whom it was handed over to the then treasurer of the Society, Nicholas Hide, Esq. ? and was the author of such scandalous letter ever discovered and prosecuted? CESTRIENSIS.

Charles Watson.-Can any of your readers give me any account of Charles Watson, of Hertford College, Oxford, author of poems, and Charles the First, a tragedy?

I believe a short memoir of this author was to have appeared in Blackwood's Magazine (the second volume, I think); it was never published, however. A. Z.

Early (German) coloured Engravings.—I have six old coloured engravings, which I suppose to be part of a series, as they are numbered respectively 1, 2. 4. 11, 12, 14. They are mounted on panels; and on the back of each is a piece of vellum, on which some descriptive verses in old German have been written. The ink retains its blackness; but dirt, mildew, and ill usage have rendered nearly all the inscriptions illegible, and greatly damaged the pictures; yet, through the laborious colouring and the stains, good drawing and expression are visible. Perhaps a brief description may enable some of your readers to tell me whether they are known.

Nos. 1. and 11. are so nearly obliterated, that I will not attempt to describe them. No. 2. seems to be St. George attacking the dragon. The inscription is:

"Hier merke Sohn gar schnell und bald,
Von grausam schwartzen Thier im Wald."

No. 4. A stag and a unicorn:

"Man ist von Nöthin dass ihr wiszt,

Im Wald ein Hirsch und Eikhorn ist."

No. 12. An old man with wings, and a younger wearing a crown and sword. They are on the The sun top of a mountain overlooking the sea. is in the left corner, and the moon and stars on the right. The perspective is very good. Inscription

obliterated.

No. 14. The same persons, and a king on his throne. The elder in the background; the younger looking into the king's mouth, which is opened to preternatural wideness:

"Sohn in dein Abwesen war ich tod,
Und mein Leben in grosser Noth;
Aber in dein Beysein thue ich leben,
Dein Widerkunfft mir Freudt thut geben."

The inscription is long, but of the rest only a word here and there is legible. Any information on this subject will oblige,

H.

[The History of the Religious Extravagancies of Monsieur Oufle is a remarkable book, written by the Abbé Bordelon, and first published, we believe, at Amsterdam, in 2 vols., 1710. The Paris edition of 1754, in 2 vols., entitled L'Histoire des Imaginations Extrava

gantes de Monsieur Oufle, is the best, as it contains some curious illustrations. From the title-page we learn that the work was "Occasioned by the author having read books treating of magic, the black art, demoniacs, conjurors, witches, hobgoblins, incubuses, succubuses, and the diabolical Sabbath; of elves, fairies, wanton spirits, geniuses, spectres, and ghosts; of dreams, the philosopher's stone, judicial astrology, horoscopes, talismans, lucky and unlucky days, eclipses, comets, and all sorts of apparitions, divinations, charms, enchantments, and other superstitious practices; with notes containing a multitude of quotations out of those books which have either caused such extravagant imaginations, or may serve to cure them." If any of our readers should feel inclined to collect what we may term "A Diabolical Library," he has only to consult vol. i. ch. iii. for a catalogue of the principal books in Mons. Oufle's study, which is the most curious list of the black art we have ever seen. An English translation of these Religious Extravagancies was published in 1711.]

Lysons' MSS.-Is the present repository of the MS. notes, used by Messrs. Lysons in editing their great work, the Magna Britannia, known?

T. P. L.

[The topographical collections made by the Rev. Daniel Lysons for the Magna Britannia and the Environs of London, making sixty-four volumes, are in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 9408-9471. They were presented by that gentleman.]

"Luke's Iron Crown" (Goldsmith's Traveller, last line but two). To whom does this refer, and what are the particulars? P. J. (A Subscriber).

[This Query is best answered by the following note from Mr. P. Cunningham's new edition of Goldsmith:

"When Tom Davies, at the request of Granger, asked Goldsmith about this line, Goldsmith referred him for an explanation of Luke's iron crown' to a book called Géographie Curieuse; and added, that by 'Damiens' bed of steel' he meant the rack. See Granger's Letters, 8vo., 1805, p. 52.

66 George and Luke Dosa were two brothers who headed an unsuccessful revolt against the Hungarian nobles at the opening of the sixteenth century and George (not Luke) underwent the torture of the red

hot iron crown, as a punishment for allowing himself to be proclaimed King of Hungary (1513) by the rebellious peasants (see Biographie Universelle, xi. 604.). The two brothers belonged to one of the native races of Transylvania called Szecklers, or Zecklers (Forster's Goldsmith, i. 395., edit. 1854)."]

"Horam coram Dago."-In the first volume of Lavengro, p. 89. :

"From the river a chorus plaintive, wild, the words of which seem in memory's ear to sound like 'Horam coram Dago,'"

I have somewhere read a song, the chorus or refrain of which contained these three words. Can any of your readers explain ?

armorial bearings are described very minutely in Edward Steele's Account of Bisham Church, Gough MSS., vol. xxiv., Bodleian, which contains some other notices of the parish. BRAYBROOKE.

[Our correspondent is thinking of the song "Amo, amas," by O'Keefe, which will be found in The Universal Songster, vol. i. p. 52., and other collections. We subjoin the chorus:

Many years have passed away since I went over Bisham Abbey; but I was then informed that any family portraits belonging to the old House had been taken away by the widow of Sir John Hoby Mill, Baronet, who sold the property to Mr. George Vansittart in 1780, or shortly afterwards. I am not aware that there are any engraved portraits of the Hobys, excepting those mentioned by your correspondent MR. WHITBORNE, which form part of the series of Holbein's Heads, published in 1792 by John Chamberlaine, from the original drawings still in the royal collection. In the meagre account of the persons represented in that work, Lady Hoby is described as "Elizabeth, one of the four daughters of Sir Antony Cooke, of Gidea Hall, Essex," and widow of Sir Thomas Hoby, who died in 1566, at Paris, whilst on an embassy there. The lady remarried John Lord Russell, eldest son of Francis, second Earl of Bedford, whom she also survived, and deceasing 23rd of July, 1584, was buried in Bisham Church, in which she had erected a chapel containing splendid monuments to commemorate her husbands and herself. The inscriptions will be found in Ashmole's Berkshire, vol. ii. p. 464., and in Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 504., where the Hoby crest is given as follows; "On a chapeau gules turned up ermine, a wolf regreant argent." The

"This is the Whitley Grenadier,

A noted house for famous beer.

My friend, if you should chance to call,
Beware and get not drunk withal;
Let moderation be your guide,
It answers well whene'er 'tis try'd.
Then use but not abuse strong beer,
And don't forget the Grenadier."

In

The next specimen, besides being of a higher class, has somewhat of an historical interest. a secluded part of the Oxfordshire hills, at a place called Collins's End, situated between Hardwick House and Goring Heath, is a neat little rustic inn, having for its sign a well-executed portrait of Charles I. There is a tradition that this unfortunate monarch, while residing as a prisoner at Caversham, rode one day, attended by an escort, into this part of the country, and hearing that there was a bowling-green at this inn, frequented by the neighbouring gentry, struck down to the house, and endeavoured to forget his sorrows for awhile in a game at bowls. This circumstance is alluded to in the following lines, which are written beneath the sign-board:

66

Stop, traveller, stop; in yonder peaceful glade, His favourite game the royal martyr play'd; Here, stripp'd of honours, children, freedom, rank, Drank from the bowl, and bowl'd for what he drank; Sought in a cheerful glass his cares to drown, And changed his guinea, ere he lost his crown." The sign, which seems to be a copy from Vandyke, though much faded from exposure to the skill that is not usually to be found among common weather, evidently displays an amount of artistic sign-painters. I once made some inquiries about it of the people of the house, but the only information they could give me was that they believed it to have been painted in London.

Reading.

G. T.

TRANSLATION FROM SHERIDAN, ETC.

(Vol. viii., p. 563.)

I cannot furnish BALLIOLENSIS with the translation from Sheridan he requires, but I am acquainted with that from Goldsmith. It is to be found somewhere in Valpy's Classical Journal. As that work is in forty volumes, and not at hand, I am not able to give a more precise reference. I recollect, however, a few of the lines at the beginning:

"Incola deserti, gressus refer, atque precanti

Sis mihi noctivagæ dux, bone amice, viæ;
Dirige quà lampas solatia luce benigna

Præbet, et hospitii munera grata sui.
Solus enim tristisque puer deserta per agro,
Ægre membra trahens deficiente pede,
Quà, spatiis circum immensis porrecta, patescunt
Me visa augeri progrediente, loca.”
"Ulterius ne perge," senex, "jam mitte vagari,

Teque iterum noctis, credere, amice, dolis :
Luce trahit species certa in discrimina fati,

Ah nimium nescis quo malefida trahat!
Hic inopi domus, hic requies datur usque vaganti,
Parvaque quantumvis dona, libente manu.
Ergo verte pedes, caliginis imminet hora,

Sume libens quidquid parvula cella tenet..." No doubt there is a copy of the Classical Journal in the Bodleian; and if BALLIOLENSIS can give me volume and page, I in turn shall be much obliged

to him.

HYPATIA.

"Conscia ni dextram dextera pressa premat." are a translation of the song in Sheridan's Duenna, Act I. Sc. 2., beginning –

"I ne'er could any lustre see," &c. They were done by Marmaduke Lawson, of St. John's College, Cambridge, for the Pitt Scholarship in 1814, for which he was successful : “Phyllidis effugiunt nos lumina. Dulcia sunto.

Pulcra licet, nobis haud ea pulera micant. Nectar erat labiis, dum spes erat ista tenendi, Spes perit, isque simul, qui erat ante, decor. Votis me Galatea petit. Caret arte puella, Parque rosis tenero vernat in ore color: Sed nihil ista juvant. Forsan tamen ista juvabunt, Si jaceant, victâ marte, rubore genæ : Pura manus mollisque fluit. Neque credere possum. Ut sit vera fides, ista premenda mihi est. Nec bene credit amor (nam res est plena timoris), Conscia ni dextram dextera pressa premat. Ecce movet pectus suspiria. Pectora nostris Ista legenda oculis, si meus urat amor. Et, nostri modo cura memor nostrique caloris Tangat eam, facere id non pudor ullus erit."

I have not sent the English, as it can be easily got at. The other translation I am not acquainted

with.

B.

FLORINS AND THE ROYAL ARMS.

(Vol. viii., p. 621.)

The placing of the royal arms in four separate shields in the form of a cross first occurred upon the medals struck upon the nativity of King Charles II., anno 1630; and adopted upon the reverse of the coins for the first time in 1662, upon the issue of what was then termed the improved milled coin, where the arms are so placed, having the star of the Garter in the centre; the crowns intersecting the legend, and two crowns interlaced in each quarter. The shields, as here marshalled, are each surmounted by a crown; having in the top and bottom shield France and England quarterly, Ireland on the dexter side (which is the second place), and on the sinister Scotland. But on the milled money which followed, France and England being borne separately, that of France, which had been constantly borne in the first quarter singly until James I., and afterwards in the first place quarterly with England, is placed in the bottom shield or fourth quarter. Mr. Leake, in his Historical Account of English Money, after remarking that this irregular bearing first appeared upon the nativity medals of Charles II. in 1630, where the shields are placed in this manner, adds, that this was no doubt who knew no other way to place the arms circuoriginally owing to the ignorance of the graver, larly than following each other, like the titles, unless (as I have heard, says he) that the arms of each kingdom might fall under the respective title in the legend; and this witty conceit has ever since prevailed upon the coin, except in some of King William and Queen Mary's money, where the arms are rightly marshalled in one shield. That this was owing to the ignorance of the workman, and not with any design to alter the disposition of the arms, is evident from the arms upon the great seal, where France is borne quarterly with England, in the first and fourth quarters, as it was likewise used upon all other occasions, until the alteration occasioned by the union with Scotland in 1707.

In reference to the arrangement consequent upon the union with Scotland, he observes that, how proper soever the impaling the arms of the two kingdoms was in other respects, it appeared with great impropriety upon the money. The four escocheons in cross had hitherto been marshalled in their circular order from the left, whereby the dexter escocheon was the fourth; according to which order the united arms, being quartered first and fourth, would have fallen together; therefore they were placed at the top and bottom,

Evelyn's Discourse, edit. 1696, p. 121.

† London, 8vo., 1745, 2nd edit., then Clarenceux King of Arms, and afterwards Garter.

which indeed was right: but then France by the same rule was then in the third place, and Ireland in the second; unless to reconcile it we make a rule contrary to all rule, to take sinister first and dexter second.

ap

In the coinage of King George I., the representation of the armorial bearings in four separate shields, as upon the milled money of King Charles II., was continued. In the uppermost escocheon, England impaling Scotland; the dexter the arms of his Majesty's electoral dominions; sinister France; and in the bottom one Ireland, all crowned with the imperial crown of Great Britain. The marshalling of the four escocheons in this manner might and ought to have been objected to by the heralds (has it been brought under their cognizance ?), because it pears by many instances, as well as upon coins and medals of the emperors and several princes of the empire, that arms marshalled in this circular form are blazoned, not in the circular order, but from the dexter and sinister alternately; and thus the emperor at that time bore eleven escocheons round the imperial eagle. In like manner, upon the money of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, we see the crest with a circle of eleven escocheons in the same order. The same order is observed in marshalling the escocheons of the seven provinces of Holland; and there is a coin of the Emperor Ferdinand, another of Gulick, and a third of Erick, Bishop of Osnaburgh, with four escocheons in cross, and four sceptres exactly resembling the English coins. That it was not altered therefore at that time, the mistake being so evident, can be attributed only to the length of time the error had prevailed; so hard is it to correct an error in the first instance whereby the arms of his Majesty's German dominions, which occupy the fourth quarter in the royal arms, do in fact upon the money Occupy the second place; a mistake however so apparent, as well by the bearing upon other occasions as by the arms of Ireland, which before occupied the same escocheon, that nothing was meant thereby to the dishonour of the other arms; but that being now established, it is the English method of so marshalling arms in cross or in circle, or rather that they have no certain method.

Until the union with Scotland, the dexter was the fourth escocheon; from that time the bottom one was fourth; now the dexter was again the fourth. Such is the force of precedent in perpetuating error, that the practice has prevailed even to the present time: and it may be inferred, that fancy and effect are studied by the engraver before propriety. No valid reason can be advanced for placing the arms in separate shields after their declared union under one imperial

CHRONOGRAMS.

(Vol. viii., p. 351. &c.)

The banks of the Rhine furnish abundant examples of this literary pleasantry: chronograms are as thick as blackberries. I send you a dozen, gathered during a recent tour. Each one was transcribed by myself.

1. Cologne Cathedral, 1722; on a beam in a chapel, on the south side of the choir:

"PIA VIRGINIS MARIE SODALITAS ANNOS SECVLARI RENOVAT."

2. Poppelsdorf Church, near Bonn. 1812: "PAROCHIALIS TEMPLI RVINIS EDIFICABAR."

3. Bonn; on the base of a crucifix outside the minster, on the north side. 1711:

"GLORIFICATE

ET

PORTATE DEVM
IN CORPORE VESTRO.
1 Cor. 6."

4. Bonn; within the minster. 1770:
"CAPITVLVM
PATRONIS PIE
DICAVIT."

5. Aix-la-Chapelle; on the baptistery. 1660: "SACRVM

PAROCHIALE DIVI JOHANNIS
BAPTISTE."

6. Aix-la-Chapelle.-St. Michael; front of west gallery. 1821:

"SVM PIA CIVITATIS LIBERALITATE RENOVATA DECORATA."

7. Aix-la-Chapelle, under the above. 1852:

"ECCE MICHAELIS AE DES."

8. Konigswinter; on the base of a crucifix at the northern end of the village. 1726:

"IN VNIVS VERI AC IN CARNATI DEI HONOREM POS VERE.

JOANNES PETRUS MÜMRER ET
MARIA GENGERS CONJUGES
2 DA SEPTEMBRIS."

church. 1828:
9. Konigswinter; over the principal door of the

"ES IST SEINES MEN CHER WOHNUNG SON DEM EIN HERRLICHES HAUSZ UNSERES GOTTES, I. B. D. KER. ER. 29. c. v. I."

10. Konigswinter; under the last. 1778: "VNI SANCTISSIMO DEO, PATRI ATQVE FILIO SPIRITVIQVE SAN Cro."

1

11. Konigswinter; under the last. 1779: "ERIGOR SVB MAX. FRIDERICO KONIGSEGG ANTISTITE COLONIENSI PIE GVBERNANTE."

12. Coblenz.-S. Castor; round the arch of the west door. 1765:

"DIRO MARIA IVNGFRAV REIN

LAS COBLENZ AUBEFOHLEN SEIN."

Of these, Nos. 9, 10. and 11. are incised on one stone, the letters indicating the chronogram being rubricated capitals; but in No. 10. the second I in "filio," and the first I in "spirituique," though capitals, are not in red. I shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents who can supply a complete or corrected copy of the following chronogram, from the Kreutzberg, near Bonn. The height at which it was placed, and its defective colour, prevented me from deciphering the whole; nor do I vouch for the correctness of the subjoined portion:

"SCALA IES V PR NOBIS PASSI. A.. CLEMENTE AVGVSTO

"Until the arrival of the English the custom of swearing on the holy evangelists was unknown to the Irish, who resorted instead to croziers, bells, and other sacred reliquaries, to give solemnity to their declarations. Even when the Gospels were used, it was not uncommon to introduce some other object to render the oath doubly binding. Thus in a monition directed by Primate Prene to O'Neill, he requires him to be sworn 'tactis sacrosanctis Dei evangeliis ad ea, et super Baculum Jesu in ecclesia cathedrali Sanctæ Trinitatis Dublin.' (Reg. Prene, fol. 117.)"

The following lines upon the subject in question will be found in the Red Book of the Irish Exchequer :

66

Qui jurat super librum tria facit.

"Primo quasi diceret omnia que scripta sunt in hoc libro nunquam mihi perficiant neque lex nova neque vetus si mencior in hoc juramento.

"Secundo apponit manum super librum quasi diceret numquam bona opera que feci michi proficiant ante faciem Jeshu Christi nisi veritatem dicam quando per manus significentur opera.

"Tercio et ultimo osculatur librum quasi diceret numquam oraciones neque preces quas dixi per os meum michi ad salutem anime valeant si falsitatem dicam in hoc juramento michi apposito."

Judging by the character of the handwriting, I would say that the above-mentioned lines were written not later than the time of Edward I.; and as many of the vellum leaves of this book have been sadly disfigured, as well by the pressure of lips as by tincture of galls, I am inclined to think that official oaths were formerly taken in the Court of Exchequer of Ireland by presenting the book when opened to the person about to be sworn in the manner at this day used (as we are informed by Honoré de Mareville) in the Ecclesiastical Court at Guernsey.

It appears by an entry in one of the Order Books of the Exchequer, deposited in the Exchequer Record Office, Four Courts, Dublin, that in James I.'s time the oath of allegiance was taken upon bended knee. The entry to which I refer is in the following words:

"Easter Term, Wednesday, 22nd April, 1618.Memorandum: This day at first sitting of the court, the lord threasurer, vice threasurer, and all the barons being present on the bench, the lord chauncellor came hither and presented before them Thomas Hibbotts, esq., with his Majesty's letters patents of the office of chauncellor of this court to him graunted, to hold and execute the said office during his naturall life, which being read the said lord chauncellor first ministred unto him the oath of the King's supremacy, which hee tooke kneeling on his knee, and presently after ministred unto him the oath ordayned for the said officer, as the same is contayned of record in the redd booke of this court; all which being donn the said lord chauncellor placed him on the bench on the right hand of the lord threasurer, and then departed this court."