to see carried out; and though neither an unemployed aspirant nor a fortunate collector (of which class I hope many will be stimulated by the proposition), yet, as I once took some trouble in the matter, I should be happy to contribute some Notes then made whenever the plan is matured and the proposed appeal is made-provided (I must add, and to you I may add) I can find them. The Liber Sententiarum was printed by Limborch, at Amsterdam, in 1692. It forms the greater part, as, indeed, it was the occasion, of his folio volume, entitled "Historia Inquisitionis cui subjungitur Liber Sententiarum Inquisitionis Tholosanæ ab anno Christi clɔcccvi ad annum clɔcccxxшL" Gibbon, in a note on his fifty-fourth chapter, observes that the book "deserved a more learned and critical editor;" and, if your correspondent will only place the Book of Sentences before the public in a readable form, with a map, and (by all means) a few notes, he will be doing a great service to all persons who take an interest in ecclesiastical history, or, indeed, in history of any kind. In the year 1731 Chandler published a translation of the History of the Inquisition, with a long Introduction of his own, but did not meddle with the Book of Sentences, except so far as to introduce into the text of the History some passages from it, which Limborch (as he appended the whole book) did not think it necessary to quote. I remember seeing the MS. in the British Museum within these ten or twelve years, and, according to my recollection, it was accompanied by papers which would furnish an interesting literary history of the volume. I hope your correspondent will give us farther information, N. B. [Mr. Brooke, of Ufford, has also kindly replied to the Query of INQUISITORIUS, by referring him to Limborch.] QUERY AS TO REFERENCES. Sir,- May I be permitted to suggest one way in which you may be of great service to many literary men, and indeed to the cause of literature in general; and this, too, without much trouble to yourself? Would you be willing to receive "Queries" respecting references? They frequently puzzle those who are engaged in literary works, and indeed those who are merely readers, and who have not access to public libraries or the manuscript treasures of the metropolis and the universities. If, for instance, a clergyman or squire, interested in the history of his parish, should find in the county historian something which his own local or genealogical knowledge leads him to think erroneous, vouched for by a reference to the Cotton or Harleian MSS., might he apply to you? It may be supposed that you are not very far from some one of the great fountains of information, and have easy access to all; and it is probable that you might not only do a personal favour to the inquirer, but confer a benefit on the public, by correcting an erroneous statement. Of course you would subject yourself to unreasonable requests, but the remedy would always be in your own hands. Yours, &c. A. G. C. that it comes from a friendly quarter, and he [The Editor inserts this letter because he is sure knows that something like what it suggests is very much wanted. He would feel great diffidence as to his powers of fulfilling all that might be expected if he were simply to reply in the affirmative: but he is quite willing to make the trial, and he thinks that (though sometimes perhaps with a little delay) he could in general obtain any information of this kind which could be reasonably sought.] LINES IN THE STYLE OF SUCKLING. Mr. Editor, The following lines are written in pencil on sheet 61. of the Notes of the Debates in the Long Parliament, taken down in the House of Commons by Sir Ralph Verney. The Notes of Debates, but not these lines, were published by the Camden Society in 1845. For any thing that appears to the contrary, these lines may have been written in the House as well as the Notes of Debates. The sheet 61. refers to debates which took place in March 1641-2. I am not aware that the lines have been published, nor can I assign them to their author. If any of your readers can tell me any thing about them, I shall esteem it a favour. Wert thou yet fairer than thou art, I could not cast one thought at thee. NOTES UPON ANCIENT LIBRARIES. A knowledge of the intellectual acquirements of the middle ages must be mainly formed upon a consideration of the writings which directed them, or emanated from them. Unfortunately such materials are very imperfect, our knowledge of the existence of works often resting only upon their place in some loosely-entered catalogue and of the catalogues themselves, the proportion still remaining must be small indeed. Under these circumstances the following documents, which are now for the first time printed, or even noticed, will be found to be of considerable interest. The first is, in modern language, a Power of Attorney, executed by the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, appointing two of the monks of his church to be his procurators for the purpose of receiving from the convent of Anglesey, in Cambridgeshire*, a book which had been lent to the late Rector of Terrington. Its precise date is uncertain, but it must be of about the middle of the thirteenth century (1244-1254), as Nicholas Sandwich, the Prior of Christ Church, was the second of four priors who presided between the years 1234 and 1274. "N. Prior Ecclesiæ Christi Cantuariensis discretis viris et religiosis Domino Priori de Anglesheya et ejusdem loci sacro conventui salutem in Domino. Cum sincera semper caritate noverit fraternitas vestra nos constituisse fratres Gauterum de Hatdfeld et Nicholaum de Grantebrigiense Ecclesiæ nostræ monachos latores precencium procuratores nostros ad exigendum et recipiendum librum qui * The information given of this house by Dugdale is very scanty. It could surely be added to considerably. The contents of the book which is the subject of this special embassy are of the character usually found to have formed the staple of monastic libraries, though the particular treatises included in it are not common. In the Reverend Joseph Hunter's valuable treatise upon English Monastic Libraries* occurs a notice of an indenture executed in A.D. 1343, whereby the priory of Henton lent no less than twenty books to another monastic establishment. The deed is described, but not printed. It will be seen that the instrument we have given above is nearly a century earlier; and the minute description of the book given in this document supplies some very curious facts illustrative of the mode of putting together ancient books, which have not hitherto been remarked, for the simple reason that no opportunity for comparison like that presented by the present case has yet been noticed. Among the Cottonian MSS. (Galba E. iv.) is a perfect specimen of an ancient Library Catalogue, which, although not altogether unnoticed, deserves a more careful examination than it has yet received. It relates to the magnificent monastic foundation from which emanated the deed we have printed above, and is headed "Tituli librorum de libraria Ecclesiæ Christi Cantuariensis et contenta in eisdem libris tempore H. Prioris." It is written in that bold hand which prevails so extensively in ecclesiastical MSS., with but little variation, from the middle of the fourteenth century, to the end of the fifteenth, a hand which is not always clearly written, and which therefore, in itself, does not materially assist in the distinction of a date. Now having first assigned the credit of this noble Mr. Halliwell in the Archeologia, xxvii. p. 455., and * London, 1831. quarto. See also a Paper by Sir Francis Palgrave's Introduction to Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland, pp. xcvi. -exvi., for extracts from the historical chronicles preserved in the monasteries, &c. Catalogue-in which are entered about 600 volumes, in nearly every one of which, besides the substantive (or initial?) work, are particularised numerous detached writings, varying from two or three to five-and-forty distinct "tracts"-to Prior Henry Chichely (1413-1443), the founder of All Souls' and St. John's Colleges, Oxford, and who, "built the library of the church, and furnished it with books," we will see whether the book "qui intitulatur Johannes Crisestomus," &c. was returned to Canterbury, and had a place in the list; and this, we think, is satisfactorily shown by the following entry: "Johannes Crisostomus de laude Apostoli. Nomina Regum Britanniæ sicut in ordine suc cesserunt. Nomina Archiepiscoporum Cantuariensis sicut in ordine successerunt. Tabula et questiones Bede de ratione tempo rum. Tabula ejusdem et expositio super tabulam de lunationibus. Descriptio Britanniæ Insulæ. Expositio super Merlinum, imperfecta." It may perhaps be supposed that this proves too much, as, besides the direct title of the volume, eight "tracts" are here entered, while in the Power of Attorney only two are noticed. But we would maintain, nevertheless, that it is the identical book, and explain this variation in the description by the circumstance that the library having, in the space of nearly two centuries, been materially enriched, numerous works, consisting in many cases only of a single "quaternion," were inserted in the volumes already existing. examination of the structure of books of this period would confirm this view, and show that their apparent clumsiness is to be explained by the facility it was then the custom to afford for the interpolation or extraction of "sheets," by a contrivance somewhat resembling that of the present day for temporarily fixing loose papers in a cover, and known as the "patent leaf-holder." An The second document is a list of certain books, belonging to the monastery of Anglesey, early in the fourteenth century, allotted out to the canons of the house for the purpose of custody, or, perhaps, of study or de votion. "Isti libri liberati sunt canonicis die .....anno regni Regis Edwardi septimo" (7 Edw. II. A. D. 1314.) Penes Dominum Priorem; Parabela Salomonis; Psalterium cum...... Penes Dominum J. de Bodek.; Epistolæ Pauli ......; Quædam notulæ super psalter et liber miraculorum...... Mariæ cum miraculis sanc torum. Penes Sub-priorem; Liber vitæ Sancti Thomæ Martiris. Penes E. de Ely; Quartus liber sententiarum cum sermo......; Liber Reymundi; Liber de vitiis et virtutibus et pastorale. Penes R. Pichard: Liber Alquini; Liber Johan- Penes Walteri de Yilwilden; Liber S......liga- Liber justitiæ; penes Magistrum Adam de Wilburham. Penes Walteri de Wyth; Liber Innocentii super sacramenta cum Belet et introductione in uno volumine. Item penes Sup-priorem; Psalterium glosatum duod fuit in custodia Magistri Henrici de Melreth. Item aliud psalterium glosatum inpignoratum penes Isabellam Siccadona. Several of these descriptions are highly curious; particularly the last item, which describes one of the "glossed" psalters as being "in pawn," a fact which, in itself, tells a history of the then condition of the house. The first document, taken in connection with that referred to by Mr. Hunter would seem to establish the existence of a system of interchanging the literary wealth of monastic establishments, and thereby greatly extending the advantages of their otherwise scanty stores. Both are executed with all the legal forms used in the most important transactions, which would support the opinion of their not The formula of this date, "anno R. R. E. sep timo," would at first sight be considered to refer to the preceding reign; but the list is merely a memorandum on the dorse of a completely executed instrument dated A. D. 1300, which it is highly improbable that it preceded. The style of Edward II. is often found as above, though not usually so. being special instances: but they are, in either case, curious and satisfactory evidence of the care and caution exercised by the monks in cases where their books were concerned; and one cannot but regret that when the time came that the monasterias were destined to be dissolved, and their books torn and scattered to the winds, no attention was paid to Bale's advice for the formation of "one solemne library in every shire of England." JOSEPH BURTT, PEDLAR'S SONG ATTRIBUTED TO SHAKSPERE, AND TRADITION CONNECTED WITH SHAKSPERE'S "HAMLET.” The following verses, which would form a very appropriate song for Autolycus, were arranged as a glee for three voices by Dr.Wilson about the year 1667. They are published in Playford's Musical Companion in 1673; in Warren's Collection of Glees and Catches; and in S. Webbe's Conveto Harmonico. The words were, I believe, first ascribed to Shakspere by Clark, in 1824, in his Words of Glees, Madrigals, &c.; but he has not given his authority for so doing. It has been stated that they have since been discovered in a common-place book written about Shakspere's time, with his name attached to them, and with this indirect evidence in favour of their being written by him, that the other pieces in the collection are attributed to their proper writers. The late Mr. Douce, who was inclined to believe the song to have been written by Shakspere, once saw a copy of it with a fourth verse which was shown to him by the then organist of Chichester. The poem is not included in Mr. Collier's edition of Shakspere, nor in the Aldine edition of Shakspere's Poems, edited by the Rev. A. Dyce. Perhaps if you will be good enough to insert the song and the present communication in the "NOTES AND QUERIES," Some of your readers may be enabled to fix the authorship, and to furnish the additional stanza to which I have referred. PEDLAR'S SONG. From the far Lavinian shore, 66 Although you be threescore and ten years old. While on this subject, perhaps I may be permitted to ask whether any reader of the NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the following questionable statement made by a correspondent of the Morning Herald, of the 16th September, 1822. "Looking over an old volume the other day, printed in 1771, I find it remarked that it was known as a tradition, that Shakspeare shut himself up all night in Westminster Abbey when he wrote the ghost scene in Hamlet." I do not find in Wilson's Shakspeariana the title of a single "old" book printed in 1771, on the subject of Shakspere, SIR WILLIAM SKIPWYTH, KING'S JUSTICE IN IRELAND, T. Mr. Editor, I am encouraged by the eminent names which illustrate the first Number of your new experiment—a most happy thought-to inquire whether they, or any other correspondent, can inform me who was the William de Skypwith, the patent of whose appointment as Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, dated February 15. 1370, 44 Edward III., is to be found in the New Fœdera, vol. iii. p. 877.? In the entry on the Issue Roll of that year, p. 458., of the payment of "his expences and equipment” in going there, he is called "Sir William Skipwyth, Knight, and the King's Justice in Ireland." There was a Sir William Skipwyth, who was appointed a Judge of the Common Pleas in 33 Edward III., and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 36 Edward III.; and, were it not that Collins, in his Baronetage, followed by Burke, says that he remained Chief Baron till 40 Edward III., in which year he died, I should have had no doubt that the Irish Chief Justice was the same with the English Chief Baron. The same authority adds that Sir William Skipwyth who was made a Justice of the King's Bench [it should have been of the Common Pleas] in 50 Edward IIL, and who resigned his office in 11 Richard II., was the eldest son of the Chief Baron. But that authority does not make the slightest allusion to the appointment of the Chief Justice of Ireland. A suspicion that this last Justice of the Common Pleas is not only the same person as the Chief Justice of Ireland, but also as the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, has arisen in my mind for the following among other reasons. 1. Collins and Burke are wrong in saying that he remained Chief Baron till 40 Edward III. His successor in that office was appointed on October 29. 1365, 39 Edward III. : 2. They are further wrong, I imagine, in saying that he continued Chief Baron till his death for Joshua Barnes, in his History of Edward III., p. 667., says that Skipwyth and Sir Henry Green, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, were in 1365 arrested and imprisoned on account of many enormities which the King understood they had committed against law and justice; and this relation is corroborated by the fact that Green's successor as Chief Justice was appointed on the same day as Skipwyth's successor as Chief Baron. 3. No proof whatever is given of the Chief Baron's death in 40 Edward III. I will not trouble you with other grounds of identification which occur to me but as an answer to my question might "make these odds all even," I send the "Query" to the "Lost and Found Office" you have established, in the hope that some stray "Note," as yet unappropriated, may assist in solving the difficulty. November 5. 1849. EDWARD Foss. CAPTURE OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. Mr. Editor,-Having noticed the letter of Mr. John Bruce, in your Miscellany, I beg leave to inform him that the ash tree under which Monmouth was taken is still standing on the Woodland estate, now the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury. I shall be happy at some future day, if it suits your purpose, to collect and send you such particulars as may be gained on the spot respecting it, and the incidents of the capture. We have still in the Town Hall here the chair in which it is said Jefferies sat at the Bloody Assize. A. D. M. Dorcester, 3d Nov. 1849. [We shall gladly receive the particulars which our Correspondent proposes to collect and forward.] SERPENTS' EGGS AND STRAW NECKLACES. [Mr. Thoms' Query in this case should have been limited to the straw necklaces, as Mr. Nichols has already explained the serpents' eggs; but our Correspondent's letter is so satisfactory on both points that we insert it entire.] habet ova serpentum," is plainly to be renThe passage from Erasmus, "brachium dered" and with a string of serpents' eggs on your arm." The meaning is equally apparent on recalling the manner in which snakes' eggs are found, viz., hanging together in a row. Erasmus intends Menedemus to utter a joke at the rosary of beads hanging over the pilgrim's arm, which he professes to mistake for serpents' eggs. the "collar or chaplet" (for it may mean I am not aware what particular propriety either) of straw may have, as worn by a pilgrim from Compostella; or whether there may not lurk under this description, as be |