MS. of Bede (Vol. iii., p. 180.).—Your correspondent will find a description of this MS. in the catalogue of Thoresby's Museum, at the end of his Ducatus Leodiensis, edit. 1715, fol., p. 515. He will also, in Thoresby's Correspondence, 1832, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 39., see a letter from Dr. John Smith, the editor of Bede's History, respecting this manuscript, the original of which letter is in my possession.
After many dismemberments, what remained of Thoresby's Museum, including his manuscripts, was sold in London in March, 1764, by auction. Mr. Lilly, the bookseller of Pall Mall, had a priced catalogue of this sale; and your correspondent, if anxious to trace the pedigree of his MS. further, can, I have no doubt, on application, get a reference made to that catalogue.
I take the present opportunity of mentioning that, as Mr. Upcott's sale, when I became the purchaser of the Thoresby papers, including his MS. diaries, his Album, and upwards of 1000 letters to him, a very small number of which were printed in the collection, in two volumes, edited by Mr. Hunter, one of the diaries, from May 14, 1712, to September 26, 1714, which was sold with the lot, was after the sale found to be missing. It subsequently came into the hands of a London dealer, by whom it was sold to a Yorkshire gentleman, as I understand, but whose name I have not yet been able to trace. Should this meet his eye, I will venture to appeal to his sense of justice, entirely ignorant as I am sure he has been of the "pedigree," to use your correspondent's expression, of his MS., whether he will allow it to be longer separated from the series to which it belongs, and which is incomplete without it. I need hardly say, I can only expect to receive it on the terms of repaying the price paid for it, and which I should embrace with many thanks.
Jas. Crossley.
Manchester, March 8. 1851.
[The following advertisement of the missing MS. appeared in the Catalogue (No. 33., 1848) of Mr. C. J. Hamilton, then of Castle Court, Birchin Lane, now residing in the City Road, London:—"Thoresby's (Ralph, antiquary of Leeds), Diary from May 14, 1712, to September 23, 1714, an original unpublished MS., containing much highly interesting literary information, with autograph on fly-leaf, thick 8vo., 436
pages, vellum with tuck, closely written, price 2l. 12s. 6d." The purchaser was Mr. Wallbran, Fallcroft, Ripon, Yorkshire.]
Closing of Rooms on account of Death (Vol. iii., p. 142.).—I am acquainted with a remarkable instance of this custom. A respectable farmer who resided in a parish in Bedfordshire, adjoining that in which I am writing, died in 1844; leaving to his daughter the fine old manor-house in which he had lived for many years, and in which he died, together with about 300 acres of land. The lady, with her husband, was then residing in a neighbouring village, where the latter rented a farm, which he has since given up, retaining the house; but she positively refused to remove to the manor-house, "because her father had died in it;" and as she still persists in her refusal, it is unoccupied to this day. For Mr. —— is not even permitted to let it, except a part, now tenanted by a valued friend of mine, which for many years has been let separately. The rooms and the furniture in them remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occupant. The lady's husband, who farms the land attached to the house, is put to great inconvenience by living at a distance from it, but nothing will induce her to alter her determination. The facts I have related are notorious in the neighbourhood.
Arun.
Enigmatical Epitaph on Rev. John Mawer (Vol. iii., p. 184.).—On reading to a lady the article on this subject in a late Number, she immediately recollected, that about thirty years ago she had a governess of that name, the daughter of a clergyman in Nottinghamshire, who often mentioned that they were descended from the Royal Family of Wales, and that she had a brother who was named Arthur Lewellyn Tudor Kaye Mawer.