88 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2nd s. VII. Jak. 29. '59. 



verse side a thistle, surrounded with three C's, 

 and outside the motto — 



" VN . DICV . VNE . FOY . VN . EOT . VNE . LOT . 1562 ^ " 



(one God, one faith, one king, one law). "Dicu" 

 I conjecture to be a mistake, intended for " Dieu." 

 It may be surmised from the thistle and date to 

 be Scotch of the time of Mary Stuart ; that the 

 letters " G. H. S." represent the names of Gor- 

 don Huntly Stuart, or George Gordon, Earl of 

 Huntly, and until 1561 Earl of Murray, the 

 family name of which is Stuart ; the thistle and 

 three C's to mean Chancellor of Scotland, an 

 office held by him before that period: and the 

 mottoes, his determination to maintain his titles, 

 honours, the cause of religion, loyalty, and law. 

 The story of the unfortunate Earl of Huntly is 

 familiar to all readers of Scotish history, and the 

 machinations of James Stuart, Earl of Murray, 

 his political opponent, for his overthrow, which in 

 this same year of 1562 were only too successful, 

 at Corrichie, near Aberdeen, where with Queen 

 Mary's troops he defeated the Earl, who had col- 

 lected together some (500) of his friends and 

 dependants to assert his rights. Whether this 

 coin was struck by him for the double purpose 

 of payment to his followers, as well as a token to 

 them of his resolution to maintain his cause, no 

 information of which I am aware exists. Could 

 any reader of "N. & Q." throw a light on this 

 subject ? J. C. Macdonaxd. 



Edinburgh. 



Old Proverb : " He that loould France win, Sfc^ 

 — Where is this to be found ? — 



■Minav <h\xniti, 



" Ye Gentlemen of England." — Are the follow- 

 ing lines from Lucretius, translated from Amyot's 

 Introduction to riutarcli by Sir Thomas North, 

 1579, the prima stamina of this popular song ? — 



" It is a pleasure for to sit at ease 



Upon the land, and safely for to see 

 How other folks are tossed on the seas 

 That with the blustering winds turmoiled be." 



R. H. 



Sir Thomas Erpingham. — Are any of the de- 

 scendants of Sir Thomas Erpingham, who built 

 the Erpingham gateway in Norwich, still living, 

 or is the family extinct ? but, supposing they are 

 living, where are their whereabouts ? E. A. T. 



Inscription on a Salthox. — I have an old carved 

 oak box (I suppose a saltbox), with some letter- 

 ings on it I cannot find out the meaning of. 

 Will you kindly help me in the next number of 

 "N. &Q."? 

 The letters are : 



P. D. M. 



Three SSS in a heart. 



EEEE. VADM. 



H.T.S.M. T.S.H. 



Oak. 



" He that would France win, 

 Must at Scotland first begin." 



Lincoln's Inn. 



M. L. 



Rule in Heraldry. — Can you, or any of your 

 readers, inform me what is the rule in heraldry 

 with regard to " differences" ? Is a son entitled 

 to a difference from the day of his birth, or on at- 

 taining man's estate ? To suppose a case : — In a 

 family of five sons, one of whom died in infancy, 

 and one at the age of eighteen, would the youngest 

 son carry in his arms the annulet, the martlet, or 

 the mullet ? Ignoeamus. 



Flitterns. — I met with this word in a modern 

 lease of building-land near Ryde, Isle of Wight. 

 It occurred in the general words " together with 

 all trees," &c. What does it mean ? Vectis. 



Early English Almanacks. — In the Popular 

 Encyclopaedia (art. Almanack) is the following 

 statement : — 



" It is singular that the earliest English Almanacks 

 were printed in Holland on small folio sheets : and these 

 have occasionally been preserved from having been pasted 

 within the covers of old books." 



Can any correspondent of " N. & Q." verify the 

 latter half of the above by mentioning the names 

 of any books, at present in existence, containing 

 any of these relics of bygone days ? A. F. S. 



Battle of Copenhagen : the Crown of France 

 offered to the Duke of Wellington. — In reading the 

 Life of Sir John Malcolm by Mr. Kaye, I have 

 met with two paragraphs which I should be very 

 glad to have explained. The first occurs in vol. i. 

 p. 378., in a letter addressed by the Duke of 

 Wellington to Sir John, dated " Dublin Castle, 

 Oct. 15. 1807." In alluding to the part he took 

 in the siege of Copenhagen, the Duke says : — 



" The Danes did not defend themselves very well, and 

 I think that we might have taken their capital with 

 greater ease than we forced them to the capitulation 

 which I settled with them," &c. &c. 



Surely the Duke, so celebrated for his terse 

 and clear language, could not have written such 

 incoherent stuff as this ! The meaning is obvious 

 enough, but the English is beneath criticism. 

 The second paragraph is in vol. ii. p. 11.3. Sir 

 John in his Journal says, while in Paris subse- 

 quent to the battle of Waterloo : — 



" I heard to-day an extraordinary anecdote, and from 

 a quarter that appears authentic, — that it was proposed, 

 as the army was advancing, to offer the crown of France 

 to the Duke of Wellington. This extraordinary propo- 

 sition was not only made, but discussed for some time. 

 Though it was rejected, its being entertained for a mo- 

 ment was a remarkable fact." 



Is there any good foundation for this anec- 



