To return to the wood of the cross. In Sir John Maundeville's time a spot was pointed out at Jerusalem as the spot where the tree grew:
"To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of the cross grew."--P. 175.
and he speaks of the wood of this tree as having once been used as a bridge over the brook Cedron (p. 176.). Henry Maundrell describes a Greek convent that he visited, about half an hour's distance from Jerusalem:
"That which most deserves to be noted in it, is the reason of its name and foundation. It is because there is the earth that nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the timber, that made the cross. Under the high altar you are shown a hole in the ground where the stump of the tree stood."--P. 462.
These are some of the legendary traditions regarding the history and site of the wood of the cross, up to the time of the Passion of Christ.
I have been waiting for several months in expectation of seeing some satisfactory reply to URSULA'S Query. It seems, however, that, in common with myself, your numerous correspondents are quite at a nonplus. Wood, in his _Athenæ Oxoniensis_, vol. ii. p. 163., mentions this Edmund Chaloner as being about nineteen (URSULA says twenty-one) years old at the death of his father, James Chaloner, in 1660. Wood, Granger, as also Burke in his _Extinct Baronetage_, represent James as being the fourth son of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Gisborough, in the county of York, and this appears to be the general impression as to his parentage. In a _History of Cheshire_, however, written, I believe, by Cowdray, and published in 1791, the author claims him as a native of that county, and makes him to be of much { 335} humbler birth and descent than any of his other biographers. Hear him in his own words:
"Our succeeding (Cheshire) collectors form a family harmonic trio, a father, son, and grandson, of the surname of Chaloner, and of the several Christian names, Thomas, Jacob, and _James_. Thomas was an arms-painter in Chester about 1594; he knew the value of learning sufficiently to give his son a better education than he received himself. And this son followed the same occupation in Chester, and made collections, about the year 1620. But it was _James_, the grandson, who reflected the greatest credit upon his family, by a very concise, accurate, and sensible account of the Isle of Man, printed at the end of King's _Vale Royal_, in 1656. He laid the foundation of a learned education in our much honoured college (Brazennoze); and when the parliament invested Lord Fairfax with the Seignory of Man, he was one of his lordship's three commissioners for settling the affairs of that island. The antiquarian collections of all the three Chaloners are valuable."