a letter was brought to me from a correspondent who had not written to me for a year, and who now sent me the printed scrap herein pasted, without any knowledge that I was a collector of such coincidences.

To the above may be added a communication from a friend who has lost two brothers, both by drowning, at an interval of six years, each death happening on a 1st of August. C. C. M.

A few years ago I received a letter from a friend in New Zealand enclosing another letter, addressed to a person in Anglesea, North Wales, which he said he had found inside his Times newspaper (which I was in the habit of sending him every month). The letter was stamped with the penny postage stamp, but appeared never to have received any postal mark, so had in some way evidently worked itself into the newspaper, and thus been miscarried. I intended re-posting it; but, on looking a second time, the very uncommon name of the person to whose house it was directed arrested my attention as being a name recently mentioned by a maidservant, who had just come to live with me, and I then also noticed that the letter was directed to a person bearing her but which, being a very common one, had not struck me at first. I asked her a few questions, and found she had been visiting a brother-in-law in Wales, and whilst there a letter had been sent to her, but never received, though inquiries had been made about it. This proved to be the missing letter, which, after straying to New Zealand, was sent back to England, and received at the very house where the owner was then residing, though at the time it was written to her we were unknown to each other, and she had never been in Weymouth till she came direct from her home in Suffolk, not quite a month before, to live with me. This has always struck me as being a very curious

coincidence. Weymouth.

name,

S. M. P.

ARCHBISHOP SHELDON (5th S. xi. 9, 76.)-MR. MACKENZIE WALCOTT'S communication completely settles the "vexata questio" of Sheldon's birthplace, and I regret with him that we cannot include the archbishop in the list of celebrated Somersetshire worthies, or place him in the Shire Hall at Taunton in company with the marble portrait busts of Locke, Blake, Pym, and others. Collinson, the historian of Somersetshire, who is generally accurate in his statements, says that Sheldon was born at "Stanton Drew"; having heard that Stanton was his birthplace, he assumed too hastily that it was Stanton Drew in Somersetshire, and not Stanton in Staffordshire. I think this explanation seems rational.

Some of your readers may be glad to learn that an interesting memoir of the famous archbishop

will be found in Prof. Burrows's History of the Worthies of All Souls'. ARTHUR KINGLAKE. Haines Hill, Taunton.

There is a pedigree of the Sheldons of Stanton in Le Neve's Knights, but it does not go beyond Roger, the archbishop's father, who is said by Wood to have been a menial servant to Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury.

I want very much to discover how the archbishop was related to Hugh Sheldon of Stanton, whose daughter Alice was married to Ralph Wolley, of Newton in the Thistles, co. Warwick. Shenstone, Staffordshire, who was a daughter of Joan, wife of the Rev. William Grace, Vicar of Thomas Wolley, and granddaughter of the above Ralph, is said by Sanders in his History of Shenstone to have been "nearly related to Archbishop

Sheldon."

H. S. G.

FRENCH NOBILITY (5th S. x. 207, 518.)-Will M. HENRI GAUSSERON pardon me for reminding him that one at least of the works on French titled families which he names bears a sorry reputation for accuracy? I allude to the new edition of the Nobiliaire Universel, in which is inserted a pedigree of an individual named Cosprons, who a few years ago called himself Le Duc de Roussillon, and tried to pass as such in London, though existed in France, and that he was himself, in the it was proved that no dukedom of Roussillon words of one of his countrymen, "d'une famille tout-à-fait bourgeoise." E. WALFORD, M.A. Hampstead, N.W.

To the list of works on this subject may be added :

Abrégé Chronologique des Grands Fiefs de la Couronne de France; avec la Chronologie des Princes et Seigneurs qui les ont possédés jusqu'à leur réunion à la Couronne. Par M. le Président Hénault.

A. H.

SATURDAY AND THE ROYAL FAMILY (5th S. xi. 287, 317, 356, 379, 398, 418.)-Your readers need not be told that the New Style was adopted generally by the Catholics of Europe in 1582, but the Protestants resisted the change for a century longer, we in England till 1752, and the Swedes till 1753.

The change was made by expunging ten, eleven, or more days. In the first of these dates Oct. 5, 1582, was called the 15th. In England a law was passed by which "the day next immediately following Sept. 2, 1752, shall be called and reckoned the 14th, omitting the eleven intermediate nominal days of the common calendar." When I say Sunday New Style would be Wednesday if the calculation were carried back day by day to the death of William III., I do not think I say a person may die twice, once on Sunday and again on Wednesday," nor do I think that the readers generally

of "N. & Q." supposed I meant to imply anything of the kind. Let me, however, briefly explain what I did mean. March 7, 1879, was Sunday, but eleven days either way (both inclusive) would be Wednesday. Going back 177 years, the date of the death of William III, Old Style Sunday, would be a Wednesday if we proceeded day by day, week by week, and month by month. The Spectator, Lord Bolingbroke, and Macaulay, referring to William III. or Anne, always adopt the Old Style; but if we multiply 177 by 365, and name each figure with a regular series of days, the day of William III.'s death, called Sunday, would fall on Wednesday.

I am well aware, and all the readers of "N. & Q." are so too, that practically the ten or eleven days were ignored, so that the first week of Sept., 1752, in England ran thus, 1 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 14 Monday, 15 Tuesday, and so on, but, however we may choose to ignore the omitted days, we cannot shut out the break.

It is rather a complex business to run dates back from the present day to years before 1752, but we have an excellent rule and tables given us by Sir Harris Nicolas in his Chronology of History, p. 53 (table 3), which shows "the days of the month both for the Old and New Style." There is, however, in French a book called Théorie du Calendrier, by L. B. Francoeur, which gives the figures carried out, and saves all trouble. By turning to these tables, p. 200, March, 1702, we find March 1 (New Style) Wednesday; the first March Sunday of the month is given Sept. 5, and Sept. 5 is called Wednesday. It was Wednesday in France, according to these tables, and if the days had been suffered to run on without interruption it would have been Wednesday in England. That is all I meant. It was Sunday Old Style, it was Wednesday all over the Continent, and it would have been Wednesday in England if we had reformed our calendar when the Catholic countries of Europe did. I hope I have made my meaning clear, and those who will refer to Sir Harris Nicolas or the French tables will be able to test the statements without further controversy. On one point we are all agreed, and that is, that William III. and Anne did not die on Saturday. E. COBHAM BREWER.

"Romanists in Mapledurham are buried by the var of the parish, and no other service is used in the chai or mortuary aisle either before or after the public seme of the Church of England. Whatever the Churad Rome does with and for its dead is done before the ca passes the lytch gate."

I also quoted the words of Dr. Phillimore à awarding the proprietorship of the aisle to the squire :

66

Remember, in declaring you the owner of this aish I also expressly declare that no service, rite, or cerem of or belonging to the Church of Rome can at any t be used in it."

I further pointed out that a mis-stateme similar to that of "Reading" was made man years ago in a public print. My allusion was your columns at some of the references abore given (pp. 283, 432), and as "N. & Q." m twenty-four years ago the unwitting means d disseminating an error, it is but fair that i correction should, even thus late, find prominent in its pages. W. T. M Reading.

WHIMSICAL PARLIAMENTARY EPITOMES (5th S. ix. 385; x. 51, 316.)-In Heraldic Anomalies, vol. i. pp. 212-14, we may read :—

"Our House of Commons, indeed, has at different and no very distant times numbered among its members a Fox, a Hare, a Rooke, two Drakes, a Finch two Martins, three Cocks, a Hart, two Herons, two Lambe, a Leach, a Swan, two Bakers, two Taylors & Turner, a Plumer, a Miller, a Farmer, a Cooper, an icbot, a Falconer, nine Smiths, a Porter, three Pitts, two Hills, two Woods, an Orchard, a Barne, two Lemons, with one Peel, two Roses, one Ford, two Brookes, one Fiod, and yet but one Fish, a Forrester, an Ambler, a Hunter, with melancholy thing of all, it has never had more than one only one Ryder. But what is the most surprising and CHRISTIAN belonging to it, and is at present (1824) without any.

"I have been shown what was called an inventory of the Stock Exchange; articles to be seen there every day (Sundays and holidays excepted) from ten till four o'clock: and a Fall, two Foxes, a Wolf, two Shepherds, a Tailor, A Raven, a Nightingale, two Daws and a Swift, a Flight a Collier, a Mason, a Tanner, three Turners, four Smiths, three Wheelers, two Barbers, a Painter, a Cook, a Potter and five Coopers, two Greens, four Browns, and two Greys, a Pilgrim, a King, a Chapel, a Chaplain, a Parson, three Clerks, and a Pope, three Baileys, two Dunns,

a Hussey, a Hill, a Dale, and two Fields, a Rose, two Budds, a Cherry, a Flower, two Vines, a Birch, a Fearn, and two Peppercorns, a Steel, two Bells, a Pulley, and two Bannisters. Of towns: Sheffield, Dover, Lancaster, Wakefield, and Ross. Of things: Barnes, Wood, Coals, Steeples, Mills, Pickles, and, in And much more to the same purpose. fine, a Medley."

BOILEAU.

CLAN MATHESON (5th S. xi. 105, 192.)-Accom ing to a correspondent of the Inverness Courie January last, who writes with every appearance of knowledge, the Mathesons formerly of Bennetsfield, a small estate in the Black Isle of Ross, may be considered as the main stem of this clan. This

writer gives a detailed genealogy of the family, and shows that the present lineal representative of John Dubh Matheson, the first of the line (cir. 1539), is Eric Grant Matheson, b. 1865, son of Col. James Brooke Matheson, H.E.I.C.S. If the ancestors of this young gentleman formed the main stem of the Mathesons, which is not unlikely, and if the Mathesons were an independent clan, which is extremely doubtful, then Eric Grant Matheson may be regarded as representing the chiefs of the Mathesons. No one having any acquaintance with the Highlands ever supposed that either the late Sir James Matheson or Mr. Matheson of Ardross had any claim to that distinction. The idea that they might be heads of the clan probably arose from their being in possession of extensive properties in the North. These, however, were purchased by them, both having made fortunes in mercantile pursuits.

Of the Clan Matheson itself it is doubtful whether the bearers of the name were ever in the position of an independent clan. If not, the term "chief" would be a wrong one to apply to their heads. Skene says of them, "Of the history of this clan we know nothing whatever," and the name appears only occasionally in Highland history, and then only as belonging to individuals. Even if the name of the Macmaken, mentioned by the historian Bowar as having been seized with others by James I. at Inverness in 1427, and generally spoken of as head of the Mathesons, is equivalent to Matheson, the connexion of the owner with the later Mathesons cannot be ascertained precisely. The Mathesons, so far as is historically known of them, were always dependent on the great clan of Mackenzie, in whose country they lived, and in whose history theirs is swallowed up. There is nothing to show that they ever possessed Lochalsh, but it is probable that they long occupied a part of it as kindly tenants of the Mackenzies, lords of Kintail, who had a Crown charter to it after the break up of the lordship of the Isles.

A. M. S.

SIR RICHARD HANKFORD, KT., OF ANNERY (5th S. xi. 440, 457), adopted the coat armour of Stapledon, viz., Argent, two bends wavy sable, instead of his paternal coat, Sable, on a chevron argent three bars wavy gules, in consequence of his mother, Thomasia, being daughter and heir of Sir Richard Stapledon, Kt., of Annery. In confirmation of this statement LAD is referred to (1) the heraldic panels in front of the oak music gallery in the old hall of Hestercombe, co. Somerset, the ancient seat of the Warre family; (2) the Compton hatchment in Ringwood Church, Hants, of Compton impaling Warre with nine quarterings; and (3) Nicholas Charles's Visitation of the County of Huntingdon in 1613 (Camden Soc, xliii. 22), wherein are recorded the armorial shields in Kim

bolton Church. Among them is that of Sir William Bourchier, Lord Fitz-Waryn, j. ux., impaling the coat of his wife, Thomasia, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Richard Hankford, Kt., by his first wife, Elizabeth, sole heir of Fulk, last Lord FitzWarine, viz., quarterly, 1 and 4, Fitz-Warine; 2 and 3, Argent, two bends wavy sable, for Hankford-late Stapledon's coat. B. W. G.

BEAUCHAMP QUERIES (5th S. xi. 347, 436.)Allow me to thank MR. WILSON and others who

have answered me, either through "N. & Q." or privately. If the former will kindly look again at the Beauchamp pedigree, I think he will see that the Richard to whom he refers was the sixth Earl of Warwick, and son of Thomas, fifth Earl. My query, No. 4, refers to his uncle Richard, son of HERMENTRUde. Thomas, fourth Earl.

MAJOR ANDRÉ (5th S. xi. 7, 31, 52.)—It might be useful to A. P. S. to know that a quotation from Mrs. Crowe's Night-side of Nature, vol. i. c. iii., on "André and a Derbyshire Dream," is given in the Reliquary, vol. iv. p. 60. ALICE B. GOMME.

WILL OF JOHN TURKE, SEN. (5th S. xi. 285, 335, 399, 418.)-In the Paston Letters (second ed., vol. ii. p. 256, No. 82, 17 Ed. IV., 1477) Margery P. thus writes to her "ryth reu'rent and worscheful husbond": "My modyr sent to my fadyr to London for a Goune cloth of Mustyrddevyllers* to make of a Goune for me," &c. To this Fenn appends the following note :

"This word occurs more than once in these Letters,

but the meaning of it I cannot ascertain to my own satisfaction, though perhaps it refers to some place in ing, however, appears the most satisfactory explanation: Musterdevelers, Mustyrddevyllers, Moitie, or (as sometimes anciently and erroneously spelt) Mestier de Velours, French or half velvet; or Mestis de Velours, a bastard between both. On the present occasion a proper allowvelvet. Mestoyant is also an old French word signifying ance must be made for the imperfections of female spelling in an age of unsettled orthography."

France where the cloth was manufactured. The follow