Simon Bache.—In the parish church of Knebworth, Herts, is the brass of a priest, with the following inscription:—
"Hic jacet Dominus Simo Bache, Clericus, quondam Thesaurarius Hospitii illustrissimi Principis Domini Henrici Quinti Regis Angliæ, ac Canonic. Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Sancti Paulli, London; qui obiit xix. die Maii. Anno Dom. nostr. 1414."
Can any of your readers inform me what this office of Thesaurarius Hospitii was; also, who Simon Bache was that held it; and how it happens that he is buried at Knebworth?
A. W. H.
Sir Walter Raleigh.—In speaking of the difficulty which exists in obtaining a perfect knowledge of any event, reference is often made to Sir Walter Raleigh having witnessed an occurrence, while confined in the Tower, and that two witnesses gave such a different account from each other as well as from himself, that he threw his MS. history into the fire. In what contemporary work is this recorded?
A similar discrepancy in evidence is mentioned with reference to the celebrated tourney at Tiani, in 1502, in Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. iii. p. 45.
H. J.
Harrison's Chronology.—William Harrison, a native of London, chaplain to Sir William Brooke, Baron Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, composed a Description of Britain and of England; and likewise translated Hector Boethius's Description of Scotland, from the Scottish version of John Bellenden. Both these pieces are printed in Holinshed's Chronicles, 2 vols. fol. 1587. In the prefaces Harrison speaks of a work on Chronology, "which I have yet in hand." Has that work ever been printed? I discovered the manuscript of it last year, in the Diocesan Library of Derry, in Ireland; but did not ascertain who was its author (though it bears the name of Harrison), until a few days ago.
H. Cotton.
Thurles, Ireland, Dec. 21. 1850.