Walthamstow, Essex.
Family of Abrahall, Eborall, or Ebrall.—I shall be obliged if any of your readers can give me some information relative to this family, or refer me to any work containing an account of it, more particularly as regards the first settlers in England. The arms are—Azure, three hedgehogs or.
Quærist.
Eulenspiegel—Murner's Visit to England.—Are any of your correspondents acquainted with the history and literature of the German tales which go under the name of Till Eulenspiegel? I am searching to find out which are the English translations, but have only succeeded to trace two. The oldest is a very curious black-letter volume in small 4to. in the British Museum, C. 21. c/5, formerly in the possession of Mr. Garrick, as appears from Bishop Percy ("Dissertation on the Origin of the British Stage," Reliques, vol. i. p. 134., ed. 1812). It is entitled, "Here begynneth a merye Jest of a man that was called Howleglas, and of many marucylous thinges and Jestes that he dyd in his lyfe, in Eastlande and in many other places." Colophon: "Imprynted at London in Tamestrete at the Vintre on the thre Craned wharfe by Wylliam Copland."
Of the second I have only a reference of the title: The German Rogue, or the Life of Till Eulenspiegel, 1709.
I am also anxious to learn whether there are any more notices about the visit of Thomas Murner, the author of the German Eulenspiegel, in England, besides that in a letter of Thomas More to Cardinal Wolsey in the State Papers, vol. i. p. 125.
α.
Aged 116.—When your correspondents were all in a state of excitement about the old Countess of Desmond, I ventured to ask for proof that some person had, within the age of registers, insurance offices, and legal proof, ever lived to 150, or even to within twenty or thirty years of that age. No answer was given, no such proof offered; all our clever actuaries were silent. The newspapers now report one such mitigated case:
"Singular Longevity.—The Irish papers announce the recent death of Mrs. Mary Power, widow of J. Power, Esq., and aunt of the late Right Hon. R. L. Sheil, at the Ursuline Convent, Cork, at the advanced age of 116 years."
If this story be true, there can be no difficulty in proving it. The lady was not an obscure person, whose antecedents are unknown. Will some one connected with the Ursuline Convent, or Mr. Sheil's family, obligingly tell us where the lady was born, and produce the register of her birth—give us, in brief, legal evidence that she was born in the year 1737.