the year 1880 or thereabouts, as near as I can fix the date in my memory. His exploits and insane acts were recounted at great length in the Italian journals of the period; and the authorities were blamed for his violent death, as he was rightly considered a crazy believer in his own Messiahship. WILLIAM MERCER. MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW: MEDALS (11 S. v. 390, 474).-There is an engraving of the medal of Gregory XIII. in Joseph Mendham's The Life and Pontificate of Saint Pius the Fifth,' 1832, facing p. 213. Mendham writes (p. 216):: "There were several medals struck in France on this triumphant occasion. Two are in my possession: one in bronze, with the date under the head, 1572, and on the reverse a figure of the king on his throne with several heads under his feet, and the legend, VIRTUS. IN. REBELLES. The other is a fine large one in silver, the head, of a ferocious expression, on one side, on the other a figure of Hercules attacking the hydra with a club in one hand and a torch in the other with the legend, NE FERRUM SIMUL IGNIB OBSTO, and the date 1572 in the exergue." A foot-note refers to 'Thuani Hist.,' lib. liii. c. 1. , There is a good deal about the medals in Edward Smedley's History of the Reformed Religion in France,' 1832-4, vol. ii. He writes (p. 35) that the medal with the effigies of Charles IX., issued in Paris, preceded the Papal medal. A foot-note says that a vignette of the latter is given as a headpiece to the 'Epitome of the 49th Book of De Thou, in the third volume of the London edition. Reference is also made to Bonanni, Numismata Pontif. Roman.,' i. 336 (fig. 27). The foot-note goes on to state that De Thou describes both gold and silver medals struck at Paris. The legend round the king's head in one was VIRTUS IN REBELLES; the device on the reverse, two columns ("the ordinary device of Charles"), and the legend PIETAS EXCITAVIT JUSTITIAM. In the other the legend on the obverse was CAROLUS IX. REBELLIUM DOMITOR; the device on the reverse, Hercules with his club and lighted torch destroying the hydra. a ("Ignis for ignibus.) There is no date in the exergue. The size and metal are the same as in the last. LAPSAS The reverse of another medal, dated 1572, represents the king, habited as a Roman emperor (military), pushing back with his right hand two falling columns, which have crowns as capitals. The legend is MIRA. FIDES COLVMNAS. There are the same legend and almost the same design on another reverse which has no date. In the former the king is unarmed; in the latter he has a pike in his left hand and a hanger at his side. Both medals are marked silver, the former measuring in., the latter 1 in. RELEVAT. MANVS. VNA. Another, with 1572 in the exergue, has left hand, a palm branch in the right, in a woman standing, an open book in the an oval of rays of light. Behind the lower part of the figure are several human faces lying on flames. The legend is SVBDVCENDIS . RATIONIBVS. Silver, size nearly 2 in. Another, having the date 1572, not in the exergue, but at the end of the legend HAE. TIBI. ERVNT. ARTES represents a mailed arm coming from a cloud. The naked hand holds upright a sword, with two serpents facing each other, one on each side of the blade. The sword-point passes into a crown of laurel. Silver, size 1 in. Possibly these medals do not all refer to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. ROBERT PIERPOINT. BAG-ENVELOPES (11 S. v. 467).—I cannot quote chapter and verse, but have always understood that Henry Dobb, of 134, In La France Metallique,' by Jacques Fleet Street, perfected and introduced the de Bie, 1634, appear the reverses of many gummed envelope. This business-Dobbs, medals of Charles IX. One medal appa- Kidd & Co.-ceased to exist a few years ago, rently has both sides given. According to but their proprietary articles passed to the signs it is of silver, and measures 1 in. another house, from whom it is possible On the obverse is the king on his throne information could be obtained. under a royal canopy, a sword in his right hand, and in his left a tall staff surmounted There is a third claimant. Amongst the advertisements in Clarke's' Handbook Guide "These Envelopes are made perfectly safe in an instant; the flap of the Envelope being prepared with a strong cement renders it more secure than those which are fastened in the usual manner, the cement only requiring to be damped and the flap pressed down, after which it becomes dry and firm in a few seconds." The patentee and vendor, J. Smith, 42, Rathbone Place, had no agents, and the public against worthless cautioned imitations. ALECK ABRAHAMS. refers, is generally considered to be a survival of the now submerged continent of Atlantis which formerly connected Africa and America. That this connexion existed is largely borne out by Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico.' FREDERICK A. FLOYER. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (11 S v. 449). The lines commencing Though absence parts us for a while were enclosed in a letter from Alice Rhodes to her paramour Louis Stanton, and produced in evidence in the Penge case at the Old Bailey in 1877, a full account of which, Under this heading R. B. P. refers to an by Mr. J. B. Atlay, was published last year old-time envelope, the flap whereof retains by Wm. Hodge & Co. of Edinburgh. I no trace of any adhesive, which he imagines was present myself at this trial, which was may have perished in consequence of the the first great case tried by the late Lord lapse of years. I am under the impression Brampton (Mr. Justice Hawkins), and though that envelopes were originally unprovided all four prisoners were sentenced to death, with adhesives, for the reason that the they were all respited. Alice Rhodes reancient practice prevailed of using sealing-ceived a full pardon, and was immediately wax. The next development, curiously, released. I am under the impression the was that of an adhesive on detached labels, verse was her own composition. which were affixed across the flaps of envelopes. I was recently shown a preserved sheet of such gummed labels (intended to be cut off, as required, with scissors) issued by the firm of Isaac Pitman, and inscribed with mottoes in shorthand. 66 A. S. THE CAPTURE OF SPIRA (11 S. v. 429).— The 'Marishall de la Fors" is Jacques Nompar de Caumont (1558-1652), created Duc de la Force in 1637 by Louis XIII.he had previously been Marquis de la Force. His ' Mémoires' (with those of his two sons) were published in 4 vols. in 1843 by the Marquis de la Grange. The true name of "Spira" would no doubt be found therein. The Latin name of Epinal is "Spinalium.” The date of the campaign in Lorraine was 1634. W. A. B. COOLIDGE. Speyer (or Spire in French-Spira in Latin), the well-known historic town of the Bavarian Palatinate, was alternately besieged and captured during the Thirty Years' War, between 1632 and 1635, by different troops of the Swedish, Imperial, and French armies. H. K. PIERRE LOTI: EASTER ISLAND (11 S. v. 469). Your correspondent L. L. K. will probably find the information he requires in Pêcheur d'Islande,' by Julien Viaud, alias Pierre Loti, London, 1892, 12mo, Easter Island, to which L. L. K. WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. CASANOVA AND THE ENGLISH RESIDENT AT VENICE (11 S. v. 207, 315, 376).—I have received the following information from Mr. Aldo Ravà of Venice, the editor of the recently published Lettere di Donne a Giacomo Casanova' : "John Murray n'était vraiment pas consul, mais secrétaire résident, et beau-frère du Consul Smith, le fameux collectionneur, protecteur de 14 Dec., 1754, fut rappelé par une lettre du Canaletto. John Murray arriva à Venise le 26 Nov., 1765, mais ne quitta Venise que le 15 May, 1766." Mr. Ravà is anxious for information about Consul Smith, and wishes to know what became of his collection of Canalettos. HORACE BLEACKLEY. NAPOLEON'S EMBLEM OF THE BEE (11 S. v. 288, 436). Since Lindenschmit has made it quite clear that two corpses were entombed in the royal grave at Tournai-King Childeric and his Queen Basine-we must admit that the golden bees decorated the queen's mantle or robe, and had nothing to do with the king's attire. So when Napoleon was advised to adopt the bee as an emblem of the oldest French monarchy, he simply took a feminine ornament for a warrior's badge. Before Lindenschmit wrote, it was universally believed that Childéric had been buried with one of his officers. S. Germain-en-Laye. S. REINACH. ALFRED B. BEAVEN. 66 "SPOILING THE SHIP FOR A HA'PORTH OF TAR" (11 S. v. 468). Many country people in the parts of Warwick, Worcester, and Gloucester, round Stratford-on-Avon, still refer to sheep as ship"; but I cannot quite agree with the too sweeping assertion of the author of A Shakespeare Glossary' (1911) that the two words are pronounced alike. Forty years ago a farmer spoke of his ship," and his son on the same farm to-day refers to his sheep." Both pronunciations were common in Shakespeare's time, hence his play upon them in three well-known passages. 66 I have always thought (perhaps quite wrongly) that the saying had its origin in a reference to the shearer giving a finishing touch to his work by putting the initials of the owner-by means of a branding iron and hot pitch-on the freshly shorn sheep. It is, however, quite possible that the phrase had some connexion with sheep-stealing, and I shall be very glad of your correspondents' explanation of this connexion. "Ne'er lose a hog for a halfpenny worth of tar was noted down by John Ray in 1670 as a current Northern proverb, adding that Some have it Lose not a sheep for a halfpenny worth Hog, or hogg, in the North, is a oneyear-old ewe....In 1828 the Craven Glossary gives us I Do not lose the ewe for a hauporth o' tar.' of tar. "In hilly districts sheep are constantly liable to surface wounds or abrasions on head or legs ground and rough walls; and if the abraded part by falling, or clambering, or leaping over rugged is not at once tarred, the flesh-flies settle upon it, deposit their eggs, and in a few days the poor sheep is eaten up of worms. One of the chief cares of a shepherd in summer is to see whether any of his sheep have been thus wounded, and if so, at once to catch the poor animal and apply the hap'orth o' tar to the wounded part, which will keep off the carnivorous flies, heal the part, and save the sheep. For this purpose the tar box is in constant use. An interesting interchange of opinion on this quotation between X. Y. Z. and Sir James Murray took place in The Daily News of 8, 10, 11, and 14 Nov., 1910. If MR. LANDFEAR LUCAS is unable to obtain the papers, I will type him a copy of the correspondence. WM. T. SANIGAR. "Sheep" is still very generally pronounced "ship" in the provinces, and it was customary-probably later among those who could write as well as those who could notto use their sheep-mark as a signature. The saying alludes to the risk run by farmers of losing their sheep-strayed or stolenowing to their not making a trifling investment in tar to mark their ownership. The following is an early allusion to the custom : "I know not how I shall order them that cannot subscribe by writing; hitherto I have such persons, and made them to write their caused one of my secretaries to subscribe for shepe-mark or some mark as they can.... scribble."-Cranmer, ii. 291. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. [DR. JOHN KNOTT thanked for reply.] THE FITZWILLIAM FAMILY (11 S. v. 164, 312, 454).—I am sorry to resume the ungrateful rôle of critic, but I really cannot accept MR. WIGMORE'S attempt to pitchfork Turstin fitz Rou into the Mortimer family. As fitz Rou" means "son of Rou," Turstin cannot have been the son of Roger de Mortimer, or any other Roger, Rou being a softened form of Hrolf, not a variant of Roger. 66 66 After the Battle of Hastings Turstin returns to the obscurity from which he "The first to convert the sheep into had suddenly emerged; but he seems to ship was apparently Hazlitt in his English have been alive in 1086, although Dr. Proverbs,' who has To spoil the ship for a half- Round cautiously remarks that there is penny worth of tar'; but he cautiously adds, In Cornwall I heard a version more consistent just a doubt" whether the Turstin fitz with probability, "Don't spoil the sheep for a Rou (or Rolf) of Domesday is the same hap'orth of tar." ..The bold and reckless man as the standard-bearer at Hastings exaggeration of the ship' form recommended (Studies in Peerage and Family History,' it to the Londoner in the street, who likes a paradox to be a thumping one. In the true form Pp. 188-9). Subsequently his fief reverted there is no exaggeration: a hap'orth of tar each to the Crown, whether by escheat or forsaves hundreds of sheep every summer. feiture is not known, and portions of it served to endow Winebaud de Ballon, an immigrant from Maine (ibid., pp. 187–94). The statements that Turstin fitz Rou was granted Wigmore Castle, assumed the name of Wigmore, and had two sons, from whom descended families named Mortimer and Wigmore, all seem to be unsupported assertions. In 1086 Wigmore Castle was held by Ralf de Mortimer, son of the Roger de Mortimer who fought at the Battle of Mortemer in 1054, and was still living in 1074 (Planché, Conqueror and his Companions,' i. 234-9). Roger, by the way, would take his name of Mortemer or Mortimer from his town and castle of Mortemer, not from the battle fought there, as MR. WIGMORE seems to imply. I have referred to Round's 'Feudal England,' p. 324, but there is nothing there to suggest a connexion between the Thurstan, or Turstin, who was son-in-law of Alvred de Merleberge (Alfred of Marlborough), and Turstin fitz Rou. "Sylvaticus, Earl of Shrewsbury," sounds as romantic as the Roman de la Rose.' G. H. WHITE. St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk. PENLEAZE (11 S. v. 270, 414; vi. 33).-The gentleman referred to is presumably the person mentioned in Hare's Two Noble Lives' as a former occupant of Highcliff, near Christchurch, Hants. He is stated to have met with a singular" treasure trove" in the form of a vast number of bank-notes concealed within an old cocked. hat box, left behind in a cupboard of the house by some former tenant. This Mr. John Story Penleaze, M.P., was the father of the Rev. John Penleaze, sometime rector of Black Torrington, Devon, and of Col. Henry Penleaze, neither of whom had any male descendants. The family is now considered to be extinct. which MR. T. LL. JONES does not seem to have seen, and to whom the poet dedicated his Descriptive Sketches,' published in 1793, was of the Joneses of Plas-yn-Llan, near Ruthin, but the name of his father I cannot ascertain. He was elected Fellow of his College (St. John's, Cambridge), and subsequently became incumbent of a living in Oxfordshire, where he died in 1835. In the note above referred to Wordsworth himself gives some of these particulars, speaking of him most affectionately, as he also does in the letter prefixed to his 'Descriptive Sketches,' and the sonnet (No. 7, Miscellaneous ') he addressed to him (1807). He was the poet's companion not only through France and Switzerland in 1790, but on frequent excursions through England and Wales. See Knight's Works and Life' of the poet, vol. ix. JOHN HUTCHINSON. Dullatur House, Hereford. TURKISH SPY IN PARIS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (11 S. v. 489). The author of this work is supposed to have been Charles Frazer, M.D., son of Sir Alexander Frazer, Bart., Physician to Charles II. See the 'D.N.B.' and Cokayne's Complete Baronetage'; see also ' N. & Q.,' 17 Dec., 1910. S. D. C. The Letters writ by a Turkish Spy' is a well-known book which ran through many editions from 1691 onwards. It is by John Paul Marana, a Genoese born about 1642, a life of whom may be found in Moreri, Chalmers, and other biographical dictionaries. He lived in Paris from 1682 to 1689, when he retired to Italy, dying there in 1693. Chalmers says: "Few supposed the author to be a real Turk, but credit was given to the unknown European, who, under a slight fiction, thus delivered opinions and anecdotes, which it might not have been safe to publish in a more open manner.... The whole are now the amusement of few except very idle readers." I should be glad to know if I am right in suppos ng that a book plate which I possess represents the Penleaze arms, i.e., 1st quarter, croisy, a lion rampant ; John Dunton, bookseller, 1659-1733, in 2nd quar er, p.p. fesse indented or et az., his Life and Errors,' 1818 (p. 182), attrithree martlets sable; 3rd quarter a chevron butes The Turkish Spy' to a hackney embattled between three hatchets ; 4th author named Bradshaw, on internal eviquarter, a human hand erect proper. Crest, dence only. Perhaps he was the translator. a wyvern. Motto, "Neque prodigus, neque avarus." G. J., F.S.A. WORDSWORTH'S FRIEND JONES (11 S. v. 430). "This excellent Person, one of my earliest and dearest friends," as Wordsworth himself describes him in a note to be found in the Oxford edition of the poet's works by Thomas Hutchinson (1895), p. 903, W. R. B. PRIDEAUX. The book referred to by your correspondent was published in England in 1687, and was a very free translation from G. P. Marana's L'Espion Turc,' of which several editions appeared on the Continent, with subsequent continuations. It is one of a whole family of novelistic miscellanies this city. (2) Jerment's Memoirs of Jane of Navarre is included in the first, not the second, volume of Dr. Gibbons's Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women.' It may be of interest to add that our Art Gallery has been enriched by a large watercolour drawing by Sir John Gilbert, R.A., of King Francis I. with the Queen of Navarre, Madame d'Estampes, and the Benvenuto Cellini.' Cardinal of Lorraine in the Workshop of J. B. McGOVERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. FORLORN HOPE AT BADAJOS (11 S. v. 288, 394, 492).—The "Lieut. De Gruber of the Artillery mentioned in MR. PIERPOINT'S reply should be Lieut. William von Goeben of the King's German Legion Artillery. Jones gives the name as de Goeben" on p. 168, but transcribes it as de Gruber " on p. 227. I cannot find "Girsewald" in any of the regiments of the King's German Legion. There were two lieutenants of that name Oels's Corps in 1811, and it is probably one (Henry and Carl) in the Duke of Brunswick of these who is referred to. Carl died in 1812. The name is spelt Girsewaldt. Second Capt. John Archer Williams and Lieut. Anthony Emmett, who were wounded at the storm of Badajoz, and Lieuts. Edward A. de Salaberry and Thomas Lascelles, who were killed, all belonged to the corps of Royal Engineers. Williams was killed later in the year (24 Sept.) at the unsuccessful siege of Burgos. Capt. William Nicholas, also of the R.E., was wounded at Badajoz on 6 April, 1812, and died there on the 14th. J. H. LESLIE. Master of the Horse to the Regent of the I sent to Baron W. von Girsewald, the Duchy of Brunswick, the paragraph in which it is stated that Girsewald, an officer of the German Legion, was one of the first who mounted, and that he caught hold of a Frenchman's bayonet so firmly that he pulled himself up by it, and then cut off the Frenchman's head. The following is the reply I have received from Baron W. von Girsewald: "It was very kind of you to send me the copy of Notes and Queries concerning the storming of Badajos. It greatly interested me to read the authentic publication of what I had heard from my grandfather, when I was a boy. The Capt. von Girsewald who acted so bravely in this severely wounded after the taking of the Citadel affair was a brother of my grandfather, and was in the streets of Badajos. He died a few days later from blood-poisoning." HENRY HOWARD. |