Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 | Page 5

one, we have the testimony
of Simon Vouet, in a letter to Ferrante Carlo, written from Venice,
August 14, 1627, in which he speaks of it as a "studio di bellissime
pitture" (Bottari, Lettere Pittoriche, vol. i. p. 335.: Milano, 1822): and
that it came over to England, is asserted repeatedly by Ridolfi, in his
Vite degli illustri Pittori Veneti, the first edition of which appeared at
Venice in 1648. He mentions in this work several paintings which were
in Della Nave's collection, and which it may be interesting to refer to
here, in case they are still to be traced in England. In vol. i. p. 107. (I
quote the Padua edition of 1835) is noticed a painting by Vincenzio
Catena, representing Judith carrying the head of Holofernes in one hand,
and a sword in the other. In the same volume, p. 182., a portrait of

Zattina by Palma il Vecchio, holding in her hand "una zampina dorata;"
and at p. 263. several sacred subjects by Titian among which is
specified one of the Virgin surrounded by Saints, and another of the
woman taken in adultery, with "multi ritratti" by the same. Again, at p.
288., a head of a lady, supposed to be the mother of the artist Nadelino
da Murano, one of the most talented pupils of Titian; and at p. 328. a
painting by Andrea Schiavone, and some designs of Parmigiano. In vol.
ii. p. 123. are mentioned two paintings by Battista Zelotti from Ovid's
Fables; and at p. 141. a picture of the good Samaritan, by Jacopo da
Ponte of Bassano. For these references to Bottari and Ridolfi, I own
myself indebted to Mr. William Carpenter, the keeper of the
department of engravings in the British Museum; and, probably, some
of your readers may contribute further illustrations of Bartolomeo della
Nave's collection of pictures, and of the purchase of them by Charles I.
I do not find this purchase noticed in Vanderdort's list of Charles's
pictures, published by Walpole in 1757.
F. MADDEN.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
Nonsuch Palace.--Our antiquarian friends may not be aware that traces
of this old residence of Elizabeth are still to be seen near Ewell.
Traditions of it exist in the neighbourhood and Hansetown, and
Elizabethan coins are frequently dug up near the foundations of the
"Banquetting House," now inclosed in a cherry orchard not far from the
avenue that joins Ewell to Cheam. In a field at some distance is an old
elm, which the villagers say once stood in the court-yard of the kitchen.
Near this is a deep trench, now filled with water, and hedged by bushes,
which is called "Diana's Dyke," now in the midst of a broad ploughed
field, but formerly the site of a statue of the Grecian goddess, which
served as a fountain in an age when water-works were found in every
palace-garden, evincing in their subjects proofs of the revival of
classical learning. The elm above-mentioned measures thirty feet in the
girth, immediately below the parting of the branches. Its age is "frosty
but kindly;" some two or three hundred summers have passed over its

old head, which, as yet, is unscathed by heavens fire, and unriven by its
bolt. The ground here swells unequally and artificially, and in an
adjoining field, long called, no one knew why, "the Conduit Field,"
pipes that brought the water to the palace have lately been found, and
may be seen intersected by the embankments of the Epsom railway.
The avenue itself is one of the old approaches to the palace, and was
the scene of a skirmish during the civil wars. {237}
Your readers may, perhaps, forget that this palace was the scene of the
fatal disgrace of young Essex.
GEORGE W. THORNBURY.
Ferrar and Benlowes.--The preface to that very singular poem,
Theophila: Love's Sacrifice. Lond. 1652, by Edw. Benlowes, contains a
passage so closely resembling the inscription "in the great parlour" at
Little Gidding (Peckard's Life of Nic. Ferrar, p. 234), that the
coincidence cannot have been accidental, and, if it has not been
elsewhere pointed out, may be worth record. As the inscription, thought
not dated, was set up during the life of Ferrar, who died in 1637, the
imitation was evidently not his. Only so much of the inscription is here
given as is requisite to show the parallel.
"He who (by reproof of our errors, and remonstrance of that which is
more perfect) seeks to make us better, is welcome as an Angel of God:
and he who (by a cheerful participation of that which is good) confirms
us in the same, is welcome as a Christian friend. But he who faults us
in absence, for that which in presence he made show to approve of,
doth by a double