_The Tradescants_ (Vol. iii, pp. 119. 286. 353. 391.).--In common with
several of your correspondents, I have for some time past taken great
interest in the Tradescants, and have read with much pleasure the
letters of DR. RIMBAULT, MR. SINGER, and MR. PINKERTON.
I have hitherto been unsuccessful in discovering any further particulars
of the family of the Tradescants; but a few days since, in looking into
a copy of Dr. Ducarel's tract on the subject, preserved among the books
in the Ashmolean Museum, I found the following note in pencil, not very
legibly written in the margin of the tract, where Dr. Ducarel says he
has not been able to find any account in the Lambeth Register of the
death of the elder Tradescant. "Consult (with certainty of finding
information concerning the Tradescants) the Registers of ----apham,
Kent." Since this note was written, the tract has been bound and the
commencement of several words cut off. Amongst them is the name of the
place of which the registers are to be consulted. I imagine it to be
_Meapham_ (_apham_ is all that can be read).
Perhaps some of your correspondents may have an opportunity of
consulting the registers of Meapham, and should any information
respecting the Tradescants be found there, the marginal note will not
have been without its use.
I am looking forward with great interest to the information which MR.
PINKERTON promises us on the subject; and should this letter be the
means of directing him to a new source of information, it will be a
matter of great satisfaction to me.
C.C.R.
Linc. Coll., Oxon.
_St. John's Bridge Fair_ (Vol. iii., pp. 88. 287. 341.).--Having
received the last polish at Peterborough Grammar School in 1840, and
from a three years' residence off and on, I am enabled to speak to the
fact of there being two fairs held at Peterborough.
One, commonly called St. John's Fair, is usually held on the 18th July;
but whether it is also called _St. John's Bridge Fair_ I am unable to
say, as this fair was always held in our holidays, although it might be
so termed.
The other, commonly called "Bridge Fair," is held in the early part of
October, and is so called from its proximity to the bridge. The piece in
which the fairs are held is called the Bridge Close. Indeed I believe
both these fairs were held in the same piece, or at least close by each
other, although held at different times.
I hope this may assist, but whether it is the same spoken of at p. 88. I
cannot say.