J.B.  COLMAN.

* * * * *

Replies To Minor Queries.

Master John Shorne.—­As neither MR. THOMS’ Notes (Vol. ii., p. 387.) nor MR. WAY’S (p. 450.) mention where this reputed saint lived, or speak of him as connected with Buckinghamshire, I will offer an extract from Lysons in the hope of casting some little light on the subject.

“North Marston.—­The church is a handsome Gothic structure; there is a tradition that the chancel was built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290, and it is said that the place became populous and flourishing in consequence of the great resort of persons to a well which he had blessed.  This story stands upon a better foundation than most vulgar traditions; the great tithes of North Marston are still appropriated to the dean and canons of Windsor, who, before the Reformation, might without difficulty have rebuilt the chancel, as it is very probable they did, with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, for we are told that they were so productive, that on an average they amounted to 500l. per annum.[1] Sir John Shorne, therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears to have been a saint of no small reputation.  The common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his memory by many traditional stories.  Browne Willis, says, that in his time there were people who remembered a direction-post standing, which pointed the way to Sir John Shorne’s shrine."[2]

North Marston, formerly Merston, is about four miles from Winslow.  I visited it about a year ago, and drank of the well, or spring, which is about a quarter of a mile from the village; but I know nothing of the traditions alluded to by Lysons.  The chancel of the church is a fine specimen of perpendicular style, with a vestry of the same date, and of two stories, with a fireplace in each.  I do not find North Marston, in Bucks, mentioned in Leland, Camden, or Defoe, nor can I meet with any account of Sir John Shorne in any books of English saints within my reach.  A copy of Browne Willis’s MSS. may be seen in the British Museum.

W.H.K.

[Footnote 1:  History of Windsor, p. 111.]

[Footnote 2:  B. Willis’s MSS., Bodleian Library.]

For the information of those who may not have the Norfolk Archaeology to refer to, let me add that John Shorne appears to have been rector of North Marston, in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1290, “and was held in great veneration for his virtues, which his benediction had imparted to a holy well in his parish, and for his miracles, one of which, the feat of conjuring the devil into a boot, was considered so remarkable that it was represented in the east window of his church.”

E.S.T.

Antiquity of Smoking.—­The passage is in Herodian.  In the time of Commodus there was a {521} pestilence in Italy.  The emperor went to Laurentum for the benefit of the smell of the laurel trees.