Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851. Various

and Enquiries relating to Mesmerism: he would do so, I know, at once, if he thought that anybody would benefit by them; and I can bear witness to Part I. as having been already of some use. It is high time that Christians should be decided as to whether or no they may meddle with the fearful power whose existence is is impossible to ridicule any longer. Dr. Maitland has suggested the true course of thought upon the subject, and promised to lead us along it; but it is impossible at present to use anything that he has said, on account of its incompleteness. In tracing the subject through history, Dr. Maitland would no doubt mention the "Ομφαλόψυχοι, or Umbilicani," of the fourteenth century, whose practices make a page (609.) of Waddington's History of the Church read like a sketch of Middle-age Mesmerism, contemptuously given. Also, in Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet, a belief somewhat similar to theirs is stated to have been preached in the seventh century (Bohn's Reprint in Shilling Series, p. 191.) by a certain Moseïlma, a false prophet.

      I may add that Miss Martineau's new book, Letters of the Development of Man's Nature, by Atkinson and Martineau, which cannot be called sceptical, for its unbelief is unhesitating, is the immediate cause of my writing to-day.

A. L. R.

      Minor Notes

      Original Warrant.—The following warrant from the original in the Surrenden collection may interest some of your correspondents, as bearing upon more than one Query that has appeared in your columns:—

      "Forasmuch as S^r John Payton, Knight, Lieutenant of the Tower, hath heretofore receaved a warrant from the Lls. of the counsell, by her Ma^ts commandment, for the removinge of Wright the Preist out of the Tower, to Framingham Castle, and for that, since then, it is thought more convenient, that he be removed to the Clincke—Theise therefore shalbe to require now (sic) to enlarge him of his imprisonment in the Tower, and to deliver him prisoner into the hands of the L. Bishop of London, to be committed by his Lp. to the Clincke, because it is for her M^ts speciall service,—for doinge whereof, this shalbe your warrant.

      "From the court at

      "Oatlands this 29

"of September, 1602.

"Ro. Cecyll.

      "To Mr. Anthony Deeringe,

      "Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London."

"2. October, 1602.

      "I have receyed Mr. Wryght from Mr. Derynge, Deputy Lieutenant, and have comitted him to the Clincke according the direction from Mr. Secretary above expressed.

"Ric. London."

L. B. L.

      Gloves.—Prince Rupert.—In your First Vol., pp. 72. 405., and in other places in Vol. ii., there are notices with respect to the presentation of gloves. If what is contained in the following paper be not generally known, it may claim an interest with some of your readers:—

      "At the Court of Whitehall, the 23rd of October, 1678. Present

      The Kings most excellent Majesty,

      His Highness Prince Rupert,

      Lord Archbp. of Canterbury,"

      [with twelve others, who are named.]

      "Whereas formerly it hath been a custom upon the Consecra[~c]on of all [~B]ps for them to make presents of Gloves to all Persons that came to the Consecra[~c]on Dinners, and others, w^ch amounted to a great Su[~m] of Money, and was an unnecessary burden to them, His Ma^tie this day, taking the same into his considera[~c]on, was thereupon pleas'd to order in Council, that for the future there shall be no such distribu[~c]on of Gloves; but that in lieu thereof each Lord B[~p] before his Consecra[~c]on shall hereafter pay the Su[~m] of 50l. to be employ'd towards the Rebuilding of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. And it was further ordered, that his Grace the Lord Archb[~p] of Canterbury do not proceed to consecrate any B[~p] before he hath paid the s[~d] Su[~m] of 50l. for the use aforesaid, and produced a Receipt for the same from the Treasurer of the Money for Rebuilding the said Church for the time being, w^ch as it is a pious work, so will it be some ease to the respective B[~p]s, in regard the Expense of Gloves did usually farr exceed that Sum.

"Phi. Lloyd."

      Tanner's MSS. vol. 282. 112. al. 74.

      One of your correspondents, I think, some time back asked for notices of Prince Rupert posterior to the Restoration. Besides the mention made of him in this paper, Echard speaks of his having the command of one squadron of the English fleet in the Dutch war.

J. Sansom.

      Inscription on a Gun (Vol. iii., p. 181.).—Your notes on "the Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes" remind me of an old gun, often handled by me in my youth, on the stock of which the following tetrastick was en-nailed:—

      "Of all the sports as is,

      I fancies most a gun;

      And, after my decease,

      I leaves this to my son."

      Whether this testamentary disposition ever passed through Doctors' Commons, I know not.

C. W. B.

      Richard III. (Vol. iii., pp. 206-7.).—The statement by Mr. Harrison, that Richard was not a "hunchback," is curiously "backed" by an ingenious conjecture of that very remarkable man, Doctor John Wallis of Oxford, in his Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ, first published in 1653. The passage occurs in the 2d section of chapter 14, "De Etymologia." Wallis is treating of the words crook, crouch, cross, &c., and says: