road from Ashby to Whitwick, passes through Talbot Lane.
Of this lane and the famous large pot at Warwick Castle, we have an
old traditionary couplet:
"'There's nothing left of Talbot's name, But Talbot's Pot and Talbot's
Lane.'
"Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, died in 1439. His eldest
daughter, Margaret, was married to John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, by
whom she had one son, John Viscount Lisle, from whom the Dudleys
descended, Viscount Lisle and Earl of Warwick."
It would therefore appear that neither the armour nor the pot belonged
to the "noble Guy"--the armour being comparatively of modern
manufacture, and the pot, it appears, descended from the Talbots to the
Warwick family: which pot is generally filled with punch on the birth
of a male heir to that noble family.
W. Reader.
* * * * *{119}
QUERIES.
NICHOLAS FERRAR OF LITTLE GIDDING.
Dr. Peckard, in his Preface to the _Life of Nicholas Ferrar of Little
Gidding_, says the memoir he published was edited or compiled by him
from "the original MS. still in my possession" (p. xi.); and in the
Appendix adds, that "Mr. John Ferrar," the elder brother of Nicholas,
was the author of it (p. 279.).
How he compiled or edited "the original MS." he states with much
candour in his Preface (p. xv.):
"The editor's intention," in altering the narrative, "was to give what is
not observed in the original, a regular series of facts; and through the
whole a sort of evenness and simplicity of stile equally free from
meanness and affectation. In short, to make the old and the new, as far
as he could, uniform; that he might not appear to have sewed a piece of
new cloth to an old garment, and made its condition worse by his
endeavours to mend it."
Again, at page 308., he says,
"There is an antient MS. in folio, giving an account of Mr. N. Ferrar,
which at length, from Gidding, came into the hands of Mr. Ed. Ferrar
of Huntingdon, and is now in the possession of the editor. Mr. Peck had
the use of this MS. as appears by several marginal notes in his
handwriting; from this and some loose and unconnected papers of Mr.
Peck.... the editor, as well as he was able, has made out the foregoing
memoirs."
Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if this "antient
MS." is still in existence, and in whose possession?
Peckard was related to the Ferrars, and was Master of Magdalen Coll.,
Cambridge.
In "A Catalogue of MSS. (once) at Gidding," Peckard, p. 306., the third
article is "Lives, Characters, Histories, and Tales for moral and
religious Instruction, in five volumes folio, neatly bound and gilt, by
Mary Collet." This work, with five others, "undoubtedly were all
written by N. Ferrar, Sen.," says Dr. Peckard; and in the Memoir, at
page 191., he gives a list of these "short histories," ninety-eight in
number, "which are still remaining in my possession;" and adds further,
at p. 194.,
"These lives, characters, and moral essays would, I think, fill two or
three volumes in 8vo., but they are written in so minute a character, that
I cannot form any conjecture to be depended upon."
I have been thus particular in describing these "histories", because the
subjects of them are identical with those in Fuller's _Holy and Profane
State_, the first edition of which was published at Cambridge, in 1642.
"The characters I have conformed," says Fuller in his Preface, "to the
then standing laws of the realm (a twelvemonth ago were they sent to
the press), since which time the wisdom of the King and state hath"
altered many things. Nicholas Ferrar died December 2, 1637, and the
Query I wish to ask is, Did Fuller compose them (for that he was really
the author of them can hardly be doubted) at the suggestion and for the
benefit of the community at Gidding, some years before he published
them; and is it possible to ascertain and determine if the MS. is in the
handwriting of Ferrar or Fuller?
Is there any print or view in existence of the "Nunnery," at Little
Gidding?
In the _Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller_, published anonymously in 1661, it
is stated, that at his funeral a customary sermon was preached by Dr.
Hardy, Dean of Rochester, "which hath not yet (though it is hoped and
much desired may) passe the presse," p. 63.
Query. Was this sermon ever published? and secondly, who was the
author of the Life from which the above passage is quoted?
John Miland.
* * * * *
STUKELEY'S "STONEHENGE."
May I request a space in your periodical for the following Queries,
drawn from Dr. Stukeley's _Stonehenge and Abury_, p. 31.?
1st. "But eternally to be lamented is the loss
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