Notes and Queries, Number 19, March 9, 1850 | Page 3

fuist & barrez, & bien efforcez de ferrement;" i.e. of strong lattice-work of wood, barred, and well strengthened with iron[2]), where she remained immured seven years. Bruce's {291} daughter, Marjory, and his sister Mary, were likewise to be encaged, the former in the Tower of London, the latter in Roxburghe Castle. The young Earl of Mar, "L'enfant qi est heir de Mar," Bruce's nephew, was to be sent to Bristol Castle, to be carefully guarded, "qil ne puisse eshcaper en nule manere," but not to be _fettered_--"mais q'il soit hors de fers, tant come il est de si tendre age."
In 1308 (1 Edw. 2.), the Bailiff of Brustwick is commanded to deliver up his prisoner, to be removed elsewhere, but to what place it does not appear. A writ of the 6th Feb. 1312, directs her to be conveyed to Windsor Castle, "cum familia sua." In October of the same year, she was removed to "Shaston" (Shaftesbury), and subsequently to the Abbey of Barking, where she remained till March, 1314, when she was sent to Rochester Castle, as appears by the following writ (Rymer, vol. ii. part i. p. 244.):--
"(7 Edw. 2.) _De ducendo Elizabetham uxorem Roberti de Brus, usque ad Castrum Rossense._
"Mandatum est Vicecomitibus London quod Elizabetham. Uxorem Roberti de Brus, qu? cum Abbatiss�� de Berkyngg' stetit per aliquot tempus, de mandato Regis, ab cadem Abbatiss�� sine dilatione recipiant, eam usque Ross' duci sub salva custodia faciant, Henrico de Cobeham, Constabulario Castri Regis ibidem per Indenturam, ind�� faciendam inter ipsos, liberandam; et hoc nullatenus omittant.
"Teste Rege, apud Westm. xii. die Martii, "Per ipsum Regem.
"Et mandatum est pr?fat? Abbatiss?, quod pr?fatam Elizabetham, quam nuper, de mandato Regis, admisit in domo sua de Berkyng' quousque Rex aliud inde ordinasset, moraturam, sine dilatione deliberet pr?fatis Vicecomitibus, ducendam pront eis per Regem plenius est injunctum, et hoc nullatenus omittat.
"Teste Rege ut supra, "Per ipsum Regem.
"Et mandatum est dicto Henrico, Constabulario Castri Regis pr?dicti, quod ipsam Elizabetham de pr?dictis Vicecomitibus, per Indenturam hujus modi, recipiat, et ci cameram, infra dictum Castrum competentem pro mora sua assignari:
"Et viginti solidos, de exitibus Balliv? su?, ei per singulas septimanas, quamdiu ibidem moram fecerit, pro expensis suis, liberari faciat:
"Eamque, infra Castrum pr?dictum, et infra Prioratum Sancti Andre? ibidem, opportunis temporibus spatiari sub salva custodia (ita quod securus sit de corpore suo), permittat:
"Et Rex ei de pr?dictis viginti solidis, pr?fat? Elizabeth? singulis septimanis liberandis, debitam allocationem, in compoto suo ad Scaccarium Regis, fieri faciet.
"Teste ut supra, "Per ipsum Regem."
But the day of deliverance was close at hand: the battle of Bannockburn, so fatal to the English, was fought on the 24th June; and on the 2nd of October the Constable of Rochester Castle is commanded to conduct the wife, sister, and daughter of Robert Bruce to Carlisle (_usque Karliolum_), where an exchange of prisoners was made. Old Hector Boece, who, if Erasmus can be trusted, "knew not to lie," informs us, that "King Robertis wife, quhilk was hald in viii. yeris afore in Ingland, was interchangeit with ane duk of Ingland"[3] [Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford]. And the aforesaid Barbour celebrates their restoration in the following lines:--
"Quhill at the last they tretyt sua, That he[4] till Inglond hame suld ga, For owtyn paying of ransoune, fre; And that for him suld changyt be Byschap Robert[5] that blynd was mad; And the Queyne, that thai takyn had In presoune, as befor said I; And hyr douchtre dame Marjory. The Erle was changyt for thir thre."
W.B. RYE.
[Footnote 1: _Loricati_, (in their coats of mail.)--_Matthew of Westminster._]
[Footnote 2: See the order at length in Rymer, _ut sup._]
[Footnote 3: Bellenden's translation.]
[Footnote 4: The Earl of Hereford.]
[Footnote 5: Wishcart, Bishop of Gloucester, before alluded to.]
* * * * *
A NOTE ON ROBERT HERICK, AUTHOR OF "HESPERIDES."
In the summer of 1844, I visited Dean Prior in company with my brother, in order to ascertain if we could add any new fact to the scanty accounts of the Life of Herrick recorded by his biographers. The events of his life have been related by Dr. Drake, (_Literary Hours_, vol. iii., 1st edit. 1798.--3rd edit. 1804), by Mr. Campbell, by Dr. Nott (_Select Poems from the Hesperides_, &c. Bristol, 1810,) by a writer in the _Quarterly Review_, vol. iv. 1810, by Mr. Wilmott in his elegantly written _Lives of Sacred Poets_, vol. i., 1834, and in the memoirs prefixed to the recent editions of _Herrick's Poems_ published by Clarke (1844), and Pickering (1846). On examining any of these biographies, it will be found that the year and place of Herrick's death have not been ascertained. This was the point which I therefore particularly wished to inquire into.
Dean Prior is a village about six or seven miles from Totnes: the church, with the exception of the tower, had been recently rebuilt. The monuments and inscribed stones were