There are some who differ from Hazlitt in the present day, and assert that there is an error in the press in Dogberry's reproof of Borachio for calling him an "ass." The passage as it stands is as follows:

"I am a wise fellow; and which is more, an officer, and which is more, a householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him."

His having had losses evidently meaning, though he was then poor, that his circumstances were at one time so prosperous, that he could afford to bear losses; and he, even then, had a superfluity of wardrobe in "two gowns, and everything handsome about him." But this little word losses, the perfect Shakspearian quaintness of which is universally acknowledged, is to be changed into leases; if it should be leases, how is it that it does not follow upon "householder," instead of being introduced so many words after? as, if leases were the proper word, it would assuredly have suggested itself immediately as an additional item to his respectability as a householder: for a moment only fancy similar corrections to be introduced in others of Shakspeare's plays, and Falstaff be made to exclaim at the robbery at Gad's Hill, "Down with them, they dislike us old men," instead of "they hate us youth;" for Falstaff was no boy at the time, and this might be advanced as an authority for the emendation. But seriously, if this alteration is sent forth as a specimen of the improvements about to be effected in Shakspeare, from an edition of his plays lately discovered, I shall, for one, deeply regret that it was ever rescued front its oblivion; for with my prejudices and prepossessions against interpolations, and in favour of old readings, I shall find it no easy matter to reconcile my mind to the new. Strip history of its romance, and you deprive it of its principal charm; the scenery of a play-house imposes upon us an illusion, and though we know it to be so, it is not essential that the impression should be removed. I remember once travelling at night in Norfolk, and a part of my way was through a wood, at the end of which I came upon a lake lit up by a magnificent moon. I subsequently went the same road by day: the wood, I then found, was a mere belt of trees, and the lake had dwindled to a duck-pond. I have ever since wished that the first impression had remained unchanged; but this is a digression. There is no author so universal as Shakspeare, and would that be the case if he was not thoroughly understood? He is appreciated alike in the closet and on the stage, quoted by saints and sages, in the pulpit and the senate, and your nostrum-monger advertises his wares with a quotation from his pages; does he then require interpreting who is his own interpreter? Johnson says of him that—

And that he—

There is no passion that he has not pourtrayed, and laid bare in its beauty or deformity; no feeling or affection to which his genius has not given the stamp of immortality: and does he want an interpreter? It is treading on dangerous ground to attempt to improve him. Even Mr. Knight, enthusiast as he is in his veneration for Shakspeare, and who, by his noble editions of the poet's works, has won the admiration and secured the gratitude of every lover of the poet, has gone too far in his emendations when he changes a line in Romeo and Juliet from

to

As in the latter case the line will not scan unless the word "friar" be reduced to a monosyllable, which, on reflection, I think Mr. Knight will be inclined to admit. But my paper is, I fear, extending to a limit beyond which you have occasionally warned your correspondents not to go, and I must therefore draw my remarks to a close, with a hope that not any offence will be taken where none is intended by those to whom any of my observations may apply.

George Blink.

Canonbury.

"THE DANCE OF DEATH."

Amongst the numerous emblematic works, it has often appeared to me that the above work should be republished entire; to give any part of it would be spoiling a most admirable series. I should desire to see it executed not as a fac-simile, but improved by good modern artists. The history of "The Dance of Death" is too long and too obscure to enter upon here; but from the general tenor of the accounts and criticisms of the work, it does not appear to have originated at all with Hans Holbein, or even his father, who also really painted it at Basil, in Switzerland, but to have had its origin in more remote times, as quoted in several authors, that anciently monasteries usually had a painted representation of a Death's Dance upon the walls. It is a subject, therefore, open to any artist, nor could it be said he had pirated anything if he treated the subject after his own fashion. "The Dance of Death" begins of course with king, the queen, the bishop, the lawyer, the lovers, &c., and ends with the child, whom Death is leading away from the weeping mother. The original plates of Hollar, from Holbein's drawings, are possibly still extant, but they are by no means perfect, although admirable in expression. The deaths or skeletons are very ill-drawn as to the anatomical structure, and were they better the work would be excellent. The Death lugging off the fat abbot is inimitable; and the gallant way he escorts the lady abbess out the convent door is very good. I have the engravings by Hollar, and have made some of the designs afresh, intending to lithograph them at some future day; but there being thirty subjects in all, the work would be a difficult task. Mr. J. B. Yates might, indeed, with his excellent collection of Emblemata, revive this old and beautiful taste now in abeyance: it is now rarely practised by our painters. There is, however, a very fine picture in the Royal Academy Exhibition, by Mr. Goodall, which is, strictly speaking, an emblem, though the artist calls it an historical episode. Now it appears to me an episode cannot be reduced into a representation; it might embrace a complete picture in writing, but as I read the picture it is an emblem, and would have been still more perfect had the painter treated it accordingly. The old man at the helm of the barge might well represent Strafford, because, though he holds the tiller, he is not engaged in steering right, his eyes are not directed to his port. Charles himself, rightly enough, has his back to the port, and is truly not engaged in manly affairs, nor attending to his duty; but the sentiment of frivolity here painted cannot, I should say, attach itself to him, for he is not to be reproached with idling away his time with women and children, as this more strictly must be laid to his son. But the port where some grim-looking men are seriously waiting for him, completes a very happy and poetical idea, but incomplete as an emblem, which it really is; and were the emblematic rules more cultivated, it would have told its story much better.

At present, the taste of the day lies in more direct caricature, and our volatile friend Punch does the needful in his wicked sallies of wit, and his fertile pencil. His sharp rubs are perhaps more effective to John Bull's temper, who can take a blow with Punch's truncheon and bear no malice after it,—the heavy lectures of the ancients are not so well suited to his constitution.

Weld Taylor.

Bayswater.

Minor Notes.

Old Lines newly revived.—The old lines of spondees and dactyls are just now applicable:—

W. Collyns.

Harlow.

Inscription near Cirencester.—In Earl Bathurst's park, near Cirencester, stands a building—the resort in the summer months of occasional pic-nic parties. During one of these visits, at which I was present, I copied an inscription, painted in old characters on a board, and nailed to one of the walls, and as the whole thing had not the appearance of belonging to modern times, and, as far as I could decipher it, it referred to some agreement between Alfred and some of his neighbouring brother kings, concerning boundaries of territory, I send it to you for insertion.

A. Smith.

cross "FŒDVS . QUOD . ÆLFREDVS . ET . LVTHRVNVS . REGES . OMNES . ANGLIAM . INTOLEBANT . ORIENTALEM . FERIERVNT . ET . NON . SOLVM . DE . SEIPSIS . VERVM . ETIAM . DE . NATIS . SVIS . AC . NONDVM . IN . LVCEM . EDITIS . QVOTQVOT . MISERICORDIÆ . DIVINÆ . AVT . REGIÆ . VELVNT . ESSE . PARTICIPES . JVREJVRANDO . SANXERVNT." cross

cross "PRIMO . DITIONIS . NOSTRÆ . FINES . TAMESIN . EVEHVNTOR . INDE . LEAM . VSQVE . FONTEM . EJVS . TAM . RECTA . AD . BEDFORDIAM . AC . DENIQVE . PER . VSAM . AD . VIAM . VETE . LINTIANAM."

Wordsworth.—In Wordsworth's touching "Lament of Mary Queen of Scots," one of the stanzas opens with:

Is it straining a point to suppose that the author has here translated the opening words of the well-known epitaph on the Empress Matilda, mother of our Henry II.?

A. W.

Sunningdale.

"Magna est Veritas et prævalebit."—I was asked the other day whence came this hackneyed quotation. It is taken from the uncanonical Scriptures, 3 Esdras iv. 41.:

"Et desiit loquendo: Et omnes populi clamaverunt, et dixerunt: Magna est veritas, et prævalet."

T. H. de H.

"Putting your Foot into it."—The legitimate origin of this term I have seen thus explained. Perhaps it may pass as correct until a better be found. According to the Asiatic Researches, a very curious mode of trying the title to land is practised in Hindostan. Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyers on either side put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired, or complains of being stung by insects, in which case his client is defeated. An American writer has remarked that in the United States it is generally the client, and not the lawyer, "who puts his foot in it."

W. W.

Malta.

Queries.

FRAGMENTS OF MSS.

Dr. Maitland, in his valuable volume on the "Dark Ages," has the following remarks on a subject which I think has not met with the attention it deserves:

"Those who are in the habit of looking at such things, know how commonly early printed books, whose binding has undergone the analytical operation of damp, or mere old age, disclose the under end pieces of beautiful and ancient manuscript. They know how freely parchment was used for backs and bands, and fly-leaves, and even for covers. The thing is so common, that those who are accustomed to see old books have ceased to notice it."

In order to come within the design of your pages, I must put this in the shape of a Query, and ask, if it is not a pity that this fact has ceased to be noticed? We do not know what treasures may be contained in the shabby covers which we contemplate getting rid of. "There are thousands" (of MSS.), says the same writer, "equally destroyed,—thousands of murdered wretches not so completely annihilated: their ghosts do walk the earth; they glide unseen into our libraries, our studies, our very hands; they are all about and around us. We even take them up and lay them down, without knowing of their existence; unless time and damp (as if to punish and mock us for robbing them of their prey) have loosed their bonds, and set them to confront us."

Archbishop Tenison had not "ceased to notice it." He very diligently rescued these "fragments" from the hands of his bookbinder and it is to be regretted that he did not take equal precaution in preserving them. Recently, all that I could collect have been cleaned, inlaid, and arranged chronologically, making two interesting and valuable volumes.

How far would it be desirable to unite for the purpose of collecting MS. fragments, and early printed leaves?

Might not a Society, which should have for its especial object the discovery, cataloguing, and circulating information about these stray bits, be of great service? E. g. I have before me five volumes of Justinian's Codices and Digesta, Paris, 1526; the covers of which are made of MS. Thirteen leaves go to make one board. They are written on both sides and thus an easy multiplication gives us 260 pages of MS., or early printing, in the covers of one work!

It is not unlikely that, if the results of research in this direction were carefully registered, many perfect pieces might be recovered.

Philip Hale.

Archbishop Tenison's Library,
St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

I have just met with a passage in the Pseudodoxia Epidemica of Sir Thomas Browne, wherein this invention is foreshadowed in terms more remarkable and significant, if less imaginative and beautiful, than that from The Spectator, to which public attention has already been directed, and which, I conceive, must unquestionably have been written, with this particular example of the "received tenets and commonly presumed truths" of the learned physician's day, distinctly present to the mind of Addison. The passage referred to is as follows:

"There is another conceit of better notice, and whispered thorow the world with some attention; credulous and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and more judicious and distinctive heads not altogether rejecting it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would follow, somewhat divine: whereby we might communicate like spirits, and confer on earth with Menippus in the moon. And this is pretended from the sympathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, and placed in the centre of two abecedary circles, or rings with letters described round about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other, and agreeing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. For then, saith tradition, at what distance of place soever, when one needle shall be removed unto any letter, the other, by a wonderful sympathy, will move unto the same."—Book II. chap. ii, 4to., 1669, p. 77.

Thus it is that "coming events cast their shadows before:" and, in the present case, one is curious to learn how far back the shadow may be traced. By whom has this conceit been whispered thorow the world? and in what musty tomes is that tradition concealed, which speaks concerning it? Kircher's Catena Magnetica might haply tell us something in reply to these inquiries.

In conformity with an often repeated suggestion to the correspondents of "N. & Q.," to the simple signature of my habitat, alone hitherto adopted by me, I now subjoin my name.

Wm. Matthews.

Cowgill.

Minor Queries.

Sir Walter Raleigh.—In the discussions on the copyright question some years ago, Sir Walter Raleigh was mentioned as one of the authors whose posterity is totally extinct; but in his Life, as given in Lodge's Portraits, his descendants are given as far down as his great-grandchildren, of whom many were still living in 1699, at which period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. It seems unlikely that a family then so numerous should have utterly perished since, both in its male and female branches; and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to trace their subsequent history: the name is certainly not extinct, whether its bearers be his descendants or not.

Is the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert descended from one of Sir Walter's half-brothers?

J. S. Warden.

Ancient Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost.—In the Clause Rolls, 16 John, M. 6. (Public Records, vol. i. p. 192.) is a warrant of King John's, addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay of Doncaster, as follows:

"Mandam' vob' qđ villa de Danecastr claudi faciatis heritone et palo scđm qđ fossatu fcm exigit, et una leve bretasca fi faciatis sup ponte ad villa defendenda."

Which, in Miller's History of that town (p. 40.), is thus translated:

"We command ye, cause the town of Doncaster to be inclosed with hertstone and pale, according as the ditch that is made doth require; and that ye make a light brecost or barbican upon the bridge, to defend the town."

I shall be obliged by being informed if hertstone is the correct translation of the word "heritone," and, if so, what species of fortification it was. Pale is probably a defence composed of high wooden stakes. Brecost is questionable, I imagine, and should most likely be spelt bretesk or bretex. I shall be glad, however, of explanations of the words.

C. J.

Newton and Somers.—It has been said that there is a complimentary allusion to Somers in Newton's writings. Where?

M.

Daventry, Duel at.—

Can any Northamptonshire reader of "N. & Q." say between whom, and when, this duel took place?

J. H. L.

Passage in Burial Service.—Whence comes the expression in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death." I have observed that Mr. Palmer, in his Origines Liturgicæ, refers for a parallel passage to ancient liturgies, but, if I mistake not, to none but those used in England. The passage is very scriptural: but I do not believe it exists in the Bible.

J. G. T.

"They shot him on the nine-stane rig."—Where is the ballad beginning with the words—

to be found? Who is the author?

Borderer.

Wardhouse, and Fishermen's Custom there.—In a MS. local history, written in 1619, there is this passage: "They bought herrings during the season, and then departed, as those fishermen which kill fish at Wardhouse do use to do at present."

Where was Wardhouse, and what was the custom there?

C. J. P.

Great Yarmouth.

"Adrian turn'd the bull."—In an old MS. in my possession, the following verse occurs:—

Would any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." be so good as to explain to me the reference in the second line of the verse?

G. M.

Cary's "Palæologia Chronica."—I have an old book entitled:

"Palæologia Chronica; a Chronological Account of Ancient Time. Performed by Robert Cary, D.LL., Devon. London: printed by J. Darby, for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1677."

and shall be glad to be informed whether the author was any relation of Dr. Valentine Carey, who was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1620, and died in 1626. (See Walton's Life of Dr. Donne.)

Chris. Roberts.

Bradford, Yorkshire.

The Southwark Pudding Wonder.—I have been very much pleased with the perusal of a collection of MS. letters, written by the celebrated antiquary William Stukeley to Maurice Johnson, Esq., the founder of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. These letters have not been published; the MSS. exist in the library of the Spalding Society. They contain much interesting matter, and furnish many traits of the manners, character, and modes of thinking and acting of their respected author.

Can any of your readers explain the meaning of the following passage, which is found in a letter dated 19th June, 1718: "The Southwark Pudding wonder is over?"

In the same letter the Dr. alludes to a contested election for the office of Chamberlain of the City of London, which took place in 1718:

"The city is all in an uproar about the election of a chamberlain, like a country corporation for burgesses, where roast pig and beef and wine are dealt about freely at taverns, and advertisements about it more voluminous than the late celebrated Bangorean Notification, though not in a calm and undisturbed way."

Pishey Thompson.

Stoke Newington.

Roman Catholics confined in Fens of Ely.—Mr. Dickens, in Household Words, No. 169. p. 382., in the continuation of a "Child's History of England," says, when alluding to the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada:

"Some of the Queen's advisers were for seizing the principal English Catholics, and putting them to death; but the queen—who, to her honour, used to say that she would never believe any ill of her subjects, which a parent would not believe of her own children—neglected the advice, and only confined a few of those who were the most suspected among them, in the fens of Lincolnshire."

Mr. Dickens had, of course, as he supposed, good authority for making this statement; but, in reply to a private communication, he states it should have been Fens of Ely. I am, perhaps convicting myself of gross ignorance by seeking for information respecting it; nevertheless, I venture to ask the readers of at "N. & Q." for a reference to the authentic history, where a corroboration of Mr. Dickens' statement is to be found?

Pishey Thompson.

Stoke Newington.

White Bell Heather transplanted.—Is it generally known that white bell heather becomes pink on being transplanted from its native hills into a garden? Two plants were shown to me a few days ago, by a country neighbour, flowering pink, which were transplanted, the one three, and the other two, years ago; the former had white bells for two years, the latter for one year only. What I wish to know is, Whether these are exceptional cases or not?

W. C.

Argyleshire.

Green's "Secret Plot."—Can you inform me where the scene of the following drama is laid, and the names of the dramatis personæ? The Secret Plot; a tragedy by Rupert Green, 12mo., 1777. The author of this play, which was published when he was only in his ninth year, was the son of Mr. Valentine Green, who wrote a history of Worcester.

A. Z.

"The full Moon brings fine Weather."—When did this saying originate, and have we any proof of its correctness? The late Duke of Wellington is reported to have said, that, as regarded the weather, it was "nonsense to have any faith in the moon." (Vide Larpent's Private Journal, vol. ii. p. 283.)

W. W.

Malta.

Nash the Artist.—In the year 1802, Mr. F. Nash made a water-colour drawing of the Town Hall, churches, &c., in the High Street of the ancient borough of Dorchester; a line engraving (now rather scarce) was shortly afterwards published therefrom by Mr. J. Frampton, then a bookseller in the town. Can any reader of the "N. & Q." inform me what Mr. Nash this was, and what became of him? Was he related to the Castles and Abbeys Nash?

John Garland.

Dorchester.

Woodwork of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell.—The Cambridge Architectural Society, which is now attempting the restoration of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell, will feel deeply indebted to any of your readers who can give them any information respecting the carved woodwork removed from that church some forty years ago, to make way for the present hideous arrangement of pews and pulpit. A man who lives on the spot speaks of a fine wood screen, and highly decorated pulpit, some portions of which were sold by auction; and the rest was in his possession for some time, and portions of it were given away by him to all who applied for it.

The Treasurer.

Trin. Coll. Camb.

"The Mitre and the Crown."—I find the following work, at first published anonymously, reprinted as Dr. Atterbury's in Sir Walter Scott's edition of the Somers' Tracts. No reason is assigned by the editor for ascribing it to him, and I should be glad to know whether there is any satisfactory evidence for doing so. The original tract appears as anonymous the Bodleian Catalogue:

"The Mitre and the Crown, or a real Distinction between them: in a Letter to a Reverend Member of the Convocation: Lond. 1711, 8vo."

Ἁλιέυς.

Dublin.

Military Music.—Was military music ever played at night in the time of King Charles I.?

Militaris.

Belfast.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Stoven Church.—Can you give me any information concerning the original church of Stoven, Suffolk, which was of good Norman work throughout, as lately ascertained by the vast number of Norman mouldings found in the walls in restoring it?

L. (2)

The Statute of Kilkenny.—Said to have been passed in 1364. What was the nature of it?

Abredonensis.

Kenne of Kenne.—Can any of your Kentish correspondents inform me to whom a certain Christ. Kenne of Kenne, in co. Somerset, sold the manor of "Oakley," in the parish of Higham, near Rochester; and in whose possession it was about the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth or commencement of James I.?

The above Kenne, by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Roger Cholmeley, and widow of Sir Leonard Beckwith, of Selby, in co. York, acquired possession of the same manor in co. Kent.

After the death of his first wife, he married a Florence Stalling, who survived him. He died in 1592.

F. T.

Rents of Assize, &c.—In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, the following varieties of income derived from rent of land constantly recur, viz.:

Can the distinction between these be exactly explained by any corresponding annual payments for land according to present custom? And will any of your readers be kind enough to give such explanation?

J.

Edifices of Ancient and Modern Times.—Can any of your architectural or antiquarian readers inform me where a chronological list of the principal edifices of ancient and modern times can be found?

Getsrn.

Gorram.—Please to direct me where I can find a short account of Gorram, an ecclesiastical writer (I suppose) mentioned by D'Aubigné, vol. v. p. 245.

L. (2)

"Rock of Ages."—Who is the author of the hymn beginning "Rock of Ages?"

J. G. T.

Replies.

REMUNERATION OF AUTHORS.

(Vol. vii., p. 591.)

Responding to the challenge of your correspondent Mr. Andrews, I copy the following from my common-place book:

From Lintot's memorandum-book of "Copies when purchased."

From that storehouse of instruction and amusement, Nichols's Anecdotes, vol. viii. pp. 293-304.

I take this opportunity of forwarding to you a curious memorandum which I found in rummaging the papers of a "note-maker" of the last century. It appears to be a bill of fare for the entertainment of a party, upon the "flitch of bacon" being decreed to a happy couple. It is at Harrowgate, and not at Dunmow, which would lead us to believe that this custom was not confined to one county. The feast itself is almost as remarkable, as regards its component parts, as that produced by Mr. Thackeray, in his delightful "Lectures," as characteristic of polite feeding in Queen Anne's reign:

"June 25.—Mr. and Mrs. Liddal's Dinner at Green Dragon, Harrowgate, on taking Fflitch Bacon Oath.

Bill Fare.

Beans and bacon.

Cabbage, colliflower.

Three doz. chickens.

Two shoulders mutton, cowcumbers.

Two turbets.

Rump beef, &c. &c.

Goose and plumbpudding.

Quarter lamb, sallad.

Tarts, jellies, strawberries, cream.

Cherrys, syllabubs, and blomonge.

Leg lamb, spinnage.

Crawfish, pickled salmon.

Fryd tripe, calves' heads.

Gravy and Pease soup.

Two piggs.

Breast veal, ragoud.

Ice cream, pine apple.

Surloin beaf.

Pidgeons, green peas.

Lobsters, crabs.

Twelve red herrings, twenty-two dobils."

W. R.

Stockwell.

ON THE USE OF THE HOUR-GLASS IN PULPITS.

(Vol. vii., p. 489.)

Perhaps the following may be of service as a farther illustration of this subject.

Zacharie Boyd says, in The Last Battell of the Sovle in Death, 1629, reprinted Glasgow, 1831, at p. 469.:

"Now after his Battell ended hee hath surrendered the spirit, Clepsydra effluxit, his houre-glasse is now runne out, and his soule is come to its wished home, where it is free from the fetters of flesh."

This divine was minister of the barony parish of Glasgow, the church for which was then in the crypt of the cathedral. I have no doubt the hour-glass was there used from which he draws his simile. Your correspondent refers to sermons an hour long, but, to judge from the contents of "Mr. Zacharie's" MS. sermons still preserved in the library of the College of Glasgow, each, at the rate of ordinary speaking, must have occupied at least an hour and a half in delivery. When he had become infirm and near his end, and had found it necessary to shorten his sermons, his "kirk session" was offended, as—

"Feb. 13, 1651. Some are to speak to Mr. Z. Boyd about the soon skailing (dismissing) of the Baronie Kirk on Sunday afternoon."

Though sermons are now generally restricted from three quarters to an hour's delivery, the practice of long preaching in the olden times in the west of Scotland had much prevailed. Within my own recollection I have heard sermons of nearly two hours' duration; and early among a few classes of the first Dissenters, on "Sacramental Occasions" as they are yet called, the services lasted altogether (not unfrequently) continuously from ten o'clock on Sabbath forenoon, to three and four o'clock the following morning. A traditional anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian clergyman, unusually full of matter, who, having preached out his hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and addressing the precentor, "Another glass and then," recommenced his sermon.

A pictorial representation of the hour-glass in a country church is to be seen in front of the precentor's desk, or pulpit, in a very scarce humorsome print, entitled "Presbyterian Penance," by the famous David Allan. It also figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, of John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots. About twenty years ago it was either in the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the Castle (the ancient chapel), that I saw the hour-glass (about twelve inches high) which had been connected with one or other of the pulpits, from both of which John Knox is said to have preached. It is likely the hour-glass is there "even unto this day" (unless abstracted by some relic hunter); and if it could be depended on as an original appendage to the pulpits, would prove that its use was coeval with the times of the Scottish Reformation. I think its high antiquity as certain as the oaken pulpits themselves.

At an early period the general poverty of the country, and the scarcity of clocks and watches, must have given rise to the adoption of the hour sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant and impressive, for the measurement of a brief portion of our fleeting span.

G. N.

Glasgow.

On the 31st May, 1640, the churchwardens of great Staughton, co. Huntingdonshire, "are, and stand charged with (among other church goods), a pulpit standinge in the church, having a cover over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge."

Copy of a cutting from a magazine, name and date unknown:

"Among Dr. Rawlinson's manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, No. 941 contains collection of Miscellaneous Discourses, by Mr. Lewis of Margate, in Kent, whence the following extract has been made:

"'It appears that these hour-glasses were coeval with our Reformation. In a fine frontispiece, prefixed to the Holy Bible of the bishops' translation, printed in 4to. by John Day, 1569, Archbishop Parker is represented in the pulpit with an hour-glass standing on his right hand; ours, here, stood on the left without any frame. It was proper that some time should be prescribed for the length of the sermon, and clocks and watches were not then so common as they are now. This time of an hour continued till the Revolution, as appears by Bishop Sanderson's, Tillotson's, Stillingfleet's, Dr. Barrow's, and others' sermons, printed during that time.'

"The writer of this article was informed in 1811 by the Rev. Mr. Burder, who had the curacy of St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, that the large silver hour-glass formerly used in that church, was melted down into two staff heads for the parish beadles.

"An hour-glass frame of iron, fixed in the wall by the side of the pulpit, was remaining in 1797 in the church of North Moor, in Oxfordshire."

Joseph Rix.

St. Neots, Huntingdonshire.

In many of our old pulpits built during the seventeenth century, when hour sermons were the rule, and thirty minutes the exception, the shelf on which the glass used to stand may still be seen. If I recollect rightly, that of Miles Coverdale was thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the time the church of Bartholomew was removed. Perhaps this emblem was adopted on gravestones as significant of the character of Death as a minister or preacher.

The late Basil Montague, when delivering a course of lectures on "Laughter" at the Islington Institution some few years since, kept time by the aid of this antique instrument. If I remember aright, he turned the glass and said, "Another glass and then," or some equivalent expression.

E. G. Ballard.

There is an example at the church of St. Alban, Wood Street, Cheapside. This church was rebuilt by Sir C. Wren, and finished 1685; showing that the hour-glass was in use subsequent to the times alluded to.

J. D. Allcroft.

I saw on 13th January last, an iron hour-glass stand affixed to a pillar in the north aisle of Belton Church, in the Isle of Axholme.

Edward Peacock.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

LADIES' ARMS BORNE IN A LOZENGE.

(Vol. vii., p. 571.)

The subject of the Query put by your correspondent is one that has frequently occurred to me, but which is involved in obscurity. Heraldic writers generally have contented themselves with the mere statement of ladies' arms being thus borne; and where we do find an opinion hazarded, it is more in the form of a quotation from a nameless author, or of a timid suggestion, than an attempt to elucidate the question by argument or from history.

By some this form of shield is said to have descended to us from the Amazons, who bore such: others say, from the form of their tombstones! Now we find it to represent the ancient spindle so much used by ladies; and again to be a shield found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore transferred to the weaker sex, who were "allowed to place their ensigns upon it, with one corner always uppermost."

Here are quotations from a few of our writers on the science of Heraldry:—

Burke, Encyclop. Herald. 1844. Queen Victoria bears her arms on a full and complete shield; "for," says the old rhyme—