Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853 | Page 9

English original is not to be met with. In like manner, Macaulay's Essays were collected and published first in America; and so with Praed's Poems, and many others. Uncle Sam has lately announced collections of Dr. Maginn's and De Quincey's scattered Essays, for which we owe him our most grateful acknowledgments.
J. M. B.
Tunbridge Wells.
Odd Mistake.--
"One of the houses on Mount Ephraim formerly belonged to Judge Jeffries, a man who has rendered his name infamous in the annals of history by the cruelty and injustice he manifested in presiding at the trial of King Charles I."--Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells, by John Britton, F.S.A., p. 59.
Voil�� comment on fait l'histoire!
J. M. B.
Tunbridge Wells.
Thomas Shakspeare.--In the year 1597 there resided in Lutterworth in Leicestershire, only distant from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth-town of Shakspeare, a very few miles, one Thomas Shakspeare, who appears to have been employed by William Glover, of Hillendon in Northamptonshire, gentleman, as his agent to receive for him and give an acquittance for a considerable sum of money.
Having regard to the age in which this Thomas Shakspeare lived, coupled with his place of residence, is it not probable he was a relative of the great Bard?
CHARLECOTE.
Early Winters.--I heard it mentioned, when in St. Petersburg very lately, that they have never had so early a commencement of winter as this last year since the French were at Moscow.
I find in accounts of the war, that the winter commenced then (1812) on November 7, N. S., with deep snow. Last year (1852) it commenced at St. Petersburg on October 16, N. S., as noted in my diary, with snow, which has remained on the ground ever since, accompanied at times with very severe frost.
Query: Can November 7, N. S., be the correct date? If it is, this last winter's commencement must be unprecedented; as I have always heard it remarked, that the winter began unusually early the year the French were at Moscow.
I may mention as a note, that by the last accounts from Russia, they say the ice in the Gulf of Finland was four and a half feet thick.
J. S. A.
Old Broad Street.
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QUERIES.
SATIRICAL PLAYING CARDS.
I have lately been much interested in a pack of cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth at the Hague, and representing the chief personages and the principal events of that period. I have been able, by reference to historical authorities, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broadsides in the British Museum, forming the collection presented to the nation by George III., to explain the whole pack, with the exception of two. These are "Parry, Father and Sonne," and "Simonias slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The former simply represents two figures, without any thing to offer a clue to any event; the latter gives the representation of six Puritans, forming an assembly, who are being addressed by one of the body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to whom such a name has been applied, in any of the Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. Probably some of your readers can help me in this matter. Of these cards I can find no notice: they are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatto. They were purchased at the Hague, more than thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are exceedingly curious: indeed they form a bundle of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal persons of the time figure in some characteristic representation, and the private scandal is also recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert; Sir Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which his own corrects him; and he is also being beaten by a footboy,--which event is alluded to in Butler's Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom your pages have given some interesting information, is represented as "The Knight of the Golden Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal with a pension to Holland, where he is known to have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope this communication may enable me to complete my account of these cards, the explanation of which may probably throw light upon some of the stirring events of that extraordinary period of our history.
T. J. PETTIGREW.
Saville Row.
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MOVABLE METAL TYPES ANNO 1435.
A vellum MS. has lately come into my possession, containing the Service for the Dead, Prayers, &c., with the tones for chanting, &c., in Latin, written for a German Order, apparently about the year 1430.
This tome, which is in small 4to., is very remarkable and valuable on account of the binding. This is red leather, stamped with double lines forming lozenges,