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a letter from H.H. to Lady Molyneux, which runs as follows:

I never stood so much in need of a pardon as the imprudence in venturing on the enclosed on so short a warning has reduced

me to.

'Twas 10 o'clock last night before my thoughts were fired with an ambition of this nature, and I could not rest till I had arrived at what you see. I need not have told you this, for if you have the patience to read it, you will discern it to be the unadvised production of a few minutes. But since all the deliberation in the world can never furnish me with sacrifices suitable to your merits and my devotion, let your acceptance give life, if not to the lines, to their author, who not only begs your own pardon but even your intercession for that of your noble lord.

The letter encloses an ode, in the inflated style characteristic of the time, entitled:

AN EPITHALAMIUM ON THE HAPPY MARRIAGE OF LADY FRANCES
SEYMOUR AND LORD MOLINEUX, PRIVATELY SOLEMNISED AT
ESSEX HOUSE, OCTOBER 28, 1652.

I.

Now when the royal blood is voted down,

And 'tis thought dangerous to be near a crown,
When these alliances true nobles knit
Threaten the commonwealth as if 'twould split,
When Seymour does with Molineux entwine,
Two of the greatest names unite and join,
'Twas wisely done to debar common eyes
From violating the solemnities;

'Twas wisely done to hedge those glories in
Which they who see irreverently sin.

2.

'Twas well it was not heard at Westminster,
The bans had surely been forbidden there;
But 'tis too late now; the conjunction's past,
And its most happy influence shall last.
Was it not hence that Lilly did foresee
Such peril to the State? O! no, for he

Converses only with a lower sphere,

Sees no such glories as we mention here;
His stars are governed and obscured by these,
For if his be stars, these are deities.

3.

Let us erect an altar then, and pay

Such offerings as become us, and the day:
They must not be wishes of happiness,
For you, great pair, already do possess,
Nay are so much, so true essential bliss,
That 'tis by you we come to know what 'tis,
And when hereafter we wish any two

Happy to th' height, must wish them such as you.
But for ourselves, since you're above 't, we may
Wish, and although not for, yet to you, pray.

4.

True honour, noble love, are drawing on,
And but for your protection, would be gone.
Therefore vouchsafe to bless this mortal state
(Though higher glories do your charge await),
Till it be grown in fashion to be good.
Then leave us some examples of your blood,
Who may, while they to noblest things aspire,
Confess their native glorious active fire
Kindled from Molineux' and Seymour's breast,
Two names the greatest, and of both the best.

The young couple probably soon afterwards went down to live at Sefton and Croxteth, as we read in the Note Book of their neighbour, William Blundell, of Crosby-" The course, as it is now used, upon "the marshes of Great and Little Crosby, was "stooped out by me, A.D. 1654, at the request of "Richard, Lord Molyneux." 30 One is glad to

30 A Cavalier's Note Book, p. 222.

think that here in the quiet country the hunted Recusant and Royalist, after hardships endured in the "tented field," and long-torturing suspense in the Sequestration Court, could give himself up to the enjoyment of field sports in the company of his tenants, friends, and family connections. Unfortunately the wedded bliss of the newly-married pair was but short lived, and they left no "examples of their "blood" to prove the prowess and virtues of their progenitors. In the oft-quoted Royalist Composition Papers is an "Affidavit of Nicholas Fazakerly, "of Kirkby, gent., aged 34, sworn 28th December, 1654:-That he knew Richard, Lord Viscount Molyneux, ever since he could remember, and "that Lord Molyneux died about of July (1654),

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as he deponent believed, having spoken with "several of this deponent's fellow-servants who "were at the burial (as they informed him) he him"self then being in London upon some occasions, "and further that he knew Caryll, then Lord Molyneux, and that he was the reputed brother and "next heir to the said Richard deceased. And that "he was the better able to depose the same for he "had been a servant of the said Richard, Lord "Molyneux, for 14 years or thereabouts before "his death. And he further deposed that within a 'fortnight then last past he had seen Dame Frances, "the widow and relict of the said Richard, Lord "Molyneux, who had some discourse with the

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deponent, whereupon she declared herself before "him and others that she was not with child." The parish registers at Sefton record the Cavalier's burial there in 1654-" Richard Lord Viscount Mollynex of Sefton, 2 July."

His widow subsequently became the third wife of the Lord Treasurer Southampton, and after his death married to her third husband, Conyers D'Arcy, second Earl of Holderness of that line.

Pretty much about the time that Frances Dowager Viscountess Molyneux and her brother-in-law Caryll were giving so much employment to the conveyancers, as we have previously seen, the Lady Henrietta Maria (commonly called Mary) Stanley gave her hand in marriage to William Wentworth, second Earl of Stafford, K.G., to whom she was united on the 27th of September, 1654, and leaving no issue, died on the 27th of December, 1685.

Perhaps she had loved our hero all along, and not till he was laid to his rest at Sefton felt free to wed another. Who can tell?

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PLACE NAMES IN THE HUNDRED OF

WIRRAL.

By Wm. Fergusson Irvine.

Read 17th November, 1892.

HE study of local names can as yet hardly "THE claim the dignity of a science. With the exception of Ernst Förstemann, those who have written on the subject have too often been content to compile collections of things not generally 'known,' without attempting either to systemize the facts which they have brought together or to deduce any general principles which might serve to guide the student in his researches.

"There are few subjects, perhaps, in which such numerous dangers beset the inquirer. The patent blunders and the absurdly fanciful explanations of etymologists have become a by-word. It may be well, therefore, to clear the way for a scientific treatment of the subject by the suggestion of a few obvious rules which should be constantly kept in view while attempting the investigation of the meaning of ancient names.

"The fundamental principle to be borne in mind is an axiom which alone makes the study of local names possible, and this axiom asserts that local names are in no case arbitrary sounds. They are always ancient words, or fragments of ancient words-each of them in short constituting the

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