Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 | Page 7

of tobacco, for which you must--
"Take a quarter of a pound of Tobacco, and a quart of Ale, White-wine, or Sider, and three or four spoonfulls of Hony, and two pennyworth of Mace; And infuse these by a soft fire, in a close earthen pot, to the consumption of almost the one-half, and then you may take from two spoonfulls to twelve [no tea-spoons in those days], and drink it in a cup with Ale or Beer."
One could, I say, believe almost any thing from a gentleman who under such a course of discipline was approaching the age of fourscore; but though the title-page has only his initials, the Dedication to the Marquess of Dorchester, and the letter to Sir Henry Blount, are both signed "Will. Rumsey."
S. R. M.
[Footnote 3: See Vol. i. pp. 124. 139. 156. 242. 300. and 399.]
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Queries.
QUERIES CONCERNING OLD MSS.
I am very desirous of gaining some knowledge respecting the following MSS., especially as regards their locality at the present time. Perhaps some of your numerous readers can help me to the information which I seek.
1. "Whitelocke's Labours remembered in the Annales of his Life, written for the use of his Children." This valuable MS. contains a most minute and curious account of the performance of Shirley's masque, entitled The Triumphs of Peace. In 1789, when Dr. Burney published the third volume of his History of Music, it was in the possession of Dr. Morton of the British Museum.--Query, Was Dr. Morton's library disposed of by auction, or what was its destiny?
2. "A MS. Treatise on the Art of Illumination, written in the year 1525." This MS. is said by Edward Rowe Mores, in his Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders, to have been in the possession of Humphrey Wanley, who by its help "refreshed the injured or decayed illuminations in the library of the Earl of Oxford." The MS. was transcribed by Miss Elstob in 1710, and a copy of her transcript was in the possession of Mr. George Ballard. Where now is the original?
3. "A Memorandum-book in the handwriting of Paul Bowes, Esq., son of Sir Thomas Bowes, of London, and of Bromley Hall, Essex, Knight, and dated 1673." In 1783 this MS., which contains some highly interesting and important information, was in the possession of a gentleman named Broke, of Nacton in Suffolk, a descendant from the Bowes family; but I have not been able to trace it further.
4. "The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall." This valuable MS. was in the collection of Dr. Farmer, who wrote on the fly-leaf,--
"I believe several of the Letters and State Papers in this volume have not been published; three or four are printed in the collections at the end of Dr. Fiddes' Life of Wolsey, from a MS. in the Yelverton Library."
If I remember rightly, the late Richard Heber afterwards came into the possession of this curious and important volume. It is lamentable to think of the dispersion of poor Heber's manuscripts.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
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Minor Queries.
Chantrey's Sleeping Children in Lichfield Cathedral.--In reference to a claim recently put forth on behalf of an individual to the merit of having designed and executed this celebrated monument, Mr. Peter Cunningham says (Literary Gazette, June 5.),--"The merit of the composition belongs to Chantrey and Stothard." As a regular reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," I shall feel obliged to Mr. Cunningham (whose name I am always glad to see as a correspondent) if he will be kind enough to inform me on what evidence he founds the title of Mr. Stothard to a share of the merit of a piece of sculpture, which is so generally attributed to the genius of Chantrey?
PLECTRUM.
Viscount Dundee's Ring.--In the Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1826, is a description and engraving of a ring containing some of Ld. Dundee's hair, with the letters V.D., surmounted by a coronet, worked on it in gold; and on the inside of the ring are engraved a skull, and the posey--"Great Dundee, for God and me, J. Rex."
The ring, which belonged to the family of Graham of Duntrune (representative of Viscount Dundee), has for several years been lost or mislaid; perhaps, through some of the numerous readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," information {71} might be obtained as to the place where that ring is at present preserved, and whether there would be any possibility of the family recovering it by purchase or otherwise.
W. C. TREVELYAN.
Duntrune, near Dundee.
The Kilkenny Cats.--I would feel obliged if any of your correspondents could give me information as to the first, or any early, published allusion to the strange tale, modernly become proverbial, of the ferocity of the cats of Kilkenny. The story generally told is, that two of