For 2 Bottles of Clarrit wine
For 6 Dozen of Trenchers

(The rest torn away.)

6

0

The family of Bodenham resided in a mansion at Ryhall called Netlam's, after the name of a former professor. and which is now the property of Henry Bennett Pierrepont, Esq. who inherited the same from his uncle Col. Michael Pierrepont. They were descended (as will be seen by a pedigree in Blore's History of Rutland, p. 49) from the family originally of Bodenham in Herefordshire, but they came to Ryhall from Biddenden in Kent. Robert Bodenham, the writer of the letter, was the younger son of Sir Francis Bodenham, Knt. by his first wife Penelope, daughter of Sir Edward Wingfield, of Kimbolton Castle, co. Huntingdon, Knt, and brother to Sir Wingfield Bodenham, Knt. who continued the line of the family.

His

Lady Mother," to whom he sends his "most humble duty," was his father's second wife, Theodosia, daughter of Francis Lord Hastings, and sister to Henry Earl of Huntingdon. Yours, &c. WM. HOPKINSON.

his hopes of preferment, from the Queen of James IV. were in all probability disappointed, as his own expressions indicate. That his expectations should have been frustrated, when his royal mistress became Regent, may be accounted for, from the stormy nature of her administration, and her personal unpopularity, as the sister of Henry VIII. which would operate unfavourably on persons who relied upon her interest. The following passage from Mr. Tytler's History of Scotland, throws some light on the subject, and shows what difficulties stood in the way of candidates for ecclesiastical advancement, at the time when Dunbar was seeking it. The date of the quotation is 1514, the year after the disastrous battle of Flodden.

"At this crisis, the death of the venerable and patriotic Elphinston, Archbishop of St. Andrew's, removed the only mind which seemed to possess authority in the state, and, by vacating the primacy, increased the struggles of individual ambition. The Queen nominated as his successor the celebrated Gawin Douglas, her husband's uncle,t a man whose genius, had this been the only requisite for the important dignity, was calculated to bestow distinction upon any situation. Hepburn, however, prior of St. Andrew's, a churchman of a turbulent and factious character, had interest enough with the secure his chapter to own election; whilst Forman, Bishop of Moray, the personal favourite of the late King, whose foreign negotiations and immense wealth rendered him all-powerful at the court of Rome, was appointed to fill the vacant see by a papal bull, which he for a while did not dare to promulgate. An indecent spectacle was thus exhibited, which could not fail to lower the Church in the eyes of the people: the servants of Douglas, supported by his nephew and the Queen, had seized the episcopal palace, but were attacked by Hepburn, who carried the fortress, and kept possession of it, although threatened by Angus with a siege. Forman, however, had the address to secure the interest of Home, the chamberlain, and a treaty having been entered into, in which money was the chief peacemaker, it was agreed, that Hepburn should surrender the castle, on condition of

retaining the revenues he had already

Uncle to her second husband the Earl of Angus.

collected, and receiving for his nephew the rich priory of Coldingham." Vol. V. p. 97, 98.

It is evident that, among these lamentable contests and compromises, Dunbar's cager solicitations proved unavailing. Another reason may be assigned for the failure of his solicitations: the Stuart princes were obliged, from their peculiar position, to employ the dignified clergy as a counterpoise to the turbulent nobility, and the persons whom they found it most desirable to prefer, were eminent for diplomatic and political, rather than literary talent. Gawin Douglas is the only, or almost the only exception; but he was nearly related to the Queen Dowager's husband. With regard to the contest alluded to, Mr. Tytler leaves it to be inferred, that Forman was the successful candidate, as was the case. Gawin Douglas was raised to the chair in 1515, or 1516, through the influence of Angus and the Queen, but not without considerable opposition. Mr Tytler is not inclined to concur in his praises, and calls him a keen and unscrupulous partisan of his nephew Angus;" but the memoir in Dr. David Irving's Lives of the Scotish poets, conveys a more pleasing idea of his character.

2. The phrase "John Thomson's Man " (see Gent. Mag. July, 1840,) was used sarcastically by the celebrated Montrose. Mr. Napier mentions, that in the Montrose charter-chest is preserved a curious paper, endorsed "Several Cypher Keys," and entitled, "Montrose's Key, 1648.' Whether he used it in his correspondence, or had merely composed it for his amusement, is uncertain. In this curious paper, the Parliament of Scotland is denominated John Thomson's Man, and the Assembly, Goodwife that wears the breeches. The allusion obviously is, that the Parliament was controlled by the Kirk; at the time of Gowrie's conspiracy, it showed more independence. (Napier's Life and Times of Montrose, 1840, p. 534, Appendix.)

3. In the papers on Anecdotal Literature, (Gent. Mag. 1820—21,) it is stated, that when Archee was discharged from his employment, as King's Jester, he was succeeded by Muckle John, of whom there is little.

known. He is mentioned in Baillie's Correspondence, where it appears, from the story told of him, that he was with the King at Oxford in 1643-4. When the Duke of Hamilton was imprisoned, Baillie wrote, "Meikle Jo. would have been in to visit him, as he said, to give him his coat, as the greater fool than he for coming hither." (Quoted in Napier's Montrose and the Covenanters, 1838, vol. ii. p. 234). This circumstance happened in December or January.

4. In the collection of the laws of the Constituent Assembly in France, IVth division, 2nd part, occur some excellent regulations, concerning passengers in Public Water Conveyances. The ordonnance is entitled, Proclamation du Roi, pour le Service des Coches et Voitures d'Eau, donné à Paris, le 24 Avril 1791," and commences thus:

"Le Roi, par l'article x de sa proclamation du 10 de ce mois, concernant le service des messageries, s'est réservé de pourvoir particulièrement au service des Coches et Voitures d'Eau, ainsi qu'au bon ordre et à la police qui doivent y être observés pour la tranquillité et la sureté des voyageurs. En conséquence, le Roi a ordonné et ordonne ce qui suit-"

The article which particularly deserves commemoration is the twelfth.

"XII. Il est défendu de faire aucun tumulte ni bruit dans les coches, d'y jurer ou tenir des conversations malhonnêtes, d'y chanter des chansons obscènes, d'y jouer à aucuns jeux, de fumer dans les chambres des coches, ni sur le tillac, á cause du danger du feu.”

As these regulations are contained, not in a decree of the Assembly, but in a Royal proclamation, it is pleasing to think, that they may possibly have originated in the mind of Louis himself. They are, of course, no longer in force, unless revived in subsequent enactments. But, at all events, how desirable it would be, if similar regulations were enforced on board our steamers, smacks, &c. and how creditable to the authorities, who should show such a sense of moral propriety. Yours, &c. CYDWELI.

three pounds, although before the Conquest it had been rated at four. The record simply notices the existence of the building, and proceeds to state the quantity of arable and pasture land with which it was attached.

In the taxation of Pope Nicholas, taken in the 20th year of Edward I. A.D. 1291, the church of 'Crey Paulin was valued at 11 marks or 71. 6s. 8d. It is now rated in the King's books at 127. 13s. 4d. and is a rectory in the patronage of Lord Viscount Sydney, in the diocese of Rochester and deanery of Dartford. The present rector is the Rev. Robert Burr Bourne.

The church of St. Paulinus cannot, as the engraving will shew, lay claim to any pretensions of beauty or regularity in an architectural point of view; and the casual observer, glancing at its humble and even mean exterior, would, in all probability, pass by without pausing to examine it. Like most churches situated in the midst of a rural population, it has sustained a number of alterations at different periods, so as to render it a matter of some difficulty to discover the original plan and observe the character of the subsequent additions. When in its most perfect state the plan formed a nave with two aisles, a tower at the west, and a chancel at the east end, with one or two attached chapels, which will be particularized hereafter; but this was not the original construction, nor did it present so regular an appearance for any great length of time; the rage for alteration, so generally conspicuous in our ecclesiastical structures of the Middle Ages, being nowhere more exemplified than in the instance before us. Its present plan shows a nave, south aisle, and chancel; at the west end of the former is a quadrilateral tower, and on the north side of the chancel is a small chapel. To begin our description with the nave; in the wall, on the north side, appear two pointed arches of stone, reduced to a plane surface; the central pillar of these arches has entirely disappeared, but the others are imbedded in the wall and appear to have been octangular. These arches belonged to an aisle which formerly existed on this side,

but now destroyed. The windows which occupy the central space within each arch, being of the flat Tudor style, indicate pretty plainly that the destruction of the aisle took place about the middle of the sixteenth century. Above the arches the rubble of the wall assumes a more ancient appearance; immediately under the overlapping ridge of the roof are layers of flint and Roman tiles laid in herring-bone, and beneath these the remains of a bonding course of the latter material laid horizontally. These appearances indicate an original and very early part of the structure, and are curious in proving that, when the north aisle was constructed, for it was subsequent to the nave, the wall of the latter was merely pierced so far as was necessary for the pitch of the arch, a piece of practical economy which superseded the necessity of taking down the roof. We pass by for the present the small chapel seen in the engraving, and come to the chancel, the north side of which is modern, and has a window of no architectural feature. At the east end were originally three lancet windows, distinct and separate without, but forming within that pleasing feature the triple lancet; these, at a subsequent period, were destroyed to make way for a large obtusely arched window of the sixteenth century, which, in its turn, has had the tracery demolished, and the whole aperture filled up with brick. The south side of the chancel is also modern, and has two tasteless windows of no descriptive character. Hasted remarks that a chapel once stood against the chancel, but which was, in his time, in ruins. The ruins have now entirely disappeared, nor are there any traces remaining to point out its exact site.

The south aisle was taken down during the summer of 1839, and has since been rebuilt of wider dimensions than its predecessor, which was an erection of the early pointed style, and coeval with the chancel and tower. It had a high pointed gable, and at the east end a small window of two lights. The south side was much disfigured by large brick buttresses, the wall being somewhat out of the perpendicular. There had been three lancet windows, of which one only remained perfect,