Minor Queries Answered.
Organs first put up in Churches.
—In the parish register of Buxted, in Sussex, allusion is made to the time when the organs were put up in the church, but which had been taken down. This entry was made in the year 1558. Any information as to the earliest period when organs were placed in our churches will much oblige.
R. W. B.
[Our correspondent will find some interesting matter on the early use of organs in churches in the Rev. F. D. Wackerbath's Music and the Anglo-Saxons, pp. 6-24. London. 8vo. 1837.]
Ignoramus, Comœdia, &c.
—Perhaps some of your correspondents can enlighten me on the following points.
1. Who was the author of this play? The Latin is sufficiently ultra-canine for his pedantic majesty himself.
2. Do the words "coram Regia Maiestate Jacobi, Regis Angliæ," &c., mean that the play was acted in the presence of the king? I am inclined to give them that interpretation from some allusions at the end of the last act, as well as from its being written in Latin.
3. Are any of the race-courses therein mentioned still used as such?
"In Stadio Roystoniensi, Brackliensi, Gatterliensi, Coddington."
This is the earliest mention of fixed English race-courses that I have met with, and not being much versed in the secrets of the modern "cespite vivo," I am obliged to inquire of those who are better informed on that subject.
F. J.
[The author of Ignoramus was George Ruggles, A. M., of Clare Hall, Cambridge. This comedy, as well as that of Albumazar, were both acted before King James I. and the Prince of Wales, during a visit to Cambridge in March, 1614-15. The edition of Ignoramus, edited by J. S. Hawkins, 8vo., 1787, contains a Life of Ruggles, and a valuable Glossary to his "ultra-canine Latin" legal terms. There is also a translation of this comedy, with the following title: "Ignoramus: a Comedy as it was several times acted with extraordinary applause before the Majesty of King James. With a Supplement, which (out of respect to the Students of the Common Law) was hitherto wanting. Written in Latine by R. Ruggles, sometime Master of Arts in Clare Hall, in Cambridge, and translated into English by R. C. [Robert Codrington, A. M.] of Magdalen Colledge, in Oxford. London. 4to. 1662.">[
Drake's Historia Anglo-Scotica.
—Will any of your learned readers inform me, for what reason and by what authority Drake's Historia Anglo-Scotica, published in 1703, was ordered to be burned by the hangman? And where I can meet with a report of the proceedings relating to it?
FRA. MEWBURN.
Darlington.
[Dr. Drake was not the author, but merely the editor of Historia Anglo-Scotica. In the dedication he says, "Upon a diligent revisal, in order, if possible, to discover the name of the author, and the age of his writing, he found that it was written in, or at least not finished till, the time of Charles I." It is singular, however, that he does not give the least intimation by what mysterious influence the manuscript came to be wafted into his library. It was ordered by the parliament of Scotland, on the 30th of June, 1703, to be burned by the common hangman.]