Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 | Page 7

such mixture generally tends. Nothing could be more
appropriate than the application of the term to the "infima latinitas" of
the Middle Ages; and from "mongrel" the transition to the name of the
genus from that of the degenerate species appears to me to be very easy,
though fanciful.
J. B--T.
Thomas Wright of Durham.--In the Philosophical Magazine for April,
1848, I gave an account of the "Original Theory or new Hypothesis of
the Universe" of Thomas Wright, whose anticipations of modern
speculation on the milky way, the central sun, and some other points,
make him one of the most remarkable astronomical thinkers of his day.
In the biography in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1793, he is described
as struggling for a livelihood when a young man, and no account is
given of the manner in which he obtained the handsome competence
with which he emerges in 1756, or thereabouts. A few days after my
account was published, I was informed (by Captain James, R.E.) that a
large four-foot orrery, constructed by Wright for the Royal Academy at
Portsmouth, was still in that town; and that by the title of "J. Harrises
Use of the Globes" it appears that he (Wright) kept his shop at the
Orrery, near Water Lane, Fleet Street (No. 136), under the title of
instrument-maker to his Majesty. In an edition of Harris (the 8th, 1767),
which I lately met with, the above is described as "late the shop of
Thomas Wright," &c. By the advertisements which this work contains,
Wright must have had an extensive business as a philosophical
instrument-maker. The omission in the biography is a strange one.
Possibly some farther information may fall in the way of some of your
readers.
A. DE MORGAN.
A Funeral Custom.--At Broadwas, Worcestershire, in the valley of the
Teame, it is the custom at funerals, on reaching "the Church Walk," for
the bearers to set down the coffin, and, as they stand around, to bow to

it.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.
* * * * *
Queries.
LITTLECOTT--SIR JOHN POPHAM.
Every one knows the tradition attached to the manor of Littlecott in
Wiltshire, and the alleged means by which Chief Justice Sir John
Popham acquired its possession. It is told by Aubrey, Sir Walter Scott,
and many others, and is too notorious to be here repeated. Let me ask
you or your learned correspondents whether there exists any refutation
of a charge so seriously detrimental to the character of any judge, and
so inconsistent with the reputation which Chief Justice Popham
enjoyed among his cotemporaries? See Lord Ellesmere's notice of him
in the case of the Postnati (State Trials, ii. 669.), and Sir Edward Coke's
flattering picture of him at the end of Sir Drew Drury's case (Reports,
vi. 75.). Are there any records showing that a Darell was ever in fact
arraigned on a charge of murder, and the name of the judge who
presided at the trial? Is the date known of the death of the last Darell
who possessed the estate, or that of Sir John Popham's acquisition of it?
The discovery of these might throw great light on the subject, and
possibly afford a complete contradiction.
Sir Francis Bacon, in his argument against Sir John Hollis and others
for traducing public justice, states that--
"Popham, a great judge in his time, was complained of by petition to
Queen Elizabeth; it was committed {219} to four privy councillors, but
the same was found to be slanderous, and the parties punished in the
court."--State Trials, vol. ii. p. 1029.
If this petition could be discovered, and it should turn out that the
slander complained of in it had reference to this story, the investigation
which it then underwent by the four privy councillors, and the chief

justice's enjoyment of his high office for so many subsequent years,
would go far to prove the utter falsehood of the charge. This is a
"consummation devoutly to be wished" by every one who feels an
interest in the purity of the bench, and particularly by the present
possessors of the estate, who must be anxious for their ancestor's fame.
Your useful publication has acted the part of the "detective police" in
the elucidation of many points of history less interesting than this, and I
trust you will consider the case curious enough to justify a close
examination.
EDWARD FOSS.
* * * * *
EARLY EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
I should be greatly obliged if I could obtain through "N. & Q." when,
where, and by whom an imperfect black-letter copy of the New
Testament, lately come into my possession, was printed, and also who
was the translator of it.
It is bound in boards, has three thongs round which the sheets are
stitched, seems never to have been