NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

Page 1.-The earliest known enumeration of our records occurs in an indenture dated the 9th September, fifth Richard II. by which the records then in the Tower were transferred by a retiring Master of the Rolls to his successor. A translation of that document was published by C. P. Cooper, Esq. in his "Account of the Public Records,” i. 449. Since the reign of Richard II. the more ancient records have been transferred from time to time from the Rolls Chapel to the Tower, whenever the former repository has become over-crowded, and a document of the kind now published was executed upon every transfer, but no one has yet been printed. The transfer alluded to in this document was probably the last but one which has taken place from the Rolls. The records of the several kinds here enumerated now in the Tower come down to the end of the reign of Edward IV. A warrant was granted by Elizabeth to transfer the records of the same kind from Richard III. to Edward VI. (Leland's Collectanea, ii. 656); but for some reason which does not appear, it was not acted upon. Much information upon this subject will be found in Mr. Cooper's "Proposal for the Erection of a General Record Office,” p. 79.

P. 28. Upon the subject of Queen Elizabeth's accession Bishop Goodman ("Court of King James," by Brewer, i. 418) speaks as follows:

"The Queen deprived all her Bishops: she did not spare Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, who being then Lord Chancellor, took special care that Queen Mary's death should be concealed, and none should know it, until himself, sitting that very day in Parliament, desired the Lords that the Commons might be sent for up; who coming, and expecting to have

some message from the Queen, Heath acquainted them with tears that God was pleased to take the Queen to his mercy, and what a virtuous good Queen she was. But then he added that she had a sister Elizabeth behind, to whom the right of the kingdom did devolve, and did desire that they might go jointly together and proclaim Queen Elizabeth. Then all of them cried, "Queen Elizabeth! Queen Elizabeth!" and so they went out to proclaim her. This was a very good piece of service; for by this contriving, the proclaiming of the Queen was in effect an Act of Parliament, and had she no other title, or had her title, such as it was, been any way insufficient or defective, this had abundantly supplied all; so much did God bless her upon her first entrance into the kingdom. Now, how Queen Elizabeth did requite this; for within four days she took the Chancellorship from him, for she knew that it could not stand with her other designs that he should have the Great Seal. Yet she would not give the title of Chancellor to any other because he had never offended. Only she erected a new office to make a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, who should have the same power, though not the same title.”

Among the Harleian MSS. No. 293, is a list of Proclamations issued during the reign of Elizabeth, the first being a Proclamation on her coming to the throne; but though others are dated with the day of the month when they were issued, this is only stated generally to have been published in November 1558.

Sir John Hayward in his "Annals of Queen Elizabeth," as printed by Mr. Bruce (Camden Society Publications, 7), tells us, speaking of Queen Mary, that "whilest she lay thus languishing under the heavy hand of death, many false rumours were spreade abroade that she was deade:" Hayward further on says, that Queen Elizabeth was proclaimed by the Heralds, &c. in various places on Thursday 17th November, the very day of Mary's decease.

P. 29. With reference to this Commission it may be worth while to quote the words of the author of the General Biographical Dictionary, iii. 275" In the Chancery he (Sir Nicholas Bacon) distinguished himself by a very moderate use of power, and the respect he shewed to the common law. At his own request an Act of Parliament was made to settle and establish the power of a Lord Keeper, though he might probably have taken

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away all need of this by procuring the title of Lord Chancellor: but according to his motto, which was mediocra firma, he was content to be safe and did not desire to be great." In a note the Commission (or Patent, as it is there called,) inserted in this Collection is referred to, as well as the Statute which was subsequently passed.

P. 61.—The words " of Chirche" ought to be" of Chiche," and they ought to follow "Darcy" in the next line, and not " Haward of Effingham.” L. 2, col. 2.—“ Darcy of Nevill" ought to be " Darcy of Menill.”

P. 64. After the name of "Thomas Clement, gent." Strype omits "Margaret Clement, widdowe," and he gives the name "Anthony Wilnison," in the last line but two of the page, " Anthony Williamson."

P. 101. The number of the Harleian MS. containing an account of the last illness and death of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, is 293, and not 392, as here stated.

P. 131.—Other papers, since examined, would lead to the belief that Henry Earl of Derby, for some reason, always signed by deputy; at least such seems to have been the case with documents at Bridgewater House. His secretary was Michael Doughty.

P. 247. One of the earliest allusions to Sumptuary Laws occurs in the interlude of "Godly Queene Hester," printed in 1561, but first acted no doubt at a considerably anterior date. The only known copy is in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire. There Pride, " poorely arayed," enters singing a satirical song, and complaining that Haman having bought up all the cloth worth any thing, no man could procure a good gown :

CAM. SOC. 12.

"And any man in the towne

Doe by him a good gowne,

He is verye wrothe,

And wyll hym strayte tell
The statute of apparell

Shall teache hym good:
Wherefore, by this day,
I dare not goe gay;
Threde bare is my hoode."

SR

P. 281.-Farnihirst, or Ferniehurst, was a well-known principal residence of the Kers, ancestors of the Marquess of Lothian. In the original it has been miswritten, as it is here printed, Farmhirst.

P. 284.-The words " iiijs the hundred," should have been written iiijli the hundred six score or 120 pounds were reckoned to the hundred, and, at 8d. a pound, that amounts to 47. the hundred; and the difference between 48s. and 80s. on 900,000li of tin, will be found to amount to 14,0007., the sum stated. In the next line there is perhaps another clerical error, the sense requiring us to read, " I can not but thynke."

P. 314, l. 4.—For "Castell of Surry, alias Montergill," read "Castell of Gurry, alias Montergill."

P. 373. On the death of the Duke of Lenox on the 12th February, 1624-5, John Taylor, the Water-Poet, published a broadside to his memory, calling him "that gracious and illustrious Prince Lewis Steward, Duke of Richmond and Linox," &c. The "Epitaph" runs as follows—

This is not very intelligible, and the rest is as little worthy of extraction or explanation. It was "printed for Henry Gosson, 1624."

George Marceline wrote a "lamentable broadside" on the same event, printed for John Trundle.- Vide an account of a work by Marceline printed in 1625, in Bridgewater Catalogue, p. 185.

P. 470.-Samuel Rowlands produced a sheet-poem on this occasion, entitled "Sir Thomas Overbury; or, the Poysoned Knight's Complaint;" on the top of which is a wood cut representing a skeleton lying on a tomb, on one side of which stands Time, and on the other Justice. On the tomb are inscribed the following lines