10s., as I learn from a priced copy of the catalogue), and was highly valued. To judge from the above description, it must have been a very beautiful book; and as it does not seem to be at present among the Harleian collection of MSS. in the British Museum, I should be glad to learn into whose hands it has fallen. It is not the celebrated volume of Hours known under the name of the Bedford Missal, since that was purchased by Lord Harley of Lady Worseley, and is now in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Tobin;—nor is it the book of Hours in the library of the Duke of Devonshire (described by Dr. Dibbin in the Bibl. Decameron, vol. i. p. 155.), which contains the autograph notes of Henry VII.;—nor is it the similar volume formerly in the libraries of George Wilkinson, of Tottenham Green (sold in 1836), and the Rev. Will. Maskell, and now MS. Add. 17,012. in the British Museum, in which are seen the autographs of Henry VII. and his Queen, Henry VIII., Catherine of Aragon, and others;—nor is it the beautiful volume of Hours executed for René d'Anjou, and subsequently presented to Henry VII. by his chaplain George Strangeways, Archdeacon of Coventry (now in the British Museum, MS. Eg. 1070.);—nor, lastly, is it the book of Hours in the collection of George III. (No. 9.), which contains the autograph writing of Henry VIII.

F.M. B.M., Feb. 19. 1850.

Bess of Hardwick.—Elizabeth, or Bess of Hardwick, celebrated for her distaste for celibacy, makes a considerable figure in the histories of the Cavendish family, who in some degree owed their greatness to her judicious purchases and careful management of their Derbyshire estates.

It appears, from the Derbyshire Visitations, that she was one of the daughters of John Hardwick, of Hardwick co. Derby, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leake, of Hasland co. Derby, and that John Hardwick died 19 Hen. VIII.

Can any of your readers inform me of the pedigree of this John Hardwick?—what arms, crest, motto and quarterings he made use of?—what persons now living are descended from him?—and what became of his estates?

I presume that your typographical arrangements do not admit of the insertion of a regular pedigree; but the descents may be stated as in Burke and similar Books.

GULES

Cæsar's Wife..—"NASO" wishes to know where the proverbial saying, "Cæsar's wife must not even be suspected," first occurs.

Minar's Books of Antiquities.—Can any one conversant with the works of Cardinal Nicolas de Cusa inform me what author he quotes as "Minar in his Books of Antiquities," in what language, and where existing? De Doctâ Ignorantiâ, I. i. cap. 7.

A.N.

Proverb against Physicians.—"M.D." wishes to be informed of the earliest writer who mentions the proverb "Ubi tres Medici, duo Athei."

Compendyous Olde Treatyse.—In Ames's Typographical Antiquities, vol. i. p. 405. (ed. Herbert), is described a work, printed by Rycharde Banckes, some time between 1525 and 1545, entitled, "A compendyous olde treatyse shewynge howe that we ought to have the Scripture in Englyshe, with the Auctours." 12mo. 18 leaves. This copy belonged to Herbert himself, and was probably obtained at the sale of Thomas Granger, in 1732. Any information as to its wherabout at present, or the existence of any other copy of the above tract, would confer a fabour on the inquirer.

F.M.

The Topography of Foreign Printing Presses.—I have often been at a loss to discover the locality of names which designate the places where books have been printed at Foreign presses; and "when found" to "make a note of it." I was therefore pleased to find in No. 16. p. 251., by the reply of "R.G." to Mr. Jebb, that "Cosmopolis was certainly Amsterdam," and that "Coloniæ" signifies "Amstelædami." And I will take the liberty of suggesting that it would be an acceptable service rendered to young students, if your learned correspondents would occasionally communicate in the pages of your work, the modern names, &c. of such places as are not easily gathered from the books themselves.

P.H.F.

Cromwell's Estates.—In Carlyle's edition of Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, there is a note (p. 75. vol. iv. of the 3rd ed. 1850) containing a list of the estates which the Protector owned at the time of his death, as follows; there being, besides Newhall, specified as "in Essex," five, viz.—

of which the editor has ascertained the localities; and six, viz.—

of which, he say, "he knows nothing."

It would surely be a proper, and, one might hope, an attainable object of inquiry, to search out these unplaced estates of the great Protector, and give them a local habitation in modern knowledge. This is precisely one of the kind of queries which your publication seems best fitted to aid; and I therefore submit it, in the hope of some discoveries, to your correspondents.

V. Belgravia, Feb. 18, 1850.

What are Depinges?—In the orders made in 1574 for regulating the fishery at Yarmouth, the Dutch settlers there are "To provide themselves with twine and depinges in foreign places." What are Depinges?

J.S.B.

REPLIES

ORIGIN OF THE JEWS-HARP.

The "Jews-harp," or "Jews-trump," is said by several authors to derive its name from the nation of the Jews, and is vulgarly believed to be one of their instruments of music. Dr. Littleton renders Jews-trump by Sistrum Judaicum. But no such musical intrument is spoken of by any of the old authors that treat of the Jewish music. In fact, the Jews-harp is a mere boy's plaything, and incapable of in itself of being joined either with a voice or any other instrument; and its present orthography is nothing more than a corruption of the French Jeu-trompe, literally, a toy trumpet. It is called jeu-trompe by Bacon, Jew-trump by Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jews-harp by Hackluyt. In a rare black-letter volume, entitled Newes from Scotland, 1591, there is a curious story of one Geilles Duncan, a noted performer on the "Jews-harp," whose performance seems not only to have met with the approval of a numerous audience of witches, but to have been repeated in the presence of royalty, and by command of no less a personage than the "Scottish Solomon," king James VI. Agnes Sampson being brought before the king's majesty and his council, confessed that

"Upon the night of All-hallow-even last, shee was accompanied as well with the persons aforesaid, as also with a great many other witches, to the number of two-hundredth; and that all they together went to sea, each one in a riddle or sive, and