Notes and Queries | Page 7

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CHRIST'S HOSPITAL--OLD SONGS ONCE POPULAR THERE.
Amongst the numerous correspondents and readers of your very interesting little work, there may yet be living some who were scholars in the above institution during the last ten or fifteen years of the last century, coevals, or nearly so, with Richards, afterwards of Oriel College, author of a prize poem, Aboriginal Britons, and one of the Bampton Lecturers; Middleton, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta; Trollope, afterwards Master of the Grammar School; Barnes, afterwards connected with the _Times_; Stevens, Scott (poor Scott!), Coleridge, Lamb, Allen, White, Leigh Hunt, the two brothers Le G. Favell, Thompson, Franklin, &c., pupils of old James Boyer, of flogging celebrity.
If so, can any of them furnish me with the words of an old song, then current in the school, relating to the execution of the Earl of Derwentwater in the rebellion of 1715, of which the four following lines are all that I remember:
"There's fifty pounds in my right pocket, To be given to the poor; There's fifty pounds in my left pocket, To be given from door to door."
Of another song, equally popular, less pathetic, but of more spirit-stirring character, can any one supply the remainder?
"As our king lay musing on his bed, He bethought himself once on a time Of a tribute that was due from France, That had not been paid for so long a time.
"Oh! then he called his trusty page, His trusty page then called he, Saying, 'You must go to the king of France, To the king of France right speedily.'"
NEMO.
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WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE--DOMINUS FACTOTUM--ROBERT PASSELLEW.
Allow me to offer a query or two respecting which I shall be glad of any information your numerous correspondents may be able to furnish.
1. In Fuller's History of Waltham Abbey, pp. 269. 274., Nichol's edition, 1840, we have the following entries from the churchwarden's accounts:
"Anno 1542, the thirty-fourth of Henry viii. Imprimis. For watching the sepulchre, a groat."
"Item, for watching the sepulchre, eight pence."
The last entry occurs in "Anno 1554, Mari? primo," but Fuller adds, "though what meant thereby, I know not." Can any satisfactory information be furnished which will explain the custom here alluded to? {319}
2. In the same work, page 278., a passage occurs, which not only explains the meaning of the term factotum, but furnishes matter for another query. The passage is this; speaking of "eminent persons buried" at Waltham Abbey, he says: "we spoil all, if we forget Robert Passellew, who was dominus fac totum in the middle--and fac nihil towards the end--of the reign of Henry III." Some parasites extolled him by allusion to his name, _pass-le-eau_, (that is "passing the pure water,") the wits of those days thus descanting upon him:
"Est aqua lenis, et est aqua dulcis, et est aqua clara, Tu pr?cellis aquam, nam leni lenior es tu, Dulci dulcior es tu, clara clarior es tu; Mente quidem lenis, re dulcis, sanguine clarus." _Camden's MSS._ Cott. Lib.
The learned Dr. Whitaker, in his History of Whalley, says, that "the word Paslew was of Norman origin (Pass-le-eau), and afforded a subject for some rhyming monkish verses, not devoid of ingenuity, which the curious reader may find in Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 645;" and a question now arises whether the Passellew mentioned by Fuller belongs to the same family as the "Paslews of Wiswall," alluded to by Dr. Whitaker, one of whom, "John, Abbot of Whalley" was executed for the part he took in the "Pilgrimage of Grace." when it is stated that the Paslews of Wiswall bore "Argent a fess between three mullets Sable pierced of the field, a crescent for difference," probably some of your readers will be able to give some particulars respecting "Robert Passelew," and also identify the families if possible.
T.W.
Burnley, Lancashire, Feb. 23, 1850.
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MINOR QUERIES.
_Conrad of Salisbury's Descritio utriusque Britanni?._--A good many years since I had a communication from the Baron de Penhouet, a Breton Antiquary, respecting a work which I have never yet been able to discover. I may ascertain, through the medium of your very useful publication, whether there exists a work under the title of a "Descriptio utriusque Britanni?," by Conrad of Salisbury, from a MS. of the time of Henry I. I should feel much obliged to any one who would favour me with this information.
JAMES LOGAN.
_Peruse or Pervise--Passage in Frith's Works._--Your correspondent T.J. rightly conjectured that the peruse of a modern reprint of Frith was an error. I have been able since to consult two black-letter editions, and have found, as I suspected, "pervise" and "pervyse."
If your same correspondent, or any other, can help me to correct, or to understand another erroneous clause in Russell's edit. of Frith, vol. iii. p. 227., I shall be still further obliged.
It is probably meant for some old rule in logic, but