J. C. R.
[We are also indebted to S. Wmson, F. Crossley, E. H., R. S. S., and J. Ss. for similar replies. See Burns' Works, edit. 1800, vol. iv. p. 399., and edit. Glasgow, 1843, vol. i. p. 113.]
Children by one Mother (Vol. v., p. 126.).—In reply to the Query, "If there be any well-authenticated instance of a woman having had more than twenty-five children," I can furnish you with what I firmly believe to be such an instance. The narrator was a relative of my late wife, a man of the very highest character in the City of London for many years, and formerly clerk to the London Bridge (Old) Water Works, a mark by which he may possibly be recognised by some of your readers. I have heard him relate, that once, as he was travelling into Essex, he met with a very respectable woman, apparently a farmer's wife, who during the journey several times expressed an anxious desire to reach home, which induced my informant at length to inquire the cause of so great an anxiety. Her reply was, "Indeed, Sir, if you knew, you would not wonder at it." When, upon his jocularly saying, "Surely she could have no cause for so much desire to reach home," she said farther, that "The number of her children was the cause, for that she had thirty children, it having pleased God to give to her and her husband fifteen boys; and because they were much dissatisfied at having no girl, in order to punish their murmuring and discontent, He was pleased farther to send them fifteen girls."
I. R. R.
Parochial Libraries (Vol. viii. passim).—In the small village of Halton, Cheshire, there is a small public library, of no inconsiderable extent and importance, founded in 1733 by Sir John Chesshyre, Knight, of Hallwood in that county. Of the works comprised in the collection, the following may be selected as best worthy of mention: Dugdale's Monasticon, Rymer's Fœdera, Walton's Polyglot, and a host of standard ecclesiastical authors, interspersed with modern additions of more general interest. The curate for the time being officiates as librarian; the books being preserved in a small stone building set apart for the purpose, in the vicinity of his residence. Over the door is the following inscription:
"Hanc Bibliothecam,
pro communi literatorum usu,
sub cura curati capellæ de Halton
proventibus ter feliciter augmentatæ,
Johannes Chesshyre miles
serviens D'ni Regis ad legem,
D. D. D.
Anno MDCCXXXIII."
Sir John, the founder, was buried at Runcorn, where a monument exists to his memory, bearing the following epitaph at its foot:
"A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod,
An honest man's the noblest work of God."
The parishes of Stoke Damarel, Devon, and of St. James the Great, Devonport, have each their parochial library: the former commenced in 1848, by the Rev. W. B. Flower, late curate of the parish; and the latter by the Rev. W. B. Killpack, the first incumbent of the district.