Notes and Queries, Number 214, December 3, 1853

[The following translation of this epitaph is given in the Ency. Britannica, but it is there stated to be in St. Mark's, Florence:

"Here lies Politian, who, things strange indeed,
Had, when alive, three tongues, and but one head."]

Epitaph in Torrington Churchyard, Devon.—

"She was—my words are wanting to say what.
Think what a woman should be—she was that."

Which provoked the following reply:

"A woman should be both a wife and mother,
But Jenny Jones was neither one nor t'other."

    Balliolensis.
The early Delights of Philadelphia.—In Gabriel Thomas's Description of the Settlement of Philadelphia occurs the following passage:

"In the said city are several good schools of learning for youth, for the attainment of arts and sciences, also reading and writing. Here is to be had, on any day in the week, cakes, tarts, and pies; we have also several cook-shops, both roasting and boiling, as in the city of London: happy blessings, for which we owe the highest gratitude to our plentiful Provider, the great Creator of heaven and earth."

Is not this a superb jumble?

    A Leguleian.

Misapplication of Terms.—Legend is a thing "to be read" (legendum), but it is often improperly applied to traditions and oral communications. Of this there have been some instances in "N. & Q." One has just turned up, Vol. v., p. 196.: "I send you these legends as I have heard them from the lips of my nurse, a native of the parish."

    J. W. Thomas.

Dewsbury.

"Plantin" Bibles in 1600.—While looking over the "Stackhouse Library" (see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 327.), I observed on the fly-leaf of an Hebrew Bible, 1600 (A. 100 in catalogue), a short MS. memorandum, which I think worth preserving. It ran as follows:

    R. C. Warde.

Kidderminster.

Ancient Gold Collar found in Staffordshire.—It may probably interest some of your readers to know that a very ancient golden collar was lately found in the village of Stanton, Staffordshire, which is about three miles north of Ashbourne.

A labourer digging up a field, which had not been ploughed or dug up in the memory of man, turned up the collar, which, being curled up at the time, sprang up, and the labourer taking it for a snake, struck it out of his way with his spade: the next morning it was discovered not to be a snake. Unfortunately the blow had broken off a small piece at one end. The collar is now in the possession of the person with whom the curate of Stanton lodges. The description given to me is, that it is about two feet long, and formed of three pieces of gold twined together, and, with the above exception, in a very good state of preservation.

I hear that there is a similar collar in the British Museum, that was found in Ireland, but none that was found in England; and that the authorities of the Museum have been informed of this collar, but have taken no steps to obtain possession of it.

    S. G. C.

[Our correspondent is under an erroneous impression as to gold torques not being found in England. Several are figured in the Archæologia, and we have some reason to believe that the torque now described, and of which we should be glad to receive any farther particulars, resembles one which formed part of the celebrated Polden find described by Mr. Harford in the fourteenth volume of the Archæologia, and figured at p. 90.; and also that found at Boyton in Suffolk in 1835, and engraved in the Archæologia, vol. xxvi. p. 471.—Ed.]

Queries

PICTURES IN HAMPTON COURT PALACE

There are two or three of these concerning which I should be obliged to any reader of your publication who would satisfy my Queries.

No. 119., "The Battle of Forty," by P. Snayers. This seems a kind of combat à outrance of knights armés de pied en cap. Where can I find any account or detail of it?

No. 314., "Mary of Lorraine, mother of Mary Queen of Scots." This is a very pleasing picture, in good preservation, and as it was not in its present position two years ago, I conclude it has recently been added. She was ninth child of Claude de Lorraine, first Duc de Guise, born in 1515, and married in 1538 to James V. of Scotland, and she died in the forty-fifth year of her age, 10th June, 1560. There are the arms of the Guise family in the right-hand corner, with a date of 1611. Pray by whom was it painted, and where can find any notices respecting it?

No. 166., "George III. reviewing the 10th Light Dragoons, commanded by the Prince of Wales." This picture was considered the chef d'œuvre of Sir William Beechey, and was painted in 1798; and it has been supposed the likeness of the Duke of York was the best taken of that Prince. Could any reader inform me on what day this review took place?[1 - George III. had one or two copies of this picture taken for him; and there is a curious circumstance relative to one of these, which Lady Chatterton mentions in her Home Sketches, published in three vols. 8vo., 1841: "In one respect the picture (which George III. gave to Lord Sidmouth, and which the latter had put up at the stone lodge in Richmond New Park) differs from the original at Hampton Court: it is singular enough that in this copy the figure of the Prince is omitted, which was done by the King's desire, and is a striking and rather comical proof of the dislike which he felt towards his son. When the Prince became King, he dined here, and remarked to Lord Sidmouth that his portrait had been omitted, and hinted that it ought to be restored. This, however, was evaded, and the copy remains in its original state."—Vol. i. pp. 18, 19.]

When one sees a picture of Shakspeare, No. 276., and more especially in the palace of his cotemporary sovereigns, one is naturally led to inquire into its authenticity. I am therefore desirous to obtain some information relative to it.

In "N. & Q.," vol. vi., p. 197., you had several correspondents inquiring concerning the custom of royalty dining in public: perhaps it may interest them to know that there are two very attractive pictures of this ceremony in this collection, numbered 293 and 294: the first is of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria; the other Frederick V., Count Palatine and King of Bohemia, who married Elizabeth, daughter of James I. These two pictures are by Van Bassen, of whom, perhaps, some correspondent may be enabled to give an account.

    Φ.

Richmond, Surrey.

Minor Queries

Helmets.—What is the antiquity of the practice of placing helmets over the shields of armorial bearings; and what are the varieties of helmets in regard to the rank or degree of persons?

    S. N.

The Nursrow.—What is the origin of the word Nursrow, a name applied by Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, to the shrew mouse, and by the common people in Cheshire at the present day to the field-mouse; or rather, perhaps, indiscriminately to field and shrew mice?

    N. R.

City Bellmen.—When were city bellmen first established? By whom appointed? What were their duties? What and how were they paid? What have been their employment and duties down to the present day?

    Crito.

Pope's Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady.—In the new editions of Pope's Works, in course of publication, edited by Mr. Carruthers, Inverness, it is conjectured that the poet threw "ideal circumstances" into his most pathetic and melodious elegy, and "when he came to publish his letters, put wrong initials, as in other instances, to conceal the real names" (Pope's Poet. Works, Ingram, Cook, and Co., vol. ii. p. 184.). The initials are Mrs. W., niece of Lady A. I have always thought that a clue might be obtained to the name of this lady, by following up the hints in Pope's printed correspondence. Mrs. or Miss W. is mentioned or alluded to by Craggs and Pope, in connexion with the characters in the Rape of the Lock. One suggests the other. Inquiry should be directed to the families of Fernor of Tusmore, Lord Petre, and Sir George Brown. But I have heard a tradition in a Catholic family in the north of England that the lady was a Blount; probably one of the Blounts of Soddington, or of some one of the numerous branches of that ancient family.

    An Inquirer.

"Too wise to err, too good to be unkind."—In what author may this passage be found?

"Too wise to err, too good to be unkind."

    E. P. H.
Clapham.

Passage in the "Christian Year."—In the beautiful lines on Confirmation in this work, the following verse occurs:

"Steady and pure as stars that beam
In middle heaven, all mist above,
Seen deepest in the frozen stream:—
Such is their high courageous love."

I should be grateful for an explanation of the third line.