[23] Dee’s magic crystal, or show stone, was preserved at Strawberry Hill until that famous collection was dispersed. A correspondent in Notes and Queries (2nd S., No. 201) says that John Varley, the painter, well known to have been attached to astrology, used to relate a tradition that the Gunpowder Plot was discovered by Dr. Dee with his magic mirror; and he urged the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of interpreting Lord Mounteagle’s letter without some other clue or information than hitherto gained. In a Common Prayer Book, printed by Baskett in 1737, is an engraving of the following scene: In the centre is a circular mirror on a stand, in which is the reflection of the Houses of Parliament by night, and a person entering carrying a dark lantern. Next, on the left side are two men in the costume of James’s time, looking into the mirror—one evidently the King, the other evidently, from his secular habit, not the doctor (Dee), but probably Sir Kenelm Digby. On the right side, at the top, is the eye of Providence darting a ray on the mirror; and below are some legs and hoofs, as if evil spirits were flying out of the picture. The plate is inserted before the service for the 5th November, and would seem to represent the method by which, under Providence (as is evidenced by the eye), the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was at that time seriously believed to have been effected. The tradition must have been generally and seriously believed, or it never could have found its way into a Prayer Book printed by the King’s printer.
[24] Ashmole, in his MS., 1790, fol. 58, says, “Mr. Lilly told me that John Evans informed him that he was acquainted with Kelly’s sister in Worcester, that she showed him some of the gold her brother had transmuted, and that Kelly was first an apothecary at Worcester.”
[25] “As fair as Lady Done” is a well-known Cheshire proverb. Pennant (“Tour from Chester to London, 4 ed., p. 8”), referring to this lady, who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Wilbraham, of Woodhey, says that “when a Cheshire man would express super-eminent excellency in one of the fair sex he will say, ‘There is a Lady Done for you.’”
[26] In his despatch to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Cromwell says: “That night quartered the whole army in the field by Stonyhurst Hall, being Mr. Sherburn’s house, a place nine miles distant from Preston;” and Captain Hodgson, an officer who accompanied him, writes: “We pitched our camp at Stanyhares Hall, a Papist’s house, one Sherburn’s.”
[27] The mutilated effigy of Sir William Baggaley, after being discarded from the church at Bowdon and lost for several generations, was, some years ago, discovered by Mr. John Leigh, of Manchester, and the author, affixed to a wall in the garden of a house at Mill Bank, Partington, near Warrington. It was subsequently acquired by Mr. T. W. Tatton, and removed by him to its present position in the hall at Baguley. An account of it was given in the Manchester Courier, March 13, 1866.
[28] The “Sword of Chester” is now preserved in the British Museum. The last instance of the exercise of the Earl’s privileges was in 1597 when the Baron of Kinderton’s Court tried and executed Hugh Stringer for murder.
[29] The Venables, Barons of Kinderton, bore for their crest a wivern (i.e., dragon), with wings endorsed, gules, standing on a fish weir, or trap, devour-a child, and pierced through the neck with an arrow, all ppr.
[30] It has been frequently stated that Peter Legh, the first of Lyme, also fought at Crescy; but he was not born until fifteen years after that famous victory.
[31] It is somewhat remarkable that though the Leghs have been settled in the parish for more than five centuries, and have been patrons of the church for many generations, there is not a single monumental inscription or other memorial of them in the church, excepting that of Reginald Legh, of an earlier date than the one of Charles Legh, who died in 1781.
[32] Lady Egerton, who remained a firm adherent of the ancient faith, is frequently named in the prosecutions for recusancy under the severe statutes of Elizabeth, but appeals for mitigation were often and successfully made through, as would seem, the influence of the Lord Keeper Egerton.