"Our women batten well on their good nature

All they can rap and rend for the dear creature."

"All they can rap and run for" is the more frequent colloquial version of this quaint phrase.

In Chaucer's "Chanones Yeman's Tale" it stands thus:

"But wasten all that ye may rape and renne."

And to this last word Tyrwhit, in his Glossary, gives "rend?" with a mark of interrogation, as doubtful of the meaning.

Johnson gives it "rap and rend," and quotes a line of Hudibras:

"All they could rap and rend and pilfer:"

and adds, "more properly, rap and ran; ræpan Sax., to bind, and rana, Icelandic, to plunder."

The question is, are we to accept this phrase in the sense it is commonly used, to seize and plunder; or have later and better philologists mended the version?

The context in Chaucer does not seem to warrant the interpretation given by Tyrwhit. The narrator is warning his hearers against the rogueries of alchemy:

"If that your eyen cannot seen aright,

Loketh that youre mind lacke not his sight.

For tho' ye loke never so brode and stare,

Ye shul not win a mite on that chaffare,

But wasten all that ye may rape and renne.

Withdraw the fire, lest it to faste brenne;

Medleth no more with that art, I mene;

For if ye don, your thrift is gon ful clene."

M.

"The wee brown Hen."—Can any of your correspondents oblige me with a copy of the old Jacobin song, the "Wee brown Hen?" It begins thus:

"I had a wee brown hen,

And she had a wee brown tap,

And she gaed out in the mornin'

For to fill her crap.

The violets were her coverin',

And everything was her care,

And every day she laid twa eggs,

And Sundays she laid mair.

Och! they micht hae letten her be,

For every day she laid twa eggs,

And Sundays she laid three."

The words are very old, and conveyed a certain religious and political allusion. I know the tune of it, and I shall take it as a favour to be furnished with a correct version of the songs.

Fras. Crossley.

Deprived Bishops of Scotland, 1638.—Neither Bishop Keith, with all his industry (in his Hist. Catal. of the Scottish Bishops), nor subsequent ecclesiastical writers on the same subject, appear to have been able to mention the period of the deaths of nearly all those prelates deprived of their sees in 1638. The researches of late years may, perhaps, have been more successful, and in that hope I now venture to inquire when and where the lives of the following Scottish bishops came to a close—1. David Lindsay, Bishop of Edinburgh. 2. Alex. Lindsay, Bishop of Dunkeld. 3. Adam Ballenden, Bishop of Aberdeen. 4. John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray. 5. James Fairly, Bishop of Argyle. 6. Neil Campbell, Bishop of the Isles. 7. John Abernethy, Bishop of Caithness. 8. Geo. Graham, Bishop of Orkney; and 9. Robert Baron, Bishop elect of Orkney, 1638. The Archbishops of St. Andrew and Glasgow, and Bishops of Brechin, Dunblane, Ross, and Galloway, are slightly noticed, though even in these few there are discrepancies, both as to year and place of demise, which might be corrected. The later ecclesiastical records of Scotland are also exceedingly scanty; for Mr. Perceval, with all his acumen and research (in his Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession, 2nd edit., Appendix, pp. 250-3.), acknowledges with regret his inability to give more particulars of the consecrations in Scotland between 1662 and 1688, for the column with names of consecrators is without dates of consecrations during that period, and is, with very few exceptions, a blank. In continuation of this topic, may I inquire when and where the two following bishops, deprived in 1690, died?—1. John Hamilton, Bishop of Dunkeld and 2. Archibald Graham, Bishop of the Isles. The notices given by Bishop Keith, of the other deprived Scottish bishops, are also exceedingly brief and meagre; nor has Mr. Lawson (Hist. Scot. Epis. Ch.) added much.

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

Passage in Carlyle.—Carlyle (French Revolution, vol. i.), in his description of the horrors attendant on the death-bed of Louis XV., mentions the ghosts of the men "who sank shamefully on so many battle-fields from Rossbach to Quebec, that thy harlot might take revenge for an epigram." Who was the harlot, and what the epigram?

Ficulnus.

Madagascar Poetry.—Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." throw any light upon the origin of the following lines? I found them among family papers, written about the year 1805, where they are described as the "Invocation of Madagascrian Spirit;" by which, I imagine, we are to infer that they are a translation of some native lay from the island of Madagascar:

"Spirit that art flown away,

Listen to our artless lay.

Teach us, Spirit, to do well;

Teach us, Spirit, to excel.

Stoop, O Spirit! and be kind,

Teaching those you left behind:

Listen to our artless lay,

Spirit that art flown away."

C. S.

Ink.—From the following lines by Whitehead, which I find in my note-book, I am induced to ask who was the inventor of ink?

"Hard, that his name it should not save,

Who first pour'd forth the sable flood."

Philip S. King.

Hamilton Queries (Vol. vi., p. 429.).—Lord Brayboooke says, in writing of Lord Spencer Hamilton, that he "was a younger son of James, third Duke of Hamilton." I find, on referring to a Peerage, date about 1720 (I cannot quote it more particularly, as it has no title-page), that the third inheritor of the dukedom of Hamilton was Anne, daughter of the first and niece of the second Duke of Hamilton; and that she married William, Earl of Selkirk, eldest son of the Marquis of Douglas. The date would better accord with Lord Spencer's being a son of James, fifth Duke of Hamilton. Was it not so?

Sir William Hamilton.—Who was the first wife of Sir W. Hamilton, the celebrated ambassador, and when did he marry her? Who was the second, who has attained such notoriety in connexion with Nelson's name; and when and where were they married?

Was Single-speech Hamilton a member of the ducal family of Hamilton? If so, his lineage from that house?

Tee Bee.

Derivation of Windfall.—Arvine, in his Cyclopædia, gives the following plausible reason for the origin of this term, now in such common use. Query, Is he correct?

"Some of the nobility of England, by the tenure of their estates, were forbidden felling any trees in the forests upon them, the timber being reserved for the use of the royal navy. Such trees as fell without cutting, were the property of the occupant. A tornado was therefore a perfect god-send, in every sense of the word, to those who had occupancy of extensive forests; and the windfall was sometimes of very great value."

W. W.

Malta.

Do the Sun's Rays put out the Fire?—There is a current and notorious idea, that the admission of the sun-light into a room puts the fire out; and, after making every deduction for an apparent effect in this matter, I confess I am disposed to think that the notion is not an erroneous one. Can any of your correspondents account for it on philosophical principles, or disprove it experimentally?

C. W. B.

Denmark and Slavery.—Dr. Madden, in A Twelve Months' Residence in the West Indies, 1834, says, in allusion to a remark of Mr. Brydges, to the effect that England was the last European power to enter into the slave trade, and the first to abandon it, "This is inaccurate: to the honour of Denmark be it spoken, the slave trade was abolished by her five years before England performed that act of tardy justice to humanity" (vol. ii. p. 128.). The object of the present communication is neither to question nor disparage the merit here claimed for Denmark, in reference to "the slave trade:" it concerns the abolition of slavery itself by that power. I shall therefore be obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who will inform me when freedom was granted to the negroes in the Danish island of St. Thomas, in the same manner as to those of the British West Indian colonies in 1838? And also in what work I can find any detailed account of such act of manumission?

L. L.

Spontaneous Combustion.—Is there such a thing as spontaneous combustion?

H. A. B.

Bucks, most ancient and honourable Society of.—A candid inquiry into the principles and practices of this society, with its history, rules, and songs, was published in 1770. It appeared that there were at that time thirteen lodges of the society in London, and a few in other places. Do any lodges of this society still exist? Did they issue any medals? Do they, or did they, wear any badges? Who wore them, officers only, or all members? How many varieties were there, and of what sizes? The book I have, and two varieties of what I suppose may have been worn as badges.

Edw. Hawkins.

Lines quoted by Charles Lamb.—There are some lines quoted by Charles Lamb in one of the Essays of Elia: I am very anxious to know whose they are:

"Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines,

Curl me about, ye gadding vines,

And oh! so close your circles lace

That I may never leave this place.

But, lest your fetters prove too weak,

Ere I their silken bondage break,

Do you, oh briars! chain me too,

And courteous brambles nail me through!"

L. M. M. R.

Descendants of Dr. Bill.—Are there any records extant of the family or descendants of Dr. Bill, whose name is first on the list of those who drew up the Prayer-Book, tempus Edward VI.? He was also Lord Almoner to Queen Elizabeth. Dr. Bill's only daughter and heiress, Mary Bill, was married to Sir Francis Samwell: had she any family, and did they assume the name of Bill?

Did a branch of the family settle in Staffordshire, and where?

A. R. M.

"The Rebellious Prayer."—Can any of your readers inform me whether some stanzas entitled "The Rebellious Prayer" have ever yet appeared in print, and, if so, in what collection of poems they are to be met with? The opening lines are as follows:

"It was a darken'd chamber, where was heard

The whisper'd voice, hush'd step, and stifled sounds

Which herald the deep quietness of death," &c.

They describe the anxious watchings of a wife at the sick couch of her husband. In her agony she prays that his life may be spared, at whatever cost: her prayer is granted, and her husband is restored, but bereft of reason.

J. A.

Ravenshaw and his Works.—Can any of your readers give me information, or refer me to any works, of John Ravenshaw, who was ejected from Holme-Chapel[2] under the Act of Uniformity? He is described by Calamy as having been a good scholar, and possessing a taste for poetry.

B.

Footnote 2:(return)

Or Church-Holm, in Cheshire.


Minor Queries with Answers.

Yolante de Dreux (Vol. vi., pp. 150. 209.)—J. Y. has given this queen's second marriage, but not the date or the names of her issue. I am aware that her husband Arthur II. (not I.) was Duke of Bretagne, 1305-12, and that her only son John III., born 1293, succeeded; but the names and marriages of her five daughters still remain unnoticed, as also any notices of her father the Count of Dreux, or of her mother.

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

[The names of the five daughters of this lady and their alliances are as follow:—1. Johanna, born 1294, married to Robert of Flanders, Lord of Cassel. 2. Beatrix, born 1295, married Guido X., Baron of Laval, in 1315, died 1384. 3. Alisa, born 1297, married, 1320, Burchard VI., Count of Vendosme, died 1377. 4. Bianca, died an infant. 5. Mary, born 1302, became a nun, and died 1371. The father of Yolante de Dreux was Robert IV., Count of Dreux, Braine, Montfort, and l'Amaury, and died November 14, 1282. Her mother was Beatrix, daughter and heiress of John Count of Montfort, l'Amaury, and Lord of Rochefort, married in 1260. This is given on the authority of Anderson's Royal Genealogies, table 378, p. 620.]

Bishop Francis Turner.—He left a manuscript Life of Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, which formed the basis of Dr. Peckard's Life of Ferrar, reprinted in Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography. Where can this manuscript be found? Are there any literary remains of the bishop to be met with anywhere?

J. J. J.

[We believe all that is known of Bishop Turner's MS. Life of Nicholas Ferrar is, that it was in the custody of the editor of The Christian Magazine in 1761. Foster the Essayist (Lectures, vol. ii. p. 504. edit. 1848) says, "A long and well-written account of Ferrar was drawn up by a Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely, and left by him in manuscript. It remained in the hands of the persons to whom his papers descended, till it was communicated to the conductors of a miscellany called The Christian Magazine, in a volume of which for the year 1761, this curious memoir was lately pointed out to me." Gough, in his British Topography, vol. ii. p. 299.*, furnishes a few other particulars:—"The papers of Bishop Turner, in the year 1761, appear to have been in the hands of Dr. Dodd, who printed some of them in The Christian Magazine for that year. In particular the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar was abridged, and published at p. 356. In the introduction the editor says, 'As the Life is rather too long for our pamphlet, even divided, we have taken the liberty to abridge some particulars in the Bishop's account, and now and then to alter a phrase or two in his language, which through length of time is in some places rather become obsolete.' From this passage it will appear that it was published in the worst manner it could be." Our correspondent will find much curious matter respecting the biographies of Nicholas Ferrar in our Second Volume, pp. 119. 407. 444. 485. Among the Addit. MSS. (No. 5540., f. 53.) in the British Museum, is a Letter of Bishop Turner's addressed to Mr. Reading, and read at the trial of Lord Preston, 1691.]

Raleigh's History.—What is the story of Raleigh's burning the second volume of his History?

Recnac.

[The story is this:—A few days previously to his death, Raleigh sent for Walter Burre, who printed his History; and asking him how the work had sold, received for answer, "so slowly that it had undone him." Upon which Sir Walter brought from his desk a continuation of the work to his own time, and, throwing it into the fire, said to Burre, "the second volume shall undo no more; this ungrateful world is unworthy of it." (Winstanley's English Worthies, p. 256.) There is, however, no satisfactory authority for the truth of this anecdote; and it has been rejected by Arthur Cayley, and his other biographers.]


Replies.

EPITAPHS.

(Vol. vii., p. 178.)

The following is a real epitaph. It was written by Dr. Greenwood on his wife, who died in childbed, and it is in all probability still to be seen, where it was originally set up, in Solyhull churchyard, Warwickshire. The most amusing point in it is, that the author seriously intended the lines to rhyme. There is wonderful merit in the couplet where he celebrates her courage and magnanimity in preferring him to a lord or judge:

"Which heroic action, join'd to all the rest,

Made her to be esteem'd the Phœnix of her sex!"

"Go, cruel Death, thou hast cut down

The fairest Greenwood in all this kingdom!

Her virtues and her good qualities were such

That surely she deserved a lord or judge:

But her piety and great humility

Made her prefer me, a Doctor in Divinity;

Which heroic action, join'd to all the rest,

Made her to be esteem'd the Phœnix of her sex:

And like that bird a young she did create,

To comfort those her loss had made disconsolate.

My grief for her was so sore

That I can only utter two lines more.

For this and all other good woman's sake,

Never let blisters be applied to a lying-in woman's back."

The advice contained in the last couplet is sound.

F. D.

Pershore.

Your correspondent Erica gives us some quotations and epitaphs, in which the metaphor of an Inn is applied both to life and death. I find the former of these ideas embodied in the following distich, copied from a tombstone at Llangollen in North Wales, a village much frequented not only by tourists, but by holiday-makers from all the surrounding districts; for whose especial benefit I conceive the epitaph to have been written:

"Our life is but a summer's day,

Some only breakfast, and away;

Others to dinner stay, and are full fed;

The oldest man but sups, and goes to bed.

Large his account, who lingers out the day:

Who goes the soonest, has the least to pay."

George S. Masters.

Welsh Hampton, Salop.

"The bathos can no further go" (Vol. vii., p. 5.).—

Inscription copied, Nov. 21, 1833, from a tombstone to a fisherman in Bathford churchyard.

"He drags no more, his nets reclin'd,

And all his tackle left behind,

His anchors cast within the veil,

No storms tempestious him assail.

In peace he rest—an Jesus plain

Reader I here lies—an honest man,

A husband—father—friend—compeer—

To all—who knew him—truely dear.

Search the Great Globe!—How few, alas!

Are worthy now to—take his place."

B. H. 1805."

Some rural wag had substituted with his pencil three words for the last three, which certainly rhymed better with alas!

E. D.

Allow me to send you one of much merit, founded upon the same metaphor as those inserted at the page above quoted:

"Life's like an inn where travellers stay;

Some only breakfast, and away:

Others to dinner stay, and are full fed;

The oldest man but sups, and goes to bed.

Hard is his lot who lingers out the day;

Who goes the soonest has the least to pay."

Edw. Hawkins.


THROWING OLD SHOES FOR LUCK.

(Vol. ii., p. 196.; Vol. v., p. 143.; Vol. vii., p. 182.)

Some light may perhaps be thrown on this mysterious custom by the following quotation from the Réfutation des Opinions de Jean Wier, by Bodin, the celebrated French jurisconsult, and author of the Demonomanie des Sorciers (Paris, 1586), to the quarto edition of which the Réfutation is generally found attached. It may be necessary to observe, for the benefit of those unacquainted with demoniacal lore, that Wier, though a pupil of Cornelius Agrippa, and what would be now-a-days termed exceedingly superstitious, was far in advance of his age, and the first to assert that some, at least, of the many persons who were then burned for sorcery were merely hypochondriacs and lunatics,—fitter subjects for the care of the physician than the brand of the executioner. This heterodox opinion brought upon him a crowd of antagonistic replies, and amongst them the Réfutation of Bodin. During a cursory examination of Wier's voluminous demonological works (De Lamiis Liber; Item de Commentatiis Jejuniis; De Præstigiis Demonum, et Incantationibus ac Veneficiis: Basil, 1583), I have not met with the passage underneath referred to by Bodin; but, no doubt, if time permitted, a closer search would discover it:

"Il se mocque aussi d'une Sorciere, à qui Sathan commanda de garder bien ses vieux souliers, pour un preservatif, et contre-charme contre les autre Sorciers. Je dy que ce conseil de Sathan a double sens, les souliers signifient les pechez, comme estas tousiours trainnez par les ordures. Et quand Dieu dist à Moyse et à Josué, oste tes souliers, ce lieu est pur, et sainct: il entendoit, comme dict Philon Hebrieu, qu'il faut bien nettoyer son ame de peches, pour contempler et louer Dieu. Mais pour converser avec Sathan, il faut estre souillé, et plongé en perpetuelle impietez et mechancetez: alors Sathan assistera à ses bons serviteurs. Et quand aux sens literal, nous avons dict que Sathan fait ce qu'il peut, pour destourner les hommes de la fiance de Dieu aux creatures, qui est la vraye definition de l'idolatrie, que les Theologiens ont baillie: tellement que qui croira, que ses vieux souliers, ou les bilets, et autres babioles qu'il porte, le peut garder de mal, il est perpetuelle idolatrie."

W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

It will, I fear, be difficult to discover a satisfactory answer to Lord Braybrooke's questions on these two points. They cannot certainly be traceable to a Pagan origin, for Cupid is always pourtrayed barefooted; and there is not, I believe, a single statue to be found of a sandaled Venus. I can certainly direct his Lordship to one author, a Christian author, St. Gregory of Tours, who refers to a curious practice, and seemingly one well recognised, of lovers presenting shoes, as they now do bouquets, to the objects of their affection:

"Cumqu, ut ætate huic convenit, amori se puellari præstaret affabiblem, et cum poculis frequentibus etiam calceamenta deferret."—Gregor. Turon. Ex Vitis Patrum, vol. ii. p. 449.: see also same page, note 3.

W. B. MacCabe.

Allow me to inform Lord Braybrooke that the custom of throwing a shoe, taken from the left foot, after persons for good luck, has been practised in Norfolk from time immemorial, not only at weddings, but on all occasions where good luck is required. Some forty years ago a cattle dealer desired his wife to "trull her left shoe arter him," when he started for Norwich to buy a lottery-ticket. As he drove off on his errand, he looked round to see if she performed the charm, and consequently he received the shoe in his face, with such force as to black his eyes. He went and bought his ticket, which turned up a prize of 600l.; and his son has assured me that his father always attributed his luck to the extra dose of shoe which he got.

E. G. R.

The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person departing from home, as a mode of wishing him good luck and prosperity in his undertaking, is not confined to Scotland and the northern counties, nor to weddings. It prevails more or less, I believe, throughout the kingdom. I have seen it in Cheshire, and frequently in towns upon the sea-coast. I once received one upon my shoulder, at Swansea, which was intended for a young sailor leaving his home to embark upon a trading voyage.

Edw. Hawkins.


OWEN GLYNDWR [OWEN AP GRIFFITH VYCHAN, LORD OF GLYNDWRDWY].

(Vol. vii., p. 205.)

The arms referred to by Mr. Woodward are those on the great seal and privy seal of "the irregular and wild Glendower," as Prince of Wales, attached to two documents deposited in the Hotel Soubise, at Paris, in the Cartons I. 623. and I. 392., relating, it is supposed, to the furnishing of troops to the Welsh prince by Charles VI., king of France. Casts of these seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry to the Archæologia, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv. plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:

"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. On the obverse Owen is represented, with a bifid beard, very similar to Rich. II., seated under a canopy of Gothic tracery: the half body of a wolf forming the arms of his chair on each side: the background is ornamented with a mantle semée of lions, held up by angels. At his feet are two lions. A sceptre is in his right hand, but he has no crown. The inscription: 'Owenus ... Princeps Wallie.' On the reverse of the great seal Owen is represented on horseback, in armour; in his right hand, which is extended, he holds a sword, and with his left his shield, charged with, Quarterly, four lions rampant; a drapery, probably a kerchief de plesaunce, or handkerchief won at a tournament, pendant from his right wrist. Lions rampant also appear upon the mantle of the horse. On his helmet, as well as on his horse's head, is the Welsh dragon [passant]. The area of the seal is diapered with roses. The inscription on this side seems to fill the gap upon the obverse 'Owenus Dei gratia ... Wallie.'

"The privy seal represents the four lions rampant towards the spectator's left, on a shield, surmounted by an open coronet [crown]: the dragon[3] of Wales, as a supporter, on the dexter side; on the sinister, a lion. The inscription seems to have been 'Sigillum Oweni Principis Wallie.' No impression of this seal is probably now to be found either in Wales or England. Its workmanship shows that Owen Glyndwr possessed a taste for art beyond the types of the seals of his predecessors."

The dragon is a favourite figure with Cambrian bards; and, not to multiply instances, the following lines may be cited from the poem of the "Hirlas Horn," by Owen Cyfeilioc, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn,—

"Mathraval's[4] Lord, the Poet and the Prince,"

father of Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn (the Gwenwen of Sir Walter Scott's Betrothed):—

"A dytwc i Rufut waywrutelyn

Gwin a gwydyr goleu yn ei gylchyn

Dragon Arwystli arwystyl tervyn

Dragon Owein hael o hil Kynvyn[5]

Dragon iw dechren ac niw dychryn cat

Cyvlavan argrat cymyw erlyn."

Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales: London,

1801, 8vo., vol. i. p. 265.

"And bear to Grufydd, the crimson-lanced foe,

Wine with pellucid glass around it;

The Dragon of Arwstli, safeguard of the borders,

The Dragon of Owen, the generous of the race of Cynvyn,

A Dragon from his beginning, and never scared by a conflict

Of triumphant slaughter, or afflicting chase."

Gray, whose "Bard" indicates the inspiration with which he had seized the poetry and traditions of the Cymri, thus refers to the red dragon as the cognizance of the Welsh monarchs, in his Triumphs of Owen [ap Griffith, Prince of North Wales]:

"Dauntless, on his native sands,

The Dragon, son of Mona, stands;

In glittering arms and glory dress'd

High he rears his ruby crest."

The dragon and lion have been attributed to the Welsh monarchs, as insignia, from an early period, and the former is ascribed, traditionally, to the great Cadwallader.

In the Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 579. plate xxix. p. 578., are descriptions of engravings of the impressions of two seals appendant to charters of Edward, son of Edward IV., and Arthur, son of Henry VII., as Princes of Wales, the obverse of each bearing three lions in pale passant, reguardant, having their tails between their legs, reflected upon their backs, upon a shield surmounted by a cap of maintenance: Prince Edward's shield has on each side a lion as a supporter, holding single feathers, with the motto "Ich dien." On Prince Arthur's seal, the feathers are supported by dragons. Thomas William King, Rouge Dragon, in a letter to Sir Samuel Meyrick, dated 4th September, 1841, published in the Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 408., Appendix, regards the lions on these shields as to the ensigns attributed at the period of the seals to certain Welsh princes, and the dragon as the badge of Cadwallader.

In a MS. (for reference to which I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Frederick Madden), which was recently sold at Sotheby's, containing translations by Johannes Boerius, presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII., about 1505, there is a beautiful illumination containing the arms of that prince: Quarterly France and England, with the red dragon as the dexter, and the greyhound of the House of York as the sinister, supporter.

"The red fierye dragō beeten upō white and greene sarcenet" was the charge of a standard offered by Henry VII. at St. Paul's, on his entry into London after his victory at Bosworth Field; and this standard was represented on the corner of his tomb, held by an angel (Willement's Regal Heraldry, 4to., London, 1821, p. 57.). The red dragon rampant was assumed as a supporter by Henry VII. in indication of his Welsh descent, and was borne as a supporter, either on the dexter or sinister side of the shield, by all the other English monarchs of the House of Tudor, with the exception of Queen Mary, who substituted for it an eagle: and among the badges attributed to our present sovereign is, in respect of Wales, "a dragon passant, wings elevated gu., upon a mount vert."

It may be assumed, with little doubt, that the colour of the dragon borne by Owen Glyndwr was rouge; and although the colour of the other supporter of his shield, the lion, is not susceptible of such positive inference, it may be conjectured to have been sable, the colour of the lion, the principal charge on his hereditary shield.

To Mr. Woodward's immediate Query as to the blazon—colour of the field and charges—of the arms on these seals, I can afford no direct answer, never having met with any trace of these arms in the extensive collections of Welsh MSS. to which I have had access. These ensigns may have been adopted by Owen as arms of dominion (as those of Ireland by the English sovereigns) on his assumption of the principality of Wales, a suggestion countenanced, if not established, by four lions quarterly ("Quarterly gules and or, four lions rampant, counterchanged") being assigned to Griffith ap Llewelyn (killed April, 28 Hen. III., 1244, in attempting to escape from the Tower), eldest son of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales (dead 31st November, 25 Hen. III., 1240), father of the ill-fated and gallant Llewelyn ap Griffith, last sovereign of Wales, slain at Builth, December 10, 8 Ed. I., 1282. Further confirmation is, perhaps, afforded to this suggestion by Owen having, it is understood, vindicated his assumption of the Cambrian throne as heir of the three sovereign dynasties of North Wales, South Wales, and Powys respectively,—of the last, as male representative, through the Lords of Bromfield, of Madoc ap Meredith, the last monarch of that principality; and of the two former as their heir-general, in respect of his mother, Elenor, sister of Owen (ap Thomas ap Llewelyn), Lord, with his paternal uncle, Owen ap Llewelyn ap Owen, of the comot [hundred] of Iscoed, September 20, 1344, Representative paternally of the sovereigns of South Wales, and, by female descent, of those of North Wales[6], through Griffith ap Llewelyn above named.

The hereditary arms of Owen's paternal line, the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, are those of his ancestor, Griffith Maelor ap Madoc, of Dinas Bran, Lord of Bromfield, Yale, Chirk, Glyndwrdwy, &c., who died A.D. 1191, viz. "Paly of eight argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," thus differenced, apparently, from "The Black Lion of Powys" (Argent a lion rampant sable), the royal ensigns of his father, Madoc ap Meredith, last sovereign Prince of Powys, who died at Winchester in 1160. I am unable to refer to any seal of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, or of the Lords of Bromfield, bearing the family arms of their line; but they are thus given invariably by the Cambrian heralds, and, so far, are susceptible of proof by the most authentic MS. authorities of the Principality. It is, however, remarkable, that the Heraldic Visitations of Wales of Lewis Dwnn, appointed in 1580 Deputy-Herald for all Wales, by Robert Cook Clarenceux, and William Flower Norroy King-at Arms, published in 1846 by the Welsh MSS. Society, contain no pedigree of the house of Glyndwrdwy. Of the descendants, if any, of Owen Glyndwr himself, beyond his children, I am not aware that there is any authentic pedigree, or other satisfactory proof; and there seems to be presumptive evidence that in 12 Henry VI., 1433—a period so recent as nineteen years from the last date, 19th February, 1 Henry V., 1414, on which Owen is ascertained to have been alive (Rymer's Fœdera, ix. p. 330.),—his issue was limited to a daughter and heir, Alice, wife of Sir John Scudamore, Knt., described in a petition of John, Earl of Somerset, to whom Owen's domains, on his attainder, had been granted by his brother, Henry IV., as

"Un John Skydmore, Chivaler, et Alice sa femme, pretendantz la dite Alice etre file et heir au dit Owyn (Glyndwr)."—Rot. Parl. 12 Hen. VI.

I have not found evidence to show that there were any children of Alice's marriage with Scudamore; and, assuming the failure of her issue, and also the extinction of Owen's other offspring, the representation of the three dynasties—

". . . . . . . the long line

Of our old royalty"—

reverted to that of his only brother, Tudor ap Griffith Vychan, a witness, as "Tudor de Glyndore," in the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 3rd September, 1386, and then twenty-four years and upwards, who is stated to have been killed under Owen's banner at the battle of Mynydd Pwll-Melyn, near Grosmont, Monmouthshire, fought 11th March, 1405. Tudor's daughter and heir, Lowry [Lady] of Gwyddelwern in Edeirnion, "una Baron. de Edurnyon," became the wife of Griffith ap Einion of Corsygedol, living 1400 and 1415; and from this marriage descend the eminent Merionethshire House of Corsygedol (represented by the co-heirs of the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, Bart., of Mostyn and Corsygedol; namely, his nephew, the Honorable Edward Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, of Mostyn and Corsygedol, M.P., Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire, and Sir Thomas's sister, Anna Maria, Lady Vaughan, mother of Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, Bart., of Nannau) and its derivative branches, the Yales of Plas-yn-Yale, co. Denbigh, and the Rogers-Wynns of Bryntangor in the same county; the former represented by the Lloyds of Plymog, and the latter by the Hughes's of Gwerclas in Edeirnion, Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, co. Merioneth, and Barons of Edeirnion. These families, co-representatives of the three Cambrian dynasties, all quarter, with the arms of South Wales and North Wales, the ensigns I have referred to as the hereditary bearings of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy. Independently of the adoption of these ensigns in the Welsh MSS. in the British Museum, College of Heralds, and other depositories, it may be mentioned that they are quartered in an ancient shield of the Vaughans of Corsygedol, suspended in the hall of Corsygedol,—one of the finest and most picturesque mansions in the Principality,—and that they appear in the splendid emblazoned Genealogy of the House of Gwerclas, compiled in 1650 by Robert Vaughan, Esq., of Hengwrt, the Camden and Dugdale united of Wales.[7] The arms in question are ascribed to the line of Bromfield and Glyndwrdwy, and, as quarterings to the families just named, by Mr. Burke's well-known Armory, the first and, indeed, only work, in conjunction with the Welsh genealogies in that gentleman's Peerage and Baronetage, and Landed Gentry, affording satisfactory, or any approach to systematic and complete, treatment of Cambrian heraldry and family history. Mr. Charles Knight also, highly and justly estimated, no less for a refined appreciation of our historic archæology, than for careful research, adopts these arms as the escutcheon of Owen in the beautiful artistic designs which adorn and illustrate the First Part of the drama of King Henry IV., in his Pictorial edition of Shakspeare. (Histories, vol. i. p. 170.)

The shield of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, as marshalled by Welsh heralds, displays quarterly the arms assigned to their direct paternal ancestors, as successively adopted previous to the period when armorial bearings became hereditary. Thus marshalled, the paternal arms of Owen Glyndwr are as follows: 1st and 4th, "Paly of eight, argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," for Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc ap Meredith, Prince of Powys-Fadog; 2nd, "Argent, a lion rampant sable" ("The Black Lion of Powys") for Madoc, Prince of Powys-Fadog, son of Meredith, Prince of Powys, son of Bleddyn, King of Powys; 3rd, "Or, a lion rampant gules," for Bleddyn ap Cyfnfyn, King of Powys.[8] None of these ensigns is referable to a period anterior to that within which armorial bearings are attributed to the Anglo-Norman monarchs.

The lion rampant is common to all branches of the line of Powys; but the bearing peculiar to its last monarch, Madoc ap Meredith, "The Black Lion of Powys," without a difference, has been transmitted exclusively to the Hughes's, Baronial Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, and the other descendants of Owen Brogyntyn, Lord of Edeirnion, younger son of Madoc; of whom, with the exception of the family just named, it is presumed there is no existing male branch. The same arms were borne by Iorwerth Goch, Lord of Mochnant, also a younger son of Madoc; but they are now only borne subordinately in the second quarter by that chief's descendant, Sir John Roger Kynaston of Hardwick, Bart., and by the other branches of the Kynastons; the first quarter having been yielded to the arms of (Touchet) Lord Audley, assumed by Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Knt., after the battle of Blore in 1459, at which Lord Audley is said to have fallen by the hand of Sir Roger. As already stated, Griffith Maelor, Madoc's eldest son, bore the black lion differenced, as did also the twin sons of the latter, viz. Cynric Efell, Lord of Eglwys Egle, ancestor of the distinguished line of Davies of Gwysaney in Flintshire, whose ensigns were "Gules, on a bend, argent, a lion passant sable;" and Einion Efell, progenitor of the Edwards's of Ness Strange, and of other North Wallian families, who bore "Party per fess, sable and argent, a lion rampant counterchanged." The ancestor of the Vaughans of Nannau, Barts.,—Cadwgan (designated by Camden "the renowned Briton"), younger son of Blyddyn, king of Powys, sometime associated in the sovereignty with his elder brother Meredith, exhibited, it is stated, on his banner an azure lion on a golden ground; ensigns transmitted to the early Lords of Nannau and their descendants, with the exception—probably the only one—of the Vaughans of Wengraig and Hengwrt, represented paternally by the Vaughans of Nannau and Hengwrt, Baronets, who, transferring these arms to the second quarter, bear in the first, "Quarterly, or and gules, four lions rampant counterchanged." The Wenwynwyn branch of the dynasty of Powys continued, or at a later period resumed, the red lion rampant on a gold ground, ascribed to Blyddyn ap Cynfyn; and it is not a little interesting, that recently a beautiful silver seal, in perfect preservation, of Hawys Gadarn, heiress of that princely line, who by the gift of Edward II. became the wife of John de Cherlton, was found near Oswestry, representing her standing, holding two shields: the one in her right hand charged with her own arms, the lion rampant; that in the left with those of Cherlton, two lions passant. The legend around the seal is "S'HAWISIE DNE DE KEVEOLOC."

The original seal is now in the Museum of Chester, and was exhibited, I believe, by the Honorary Curator, the Rev. William Massie, at a recent meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. Of this venerable relic I possess an impression in wax; and of the great and privy seals of Owen Glyndwr, beautiful casts in sulphur; and I shall have pleasure in leaving them with the editor of "N. & Q." for the inspection of Mr. Woodward, should that gentleman desire it.

John ap William ap John.

Inner Temple.
March 7, 1853.