416 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»«» 8. VII. May 21. '69. 



were assumed or granted. Any information re- 

 specting them will be welcome to your constant 

 reader 11. C. W. 



Carthaginian Military Standard. — What was 

 the Carthaginian military standard, or banner, 

 >vhich was carried to battle? A Corbespondent. 



Epigram. — I have lately met with the following 

 epigram : — 



" Two noble earls whom, if I quote, 

 Some folks might call me sinner, 

 The one invented half a coat, 

 The other half a dinner. 



" The plan was good, as some will say. 

 And fitted to console one. 

 Because, in this poor starving day, 

 Few can afford a whole one." 



By whom P and to whom does it refer ? 



Abhba. 



Heraldic Query. — Ermine, a bend sable, charged 

 with three martlets or. Can any of the readers of 

 "N. & Q." inform me by what family the above 

 arms are borne ? B, R. 



Gordon Ballad. — By oral tradition, through 

 two generations, I have become acquainted with 

 the following fragment of what appears a very 

 curious ballad. I should be glad if any of your 

 correspondents should be able from any authority 

 to give a complete version of it, and furnish any 

 explanation of the subject, as to whether it is 

 purely imaginary, or founded in any degree upon 

 family history : — 



" The Duke of Gordon had three daughters, 

 Elizabeth, Margaret, and Jane : 

 They wouldna staj' in bonnie Castle Gordon, 

 But they wad aif to Aberdeen. 



" They hadna been fra bonnie Castle Gordon 

 But a twelvemonth and a day, 

 Laily Jane's fall'n in love with Captain Ogilvie, 

 And aff with him she wad gae. 



" The Duke of Gordon's writ a braid letter, 

 And sent it to the king, 

 That he should cause hang Captain Ogilvie,' 

 If ever he hangit a man ! 



" I winna cause hang Captain Ogilvie 

 For ever a lord that I see : 

 But I'll cause him to put off the lace and scarlet, 

 And put on the single livery." 



These stanzas bear within them strong evidence 

 of their antiquity. Bor it is obvious that a pretty 

 long period has elapsed since the royal preroga- 

 tive in these kingdoms could have been vulgarly 

 supposed to authorise a king to inflict summary 

 capital punishment on an officer in the army for 

 the crime of eloping with a young lady, although 

 a duke's daugliter ! and althougli the ballad does 

 not make the king actually exercise such a prero- 



gative, it seems to take it quite as a matter of 

 course that he could degrade an officer to the ranks 

 for such an offence ! 



I have searched such Peerages (Burke, Debrett, 

 &c.) as lay in my reach to ascertain if any Duke 

 of Gordon ever had three daughters named as in 

 the ballad, but have not ascertained the fact ; the 

 accounts in these peerages of the entire descent 

 of the Gordon family being defective. Probably 

 a Scotch peerage would be more circumstantial. 

 I have not been able to find that a lady of the 

 house of Gordon ever married an Ogilvie. It 

 would be interesting to find that any foundation 

 existed for the ballad of a legendary nature. 



M. H. R. 



[This ballad is too long for quotation, as it makes 

 thirty-three verses. It is printed in Johnston's Museum, 

 Ritson's Scottish Songs, and Aytoun's Ballads of Scot- 

 land, ii. 283. It is entitled " The Duke of Gordon's Three 

 Daughters." Mr. Aytoun says, "The title I take to be 

 arbitrary. The Dukedom of Gordon was created in the 

 year 1684, and there is no passage in the history of that 

 famih' of a later date which could be the foundation of 

 such a story. No one expects to find names set down 

 accuratelj', even in ballads purely historical; but in this 

 instance the minstrel, either advisedl}"- or by accident, has 

 set forward names which apparently lead to identification 

 of parties. George, Earl of Huntlej', chief of the Gordons, 

 who was killed at the battle of Corrichie in 1502, had 

 three daughters, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Jean, as speci- 

 fied in the ballad, and Jean did marrj' a Capt. Alex. 

 Ogilvie. So far song and history agree ; but history tells 

 us much more, and indeed gives the lie to the minstrel. 

 Lady Jean Gordon was not wedded to Captain Ogilvie in 

 the flower of her youth. Her first husband was the noto- 

 rious James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell ; and that mar- 

 riage was annulled by the contrivance of Bothwell, when 

 he aspired to the hand of the unfortunate Queen IMary. 

 Her second husband was Alexander, Earl of Sutherland, 

 who died in 1594, and at his demise she was in her 

 fiftieth year. She afterwards married Capt. Alex. Ogilvie 

 of Boyne."] 



The Waldenses. — At the time of George III. I 

 understand an annual sum was granted for the 

 maintenance of pastors in the Vaudois Valleys. 

 Has such been continued up to the present time ? 

 and to what extent ? Are there any good views 

 of the valleys accessible ? Any interesting parti- 

 culars connected with these humble descendants 

 of a noble band of Christians would be gladly i-e- 

 ceived by Juvenis. 



[Mr. Robert Baird, in his Sketches of Protestantism in 

 Italy, including a Notice of the Waldenses, 8vo. 1847, p. 

 366., informs us that "Charles II. squandered upon his 

 pleasures the balance, 16,333/. 10s. Sd, which Cromwell 

 had left in the hands of the government to form a fund 

 for the future assistance of the Waldenses. To replace 

 this, in part, and to efface the national disgrace. Queen 

 Mary, consort of William III., gave, during her life, an 

 annual pension of 425/. After her death this was for 

 awhile withheld. But at the instance of Abp. Sharpe it 

 was renewed and increased to 500/. by Queen Anne. This 

 sum was regularly issued from the British exchequer 

 every j-ear until 1797, under the name of royal bounty. 

 From that epoch it was discontinued for a period of thirty 

 years, partly because the valleys were in the possession 



