ever been issued to the public." It is stated in 'The Value of British Coins' that Wyon's pattern five-pound piece is worth 77. 10s. G. F. R. B. BLUE PETER (7th S. iii. 477; iv. 116).—Is there not more to be said about "Blue Peter" than to copy from 'Phrase and Fable'? The flag is, I believe, the same in the French service as in ours, and, as a flag of departure, has the same meaning, I think. It is a flag of blue ground, with a white square in the centre, and is called bannière, or bannière de partance. It is hung out at the poop. It is not called le pavillon de partir, but la bannière de partance; and from partance you could not get Peter. So that proof is required to show that the expression partir was ever in use, from which Peter might be corruptly derived. I believe it to be apocryphal utterly a fancy guess, prettily human and ingenious, but quite without foundation. Is it not rather that in the English navy there are "repeat signals," of which this "Blue Peter" is one, and very commonly recurrent, so that the corruption is rather an abbreviation of the blue repeater than from any French word partir? In naval actions there are frigates set apart to repeat signals, and such vessels are called repeaters; French, répétiteurs. It is rather remarkable how many marine terms we have in common with the French, and how many of these seem to have been borrowed by us from the French. We think the French poor seamen, but this fact alone warns us towards modesty. Haverstock Hill. C. A. WARD. and the French taught us not only how to perfect HENRY WARBURTON, M.P. FOR BRIDPORT (7th HERMENTRUDE states, by way of correction to ADA, EDW. B. DE FONBLANQUE. read Lord Granville's speech at Dover on the Come i Roman, per l'esercito molto, The etymologies of this from Dr. Cobham Brewer, Falconer, and Webster are mere assertions, and conflicting assertions. I have beening, and passing each other in double columns taught by experience, as well as by reason, that assertions are not proofs, and that two conflicting assertions cannot both be true. When some probability of proof is given to either, or to any other etymology, I may give it a preference, or even believe in it, but not before. BR. NICHOLSON. HATTERS (7th S. iii. 497; iv. 94, 156).-The hat trade of this country was very extensively developed by the French emigrants who flocked hither in the seventeenth century. MR. BULLEN will find many interesting particulars regarding the hats manufactured by them in the following works: Smiles's 'Huguenots in England and Ireland' (1867), pp. 323, 460; Weiss's History of the French Protestant Refugees' (1854), pp. 259-60; 'History of the Trade in England' (London, 1702); and 'The Danger of the Church and Kingdom from Foreigners Considered' (London, 1721). The author of this last work, as quoted by Dr. Smiles, very naïvely remarks, "Spaniards and Dutchmen instructed us how to make Spanish felts, the crowds assembled in Rome at the time of the divided by a line of separation, compares them to Jubilee ordained by Boniface VIII., on which the centre of the Ponte Sant' Angelo to separate occasion the Pope caused a barrier to be placed in those going to St. Peter's from those returning from it. Balbo, in his 'Life of Dante,' says that towards the end of the thirteenth century a rumour spread among Christians that it was an ancient custom of the Holy See of Rome to grant to all such a plenary indulgence every hundredth year. In consequence of this report, people flocked in crowds to Rome, the great centre of Christianity; and Pope Boniface, yielding to the rumour (if he had not himself originated it), proclaimed that plenary indulgence in the year A.D. 1300 would be granted to all Romans who for thirty days, and to all foreigners who for fifteen days, should attend the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. The number of persons gathered in Rome for this purpose being so immense, it was necessary to take the precaution before named, to prevent crushing on the bridge leading to and from St. Peter's. The treasures and offerings brought by Eleanor, called from her extreme beauty the "Pearl of Brittany," was confined in Bristol Castle by her uncle King John. She was, of course, natural heir to the throne after the death of her young brother Prince Arthur. Year by year-that the people might be assured of her safety-she was brought out and exhibited; and year by year it was marked that the golden hue of her hair was changing, till at last she was an elderly grey-haired woman. She certainly never married, and her sad and eventless life closed during the reign of her cousin Henry III-a victim, like so many royal ladies, to the jealous From 'Inferno,' canto xviii. In Longfellow's present away from my books I am unable to fears of the reigning sovereign. As I am at version it is : Even as the Romans, for the mighty host, The year of Jubilee upon the bridge Have chosen a mode to pass the people over; For all upon one side towards the Castle Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's; On the other side they go towards the Mountain. Which flocks the year of Jubilee to Rome, The Castle, to St. Peter's as they throng,All on the other journey to the Mount. Wright explains in a note: "In the year 1300 Pope Boniface VIII. established the Jubilee for the sale of indulgences. So great was the concourse of pilgrims to Rome to purchase them, that in order to enable the crowds to pass and repass the bridge of St. Angelo with greater ease, it was divided lengthwise by a partition, so that on one side all had be. fore them the Castle of Adrian, on the other Mount Aventine," ED. MARSHALL. [MR. JONATHAN BOUCHIER supplies a prose translation, and other correspondents refer to the passage.] ELEANOR OF BRETAGNE (7th S. iv. 149).-Where the "Pearl of Bretagne" was born no record informs us; but it was in 1184, so she was three years older than her brother. By John, and afterwards Henry III., she was detained in honourable captivity, not more rigorous than the seclusion of the king's sisters, except that her movements were restricted and she was never allowed to marry. In 1230 robes are provided for her and her two damsels; she is allowed money for her alms and linen for her "works"; the manor of Swaffham is granted to her; and venison is supplied from the royal forests. Visitors are allowed under careful supervision. In 1236 she was in Gloucester Castle; but in 1241 she had been removed to Bristol, where she was slowly starved to death, 100l. being paid to John FitzGeoffrey, constable of Bristol Castle, on March 15, "ad executionem Alienoræ consanguineæ Domini Regis facienda" (Rot. Exit., Michs., 25-6 Hen. III.). HERMENTRUDE. give dates, but these Miss Strickland would St. Saviour's, Southwark. Sandford, in his Genealogical History of the Kings of England,' ed. 1677, p. 69, states that "Eleanor was sent into England by her uncle King John, and imprisoned in Bristol Castle for no other crime than her title to the crown...... In durance there she prolonged her miserable life until the year of our Lord 1241, at which time she died a virgin, and lieth buried in the church of the nunnery at Ambresbury." gives as his authorities 'Robert of Gloucester,' p. 230, and 'Roger Hoveden,' fol. 4148, No. 50, and fol. 425b, No. 40. Her father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, died in the year 1186, a few months after the birth of Arthur. Eleanor must, therefore, have been close upon sixty years of age at the time of her death. ALF. T. EVERITT. High Street, Portsmouth. He BARONESS BELLASIS OF OSGODBY, LINCOLNSHIRE (6th S. xi. 188; 7th S. iii. 418, 477; iv. 17, 94).-The following is the notice in the Genealogist, p. 305 (' New Peerage,' by G. E. C.):— She m., Belasyse of Osgodby-Dame Susan Belasyse, widow Belasyse of Warlaby above named), da, and coheir of Sir of Sir Henry Belasyse, K. B. (s. and h. ap. of John, Lord William Airmine, Bart., of Osgodby, co. Lincoln, by Anne, da. and coheir of Sir Robert Crane, Bart. (which Aune m. secondly, as his second wife, John, Lord Belasyse, as above said), was cr. 1 April, 1674, Baroness Belasyse of Osgodby, co. Lincoln, for life. Belasyse above named, by mar. lic. from Bishop of firstly, 20 Oct., 1662, at Kensington, Sir Henry London, he age 23, widr.; she aged 13, spr. d. v.p. (being killed in a duel), and was bur. 16 Aug., 1667, at St. Giles in the Fields. His will dat. 6 Aug., pr. 26 Oct. in that year. She m., secondly, before 1684, Visit. co. Cambridge in 1684. She d. at a good old James Fortrey of Chequers, who was aged 25 at Her. age 6 March, 1712/3, and was bur, at Twickenham, He Baroness Bellasis of Osgodby died at a good old age March 6, 1712/3, and was buried on the 13th at Twickenham, co. Middlesex. Her will is dated Sept. 8, 1710; proved March 11, 1713. Further particulars will be found in the July number of the Genealogist for the year 1886, under "Belasyse" in the New Peerage,' by G. E. C. ALFRED SCOTT GATTY, York Herald. entry, "To Sir Thomas Lucy's players, xs." Mr. HalliwellPhillipps has done so zealous work himself he is justified in challenging aid in further searching the records of Worcester and in exploring the registers of other towns. To such as undertake the employment, he furnishes, in his preface, valuable hints. All Shakspearian labour from Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps is prized. The present volumeobtainable only, we believe, from himself at Hollingbury Copse, Brighton-will be specially valued by the few fortunate enough to possess it. Saint Wandrille's Abbey. A Lecture, with Historical Preface. By Alfred Gatty, D.D., Vicar of Ecclesfield. (Sheffield, Rogers; London, Bell & Sons.) [W. B. M. supplies the passage quoted by MRS, SCAR-DR. GATTY is a well-known Yorkshire antiquary. Some forty years ago he published an unpretending little LETT.] volume on church bells which did very much towards AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS Wanted (7th S. iii. directing attention to campanology, a subject which had 409). The Visits of Shakespeare's Company of Actors to the Provincial Cities and Towns of England. By J. O. Halliwell - Phillipps, F.R.S. (Brighton, privately printed.) FOR private circulation Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has printed one more of his zealous and admirable contributions to our knowledge of Shakspeare. During twenty years he has sought amongst the corporate records of England and Wales for materials illustrative of Shakspearian biography and the history of the contemporary stage. Some results of these indefatigable labours have already seen the light. In the present volume he gives from the archives of upwards of seventy towns all the notices he has encountered of the visits of Shakspeare's company to the cities and towns of England. Between Dec. 26, 1594, and May 17, 1603, Shakspeare was one of the Lord Chamberlain's servants. From the latter date till about 1614 he belonged to the King's Servants. Every document belonging to the Shakspearian era in the towns visited has been carefully read, and all entries bearing upon these two companies at the times mentioned have been copied. The name of Shakspeare does not occur. That he was with one or other of the two companies in the majority of the cases advanced admits of little doubt. Thanks, accordingly, to these late and loving labours, dwellers in Barnstaple, Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Dover, Faversham, Folkestone, Leicester, Maidstone, Marlborough, New Romney, Oxford, Rye, Saffron Walden, and Shrewsbury may know that almost to a certainty the streets of these towns have seen the figure of Shakspeare. Among incidental matters of interest on which the explorer has lighted is the proof that Sir Thomas Lucy, "the avenger of the Charlecote escapade," was the patron of a body of itinerant actors. In the Chamberlain's Accounts for 1584 he finds the been before that time almost entirely neglected, even by those who were the most zealous in exploring the manners of the past. Since that date Dr. Gatty has laboured earnestly in the field of archæology. The lecture before us contains little new knowledge. It is but a gossipy account of a visit paid last year to the remains of the once stately Norman abbey of St. Wandrille, or, as it is more fitly called, Fontenelle. Ecclesfield Church, of which Dr. Gatty is the vicar, was a dependency on Fontenelle until the property of the alien religious houses of the connexion between the two places, except the was transferred to the Crown. Although little is known fact that the house of Fontenelle appointed to this West Riding vicarage, it was still of interest to one who was, in a certain manner, a successor of the Norman ecclesiastics who for ages attended to the spiritual wants of a thinly scattered flock which existed in that wild neighbourhood now occupied by mills, pits, and forges. But a few years ago Fontenelle, like many other of the desecrated remains of noble French architecture, was a mere ruin, utterly uncared for-serving, indeed, as a quarry from whence to take building stone. In 1863 it became the property of a nobleman whore religious feeling and taste for art have led him to restore such of the monastic buildings as were not demolished, and to take reverent care for the preservation of the fragments that remain of the noble conventual church. Dr. Gatty writes with good taste and kindly feeling. We wish, however, that he had gone somewhat more into detail with regard to the portions of the abbey that have been spared to us. Dr. Gatty, though accurate himself, has quoted a passage from another writer which we think contains a misleading suggestion. This writer speaks of imagining holy persons "resting under the shadow of the ancient church telling their beads." If the date meant be about 1250, as we conclude it to be, it is not out of place to remark that in all probability the rosary was not then used as a devotional exercise. In the latter days of the unreformed religion in England the rosary-a pair of beads, as it was called-was the most popular form of devotion for lay people. We see it everywhere in pictures-notably in Holbein's Dresden Madonna and his family of Sir Thomas More, preserved at Nostell Priory. The earliest representations of the rosary we know of occur in fourteenth century wall paintings. The late Dr. Rock, in his very learned Church of Our Fathers' (vol. iii. part i. p. 196), gives an engraving of this period of St. Michael weighing Souls, in which the Blessed Virgin is shown laying her bead-string over the beam of the scale in which the soul is represented praying, in the form of a naked infant, by this means making it heavier than the one opposite, containing the dead man's sins, at which the great spirit of evil, or one of his myrmidons, is fruitlessly tugging. paléographe and bibliographer is traced, and his mar vellous discoveries concerning the Ashburnham MSS. are fully discussed. An excellent etching by M. Manesse accompanies the article, which is by M. Gustave Pawlowski. M. de Heussey also writes on the note-books of Dickens. The "Bibliographie Moderne "deals with many books of current interest. Narrative of the Expedition to Walcheren under command of Lord Chatham. By the late John Irving, M.P. With Map. (Hatchards.) WE are indebted to the same source as that which has given us Niebuhr's Letter on the State of Ireland in 1829,' lately noticed in these pages, for an equally interesting, because independent account of the unfortunate Walcheren expedition. Mr. Irving was an eye-witness of the facts which he details, and very curious and sig. nificant many of them are. He evidently saw far into the special causes of its failure which the expedition carried within itself. The armament was a formidable one, particularly the naval portion of it. There were able officers alike in the sea and land forces. But there was from the first a want of harmony among the re-offers a rich field for the archæologist and philologist. sponsible leaders which was certain to be fatal to the success of the expedition as a whole. And that success, even had it been certain, would have been purchased, as Mr. Irving saw, at too high a price. We desired to prevent Antwerp from being made use of by Napoleon as a sallyport and harbour of refuge for armaments directed against England. Our safety in this matter is assured to us by the Treaty of Paris, 1814, in so far as treaties assure anything. But we must sadly admit that our general successes in the Peninsular War would have gained us this advantage, and that our losses in men and money at Walcheren were absolutely useless. THE Congress of the French Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Toulouse, 22nd to 29th inst. The secretary's address in Paris is 4, Rue Antoine Dubois. It is stated that the list of papers is already very full in the various sections, so that an interesting gathering may be expected. The neighbourhood THE Report of the Royal Society of Literature (21, Delahay Street, S. W.), for 1887, lately printed for circulation among the Fellows, contains a fairly full memoir of our late distinguished Shakspearian contributor Dr. Ingleby, embracing an apposite extract from the terse and forcible lament uttered over him in the pages of Shakespeariana (Philadelphia), by Dr. H. Howard Furness. Adequate notices also appear of the late Master of Trinity, and of Mr. Charles J. Stone, whose 'Cradle Land of Arts and Creeds' was noticed by us on its appearance in 1880. A separate report is contributed by the foreign secretary, Mr. C. H. E. Carmichael, M.A., who deals with literature, art, and the drama abroad and in our colonies, besides giving a brief account of the present position of the International Copyright question in the United States and Canada. PART IV. of Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, published by the Chaucer Society, is from the learned and indefatigable pen of Mr. W. A. Clouston. It illustrates The Franklin's Tale,' The Merchant's Tale,' 'The Man of Law's Tale,' and The Pardoner's Tale.' The entire work, Part V. of which will complete the volume, will be a treasure-house of fable. Readers of N, & Q.'are too familiar with Mr. Clouston's studies in early story and fable to require further recommendation. UNDER the title of Manchester a Hundred Years Ago Mr. W. E. A. Axon has reprinted, with an erudite introduction, 'A Description of Manchester 1783,' a tract which be, for satisfactory reasons, assigns to James Ogden. The interest of this work extends beyond Lancashire. The publisher is Mr. John Heywood. BUTTON FAMILY.-Mr. Alfred F. Langley, of Golding, Peterston-super-Ely, Cardiff, has copies of monumental inscriptions of some members of this family which he will send to any one requiring them. MR. C. ELKIN MATHEWS, of Cathedral Yard, Exeter, an occasional contributor to N. & Q.,' will shortly remove his old bookselling establishment to 6, Vigo Street, London. THE Memoir of John Felton,' which begins in this month's number of the Antiquary, and arrests and rewards attention, is, we hear, by our well-known contributor Mr. C. A. Ward, Notices to Correspondents. We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith, WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate." E. R. VYVYAN (The Winter's Tale ').-This is cor rect. It is so given in the First Folio, both at the head of the play and in the catalogue of plays at the beginning of the volume. The substitution of A Winter's Tale on the part of the fair occupant of the Lyceum was a feminine caprice, subsequently abandoned. BEVERLEY R. BETTS ("Heraldic ").-You supply no references to your reply, and we are, consequently, unable to trace it. E. T. EVANS ("Steeple "). You confound steeple with spire. "Steeple is a general term, and applies to every appendage of this nature, whether tower or spire, or a combination of the two" (Craig's 'Etymological Dictionary'). A. E. P. (The man that hath no music in his soul," &c.).- Merchant of Venice,' V. i. GRANVILLE EGERTON.- Please forward address. Letters sent to that you supply have been returned. THE series of publications known as "English History by Contemporary Writers," published by Mr. D. Nutt, has been enriched by The Misrule of Henry III., selected-Neither form is strictly justifiable. and arranged by the Rev. W. H. Hutton, M.A., from the writings of Matthew Paris and other chroniclers. The value of these works must not be measured by their size and general unpretentiousness. E. ARGENT ("Daily journals": "Integral portions"). A SERIES of papers upon "Les Maîtres Bibliographes Français" begins in Le Livre, No. 93, with an account of Léopold Delisle, director of the Bibliothèque National. The remarkably productive career of this admirable NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries '"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher "-at the Office, 22, Took's Court, Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, E.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return commu ications which, for any reason, we do not print; and tr rule we can make no exception. |