_Queries relating to the Porter Family._--Above the inscription on the tablet erected by a devoted friend to the memory of this highly-gifted family in Bristol Cathedral, is a medallion of a portcullis surrounded by the word AGINCOURT, and surmounted by the date 1415.--What connexion is there between Agincourt[2] and the Porter family?
Did Sir R. K. Porter write on account of Sir John Moore's campaign in the Peninsula?--What is the title of the book, and where can it be procured?[3]
Who was Charles Lempriere Porter (who died Feb. 14, 1831, aged thirty-one), mentioned on the Porter tombstone in St. Paul's churchyard at Bristol?--Who was Phoebe, wife of Dr. Porter, who died Feb. 20, 1845, aged seventy-nine, and whose name also occurs on this stone?
Did this family (which is now supposed to be extinct) claim descent from Endymion Porter, the loyal and devoted adherent of King Charles the Martyr?
[Footnote 2: It refers to Sir Robert Ker Porter's third great battle-piece, AGINCOURT: which memorable battle took place October 25, 1415. Sir Robert presented it to the city of London, and it is still in the possession of the corporation: it was hung up in the Guildhall a few years since.]
[Footnote 3: In 1808, Sir R. K. Porter accompanied Sir John Moore's expedition to the Peninsula, and attended the campaign throughout, up to the closing catastrophe of the battle of Corunna. On his return to England, he published anonymously, _Letters from Portugal and Spain, written during the March of the Troops under Sir John Moore_, 1809, 8vo.--ED.]
_Lord Ball of Bagshot._--Coryat, in his _Crudities_, vol. ii. p. 471., edit. 1776, tells us that at St. Gewere, near Ober-Wesel--
"There hangeth an yron collar fastened in the wall, with one linke fit to be put upon a man's neck, without any manner of hurt to the party that weareth it.
"This collar doth every stranger and freshman, the first time that he passeth that way, put upon his neck, which he must weare so long standing till he hath redeemed himself with a competent measure of wine."
Coryat submitted himself to the collar "for novelty sake," and he adds:
"This custome doth carry some kinde of affinity with certain sociable ceremonies that wee have in a place of England, which are performed by that most reuerend Lord _Ball_ of Bagshot, in Hampshire, who doth with many, and indeed more solemne, rites inuest his brothers of his vnhallowed chappell of Basingstone (Basingstoke?) (as all our men of the westerne parts of England do know by deare experience to the smart of their purses), to these merry burgomaisters of Saint _Gewere_ vse to do."