Replies.

CONQUEST OF SCOTLAND.
(Vol. iv., p. 165.)

In an article of A. C. in "NOTES AND QUERIES" for 30th August last, under the head "Plowden of Plowden" from Burke's Landed Gentry, I find this paragraph:

"The names of the followers of William the Conqueror are often alluded to; but the 'comers over' at the CONQUEST of Wales, SCOTLAND, and Ireland are but seldom thought of, though they lend to their descendants' pedigree a degree of historical interest."

I do not read this paragraph without pain, mingled with indignation. Who ever before heard of the conquest of Scotland? It is true, that, on repeated occasions, the English made successful inroads into that kingdom, sometimes of a larger, sometimes of a less extensive character; but the Scottish nation never did "lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."

Though Edward I., by means of intrigues unworthy of his high character, did for a short period, during the interregnum consequent on the death of the Maid of Norway, assume the government of the Scottish realm, and put to death some of the most distinguished of her defenders, yet his successor paid the penalty of this unjust assumption in the battle of Bannockburn; a battle having justice on the side of the victorious party, and regarded by all Scotsmen as to be ranked in military prowess with those of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt.

It is not generally known, that upon the marriage of Mary to the Dauphin in 1558, Scotsmen were naturalised in France by an ordonnance of Henry II.; and that, in like manner, by an act of the parliament of Scotland, all Frenchmen were naturalised in that country. The ordonnance granting these privileges to Scotsmen within the realm of France, is printed in the Scottish statute-book along with the Scottish act granting similar privileges to Frenchmen within Scotland.

One of the most distinguished writers on the law of Scotland, when dedicating his work to King Charles II., reminds him of the inscription on the palace of Holyrood: "Nobis hæc invicta miserunt centum sex Prouvi."

When, in 1707, Scotland treated of an incorporating union with the realm of England, she treated as an independent and sovereign power, and the Treaty of Union was concluded with her in that character: a treaty which was at least as beneficial to England as it was to Scotland, by precluding in all time to come the intrigues of France with the Scottish sovereign and nation.

That Scotland was able for so many centuries to defend her liberties and independence against the powerful kingdom of England, does her great honour. There is no problem of more difficult solution than this: What might have happened, if some other great event had happened otherwise than it did? When England had overcome the kingdom of France, if Scotland had not afforded the means of annoyance to England, the seat of government might have been removed to France, and the great English nation have been absorbed in that country: but Providence ruled otherwise; England lost her dominion in France, and Scotland remained independent.

SCOTUS OCTOGENARIUS.

BOROUGH-ENGLISH.
(Vol. iv., p. 133.)

W. FRAZER'S Query, which are the towns or districts in England in which Borough-English prevails, or has prevailed, and whether there are any instances on record of its being carried into effect in modern times, would require more knowledge than any individual can be expected to possess of local customs throughout the country to give a full answer to; but if all your legal correspondents would contribute their quotas of information on the subject, a very fair list might be made, which would not be uninteresting as illustrative of this peculiar custom. I do not know any work in which the places where the custom prevails are collected together. But I send you a short list of such manors and places as I know of and have been able to collect, in which the custom of Borough-English is the rule of descent, hoping that other correspondents will add to the list which I have only made a commencement of:—

Reve v. Maltster, Croke's Reports, Trin. Term, 11 Chas. I.

Termes de la Ley, Kitchin, fo. 102.

Forester's Equity Reports, 276.

Co. Litt. Sec. 211.

I am informed that the custom also prevails in some of the Duchy manors in Cornwall, but I cannot at present give you the names.

I may be able to add to this list in a future communication, and I hope to see in your pages some considerable additions to this list from other correspondents.

As to the continuance of the custom to modern times, nothing can alter it but an act of parliament; so that where the custom has prevailed, it is still the law of descent: and I have had under my notice a descent of copyhold property, in the manors of Lambeth and Kennington, to the youngest brother within the present century.

G. R. C.

There is a farm of about a hundred acres in the parish of Sullescombe in Sussex, which is held by this tenure; but whether the adjoining land is so, I am not aware. In case of the owner dying intestate, the land would go to the younger son; but I am not aware of an instance of this having occurred.

E. H. Y.

PENDULUM DEMONSTRATION OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION.
(Vol. iv., pp. 129. 177.)

Your correspondent A. E. B. appears, by his suggestion regarding Foucault's theory, to have rendered confusion worse confounded, mystery more mysterious. He says:

"If the propounders of this theory had from the first explained, that they do not claim for the plane of oscillation an exemption from the general rotation of the earth, but only the difference of rotation due to the excess of velocity with which one extremity of the line of oscillation may be affected more than the other, it would have saved a world of fruitless conjecture and misunderstanding."

This supposition makes an effect, which it is difficult to believe in, into one utterly impossible to conceive. It is hard enough to credit the theory, that the plane of oscillation of a pendulum is partially independent of the rotatory motion of the earth, but still not impossible, considering that the effect of the presumed cause is not inconsistent with the results of à priori calculation. For instance, during the swing of a two-seconds pendulum, the angular motion of the earth will have been 1', or thereabouts, which, supposing the oscillation to be independent, would produce an appreciable angle on an index circle placed concentric with the pendulum, and at right angles to its plane of oscillation.

But as to A. E. B.'s theory, which supposes the variation of the pendulum's plane to be "due to the excess of velocity with which one extremity of the line of oscillation may be affected more than the other," it appears to me quite untenable for a moment. Let him reduce it to paper, and find what difference of velocity there is on the earth's surface at the two ends of a line of ten feet, the assumed length of the arc of a two-seconds pendulum,—a larger one, I presume, than that used by Foucault in his cellar,—and I believe he will find it to be practically nothing.

I confess I have had no faith in this theory from the first; the effect, if any and constant, I believe to be magnetic. The results of experiments have been stated from the first very loosely, and the theory itself has been put forth very indistinctly, and not supported by any name of eminence, except that of Professor Powell.

In the meantime, and until some competent authority has pronounced on the point, I propose that such of your readers as are interested in the question make experiments for themselves, dividing them into four classes, viz., with the plane of oscillation E. and W., N. and S., N.E. and S.W., N.W. and S.E.; take the mean of a great many, and communicate them to the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" and I venture to say that such a collection will do more towards confirming or disproving the theory absolutely, than all the papers we have yet seen on the subject.

I am myself about to make experiments with a twenty-five feet pendulum.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford, Sept. 8. 1851.

LORD MAYOR NOT A PRIVY COUNCILLOR.
(Vol. iv., pp. 9. 137. 180.)

In p. 180. I find some observations respecting the rank of the Lord Mayor of London, which seem to require further elucidation. But I should not trouble you except for one passage, which leads me to think that the writer is under some little mistake. He seems to think that upon the occasion of a new king's accession, only Privy Councillors are summoned. This is not so. I remember upon the accession of George IV., that I received a summons, being then a member of the House of Commons and holding an official appointment; and some other private gentlemen were also summoned. I think that the summonses were issued from the Home Office, but of this I am not certain; nor do I know if the same practice has been adopted upon the subsequent accessions. I remember that we all met at Carlton House; that we all signed some document, recognising the new sovereign, which I apprehend to be the authority for the proclamation; but that the Privy Councillors only went in to the presence.

I understand that the theory for summoning me and others was that some persons of various ranks and grades of society should concur in placing the new king upon the throne.

All this is, however, mere speculation of my own. The fact of my summons is certain. As to the Lord Mayor being Right Honorable, why need we look for other authority than usage? Usage only gives the title of Right Honorable to a Privy Councillor being a Commoner. Usage only gives that title to a Peer. Excuse this gossip.

DN.

COLLARS OF SS.
(Vol. iv., p. 147.)

I have the pleasure to add to the early examples of the collar of SS. given by MR. EDWARD FOSS, the names of some personages whose monuments are either represented or described in Blore's Monumental Remains, Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, and Stothard's Monumental Effigies.

1. On the effigy of Sir Simon Burley, engraved by Hollar for Dugdale, is a collar apparently marked, but very indistinctly, with SS. Sir Simon was a Knight of the Garter, Chamberlain to Richard II., and was beheaded in 1388.

2 and 3. Sir Robert Waterton and his wife, in Methley church, Yorkshire. The collar was issued to this knight, when he was an esquire, out of the great wardrobe of Henry Earl of Derby, in the 20th year of Richard II.

4. Sir William Ryther, in Harwood church, Yorkshire: he lived in the time of Richard II.

5. John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, in the cathedral at Canterbury. He was Chamberlain of England, and Captain of Calais in the reign of Henry IV., and died in 1410.

6. Thomas Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, in Arundel church, Sussex; Chief Butler of England at the coronation of Henry IV., who with his queen was present at the earl's wedding in 1404; temporary Marshal of England in 1405. Died in 1416, the 4th of Henry V.

7 and 8. Sir Edmund de Thorpe and his wife, in Ashwell-Thorpe church, Norfolk. Two persons of this name, Mon' Esmond Thorp and Mon' Esmon de Thorp̃, were summoned to a great council held at Westminster in the 2nd of Henry IV. It is considered that this Sir Edmund is the person called Lord Thorpe, who was slain in Normandy in 1418; that his wife is Joan, daughter of Sir Robert Norwood, and widow of Roger Lord Scales; and that she is the Lady Thorpe who died in 1415.

9. Thomas Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV., President of the Council, and Lieutenant General of the Forces. He died in 1421. Monument in Canterbury cathedral.

10, 11, and 12. Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland, and his two wives, in Staindrop church, co. Durham. He was created Earl of Westmorland by Richard II., made Earl Marshal of England by Henry IV., present at the battle of Agincourt with Henry V., and died in the 4th of Henry VI., 1425.

Margaret, his first wife, was the daughter of Hugh Earl of Stafford; and his second wife was Joan de Beaufort, only daughter of John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, by Catherine Swinford.

13. John Fitz-Alan, Lord Maltravers and Earl of Arundel, in the church at Arundel, Sussex. He distinguished himself by the capture of many towns and fortresses in Normandy in the year of his death, 1434.

14. William Phelip Lord Bardolf, in Dennington church, Suffolk. Treasurer of the household of Henry V., Knight of the Garter, and Chamberlain to Henry VI. Died in the 19th year of this reign, 1440.

15 and 16. John Beaufort Duke of Somerset, and his wife, in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, Knight of the Garter, created Duke of Somerset and Earl of Kendal, and at the same time made Lieutenant and Captain-General of Aquitaine, France and Normandy. Died in 1444.

17. Robert Lord Hungerford, who served in the wars in France and Guienne, and died in 1453. His effigy is drawn by Stothard (Mon. Eff. p. 98.).

18. Sir John Nevill, in Harwood church, Yorkshire. Died 22nd Edward IV., 1482.

I presume that MR. EDWARD FOSS would refer to the curious passage in the printed Rolls of Parliament, vol. iii. p. 313., wherein it appears that Richard II., in the 20th year of his reign, formally declared that he assumed, bore, and used, and that by his leave and wish persons of his retinue also bore and used, the livery of the collar of his uncle, the Duke of Lancaster.

Mr. John Gough Nichols, in the Gent. Mag. for 1842, quotes the principal part of this passage, and produces some interesting evidence in favour of the view that the livery of the collar of the Duke of Lancaster was the collar of SS.

LLEWELLYN.

WRITTEN SERMONS.
(Vol. iii., pp. 478. 526.; Vol. iv., pp. 8. 41.)

The statement that the reading of sermons did not prevail in the early ages of Christianity not having been called in question, although irreconcileable with the practice of the Fathers, as ascertained from their own writings, I am induced to observe that in Ferrarius de Ritu Sac. Concionum, evidence is adduced that extemporaneous preaching was occasionally superseded by more elaborate and written discourses, sometimes committed to memory, sometimes recited, that is, read.

"Narrat Gregorius (Hom. 21. ex Libro Quadraginta Homiliarum) solemne ibi fuisse dum Concionem haberet, per Dictatum loqui; additque, Ob languentem stomachum jam legere se non posse quæ dictaverat; ac proinde velle se Evangelicæ Lectionis explanationem non amplius per Dictatum, sed per familiares collocutiones pronunciare. Per Dictatum autem loqui nihil aliud fuit Gregorio quam de scripto dicere ex eo perspicuum fit, quod verbo Dictare pro Scribere passim usi sunt Veteres Auctores, Sidonius Epistola septima Libri primi, undecima quarti, ultima septimi, sexta octavi, tertia noni; Aldhelmus de Laudibus Virginitatis, cap. vii., Gregorius Magnus, lib. x. Epistolarum, Ep. xxii. "ad Joannem Ravennæ Subdiaconum," et "Epistola ad Leonardum;" quæ præmittitur Expositioni in Job, et alii: usu nimirum ex prisco more petito quo Auctores olim, ut est apud Plinium in Epistolis non uno loco, Notariis dictare consueverant. Vox præterea Legere qua usus est Gregorius hoc ipsum aperte confirmat; ea enim dumtaxat legere possumus quaæ scripta sunt et ante oculos posita."—Ferrarius, ut suprà, lib ii. 15.

Fabricius, in his Bibliothecaria Antiquaria (cap. xi., De Concionibus Christianorum), thus refers to this passage:

"Conciones plerasque dictas ex memoria, quasdam etiam de scripto recitatas, observatum Ferrario, lib. ii. cap. 15."

It may therefore be inferred that he knew of no other testimony equally pertinent, but surely we may surmise that other fathers, e.g. Gregory Nazianzen (who, in the words of Bellarmine, "sapientiam mirificè cum eloquentia copulavit") occasionally were unable to commit to memory the numerous discussions which they had so diligently prepared.

I have been requested by the Rev. Richard Bingham, Jun., to state that he has in his possession autograph sermons by his illustrious ancestor, in some of which are notes only or heads of subjects, and which are therefore unfavourable to the suspicion expressed (p. 42.), that the author of the Antiquities of the Christian Church was prejudiced against extempore preaching.

BIBLIOTHECARIUS CHETHAMENSIS.