Notes and Queries, Number 28, May 11, 1850 | Page 8

1683, under the title of _Wit against Wisdom, or a Panegyric upon Folly_. This is in all probability the intermediate translation inquired after by your correspondent.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
In answer to "JARLZBERG," I beg to inform him of the following translation of Erasmus' Praise of Folly:--
"Mori? Encomium, or the Praise of Folly, made English from the Latin of Erasmus by W. Kennet, of S. Edm. Hall, Oxon, now Lord Bishop of Peterborough. Adorn'd with 46 copper plates, and the effigies of Erasmus and Sir Thos. More, all neatly engraved from the designs of the celebrated Hans Holbeine. 4th edition. 1724."
Kennett, however, in his preface, dated 1683, alludes to two other translations, and to Sir Thomas Challoner's as the first. He does not mention the name of the second translator, but alludes to him as "_the modern translator_," and as having lost a good deal of the wit of the book by having "tied himself so strictly to a literal observance of the Latin." This is his excuse for offering to the public a third translation, in which he professes to have allowed himself such "elbow-room of expression as the humoursomeness of the subject and the idiom of the language did invite."
HERMES.
The intermediate translation of the Mori? Encomium of Erasmus, to which your correspondent refers, is that by John Wilson, 8vo. London 1661, of which there is a copy in the Bodleian.
M.
Oxford.
Court of Wards.--I cannot tell "J.B." (No. 11. p. 173.) anything about Mr. D'Israeli's researches in the Court of Wards; but "J.B." may be glad to know that there is among the MSS. in the British Museum a treatise on the Court of Wards. I remember seeing it, but have not read it. I dare say it might be usefully published, for we know little in detail about the Court of Wards.
C.H.
Scala Coeli (No. 23. p. 366.).--In Foxe's Acts and Mon., vol. v. p. 364., Lond. 1838, your Querist may see a copy of a grant from Pope Clement VII. in 1526, to the brethren of a Boston guild, assuring them that any member thereof who should enter the Lady Chapel in St. Botolph's Church, Boston, once a quarter, and say there "a Paternoster, Ave Maria, and Creed, shall have the full remission due to them that visit the Chapel of Scala Scoeli."
H.W.
Twm Shawn Cattie (No. 24, p. 383.).--The following extract from Cliffe's Book of South Wales, furnishes a reply to this Query.
In describing the beautiful mountain scenery between Llandovery and Tregaron, he says:--
"High in the rock above the fall yawns a hole, hardly a cavern, where once lurked a famous freebooter of Wales, Twm Sion Catti: the entrance to this cave is through a narrow aperture, formed of two immense slate rocks, which face each other, and the space between them is narrower at the bottom than the top, so {456} that the passage can only be entered sideways, with the figure inclined according to the slanting of the rock.
"The history of Twm Sion Catti (pronounced Toom Shone Catti), alias Thomas Jones, Esq., is very romantic. He was a natural son of John ap David Moethe, by Catharine, natural daughter of Meredydd ap Ivan ap Robert, grandfather of Sir John Wynne, of Gwydir (see The Heraldic Visitations of Wales, published by the Welsh MSS. Society), and is said to have died in 1630, at the age of 61. In early life, 'he was a notorious freebooter and highwayman,' and levied black mail on the country within reach of his mountain abode, with the aid of a small band of followers. He soon reformed, married a rich heiress, was then created a justice of peace for Brecon, and ultimately became sheriff of that county and Carmarthenshire. He was, observes Sir S.R. Meyrick, esteemed as an antiquarian and poet, but is more known for the tricks attributed to him as a robber."
A.B.
Twm Sion Catti.--The noted robber, Twm Sion or Sh?n Catti, referred to at No. 24. p. 383., was a Welshman who flourished between the years 1590 and 1630. He was the natural son of Sir John Wynne, and obtained his surname of Catti from the appellation of his mother Catherine. In early life he was a brigand of the most audacious character, who plundered and terrified the rich in such a manner that his name was a sufficient warrant for the raising of any sum which he might desire; while his unbounded generosity to the poor or unprotected, joined to an innate love of fun and frolic--for he was a very Eulenspiegel--made him the darling of the people. His chosen dwelling-place was in the almost inaccessible cave situated near Llandovery, at the junction of the Tywi and the Dethia (the Toothy of Drayton), which still bears his name. As time passed on, he wooed and won the heiress of Ystrad-ffin, in