Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850 | Page 4

in a wooden coffin,
inclosed in a leaden one; and that again inclosed in a second wooden
one, covered with black velvet. That while I was so a prisoner, the
sans-culottes broke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast into
bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like
a mummy, bound tight with garters. The sans-culottes took out the
body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar
and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect. The hands and
nails were very fine, I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine

a set of teeth in my life. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished much
to have a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they were
so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The face and cheeks
were just as if he were alive. I rolled his eyes: the eye-balls were
perfectly firm under my finger. The French and English prisoners {244}
gave money to the sans-culottes for showing the body. They said he
was a good sans-culotte, and they were going to put him into a hole in
the public churchyard like other sand-culottes; and he was carried away,
but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George IV. tried all
in his power to get tidings of the body, but could not. Around the
chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at
the time of the king's death, and the corpse was very like them. The
body had been originally kept at the palace of St. Germain, from
whence it was brought to the convent of the Benedictines. Mr. Porter,
the prior, was a prisoner at the time in his own convent."
The above I took down from Mr. Fitz-Simons' own mouth, and read it
to him, and he said it was perfectly correct. Sir W. Follett told me he
thought Mr. Fitz-Simons was a runaway Vinegar Hill boy. He told me
that he was a monk.
PITMAN JONES.
Exeter, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
The Legend of Sir Richard Baker (vol. ii., p. 67.).--Will F.L. copy the
inscription on the monument in Cranbrook Church? The dates on it will
test the veracity of the legend. In the reign of Queen Mary, the
representative of the family was Sir John Baker, who in that, and the
previous reigns of Edward VI. and Henry VIII., had held some of the
highest offices in the kingdom. He had been Recorder of London,
Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney-General and Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and died in the first year of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. His son, Sir Richard Baker, was twice high-sheriff of the

county of Kent, and had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth in
her progress through the county. This was, most likely, the person
whose monument F.L. saw in Cranbrook Church. The family had been
settled there from the time of Edward III., and seem to have been
adding continually to their possessions; and at the time mentioned by
F.L. as that of their decline, namely, in the reign of Edward VI., they
were in reality increasing in wealth and dignities. If the Sir Richard
Baker whose monument is referred to by F.L. was the son of the Sir
John above mentioned, the circumstances of his life disprove the
legend. He was not the sole representative of the family remaining at
the accession of Queen Mary. His father was then living, and at the
death of his father his brother John divided with him the representation
of the family, and had many descendants. The family estates were not
dissipated; on the contrary, they were handed down through successive
generations, to one of whom, a grandson of Sir Richard, the dignity of a
baronet was given; and Sivinghurst, which was the family seat, was in
the possession of the third and last baronet's grandson, E.S. Beagham,
in the year 1730. Add to this that the Sir Richard Baker in question was
twice married, and that a monumental erection of the costly and
honourable description mentioned by F.L. was allowed to be placed to
his memory in the chancel of the church of the parish in which such
Bluebeard atrocities are said to have been committed, and abundant
grounds will thence appear for rejecting the truth of the legend in the
absence of all evidence. The unfortunately red colour of the gloves
most likely gave rise to the story. Nor is this a solitary instance of such
a legend having such an origin. In the beautiful parish church of Aston,
in Warwickshire, are many memorials of the Baronet family of Holt,
who owned the adjoining