Your Correspondent T. K.'s notice of Queen Elizabeth's ring, said to have been given to the Earl of Essex, ("Current Notes," for December last, p. 95), reminds me of another ring, that of Mary Queen of Scots, for using which she was censured on her Murder-trial, in consequence of its having the Arms of England impaled with those of Scotland. I possess a facsimile of that signet ring, procured from a seal engraved in Edinburgh. I should feel particularly obliged if any of your Antiquarian friends can inform me, where the original now is. I was told that it was in the British Museum, and had inquiry made there, but to no purpose. I rather think paste facsimiles may be had at Mr. Wilson's, formerly Tassie's, in Leicester Square. Mine is an engraving on Amethyst, and I shall seal this letter with it.
Respectfully yours,
R. B.
A Travelling Name.—The anecdote told by your Correspondent "J." in the last number of your "Current Notes," p. 7, is somewhat differently related in the Memoir of Mr. James Smith, prefixed to his "Comic Miscellanies," where it is stated: "The following incident occurred to James Smith in a Brighton coach. An old lady struck with his extraordinary familiarity with things and people, at length burst forth, 'And pray, Sir, you who seem to know every body—pray may I ask who you are?' 'James Smith, Madam.' This evidently conveying nothing to her mind, a fellow passenger added, 'One of the authors of the Rejected Addresses.' The old lady stared at them by turns, and then quietly said, 'I never heard of the Gentleman or the book before.'"
T. C. C.
Sale of Rare Books.—Some curious books of an interesting character, collected by the son of Simon Lord Lovat, who, it will be remembered, was executed for treasonable practices, have recently been sold by Auction by Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson, of Wellington Street. The Collection contained specimens from the presses of Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde and Caxton; also some rare and early works relating to America, and on the subject of English Theology during the time of the Elizabethan Age, and some curious works on Machinery and the Occult Sciences. Among them may be specially named, "The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry or Knyghthode," (lot 244), said to be one of the rarest productions of the press of Caxton; one of three copies, (two of which being in the British Museum), and considered to be one of the most interesting volumes which we owe to the perseverance of Caxton as a translator, and of great beauty as an example of his typographic skill. It unfortunately wanted two leaves, but produced £55. 10s. The next in importance (lot 585) was a copy of the works of Ben Jonson, the edition of 1640, having belonged to the Somerset family, and of much interest from the circumstance of its containing on the inside of the cover an unpublished Poem of twenty-six lines, of a complimentary character, on the Nuptials of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, entirely in the autograph of Ben Jonson, and concluding with the following beautiful stanza:—
"And when your yeares rise more than would be told,
Yet neyther of you seeme to th' other old.
That all yt view you then, and late may say,
Sure this glad payre were maried but this day."
Ben Jonson.