en
in the _Biographia Britannica_, vol. v., and in Chalmers' and Rose's
Biographical Dictionaries.]

_Hampden's Death._--Was the great patriot Hampden actually slain by the
enemy on Chalgrove Field? or was his death, as some have asserted, {496}
caused by the bursting of his own pistol, owing to its having been
incautiously overcharged?

T. J.

Worcester.

[See the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for May, 1815, p. 395., for "A true and
faithfull Narrative of the Death of Master Hambden, who was mortally
wounded at Challgrove Fight, A.D. 1643, and on the 18th of June." From
this narrative we learn, that whilst Hampden was fighting against
Prince Rupert at Chalgrove Field, he was struck with two carbine-balls
in the shoulder, which broke the bone, and terminated fatally.]

* * * * *

Replies.

"PINECE WITH A STINK."

(Vol. viii., pp. 270. 350.)

I would not have meddled with this subject if R. G., getting on a wrong
scent, had not arrived at the very extraordinary conclusion that Bramhall
meant a "pinnace," and an "offensive composition well known to sailors!"

The earliest notice that I have met with of the _pinece_ in an English
work, is in the second part of the _Secrets of Maister Alexis of Piemont_,
translated by W. Warde, Lond. 1568. There I find the following
secrets--worth knowing, too, if effective:

"_Against stinking vermin called Punesies._--If you rub your bedsteede
with squilla stamped with vinaigre, or with the leaves of cedar tree
sodden in oil, you shall never feel punese. Also if you set under the
bed a payle full of water the puneses will not trouble you at all."

Butler, in the first canto of the third part of _Hudibras_, also mentions
it thus:

"And stole his talismanic louse--
His flea, his morpion, and punaise."

If the Querist refers to his French dictionary he will soon discover the
meaning of _morpion_ and _punaise_--the latter without doubt the _pinece_
of Bishop Bramhall. Cotgrave, in his _French-English Dictionary_, London,
1650, defines _punaise_ to be "the noysome and stinking vermin called the
bed punie."

It may be bad taste to dwell any longer on this subject; but as it
illustrates a curious fact in natural history, and as it has been well
said, that whatever the Almighty has thought proper to create is not
beneath the study of mankind, I shall crave a word or two more.

The _pinece_ is not or