Various

“ Edward IV.'s claim to the throne was by descent from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., his mother being Cicely, youngest daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. Lionel married Elizabeth de Burgh, an Irish heiress, who died shortly after, leaving one daughter, Philippa. As William of Hatfield, second son of Edward III., died at an early age, without issue, according to all our ideas of hereditary succession Philippa, only child of Edward III.'s third son, ought to have inherited before the son of his fourth son ”

“ The proverb tells us "It is dangerous playing with edge tools," and so it is with bad puns: he has shown himself an unskilful engineer in the use of Mr. Hickson's canon, with which he was to have "blown up" Mr. Hickson's argument and my proposition; with what success may be fairly left to the judgment of your readers. I will, however, give him another canon, which may be of use to him on some future occasion: "When a probable solution of a difficulty is to be found by a parallelism in the poet's pages, it is better to adopt it than to charge him with a blunder of our own creating." ”

“ A BIDDING AT WEDDINGS IN WALES.
The practice of "making a bidding" and sending "bidding letters," of which the following is a specimen, is so general in most parts of Wales, that printers usually keep the form in type, and make alteration in it as occasion requires. The custom is confined to servants and mechanics in towns; but in the country, farmers of the humbler sort make biddings. Of late years tea parties have in Carmarthen been substituted for the bidding; but persons attending pay for what they get, and so incur no obligation ”

“ Are we not apt to underrate the number of Romanised Celts remaining in England after the Saxon Conquest? The victors would surely enslave a vast multitude, and marry many Celtic women; while those who fled at the first danger would gradually return to their old haunts. ”

“ And in order to this he set up a show of two titles: the one upon the pretence of being the first of the blood royal of the entire male line; whereas the Duke of Clarence (Lionel, elder brother of John of Gaunt) left only one daughter, Philippa: the other, by reviving an exploded rumour, first propagated by John of Gaunt, that Edmond Earl of Lancaster (to whom Henry's mother was heiress) was in reality the elder brother of King Edward I., though his parents, on account of his personal deformity, had imposed him on the world for the younger."—Blackstone's Commentaries, book i. ch. iii. p. ”

“ The last-named work (a copy of the edition of 1661 of which is now before me) is exceedingly curious to the lovers of our popular sports and pastimes. The engravings are by William Pass, C. Blon, &c., and among them are representations of Kiss in the Ring, the game of Forfeits, rolling Snow-balls, the Interior of a Barber's Shop, with citherns and lutes hanging against the wall, for the use of the customers, &c.
Edward F. Rimbault.
North Sides of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 93.) .—In an appendix to our registers I find the following entry, where I conceive the backside means the northside. ”

“ Henry IV.'s right, however, was incontestable, being based on overwhelming might. Philippa married Edward Mortimer, Earl of March. Roger, their son, succeeded his father in his titles, and left one daughter, Anne, who married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund Langley, Duke of York, which Edmund, Duke of York, was the fifth son of Edward III.; and thus the line of York, though a younger branch of the royal family, took precedence, de jure, of the Lancaster line. ”

“ When the men who composed it came into possession of this country, they clearly must have sent home for their wives and families; and many who took no part in the invasion no doubt came to share the spoils. ”

“ This Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, was succeeded by his son Thomas, who in the fifteenth year of the reign of Edward II. was attainted of high treason. In the first of Edward III. his attainder was reversed, and his son Henry inherited his titles, and subsequently was created Duke of Lancaster. ”

“ The Breeches Bible.—The able and interesting article on the Breeches Bible which appeared in a late number of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. iii., p. 17.) is calculated to remove the deep-rooted popular error which affixes great pecuniary value to {116}every edition of the Bible in which the words "made themselves breeches" are to be found, by showing that such Bibles are generally only worth about as many shillings as they are supposed to be worth pounds. ”

“ Elmes has adopted as the motto of a pretty little volume, which he has just put forth under the following characteristic title: Horæ Vacivæ, a Thought-book of the Wise Spirits of all Ages and all Countries, fit for all Men and all Hours. The work appears to have furnished a source of occupation to its editor when partially recovering from a deprivation of sight. ”

“ In the illustrations of The Baptistery, Parker, Oxford, 1842, which are re-engraved from the originals in the Via Vitæ Eternæ, designed by Boetius a Bolswert, the figure of "Occasion" is always drawn with the hair hanging loose in front, according to the distich.
E. A. D.
Time when Herodotus wrote (vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., p. 30.) —The passage in Herodotus (i. 5.) is certainly curious, and had escaped my notice, until pointed out by your correspondent. ”

“ DESCENT OF HENRY IV. (Vol. ii., p. 375.)
Under the head of "Descent of Edward IV.," S. A. Y. asks for information concerning "a popular, though probably groundless tradition," by which that prince sought to prove his title to the throne of England. S. A. Y., or his authority, Professor Millar, is mistaken in ascribing it to Edward IV.—it was Henry IV. who so sought to establish his claim.
"Upon Richard II.'s resignation ... Henry, Duke of Lancaster, having then a large army in the kingdom ... ”

“ The poet does not present common things as they appear to all men. Shakspeare's art was equally great, {120}whether he spoke with the tongues of madmen or philosophers. H. K. S. C. cannot conceive why each feat of daring should be a tame possibility, save only the last; but I say that they are all possible; that it was a daring to do not impossible but extravagant feats. As far as quantity is concerned, to eat a crocodile would be more than to eat an ox. Crocodile may be a very delicate meat, for anything I know to the contrary ”

“ His only daughter married Mr. Barneveldt; and his son, who served with Marlborough, left issue, which failed in the male line, but still exists in the female line, in the representative of Henry William Bunting, Esq., the caricaturist. The writer of these Queries is the direct descendant of Mrs. Barneveldt, and is anxious to know whether any unpublished MSS. of his ancestors still exist. There was a Philip Horneck who in 1709 published an ode inscribed to his excellency the Earl of Wharton, wherein he is described as LL.B., a copy of which I have. ”

“ Article 6. certainly has a very sanguinary aspect; but as the thief, whose hut and tools are to be burnt, is himself to be "banished from his occupation before the miners for ever," it cannot be intended that he should be himself burnt also. ”

“ In the country they ride, and generally there is a desperate race home to the bidding, where you would be surprised to see a comely lass, with Welsh hat on head and ordinary dress, often take the lead of fifty or a hundred smart fellows over rough roads that would shake your Astley riders out of their seats and propriety.
"Carmarthen, October 2. 1850.
"As we intend to enter the Matrimonial State, on Tuesday, the 22nd of October instant, we are encouraged by our Friends to make a Bidding on the occasion the same day, at the New Market House, near the Market Place ”

“ We have many articles in type which we are compelled, by want of space, to postpone until next week, when the publication of our double number will enable us to insert many interesting communications which are only waiting for room. ”

“ Again: the remark about the fashion of extravagant feats, such as swallowing nauseous draughts in honour of a mistress, was quite uncalled for. Your correspondent would insinuate that I attribute to Shakspeare's time "what in reality belongs to the age of Du Guesclin and the Troubadours." Does he mean to infer that it did not in reality equally belong to Shakspeare's age? ”

“ It has no date: but it may be supplied by the entry at Stationer's Hall, and by the subject of the volume. The first chapter of the work is headed "An Analogie or Resemblance betweene Ione, queene of Naples, and Marie, queene of Scotland," which are the terms of the entry; and the probability seems to be, that when Windet took, or sent, it to be licensed, the book had no other title, and that the clerk adopted the heading of the first chapter as that of the whole volume. ”

“ As they claim as joint-heirs or parceners, the land must have been subject to partibility, and therefore of socage tenure. If the land was not in Kent, the entry is a proof that the exclusive right of primogeniture was not then universally established, as we know it was not in the reign of Henry II. See Glanville, lib. ”

“ The form of writ is in the Register of Writs, and corresponds exactly with the abridged note of it in the Fine Roll. The "esnecia," mentioned in the last entry (not extracted by E. V.) , is the majorat or senior heir's perquisite of the capital mansion. ”

“ Queries. FIVE QUERIES AND NOTES ON BOOKS, MEN, AND AUTHORS.
1. Newburgh Hamilton.—Can any of your readers inform me who Newburgh Hamilton was? He wrote two pieces in my library, viz. (1.) Petticoat Plotter, a farce in two acts; acted at Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, 1720, 12mo. This has been mutilated by Henry Ward, a York comedian, and actually printed by him as his own production, in the collection of plays and poems going under his name, published in 1745, 8vo., a copy of which I purchased at Nassau's sale, many years since. (2.) ”

“ Munchausen, a veritable {118}name—the real possessor of which died in October, 1817—was assumed, and poor Bruce was travestied very cleverly, but most unjustly. The real author has not been ascertained; but at one time it was believed to have been James Grahame, afterwards a Scotch barrister, and author of a poem of much beauty, called The Sabbath. ”

“ One who often runs for the Great Ledger.
Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland.—In the library of the dean and chapter at Carlisle, are preserved six volumes in folio, which purport to be Collections for the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, made in the Reign of Charles II., by the Reverend Thomas Machell. Have these collections been carefully examined, and their contents made use of in any topographical publication? ”

“ In botan. writ. is said of flowers when many of them grow together, disposed somewhat like an umbrella. The make is a sort of broad, roundish surface of the whole, &c. &c."
Horace Walpole (Memoirs of the Reign of George II., vol. iii. p. 153.) , narrating the punishment of Dr. Shebbeare for a libel, 5th December, 1758, says,—
"The man stood in the pillory, having a footman holding an umbrella to keep off the rain." ”

“ Tyndale's version of the New Testament was not incorporated in any version of the whole Bible till the publication of what is called Matthewe's Bible in 1537.
For more particular statements confirmed by proofs, your correspondent may consult Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, under the dates of the respective editions, or his appendix to vol. ii., pp. viii., ix.; or Mr. Pearson's biographical notice of Coverdale, prefixed to the Parker Soc. edit. of his Remains; or the biographical notice of Tyndale, prefixed to the Parker Soc. edit. of his Works, pp. ”

“ Cumberland;" but the descent is not given, and I presume it rests merely on tradition.
Llewellyn.
Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance (Vol. ii., p. 517.) .—Your correspondent Mac asks for the "correct date" of the Cushion Dance. Searching out the history and origin of an old custom or ballad is like endeavouring to ascertain the source and flight of December's snow. I am afraid Mac will not obtain what he now wishes for. ”

“ The Indexes now first adapted to his Sections, and the Greek Index greatly enlarged. By the Rev. G. R. P. Tiddeman, M.A., of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. In 1 thick vol. 8vo. 12s.
A COLLECTION of ANTHEMS used in the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches of England and Wales. By William Marshall, Mus. Doc., late Organist of Christ Church Cathedral, and of St. John's College, Oxford. Second Edition. 12mo. 3s.
AN ESSAY on the ORIGIN and DEVELOPMENT of WINDOW TRACERY in ENGLAND, with numerous Illustrations. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford ”

“ There are in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, a very complete and interesting series of {122}antlered skulls of this animal. Should W. R. C. or any other reader of "Notes and Queries," desire further information on this subject, I will gladly, if in my power, afford it.
S. P. H. T. (a M. R. D. S.)
Replies to Minor Queries.
Coverdale Bible (Vol. iii., p. 54.) .—Your correspondent Echo is quite right in declaring Mr. Granville Penn's statement, that Coverdale used Tyndale's New Test. in his Bible of 1535, to be quite wrong. Mr. ”