The amusement was, I presume, in vogue during the 16th and 17th centuries; and the assignations made, and the intrugues carried on, within the walls of the amphitheatre would have supplied many an amusing, moralising penitent, male and female, to the shades below—the "fabulæ manes" with whom Quevedo held converse. As my copy of the Visions is an anonymous translation, and evidently far from being a first-rate one, I shall not be surprised if I receive as an answer,—"Mistaken as to your fact, read a better translation:" but as in spite of its manifold, glaring defects, I have no reason to suspect that the text is garbled, I think I may venture to send the query.
In "Vision 7." I find Nero accusing Seneca of having had the insolence to use the words, "I and my king." I have often heard of Henry VIII., Wolsey, and "Ego et rex meus;" but as I never heard Quevedo quoted as an illustration, I look upon this as one of the suspicious passages in my copy of his work.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
MINOR QUERIES.
Gilbert Browne.—"G.C.B." is desirous of information respecting the family from which was descended Gilbert Browne of the Inner Temple, who died about a century ago, and was buried in North Mymms Church, Herts, where there is a monument to him (vide Clutterbuck's History); also as to the arms, crest, and motto, as borne by him, and whether he was in any way related to Michael Browne of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, who married Elizabeth Philippa, daughter of Lord Coningsby, as stated in Collins's Peerage. He also desires information as to any enrolment of arms previous to the Visitations, by which the bearings of families who had grants of land from the Conqueror may be ascertained; as, for instance, a family who began to decay about the end of the 14th century, having previously been of great rank and position.
The Badger.—Can any body point out to me any allusion, earlier than that in Sir T. Browne's Vulgar Errors, to the popular idea that the legs of the badger were shorter on one side than on the other, whence Mr. Macaulay says, "I think that Titus Oates was as uneven as a badger?"
W.R.F.
Ecclesiastical Year.—Note in an old parish register, A.D. 1706. "Annus Domini Secundum Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Supputationem incipit 25to Mensis Martij."