Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853 | Page 9

Five cherubs in
various positions are dispersed around, holding respectively a globe, a
laurel crown, palm branches, &c., and a crowned shield bearing a lion
rampant, and a second with a stork, whose beak holds a serpent.
A portion of the zodiacal circle, containing Libra, Scorpio, and
Sagittarius, marks, I suppose, the month in which the event took place.
E. S. TAYLOR.

Hall-close, Silverstone, Northamptonshire.--Adjoining the church-yard
is a greensward field called "Hall-close," which is more likely to be the
site of the mansion visited by the early kings of England, when hunting
in Whittlebury Forest, than the one mentioned by Bridles in his History
of the county. About 1798, whilst digging here, a fire-place containing
ashes was discovered; also many large wrought freestones.
The well, close by, still retains the name of Hall-well; and there are
other things in the immediate vicinity which favour the supposition; but
can an extract from an old MS., as a will, deed, indenture, &c., be
supplied to confirm it?
H. T. WAKE.
Stepney.
Junius's Letters to Wilkes.--Where are the original letters addressed by
Junius to Mr. Wilkes? The editor of the Grenville Papers says, "It is
uncertain in whose custody the letters now remain, many unsuccessful
attempts having been recently made to ascertain the place of their
deposit."
D. G.
The Reformer's Elm.--What was the origin of the name of "The
Reformer's Elm?" Where and what was it?
C. M. T.
Oare.
How to take Paint off old Oak.--Can any of your correspondents inform
me of some way to take paint off old oak?
F. M. MIDDLETON.
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.

Cadenus and Vanessa.--What author is referred to in the lines in Swift's
"Cadenus and Vanessa,"--
"He proves as sure as GOD's in Gloster, That Moses was a grand
impostor; That all his miracles were tricks," &c.?
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
[These lines occur in the Dean's verses "On the Death of Dr. Swift,"
and refer to Thomas Woolston, the celebrated heterodox divine, who,
as stated in a note quoted in Scott's edition, "for want of bread hath, in
several treatises, in the most blasphemous manner, attempted to turn
our Saviour's miracles in ridicule."]
Boom.--Is there an English verb active to boom, and what is the precise
meaning of it? Sir Walter Scott uses the participle:
"The bittern booming from the sedgy shallow." Lady of the Lake, canto
i. 31.
VOGEL.
[Richardson defines BOOM, v., applied as bumble by Chaucer, and
bump by Dryden, to the noise of the bittern, and quotes from Cotton's
Night's Quatrains,--
"Philomel chants it whilst it bleeds, The bittern booms it in the reeds,"
&c.]
"A Letter to a Member of Parliament."--Who was the author of A Letter
to a Member of Parliament, occasioned by A Letter to a Convocation
Man: W. Rogers, London, 1697?
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.

[Attributed to Mr. Wright, a gentleman of the Bar, who maintains the
same opinions with Dr. Wake.]
Ancient Chessmen.--I should be glad to learn, through the medium of
"N. & Q.," some particulars relative to the sixty-four chessmen and
fourteen draughtsmen, made of walrus tusk, found in the Isle of Lewis
in Scotland, and now in case 94. Mediæval Collection of the British
Museum?
HORNOWAY.
[See Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 203., for a valuable article, entitled
"Historical Remarks on the introduction of the Game of Chess into
Europe, and on the ancient Chessmen discovered in the Isle of Lewis,
by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.R.S., in a Letter addressed to Henry Ellis,
Esq., F.R.S., Secretary."]
Guthryisms.--In a work entitled Select Trials at the Old Bailey is an
account of the trial and execution of Robert Hallam, for murder, in the
year 1731. Narrating the execution of the criminal, and mentioning
some papers which he had prepared, the writer says: "We will not tire
the reader's patience with transcribing these prayers, in which we can
see nothing more than commonplace phrases and unmeaning
Guthryisms." What {621} is the meaning of this last word, and to
whom does it refer?
S. S. S.
[James Guthrie was chaplain of Newgate in 1731; and the phrase
Guthryisms, we conjecture, agrees in common parlance with a later
saying, that of "stuffing Cotton in the prisoner's ears."]
* * * * *
Replies.
CORRESPONDENCE OF CRANMER AND CALVIN.

(Vol. vii., p. 501.)
The question put by C. D., respecting the existence of letters said to
have passed between Archbishop Cranmer and Calvin, and to exist in
print at Geneva, upon the seeming sanction given by our liturgy to the
belief that baptism confers regeneration, is a revival of an inquiry made
by several persons about ten years ago. It then induced M. Merle
d'Aubigné to make the search of which C. D. has heard; and the result
of that search was given in a communication from the