Minor Notes.

The Hon. Spencer Perceval.

—Being on a tour through the West of England some years ago, I found myself one morning rapidly advancing up the river Tamar, in the gig of "the Captain of the Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of which a good modern house has been erected, and in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing collection of antiquities.

As we proceeded up the river, the gallant captain related the following anecdote in reference to the then proprietor of Trematon:—

It is well known that in the afternoon of the 12th May, 1812, the Hon. Spencer Perceval, the then prime minister, fell by the hand of Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons; the cause assigned by the murderer being the neglect of, or refusal to discharge a supposed claim he had upon the government.

On the same night the gentleman above alluded to, and residing at Trematon, had the tragic scene so minutely and painfully depicted in his sleep, that he could not resist the desire of sending the particulars to a friend in town, which he did by the up mail, which departed a few hours after he had risen on the following morning.

He informed his friend that his topographical knowledge of London was very meagre; and that as to the House of Commons (the old one), he had seen only the exterior: he went on to state, that, dreaming he was in town, he had a desire to hear the debates in Parliament, and for this purpose enquired his way to the lobby of the House, the architectural peculiarities of which he minutely described; he gave an exact description of the few officials and others in the room, and especially of a tall, thin man, who seemed to watch the opening of the door as any one entered with wild and restless gaze: at length Mr. Perceval arrived, whose person (although unknown to him) and dress he described, as also the manner in which the horrid deed was done: he further communicated the words uttered by the victim to the effect "the villain has murdered—;" how the wounded man was treated, and the person of the medical man who was on the instant called in.

These, with other particulars, which have escaped my memory, were thus recorded, and the first newspaper he received confirmed the accuracy of this extraordinary dream.

M. W. B.

An Adventurer in 1632.

—I transcribe from a manuscript letter now before me, dated "Tuesday, Whitsun-week, 1632," the following passage. Can you or any of your correspondents give me (or tell me where I am likely to find) any further information of the adventurer there named?

"Heer is much Speach of the Brauery of a Porter yt hath taken a Braue House, and hath his Coach & 4 Horses. Ye Lord Mayor examined him how he gott yt Wealth: he answered nothing. Then ye Lords of ye Council gott out of him, that he being the Pope's Brother Borne in Essex, Goodman Linges Sonnes, was maintained by him, and tempted much to have come over to him: these 2 Brothers beings Ship Boyes to a French pirate, the porter gott meanes to come againe into England, but ye other being a Witty Boy was sould to a Coortier in Paris, who trauelling to Florence, thear bestowed his Boy of a Great Man, who when he dyed tooke such affection to this Boy, yt changeing his name to his owne left his estate to him: and so in time grew a Florentine, a Cardinall, & now Pope, ye greatest linguist for the Latine yt ever was."

C. DE D.

[Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII.) was the Roman pontiff between 1623 and 1644, and is said to have been born at Florence in 1568, of a noble family. He was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin poet. One charge brought against him was his weak partiality towards his nephews, who abused his old age and credulity. It is probable some of our correspondents can throw some light on this mysterious document.]

Almanacs.

—A friend of mine, in taking down his old rectory house last year, found under one of the floors a book almanac, of which the following is the title given:

"A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened together, declaring the Dispocission of the People, and also of the Wether, with certaine Electyons and Tymes chosen both for Phisicke and Surgerye, and for the Husbandman. And also for Hawekying, Huntying, Fyshing, and Foulyinge, according to the Science of Astronomy, made for the yeare of our Lord God M. D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke, and practiced by Anthony Askam."

At the end of the Almanac:

"Imprynted at London, in Flete Strete, at the Signe of the George, next to Saynt Dunstone's Churche, by Wyllyam Powell, cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum."

Then follows the "Prognossicacion," the title-page to which is as follows:

"A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord M.CCCCCL., calculed upon the Meridiane of the Towne of Anwarpe and the Country thereabout, by Master Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of ye same Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cornelius Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of Bruges in Flanders, upon and concerning the Disposicion, Estate, and Condicion of certaine Prynces, Contreys, and Regions for thys present yere, gathered oute of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated out of Dutch into Englyshe by William Harrys."

At the end—

"Imprynted at London by John Daye, dwellynge over Aldersgate and Wylliam Seres, dwellyng in Peter Colledge. These Bokes are to be sold at the Newe Shop by the lytle Conduyte in Chepesyde."

The print is old English. Mr. Francis Moore and the Almanacs have figured in your recent Numbers, and I have thought that a brief notice of an almanac three hundred years old might not be unacceptable to your "NOTES AND QUERIES" friends.

Exeter, June 18. 1851.