St. Werenfrid and Butler's "Lives of the Saints."—One of your correspondents will perhaps explain the cause of an omission in Butler's Lives of the Saints. The life of St. Werenfrid, whose anniversary is the 14th of August, is abstracted, vol. iii. p. 492. His name occurs in the table of contents: and pages 493 and 494, where the life should have appeared, are wanting; still page 495 follows 492 correctly in type, so that the former must have been reprinted after the castration of the leaf. Was the saint deemed unworthy of the place which had been allotted to him?
J. H. M.
[In the best edition of Butler's Lives (12 vols., 1812-13), the life of St. Werenfrid is given on Nov. 7. He is honored in Holland on the 14th of August; and his life appears in Britannia Sancta on that day, but in the Bollandists on the 28th of August.]
Replies.
SIR W. HANKFORD-GASCOIGNE'S TOMB.
(Vol. viii., p. 278.)
On reading Mr. Sansom's letter, it occurred to me that I had seen a different account of the master being shot by his park-keeper; and on search I found the following in 1 Hale's P. C. p. 40., which I send, as it may tend to clear up the question:
"In the case of Sir William Hawksworth, related by Baker in his Chronicle of the Time of Edward IV., p. 223. (sub anno 1471), he being weary of his life, and willing to be rid of it by another's hand, blamed his parker for suffering his deer to be destroyed; and commanded him that he should shoot the next man that he met in his park that would not stand or speak. The knight himself came in the night into the park, and being met by the keeper, refused to stand or speak. The keeper shot and killed him, not knowing him to be his master. This seems to be no felony, but excusable by the statute of Malefactores in Parcis."
This account varies from Ritson's in the name "Hawksworth" instead of "Hankford," and the date 1471 instead of 1422. It seems plain that Lord Hale had no idea that the person shot was a judge: and possibly the truth may be, that it was a descendant of the judge that was shot. Even if Hankford's death were in 1422, as stated by Risdon, the traditional account that he caused his own death "in doubt of his safety" does not seem very probable, as Henry V. came to the throne in 1412-13. Probably some of your readers may be able to clear up the matter.