Minor Queries.
Atherstone Family.—Can any of your readers oblige me with information concerning the Atherstone family? Is it an old name, or was it first given some three or four generations back to a foundling, picked up near the town of Atherston?
M. A. B.
Classic Authors and the Jews.—Where can I find a complete or full account of passages in Greek and Latin authors, which refer to Judea and the Jews? It has been said that these references are very few, and that in Cicero, for instance, there is not one. This last is wrong, I know. (See e.g. Cic. Pro L. Flacco, 28., and De Prov. Consul. 5.)
B. H. C.
Bishop Hooper's Argument on the Vestment Controversy.—Glocester Ridley, in his Life of Bishop Ridley, p. 315., London, 1763, states, in reference to Bishop Hooper's Book to the Council against the use of those Habits which were then used by the Church of England in her sacred Ministries, written October, 1550, "Part of Hooper's book I have by me in MS." Could any one state whether that MS. is now in existence, or where it is to be found? It is of much importance to obtain
an answer to this inquiry, as Bishop Ridley's MS. Reply to Bishop Hooper is, for the first time, about to be printed by the Parker Society, through the kind permission of its possessor, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., in the second volume of the Writings of Bradford which I am editing; and, to make Ridley's reply fully intelligible, access is needed to Bishop Hooper's Book to the Council.
A. Townsend.
Weston Lane, Bath,
February 23.
The Title of "Dominus."—How is it that at Cambridge the title of Dominus is applied to B.A.'s, while at Oxford it is confined to the doctorate?
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
The De Rous Family.—Hugh Rufus, or De Rous, was Bishop of Ossory, A.D. 1202. He had been previously an Augustinian Canon of Bodmin, in Cornwall. Query, Was he a cadet of the ancient family of De Rous; and if so, what was his descent?
James Graves.
Where was the Fee of S. Sanxon?—At the end of "Ordericus Vitalis," in the Gesta Normannorum, is a list called the "Feoda Normanniæ," wherein, under the title "Feoda Ebroic.," occurs the entry:
"S. Sanxon dim. f. in friche."
Francis Drake, in his Antiquities of York, London, 1736, p. 70., speaks of "Sampson, or Sanxo," the archbishop of that see; and elsewhere mentions the parish church of S. Sampson, "called by some Sanxo."
What I wish to ask is, Where was this half fee of S. Sanxon? Whether it had any connexion with Sanson sur Rille? And whether it was the place from which "Ralph de S. Sanson" or "Sanson Clericus" of the Domesday Book, who was afterwards Bishop of Worcester, derived his name?
* *
Russian Emperors.—Is there any truth in a rumour that was current two or three years since respecting the limited period that was placed upon the reign of any Russian monarch? Twenty-five years was the time stated, at the termination of which the Emperor had to abdicate. As this period has elapsed, and no abdication has taken place by the present Autocrat, some one may perhaps be able to state how such a statement originated, and upon what grounds?
Thos. Crosfield.
Episcopal Insignia of the Eastern Church.—Having seen in a late number of the Illustrated London News (Feb. 11, 1854) a peculiarly shaped episcopal staff, with a cross rising from between two in-curved dragons' heads, which is represented in the hand of the metropolitan of Wallachia, I would be glad to know whether this form is peculiar to any branch of the Eastern Church. A reference to a work of authority on the subject will oblige a provincialist.
James Graves.
Amontillado Sherry.—What is the real meaning of this epithet? A friend, who had travelled in Spain, and visited some famous cellars at Xeres, told me that the peculiar flavour of the Amontillado Sherry was always an accidental result of mixing butts of wine brought to the merchant by a variety of growers. I mentioned this to another friend who had the wine on his table; and he ridiculed the account, saying that the Amontillado Sherry was from a grape peculiar to the district. What district, I could not ascertain.
Alfred Gatty.
Col. Michael Smith's Family.—Perhaps some of your readers may be enabled to give me some information of the family of Smith, to which Col. Michael Smith, Lieut.-Governor of Nevis about 1750, belongs.
A West Indian.
Pronunciation of Foreign Names.—How shall we pronounce Sinope, Citate, and many other words which are now becoming familiar to our eyes? I think the bookseller who should give us a vocabulary of proper names of foreign persons and places, with the correct pronunciation attached, would be encouraged by an extensive sale. So far as my knowledge extends, such a work is a desideratum.
Thinks I to Myself.
Artesian Wells.—One who is about to dig a well on his land would be glad to know:—1. Whether, in all cases, artesian wells are preferable? 2. If yes, why they are not universally adopted, and whether they are more expensive then the common sort? 3. If not preferable in all cases, in what cases they are preferable?
Stylites.
Norman Towers in London.—Can you inform me it there is any other church in the city of London with a Norman tower, besides Allhallows, Mark Lane? which, by the bye, has been colour-washed: I suppose, to preserve it!
J. W. Brown.
Papyrus.—Where, or of whom, can a specimen of Papyrus be obtained?
R. H.
Islington.
Mathew, a Cornish Family.—I am anxious to know the connexion of a family of Mathew, late of Tresungar, co. Cornwall, with any stock in Wales; and I will gladly defray any necessary expense of search, if can attain this object. The descent of a family of the name, apparently the same from the arms, in an old recueil of Devonshire families, is headed "nuper de Walliâ;" and a visitation of that county ascribes their bearing
(a stork) to a marriage with an heir of Starkey, which I have been unable to verify. A Visitation of Cornwall, to which I have had access, gives a grant, or probably a confirmation of the arms by Cooke. If this celebrated Herald's grants are on record, some clew would probably be found; but I doubt not that many of your readers well versed in genealogical research can readily answer my Query, and I trust to their kindness to do so.
B.
Birkenhead.