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Page 5
"Sept. 15. 1725. My Father Mr. ---- ---- brought my mother home to my
grandfather's house, and the wedding dinner was kept there on Monday,
Sept. 20., with all the family, and Mr. ---- and Mr. ---- and his wife
were present.
"In the Evening my Honoured Grandfather gave all his Children a serious
admonition to live in Love and Charity ... and afterwards gave his wife
a {21} present of some _Quinces_, and to his sister ----, and every Son
and Daughter, Son in Law and Daughter in Law, Five Guineas each."
The last-named gift consisted of gold five-guinea pieces of Charles II. and
James II., some of which have been preserved in the family. The part of the
record, however, which appears to me worthy of note, is that which concerns
the _quinces_, which brings to one's mind the ancient Greek custom that the
bridegroom and bride should eat a _quince_ together, as a part of the
wedding ceremonies. (See Potter's _Grecian Antiquities_.)
Can any of your readers furnish any additional information on this curious
point?
H.G.T.
* * * * *
ELIZABETH WALKER.--SHAKSPEARE.
I have before me a reprint (Blackwell, Sheffield, 1829) of _The Holy Life
of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, late Wife of A. Walker, D.D., Rector of Fyfield,
in Essex_, originally published by her husband in 1690. It is a beautiful
record of that sweet, simple, and earnest piety which characterised many of
the professors of religion in the seventeenth century. It is not, however,
the general character of the book, however excellent, but an incidental
allusion in the first section of it, that suggests this communication. The
good woman above named, and who was born in London in 1623, says, in her
Diary:
"My dear father was John Sadler, a very eminent citizen. He was born at
Stratford-upon-Avon, where his ancestors lived. My grandfather had a
good estate in and about the town. He was of a free and noble spirit,
which somewhat outreached his estate, but was not given to any
debauchery that I ever heard of. My father's mother was a very wise,
pious, and good woman, and lived and died a good Christian. My father
had no brother, but three sisters who were all eminently wise and good
women, especially his youngest sister."
It is, I confess, very agreeable to me, amidst the interest of association
created by the world-wide fame of the "Swan of Avon," to record this
pleasing tribute to the character of the _genius loci_ at so interesting a
period. In a passage on a subsequent page, Mrs. Walker, referring to some
spiritual troubles, says:
"My father's sister, my dear aunt Quiney, a gracious good woman, taking
notice of my dejected spirit, she waylaid me in my coming home from the
morning exercise then in our parish."
This was in London: but it is impossible to have read attentively some of
the minuter memorials of Shakspeare (_e.g._ Hunter's, Halliwell's, &c.)
without recognising in "Aunt Quiney" a collateral relationship to the
immortal bard himself. I am not aware that any Shakspearian reader of the
"NOTES AND QUERIES" will feel the slightest interest in this remote branch
of a genealogical tree, which seems to have borne "diverse manner of
fruits;" but assuredly the better portion of those who most justly admire
its exuberance of dramatic yield, will not disparage their taste should
they equally relish the evangelical flavour of its "holier products,"
exemplified in the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker.
J.H.
* * * * *
OLD ENGLISH ACTORS AND MUSICIANS IN GERMANY.
(Vol. ii., pp. 184. 459.)
The following extracts furnish decisive evidence of the custom of our old
English actors' and musicians' professional peregrinations on the continent
at the beginning of the seventeenth century--a subject which has been ably
treated by Mr. Thoms in the _Athen�um_ for 1849, p. 862.
In September, 1603, King James I. despatched the Lord Spenser and Sir
William Dethick, Garter King-at-arms, to Stuttgart, for the purpose of
investing the Duke of W�rtemberg with the ensigns of the Garter, he having
been elected into the order in the 39th year of the late Queen's reign. A
description of this important ceremony was published at Tubingen in 1605,
in a 4to. volume of 270 pages, by Erhardus Cellius, professor of poetry and
history at that University, entitled: "Eques auratus Anglo-Wirtembergicus."
At page 120. we are told that among the ambassador's retinue were "four
excellent musicians, with ten other assistants." (Four excellentes musici,
un� cum decem ministris aliis.) These performed at a grand banquet given
after the Duke's investiture, and are described at p. 229. as "the royal
English music, which the illustrious royal ambassador had brought with him
to enhance the magnificence of the embassy and the present ceremony; and
who, though few in number, were eminently well skilled in the art. For
England produces many excellent musicians, commedians, and tragedians, most
skilful in the histrionic art; certain companies of whom quitting their own
abodes for a time, are in the habit of visiting foreign countries at
particular seasons, exhibiting and representing their art principally at
the courts of princes. A few years ago, some English musicians coming over
to our Germany with this view, remained for some time at the courts of
great princes; their skill both in music and in the histrionic art, having
procured them such favour, that they returned home beautifully rewarded,
and loaded with gold and silver."
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