of the martyr. One Mr. Saunders," would seem by its terminology to exclude the well-known and well-hated Dr.

The

Saunders. A recusant, Erasmus Saunders, is to be found in a list quoted later. Theory to embrace these facts is that Erasmus Saunders, a relative of Pitts, shewed to him a copy of Campion's celebrated challenge to the Protestant theologians. The date is, so far as I am aware, anterior to the compilation of Ten Reasons,' which was not circulated in printed form until June, 1581. The copy of the offer to discuss religion before the Council, or the Queen, was given to Mr. Pound in 1580, and may be the writing to which reference is made in the preceding and the following extract.

Vol. cxlvii, no. 74. 1581. Feby. "Articles containing matters of offence against the State, uttered by one William Pitts, late of Alton, favoured and countenanced by Benj. Tychebourne Esq. The saying of Pitts, who was a disperser of the challenge of Edmond Campion the jesuit; escape of Pitts from Bath gaol; arrest of Elizabeth, sister of Dr. Saunders and wife of Henry Pitts, the father of