, then rector there, second son of Thomas Fairfax, Baron de Cameron (Dodsworth’s MSS. in Bibl. Bodl., [p 117] vol. 155, fol. 116). The eldest son of Lord Fairfax was Ferdinando, the celebrated general of the Commonwealth, and the generous patron of Dodsworth. Henry, the younger son, at whose rectory-house Dodsworth was entertained on the occasion of his Lancashire visit, is described by Oley (in his preface to George Herbert’s Country Parson) as “a regular and sober fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and afterwards rector of Bolton Percy in Yorkshire.” He held, besides, the rectory of Ashton from, at least, 1623 till 1645, when he was forcibly ejected; and that of Newton Kyme. He was a correspondent of Daniel King, author of The Vale Royal, for he had antiquarian tastes like his brother. He died at Bolton Percy 6th April, 1665. The tower of Ashton Church, as Rector Fairfax knew it, was taken down and re-built in 1818, by which time all recollection of that ancient piece of cartomancy in connection with the steeple had passed out of mind. Let it be hoped that while the tradition was lively, pleasanter things were said of Hyll, when the five of spades was thrown upon the card tables of Ashton, than assailed the name of Dalrymple when the nine of diamonds—the curse of [p 118] Scotland—came under the view of Tory Scotchmen. We may bestow on Hyll the card-player’s epitaph:—
His card is cut—long days he shuffled through
The game of life—he dealt as others do:
Though he by honours tells not its amount,
When the last trump is played his tricks will count.
“Noddy” is, of course, the very attractive game of “cribbage.” A great aunt of mine still living at Ashbourne, with whom I used to play when a boy, always called it by that name. It is one of the Court games, temp. James I., noticed by Sir John Harrington:—
Now noddy followed next, as well it might,
Although it should have gone before of right;
At which I say, I name not anybody,
One never had the knave yet laid for noddy.