S. Jennings-G.
Lord Nelson (Vol. vi., p. 576.).—I am obliged to Mr. Kersley for giving me an opportunity of reconciling my statement respecting Dr. Scott (Vol. vi., p. 438.) with the inscription on Mr. Burke's monument. Both, I believe, are true. I quote from the Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson, by William Beatty, M.D. &c. The copy of this work which is before me has the following in Sir W. Beatty's own handwriting: "To the Rev. Doctor Scott, with every sentiment of regard, by his friend and messmate, the author." In this "narrative," Dr. Scott and Mr. Burke are generally described as personally attending on Lord Nelson from the time of his being brought down into the cockpit. And at p. 50. it is said: "Doctor Scott and Mr. Burke, who had all along sustained the bed under his shoulders," &c.: and again at p. 51. "His lordship breathed his last at thirty minutes past four o'clock: at which period Dr. Scott was in the act of rubbing his lordship's breast, and Mr. Burke supporting the bed under his shoulders." All this is represented in West's beautiful picture, which hangs, in a bad light, in the hall of Greenwich Hospital.
There is another claimant for the honour of having been Nelson's last nurse, whose name I forget. His pretensions are recorded on a tablet to his memory in the chapel of Greenwich Hospital. Dr. Scott's daughter, who was with me there one day, remonstrated on the subject with old blue jacket who lionised us. And I put in the lady's right to speak with some authority. But "what is writ is writ," was enough for our guide: we could make nothing of him, for he fought our arguments as if they had been so many guns of the enemy.
Alfred Gatty.
Robes and Fees in the Days of Robin Hood (Vol. vi., p. 479.).—In translating the ordinances and statutes against maintainers and conspirators, Mr. Lewellyn Curtis more than once translates "gentz de pais," by "persons of peace." This is a material error: it should be "of the country;" "pays," not "paix." For the subject referred to, Mr. Foss's Judges of England, vol. iii., should be consulted.
J. Bt.
Wray (Vol. iv., p. 164.).—In one of the Wray pedigrees in Burke's Landed Gentry, it is stated that the Yorkshire family of that name originally resided in Coverdale in Richmondshire.
In Clarkson's History of Richmond is a pedigree of the "Wrays," which commences (if I rightly recollect) with an ancestor (six or eight years before him) of Sir Christopher Wray, of whose fore-elders, some lived at St. Nicholas, near to Richmond.
I have traced a family of the name of Wray or Wraye for three centuries back, in Wensleydale, and at Coverham in Coverdale (both in Richmondshire), but am unable to connect it by direct evidence with either of the pedigrees above referred to; and should be much obliged for any information touching any part of the family in Richmondshire, particularly such as might aid in showing the relation of the several branches to one another.
With reference to the origin of the name, I may mention, that there is a valley called Raydale, between Wensleydale and Craven, adjacent to Coverdale and also a village in Westmoreland, near to the western extremity of Wensleydale, called Wray or Ray.