Cyrus Redding.
Portrait of John Rogers, the Proto-Martyr.—Should you think the following minor Note interesting to your correspondent Kt., perhaps you will find a corner for it in your miscellany.
Living some time ago on the picturesque coast of Dorsetshire, I had the good fortune to have for a neighbour a lady of cultivated taste and literary acquirements; among other specimens of antiquity and art to which she drew my attention, was a portrait, in oil, of John Rogers; it was of the size called "Kit Cat," and was well painted. This portrait she held in great veneration and esteem, declaring herself to be (if my memory does not deceive me) a descendant of this champion of Christianity, whose name stands on the "muster roll" of the "noble army of martyrs."
In case Kt. should wish to push his inquiries in this quarter, I inclose you the name and address of the lady above alluded to.
M. W. B.
"Brallaghan, or the Deipnosophists."—Edward Kenealey, Esq., reprinted under the above sonorous title (London: E. Churton, 1845) some amusing contributions of his to Fraser and other Magazines. At pp. 94. and 97. he gives us, however, the "Uxor non est ducenda" and the "Uxor est ducenda" of the celebrated Walter Haddon; and that too without the slightest intimation that he himself was not their author. It is not, I think, fair for any man thus to shine in borrowed plumes, or at least transcribe verbatim, and without acknowledgment, from a writer so little known and old-fashioned as Haddon. Let me therefore give the reference, for the benefit of the curious: D. Gualteri Haddoni Poemata, pp. 70-3. Londini, 1567, 4to.
Rt.
Stilts used by the Irish.—We have all heard of the use of stilts by the shepherds of the Landes; but I have met with only one passage which speaks of their use in Ireland. I have crossed rivers, both in Scotland and in Ireland, on stilts, when the water was not deep, and have seen them kept instead of a ferryboat, when there was no bridge, but do not think they are in common use at the present day. The passage in question is quoted in Ledwich's Antiquities, p. 300.:
"I had almost forgotten to notice a very remarkable particular recorded by Strada (Strada, Belg., 1. viii. p. 404., Borlase's Reduction, 132.). He tells us that Sir Wm. Pelham, who had been Lord Justice of Ireland, led into the Low Countries in 1586 fourteen hundred wild Irish, clad only below the navel, and mounted on stilts, which they used in passing rivers: they were armed with bows and arrows. Having never met with this use of stilts among any other people, it seemed a matter of curiosity to notice it here."
Eirionnach.