1923.] Death and Burial of Lady Katharine Grey. manner so creditable to himself, that the public have a faithful resemblance of the young lady who is the subject of these observations. 11 Chancel at Yoxford, the bowels of ye Lady Katherine, wife of Edward Seimour Earl of Hartford. She was daughter of Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, and of Mary the French Queen, the younger of the two daughters of King Henry VII.:-of the elder, K. James and K. Charles were descended. This Deaf and Dumb Asylum. lady Katharine had been committed prisoner to Sir Owen Hopton, Lieftenant of the Tower, for marrying without the Queen's knowledge, and was by him kept at Cock C. S. & R. M. Life Governors of the Mr. URBAN, June 1. HERE seems to have been an error Twhich has crept into all our His torians, respecting the fate of the Lady Katharine Grey, youngest daughter of Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, and the Lady Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon. The main points of her history are well known, and no doubt, correctly detailed; but it is of her death and burial that I am now speaking. Dr. Fuller, in his quaint way, gives us the following account: "She was born at Bradgate, and (when her father was in height) married to Henry Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Earl of Pembroke; but the politic old Earl, perceiving the case altered, and what was the high way to honour, turned into the ready road to ruin, got pardon from Queen Mary, and broke the marriage quite off. This Heraclita, or Lady of Lamentation, thus repudiated, was seldom seen with dry eyes for some years together, sighing out her sorrowful condition; so that though the roses in her cheeks looked very wan and pale, it was not for want of watering. Afterwards Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, married her privately without the Queen's licence, and concealed it till her pregnancy discovered it. Queen Elizabeth beheld her with a jealous eye, unwilling she should match either foreign Prince or English Peer, but follow the pattern she set her of constant virginity. For their presumption this Earl was fined 15,000l. imprisoned with his lady in the Tower, and severely forbidden her company; but love and money will find or force a passage. By bribing the keeper, he bought (what was his own) his wife's embraces, and had by her a surviving son, Edward, ancestor to the Duke of Somerset. She died Jan. 26, 1567, a prisoner in the Tower, after nine years durance there." It appears from Bayley's "History of the Tower," p. 91, that on the 5th Sept. 1562, 4 Eliz. "the Ladie Katherine Grey, and the Erle of Hartford," were prisoners there but from the following note, copied from a MS by Reyce, now in the College of Arms, relating to Suffolk Antiquities, it is equally clear that she did not die there: the note is as follows: "There lie buried in the Church and where she died. I have been often told by in his house, aged people in Yoxford, that after her death, a little dog she had, would never more eat any meat, but lay and died upon her grave.” This statement is corroborated_by the following entry in the Parish Register of Yoxford: "The Lady Katherine Gray, buried 21st Feb. 1567." D. A. Y. We have pleasure in presenting our Readers with the following curious particulars respecting the Toad, from which they will judge whether it is a noxious Reptile *. 1. TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS, SIR, Morton, 23 April 1808. THE following subject will, I trust, sufficiently apologize for the liberty I have thus taken, and I beg to be considered in terms of the greatest respect, your most obedient servant, SAMUEL HOPKINSON. The Toad, though a loathsome, is not generally considered a venomous animal by the common people, many of whom so far from indicating any fear or disgust at its sight, will frequently grasp it in their hands, and throw it wantonly at each other. That it is actually capable, however, of injuring the human frame, will appear from the following rare and perhaps unique occurrence. While Thomas Willson, a gardener of this place, was pulling down and repairing an old wall, in the early part of this cold and sterile month, he observed a cavity passing up the middle, with some outlets, at irregular distances, so smooth and black as induced him to suspect them the abodes of rats, or of some other quadrupeds. The severity of the day, the pendent position of the head, together with a cold, under which he then laboured, aggregately caused a more copious effusion of the * On this subject see vols. L. p. 873; LXXVIII. 1055; LXXIX. 303, 416, 573. nasal 12 Correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks, relative to the Toad. [July, nasal fluid than at other times. To have disposed of this drop by drop, repeatedly and deliberately in the way usual in more civilized life, would have impeded the operations of one so assiduously employed. It was removed by an apter process, the fore-finger and thumb, accompanied by a short and forward jerk of the head. Thus was the hand for several hours alternately employed, one while squeezing the humid nostrils, at another time removing, handling, and refitting the smooth stones surrounding the cavities. In the extremity of these gloomy recesses, about the close of day, were discovered five monstrous Toads, which finding their domains invaded, had crawled thither for safety. In the evening, this person, not in the least apprehensive of any evil consequences likely to ensue, returned to his house, where he had not been long seated by the fire, before he was seized with a sharp throbbing sensation never before experienced in that very part which, during the course of the previous day, had been so often pinched with the finger and thumb. In the night this increased, and before the ensuing morning, extended with a considerable degree of painful inflammation quite over his face, to the crown of his head upwards in a lateral direction to his ears and downwards to his shoulders. Though not yet aware of the source from whence the evil proceeded, still he now began to be alarmed, and recollecting what intercourse he so lately had with the ancient inhabitants of the hollow wall, to suspect the injury arose from them. On the following day, his nose was so swollen, his features so generally inflated, the colour of his face so heightened, that, independent of his corporal habiliments, not even a neighbour would have known him. In this state of pain, distortion, and suspense, did he continue nearly a week, at the end of which, finding no abatement of the malady, application was made to a farrier, who affixed a large leathern plaster consisting of honey and verdigrise, because it is reputed to have cured not long ago a man bitten by a viper in a hay-field, at Swinstead. To the part affected, this recipe had not been long applied, before its salutary efficacy began to be felt. Seven fertile ulcers burst out from his nose, which continued, for many days, to discharge a black foetid matter very profusely. The tumid member became daily less, the inflammation gradually subsided, the pain abated, and the features re-assumed their natural shape. The particulars of the above singular circumstance have thus been correctly and minutely detailed, with a view to caution persons, whose province more especially may lead them to such places as this and other reptiles are wont to inhabit, to convince them what seems clear beyond all possibility of doubt, that the Toad is actually possessed with a power of infusing, some how or other, a noxious quality into the human frame. The writer, however, begs to be understood, that, notwithstanding the reputed quality of the large leathern plaister, he does not vouch for its efficacy in the present, nor will he venture to recommend it in a future and similar instance, 2. To the Rev. SAMUEL HOPKINSON, Morton, near Bourn, Lincolnshire. REV. SIR, Soho-sq. June 18, 1808. YOUR favour, dated April 25, did not reach my hands till yesterday. For the account contained in it, I beg to thank you, though in fact I am not yet convinced that the swellings which took place in the nose of the person you describe, were owing to his having blown his nose with a finger with which he had touched stones blackened by the frequent contact of the Toads crawling over them. I have, from my childhood, in conformity to the precepts of a mother, void of all imaginary fear, been in constant habits of taking Toads in my hand, holding them there some time, and applying them to my face or nose, as it may happen. My motive for doing this very frequently, is to inculcate the opinion I have held since I was taught by my mother, that the Toad is actually a harmless animal, and to whose manner of life man is certainly under some obligation, as his food is chiefly those insects which devour his crops, and annoy him in various ways. To treat such an animal with cruelty, and to regard it with disgust, I have always considered as a vulgar error, and have thought it an act of humanity worthy the practice of a contemplative man, to convince his neighbours by every means in his power, that a helpless and harmless creature 1823.] Correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks, relative to the Toad. 13 creature ought rather to be regarded with complacence and kindness, than with disgust, terror, and consequent persecution. In practice of humanity towards the Toad, which has now been continued nearly 60 years, in which time I have removed from some hundreds of persons the disgust they had been accustomed to feel at the sight of a Toad, and induced many to handle the animal, and imitate my custom of applying it to the face in order to prove that the thin skin of the lips and the cheeks were not subject to damage by the touch. I have never, in one instance, observed any consequence to follow the contact of the human skin with that of a Toad more than what happens when a beast, a bird, or a fish is handled. I cannot, therefore, at once decide, that the swellings, inflammation, and ulcers, that appeared on the nose, arose from handling the stones against which the Toads had rubbed. I incline much more to suppose that it was the effect of some constitutional disease which accidentally took place soon after the man had found the Toads in the wall, and which was erroneously attributed to venom. I am, Rev. Sir, Your most obedient servant, 3. SIR JOSEPH, Morton, June 24. I AM much obliged by the handsome and diffuse manner in which you have been pleased to favour me with an answer. Though ready to pay the utmost deference to your opinion in all matters relating to the operations of nature, still, under circumstances, of which I have actually been in a great degree an eye witness, it is utterly impossible to resist all at once, and to reject altogether, the plain evidence of sense, or to peruse your plan for removing the aversion which the generality of men entertain for the Toad, without turning pale with horror. Had my neighbour Willson been addicted to habits of intemperance, which we see daily punished with fiery and distorted features: had he, from other causes, been subject to cutaneous disorders: could any plausible reason be assigned for the fabrication of so curious a falsehood, one, then, might hesitate a while in assenting to his story. To all this, however, the re verse is the fact. He is a plain, sober, industrious, active man on the verge of sixty, with a clear countenance that has never been deformed with a filthy ulcer, nor even with a pimple till a little after he had so repeatedly rejected that with his finger and thumb, at the same time he was employed in handling the stones, blackened and defiled by the reptiles in the cavity of the wall, which the highest orders of society commonly put carefully into the pocket. Nor has this person, since the seven ulcers ceased to flow, which was near three weeks after they first burst forth, been troubled with any similar complaint on any part of his body. Having never had the resolulution to view this loathsome reptile, even from a distance or on horseback, without great violation to my feelings, I cannot but contemplate your experiment with dread. Though you have applied the toad repeatedly and assiduously to the most vulnerable part, still, I trust, you will have the goodness to excuse me in observing that you probably had no crack, nor sore at the time of application upon your lips, while the extremities of Willson's nose were, from a combination of causes, viz. the dry severity of the day, the dripping of the mucus, and the attrition of the finger and pressure of thumb, were under a considerable degree of excoriation. At this time and in this state, do I conceive and believe was the noxious quality of this horrible reptile taken from the polluted stones by the finger and thumb, and conveyed directly by frequently pinching and squeezing the excoriated and humid nostrils to the nose. Supposing, however, that at the time of contact any openings existed upon your lips, we are not surely to infer, admitting its capability to infuse a venom, a certainty of your receiving the infection. You know, Sir Joseph, much better than I, that there is scarce any law in Nature without some exception. The small-pox, though a very common, not a general disorder. Some never is -14 Correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks, relative to the Toad, [July, take the measles. I never had the whooping-cough, and have, providentially, more than once escaped fevers, that seized my companions at school and college, and hurried them prematurely to the tomb. In like manner, when one hundred are bitten, perhaps not more than one dies of the hydrophobia, though neither sea water, the Ormskirk medicine, nor any other nostrum has contributed, in the least degree, to save one single individual of the remaining ninety and nine. I have carefully informed this person of the particulars of your humane and obliging letter, but so convinced is he that the virulent ulcers which flowed so long and so copiously from his nose were occasioned by the toads, and by nothing else, that I verily believe neither the dread of punishment, nor a promise of reward, will ever in duce him, any more than myself, to submit to the process you have been so good to state for removing this general and painful prejudice. Another circumstance, somewhat corroborative, though differing materially from the above, of the toad being a venomous animal occurred in December last. While shooting in the dark bosom of a wood, the busy actions of a setter were observed to indicate that a foreigner had taken shelter under the bottom of a bush. Our senses were excited and our armis brought to bear ready for the eager object of pursuit. Encouraged, the dog speared. You, Sir Joseph, will easily conceive my disappointment, and the sudden terror, which I can neither account for, nor conquer, that seized me altogether. A great toad was struggling and suspended from his jaws. I fled Gelidusque tremor per ossa cucurrit. In a few minutes, Nick, my companion, followed, somewhat dismayed, his ears drooping, his tail pendant, foaming. He soon recovered, and no bad consequence ensued. Upon inquiry, I found this very commonly happens to the dogs of wood-men, though I never heard of one being affected longer or in a different manner. I am, Sir Joseph, with many thanks for your extremely interesting and very obliging communication, Your most obedient Servant, 4. Rev. SIR, I HOPE you will excuse me if I have still some doubts of admitting the accessary fact, for, so I must call the mischief derived from a wall which had been stained by toads, as a repetition of the multitude of negative proofs in favour of the innocence of an animal I have for so many years experienced. I myself have seen the circumstance you mention, of a dog foaming at the mouth in consequence of his having seized a toad, but, as I held the toad by a leg in my hand when the dog snapped at it, and did not let it drop, I saw, also, that it voided a large quantity of the liquor a toad generally has within it, to keep up, as I believe, the necessary moisture of its parts. This fluid is very acid, but does not as far as I know produce any evil effect. It has been shed in my hand very frequently without the least injury. The cases of both the dog you saw and of my dog, were not followed with any disagreeable symptoms after the foam ceased to flow, which in my case soon happened. The dog hunted about with as much spirit as usual, eat heartily when he came home, and was in perfect health from that time forward. That Nature has provided mankind with an instinctive aversion to the toad I must also doubt. Instincts I believe to be generally bestowed on all individuals of the species to whom Nature has kindly imparted them, and to be guides much more unerring than the deductions of reason. In my own person I certainly never entertained the least fear of a toad, as the animal was presented to me when very young as an harmless creature, and I believe you will not find a single child who cries and shrinks from a toad, unless he has been taught to fear it. If you, Sir, could so far conquer the harmless reptile, as to cause one to aversion you have imbibed for this be put into a cage, if properly promat and properly kept clean, it will vided with a damp corner lined with live happily and comfortably a long time. Feed it once a day with earth it is very fond. I conceive that the worms, maggots, or flies, of all which workings of your reason would soon gain a victory over your prejudice, if you could conquer your first disgust, and look at the animal with any kind 1823.] Antient Napkin-Hirundo Species diminished. kind of indifference. You would soon feel a prejudice in favour of its shape, which, if flowing curves are beautiful, as all painters admit them to be, is certainly more elegant than that of a bird, whose beak is among the few instances in nature of an useful member appearing, when compared with the whole of the animal, ugly, as a straight lined cone certainly is. The eye of the toad would first attract your notice, which is brilliant and intelligent: his actions in seizing and securing his prey, which is composed of a mixture of force and cunning, would amuse you; and I am confident if the first prejudice was subdued, that in one week's time, a toad would become an object of amusement instead of disgust, and be regarded in future as a friend rather than an enemy. A friend of Lincolnshire he certainly is, for he never fails to seize and devour every midge that comes within his reach. I thank you, Sir, for the obliging offer you have made me of sending me copies of some manuscripts of the great Linnæus, never made public. will not however trouble you on that head. I respect the memory of the great botanist with more than common ardour, for the extensive be 15 On each side is a naked female figure supporting a wreath, in the centre of which, and immediately over the cross on the crown, is suspended a rose. Beneath the arms are four flowers, one of which is the violet, another a sort of water-flag, the third bears the thistle leaf, and the fourth appears to have rose leaves, but does not bear that flower. At each end is a wide border, containing, amongst arabesque devices, medallions, &c. a warrior with a spear, attacking a wild boar, and a hunter blowing his horn, whilst a greyhound is coursing a stag. The napkin is 42 inches long by 30 inches wide, and is in excellent pre servation. Mr. Cottingham, who has so ably delineated the chapel of King Henry VII. at Westminster*, and is consequently well acquainted with the various devices used at that period, is inclined to the opinion, that it was used at the coronation of that monarch, and I think it is more than probable it was formerly in the possession of our townsman Cardinal Wolsey. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, W. G. COLCHESTER. July 10. ARIOUS Correspondents have, for many years past (even before the commencement of the present century), been contributing towards rendering the Gentleman's Magazine a sort of continuation of the late Rev. Gilbert White's (in his excellent "History of Shelborne") interesting account of the Hirundo species. nefit science has derived from his ap-VARI I beg, Sir, you will believe me your very faithful and humble Servant, JOSEPH BANKS. Allow me, then, to record in your valuable Repository the extraordinary circumstance of House-Martins and Chimney-Swallows being very greatly diminished in number, fewer having appeared in the two years last past, and in the present, than used to present themselves to our view. I state the fact without attempting to offer any conjectures on what may be the cause of it, considering it to be as inexplicable as that which your corresponding ornithologists have discussed respecting the winter residence of these birds. AN OLD ORNITHOLOGIST. |