Various

“ Nothing is ever found visible to the naked eye in the stomach of the Vendace. They are extremely delicate, and are allowed to be the most pleasing to the taste of all fish. The general mode of catching them is with a net, as there is no instance known of their having been caught either with bait or the artificial fly. ”

“ Cardinal.—The title of cardinal (cardinalis) in early times was frequently applied to any bishop, priest, or deacon holding an official post. In France there were many cardinal priests: thus, the curate of the parish of St. John de Vignes is called, in old charters, the cardinal priest of that parish. There were also cardinal deacons, who had the charge of hospitals for the poor, and who ranked above the other deacons. ”

“ In the time of Charles the Bald many of the nobility in France were abbots, having a dean to officiate for them. Thus, too, in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of James V., was, at the time of the Reformation, Prior of St. Andrew's, although a secular person. The Earl of Kilmorey, who is impropriator of the tithes of St. Mary, Newry, is a lay abbot, or representative of the preceding abbots of a Cistertian Abbey which formerly existed in that town. ”

“ Replies. SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER. (Vol. ii., p. 375.)
Your correspondent J. Mt. has great reason to congratulate himself on the possession of the singularly curious tract which he describes, and which gives an autobiography of this extraordinary adventurer. I am not aware of any other copy in any public or private collection. I have a 4to. tract in nineteen pages, evidently printed abroad, the title of which is—
"Balthazar Gerbier, Knight,
to
All Men that love Truth." ”

“ An original portrait of Spenser is said to be in Lord Chesterfield's collection; another in Duplin Castle, the seat of Lord Kinnoul (of this there is a copy at Althorpe by Sir Henry Raeburn) . Mr. Wright, in his Memorials of Cambridge, mentions a portrait at Pembroke College, "a copy by Wilson," but he does not say from what original: Mr. Craik, in Spenser and his Writings, speaks of two as being in this college.
The writer thinks he recollects a law-suit relative to a portrait of the poet, which had been sold to the late Sir Robert Peel, and which was stated to have come from Ireland. ”

“ Allowing, however, that some neighbouring lake could be covered with some of these invisible and "incredibly minute entomostraceous animals," which the learned lecturer says constitute their food, we should still find a difficulty in transferring the fish; as every attempt to do so, though conducted with the greatest possible care and nicety, has failed.
In the preceding account, I have followed the Rev. John Gardiner of Lochmaben, who, in 1835, drew up an admirable account of his parish, which is inserted in the statistical survey of the county. ”

“ As you admit folk lore into "Notes and Queries," also well-attested anecdotes, although these may not absolutely conduce to the advancement of learning or art, perhaps you will receive this paper for the amusement of those who, like myself, feel an interest in anything which takes us a little out of the hardware facts of "the age we live in." ”

“ According to Mr. Stewart (Elements of Natural Hist.) , the Vendace belongs to a species which he calls Salmo albula, or the "Juvangis."
"This species," he adds, "is found in Lochmaben in Scotland, and nowhere else: it is said to have been carried thither from England in the time of Robert the Bruce."
Mr. Stewart describes the fish, but from his description it is evident he has never seen it. The following one is exact:—
"This beautiful fish measures from four to six inches in length, and tapers gradually to the tail. ”

“ A reference is made in Sir H. Ellis's Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 70., to a letter of Edmund Harvel to Dr. Starkey, dated from Venice, April 1535, in which the writer expresses his obligations to Mr. Winter, for his "friendly mynde toward him," and begs him to return his thanks.
In Mr. Galt's Life of Wolsey (Appendix IV. p. 424. of Bogue's edition) will be found a copy of a letter from John Clusy to Cromwell, in relation to a natural daughter of Wolsey's in the nunnery of Shaftesbury. ”

“ In former times, they heard confessions and enjoined penances. (Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 233.) It was not till the twelfth century that the Sacred College of Cardinals was organised; nor was it till 1567 that clergymen were forbidden by Pius V. to assume the title of cardinal unless appointed by the Pope.
Lay Abbots.—In early times we frequently find secular persons denominated "field abbots" and "abbot counts," upon whom the sovereign had bestowed certain abbeys, for which they were obliged to render military service, as for common fiefs. ”

“ Albans, writing to the abbot—
"Si vis, veniam; Sin autem, tu autem,"
would be understood to express—
"If you wish, I will come; but if otherwise, there is an end of the matter."
T. C.
Durham, April 8. 1851.
Places called Purgatory (Vol. iii., p. 241.) .—There is a farm-house still called "Purgatory," about two miles south of Durham, east of the London road, and close to the left bank of the river Wear. The farm is part of the estate of a highly respectable family, which has, I believe, always been Roman Catholic. No reason for the name is known in the neighbourhood. ”

“ Can any one substantiate the local tradition the Endymion Porter was born at the manor-house of Aston Subedge, in Gloucestershire; or furnish any particulars of his life before he became gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince Charles?
Balliolensis.
Sathaniel.—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what book, play, poem, or novel, a character named Sathaniel appears? There is a rather common picture bearing that title; it represents a dark young lady, in Eastern dishabille, with a turban on her head, reclining on a many-cushioned divan, and holding up a jewel in one hand. ”

“ The name of the sacred serpent, which in the ancient language of Canaan was variously pronounced, was derived from "ob" (inflare) , perhaps from his peculiarity of inflation when irritated. See Bryant's Analysis, vol. i.; Deane's Worship of the Serpent, p. 80. From a notion of the mysterious inflation produced by the presence of the divine spirit, those who had the spirit of Ob, or Python, received the names of Ob, or Pythia; according to the not unusual custom for the priest or priestess of any god to take the name of the deity they served. See Selden, De Dis Syris, Synt. 1. c. 2. ”

“ We are this week compelled to go to press one day earlier than usual; we have to request the indulgence of our correspondents for the omission of our usual List of Replies Received, and for not replying until next week to several inquiries which have been addressed to us.
Vols. I. and II., each with very copious Index, may still be had, price 9s. 6d. each.
Notes and Queries may be procured, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsvenders. It is published at noon on Friday, so that our country Subscribers ought not to experience any difficulty in procuring it regularly. ”

“ Winter is said to have held of the church's goods clearly more than 2000 pds. per an." Wood adds, that about the time of the Cardinal's fall, he gave up all or most of his dignities, keeping only the archdeaconry of York, which he resigned also in 1540. In Grove's Life and Times of Cardinal Wolsey, vol. iv. p. 315., among the "Articles" against the Cardinal, Article XXVII. expressly charges him, "that he took from his son Winter his income of 2,700l. a-year, applied it to his own use, and gave him only 200l. yearly to live on." ”

“ The existence of a natural son of Cardinal Wolsey is a fact as well ascertained as any other fact of the Cardinal's history, and referred to in the various biographies of him that have appeared. His name was Thomas Winter. In Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxxii. ”

“ In this, which gives some curious particulars as to "Mr. Hughe Peeters," and the book entitled The Nonsuch Charles, he refers to another "little manifest" published on the 2nd day of October, 1652, "that the world might take notice that he was not at all invested with any foreigne engagement." Of the tract so referred to, I regret to say no copy is known. None of the other three tracts appear to have been seen by Horace Walpole, who had collected a great number of Gerbier's pamphlets, and also the MS. next mentioned, which, at the Strawberry Hill sale, came together into my possession. ”

“ The first contains an immense correspondence, not merely with astronomers, but with poets, critics, physicians, and philosophers, to whom the indefatigable editor wrote for their opinions on the subject of comets. The second vol. gives a history of comets from the Deluge to 1665, and is a repository of everything bearing upon the subject. From this work Bayle derived his learning, when he wrote his most amusing work on comets. ”

“ The pike, with which this lake abounds, is their greatest enemy. It has been frequently stated that no fewer than fifteen distinct species of fish, fit for the table, have been found in the Castle Loch."
Dr. Knox, sometime Lecturer upon Anatomy in Edinburgh, states:
"That he has not only discovered the food of the Vendace, but actually exhibited it before the Members of the Royal Society, and offers suggestions for the stocking of the various lakes in Britain with this exquisite fish ”

“ For God takes soonest those he loueth best."
T. H. K.
Malew, Man.
Quakers' Attempt to convert the Pope.—At what period, and in what author besides Veryard's Tour in the Low Countries, is the story of two Quakers being imprisoned in the Lazzaretto in Rome, for attempting to convert the Pope, to be found? Were they persons of any standing in the Society? ”

“ Mr. Murray announces The Grenville Papers; being the Private Correspondence of Richard Grenville Earl Temple, his brother George Grenville, their Friends and Contemporaries, as in the press. It will contain some letters from Junius, and Mr. Grenville's Diary, particularly during his premiership, from 1763 to 1765. The fifth and sixth volumes of Lord Mahon's History of England from the Peace of Utrecht are also at press.
Lady Theresa Lewis is nearly ready with a work which cannot but be of great interest. ”

“ I may add, taking it for granted that Chalmers was right in claiming these two plays for a James Graham, that there is the strongest corroborative proof of there being two of the name in the existence of Mary Stewart, a Dramatic Poem, the acknowledged performance of the author of The Sabbath (see his Poems, 2 vols. 1809) , a production differing in title, and bearing no resemblance, I should think, to the first named. ”

“ The materials for his biography are very scanty. He was a Roman Catholic, and at the Revolution followed the fortunes of his abdicating master, in whose service he accepted a commission, and accompanied him in the wars in Ireland. He was also employed in several other services, and died October 27, 1726. See Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. p. 691., edit. 1812. He is not noticed in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, though as the continuator of Dugdale's Monasticon he unquestionably ought to have been. Watt gives a list (Bib. Brit., vol. i. p. 880.) ”

“ It stands on the monument of Bishop Thornborough, and was prepared by himself fourteen years before his decease in 1641, at the age of ninety-four. He was addicted to alchymy, and published a book in 1621, entitled Λιθοθεωρικος, sive, Nihil aliquid, omnia, &c. In the course of some recent studies in the Pythagorean philosophy, my attention was accidentally engaged by this {300}inscription; and it at once struck me that it was thence that the explanation was to be derived. The epitaph is as follows: on one side,
"Denarius Philosophorum, Dum Spiro, Spero." ”

“ Prefixed to Moxon's edition, 1845.
We are not told from what paintings Nos. 2. and 3. are engraved, but they resemble each other, and are somewhat like that in Bell's edition; so I shall set these three down as forming one class of portraits. No. 2. has, however, a curious inscription, Edmund Spenser, obiit 1559, which would lead us to reject it altogether, and look on it as an imaginary likeness.
4. The portrait in Pickering's Aldine edition, 1839: this bears no resemblance, either in costume or features, to those already mentioned ”

“ Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 11. 151. 197. 225.) .—Your correspondents seem to have overlooked the celebrated {308}letter of Queen Mary of Scotland, printed in the State Trials, and lately reprinted by Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chancellors, tit. Sir C. Hatton. I may as well add (though I do not believe the fact) that my grandmother (herself a Devereux) repeated to me the tradition of a son of Queen Elizabeth's having been sent to Ireland. ”

“ A MS. pedigree in the Herald's College also mentions Sir William as "descended from a race of knights." Where is an account of this race to be found?
II. The separation between the two lines of Parr and Kendal.—Sir Thomas Parr, father of Queen Katherine, died 1518, and his Inq. p. m. states him to have held manors, messuages, lands, woods, and rents, in Parr, Wigan, and Sutton. Ten years afterwards, 1528, Bryan Parr was found by Inq. p. m. to have held the manor, messauges, woods, lands, &c. of Parr. ”

“ Tobacco in the East (vol. ii., pp. 155. 231.) .—M. D. asks for "chapter and verse" of A. C. M.'s reference to Sale's Koran respecting tobacco.
Had A. C. M. recollected that tobacco (Nicotiana) is an American plant, he would hardly have asked whether "tobacco is the word in the original" of the tradition mentioned by Sale in his Preliminary Discourse, § 5. p. 123. (4to. ed. 1734.) Happily Reland, whom Sale quotes (Dissert. Miscell., vol. ii. p. 280.) , gives his authority, the learned orientalist, Dr. ”