Catherine Barton (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.).—My attention has been drawn to some questions in your early Numbers respecting this lady. She was the daughter of Robert Barton of Brigstock, Northamptonshire, and Hannah Smith, half-sister of Sir Isaac Newton. The Colonel Barton of whom she is said to be the widow, was her cousin, Colonel Noel Barton, who served with distinction under Marlborough, and died at the age of forty. He was son of Thomas, eldest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.
The Lieutenant Matthew Barton mentioned by De Camera was the son of Jeffery Barton, Rector of Rashden, Northamptonshire, afterwards Admiral Barton. Jeffery was the youngest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.
O. O. O.
Bells and Storms (Vol. iv., p. 508.).—Wynkin de Worde, one of the earliest of the English printers, in The Golden Legend, observes:
"It is said, the evil spirytes that ben in the region of th' ayre, doubte moche when they here the belles ringen whan it thondreth, and when grete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of tempeste."
We have, in Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland, an account given of a bell belonging to the old chapel of St. Fillan, in the parish of Killin, Perthshire, which usually lay on a gravestone in the churchyard. Mad people were brought hither to be dipped in the saint's pool; the maniac was then confined all night in the chapel, bound with ropes, and in the morning the bell was set on his head with great solemnity. This was the Highland cure for mania. It was the popular superstition of the district, that this bell would, if stolen, extricate itself out of the thief's hands, and return to its original place, ringing all the way.
Russell Gole.
Latin Poem (Vol. vii., pp. 6, 7.).—Lord Braybrooke does not appear to be so correct as usual in his belief, that neither of the two Latin poems, which he quotes, have been previously in print. Crowe's beautiful monody will be found at p. 234. of his collected poems, published by Murray, 1827. The printed copy, however, which is headed
"Inscriptio in horto Auctoris apud Alton in Com.
Wilt.
——
M. S.
Gulielmi Crowe,
Signif. Leg. iv.
Qui cecidit in acie,
8 die Jan. A.D. 1815. Æt. s. 21."
has the following differences: line 7., "respexit" for "ascripsit;" l. 9., "solvo" for "pono." L. 10. and the following lines stand thus: