[Thanks to the kindness of our correspondent "C.W.B.," we
have referred to Dugdale's _Warwickshire_ (ed. Thomas, 1730).
vol. i. p. 309., and extract from it the following proof that
Walpole had authority for his story. Who knows, after this,
but we may in the same way trace from whence he procured the
celebrated letter of the Countess of Pembroke, respecting
which there is a query from Mr. Peter Cunningham, in No. 2.
p. 28.
"As king Charles the First marched to Edgcot, near Banbury, on
22nd Oct., 1642, he saw him hunting in the fields not far from
Shuckborough, with a very good pack of hounds, upon which it
is reported, that he fetched a deep sigh and asked who that
gentleman was that hunted so merrily that morning, when he was
going to fight for his crown and dignity. And being told {339}
that it was this Richard Shuckburgh, he was ordered to be
called to him, and was by him very graciously received. Upon
which he went immediately home, armed all his tenants, and the
next day attended on him in the field, where he was knighted,
and was present at the battle of Edghill."]
_Mousetrap Dante_ (No. 10. pp. 154, 155.).--I beg to refer your
correspondent to the Visconte Colomb de Batines' _Bibliographia
Dantesea_ (Prato, 1845-48. 8vo.), tom. ii. pp. 264, 265., where he
will find a list (correct so far as it goes) of the fifteen MSS. of
the _Comedia_, purchased for the Bodleian Library about the year 1822,
from the Abbate Matteo Canonici, of Venice.
I have reason for believing, that the only MSS. which exist in that
collection, in addition to those enumerated in the list, are: 1.
Canon Ital. 100. "Compendium Cujusdam Commentarii" (4to paper); and
2. "Codices Canonici Miscellanei 449." fol., _vellum_ (it cannot
therefore be this), which contains the complete commentary of Jacopo
dalla Lana.