2»4 S. N« 78., Juke 27. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



513 



very name by wliicli she has hitherto been known ia 

 history and song is not her real one — she being simply 

 the daughter of a peasant named Dare, and therefore 

 plain Joan Dare — not of Arc, she having no claim what- 

 ever to the prefix de." — No. xxi. 142. 



Thbslkeld. 

 Cambridge. 



TKUE BLUE. 



(2"'' S. iii. 329. 379.) 



The following lines are by the Rev. John 

 Eagles, author of The Shetcher, and were first 

 published many years since in Felix Farley's 

 Bi-istol Journal : 



" True Blue. 

 "Tune, ' I've kissed and I've prattled with 50 fair maids.' 



" There are fifty fine colours that flaunt and flare, 

 All pleasant and gay to see ; 

 But of all the fine colours that dance in the air, 

 True Blue's the colour for me. 



" True Blue is the colour of good true love, 

 For it melts in woman's eye ; 

 True Blue is the colour of Heaven above. 

 For it beams in the azure sky. 



" True Blue is the vest that Nature free. 

 Has spread round the joyous earth ; 

 True Blue is the hue of the dancing sea, 

 As it gave to beauty birth, 



" True Blue it flows in the soft blue vein 

 Of a bosom that's fair and true. 

 As the violet, softened by Heaven's own rain, 

 Is tinged with the heavenly hue. 

 " True Blue, it is seen in the distant vale, 

 Where the fond hearts love to roam ; 

 It curls in the smoke fromfthe sheltered dale, 

 As it guides the wanderer home. 

 " True Blue hangs glorious over the wave, 

 From a thousand ships unfurl'd ; 

 It clothes the breast of the British brave, 

 As they bear it round the world. 

 *' And when the skies grow dark, and the wild winds yell, 

 If he sees but a streak of blue. 

 The Steersman is glad, for he knows All's well. 

 And his guardian Angel's true. 

 " Then let all the fine colours go flaunt and flare, 

 All pleasant and gay to see, 

 True Blue's the colour alone to wear, 

 True Blue's the colour for me." 



Anqn. 



I have a note on this subject made many years 

 ago, with a reference to Weale's Papers, vol. ii., 

 where probably more information on the subject 

 may be found : 



" The adoption of colours as symbols is of very early 

 date, and the Moors of Spain, by materialising them, 

 formed a language. The French still preserve them, e.g. 

 Blue as an emblem of Fidelity, Yellow of Jealousy, Eed 

 of Cruelty, White of Innocence, Black of Sadness and 

 Mourning." 



My Note is in connexion with the conven- 

 tional adoption of certain colours by niediseval 



artists and painters, as peculiar to the Virgin and 

 saints, &c., a very curious subject. 



E. S. Taylob. 



Your correspondent Mr. Pote, in his article ou 

 "Cross Buns" (2°'^ S. 450-1.), carries back the 

 Tory colour to Chaldaic times, when " the mystic 

 dark blue " was the " symbol of fidelity." How it 

 came to be assumed as the Tory colour is intelli- 

 gible enough, but long before Whig and Tory 

 times it was the recognised colour of fidelity in 

 England. Thus the Earl of Surrey, in his Com' 

 plaiiU of a Dying Lover, says : 



" In my mind it came, from thence not far away, 

 Where Cressid's love, King Priam's son, the worthy 



Troilus lay. 

 By him I made his tomb, in token he was true. 

 And as to him belonged well, / covered it with blue" 



W. Denton. 



Will the following Note assist your correspon- 

 dent F. in his inquiries ? 



" Covcntrj' was formerly famous for dyeing a blue that 

 would neither change its colour, nor could it be dis- 

 charged by washing ; therefore the epithets of ' Coventry 

 blue,' and ' True blue,' were figuratively used to signify 

 persons who would not change their party or principles 

 on any consideration." 



E. W. Hackwood. 



The origin of the term " true blue " is said, as 

 a political term, to have been first used by the 

 Presbyterians of Scotland against the Episcopa- 

 lian Church, citing Numbex's, ch. xv. v, 38. : 



" Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them make 

 them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout 

 their generations, and that they put upon the fringes of 

 the borders a riband of blue, and it shall be unto j'ou for a 

 fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the 

 commandments of the Lord." 



I do not know the authority for this. T. F. 



EXCHEQ-DEB. 



(2°<» S. iii. 230. 258. 318.) 



Ia the old Court of Exchequer, at Westminster, 

 before the coronation of King George IV., I have 

 often seen the chequered cloth which covered the 

 table of that Court. The table was in the middle 

 of the court, as it still is in some of the assize 

 courts ; and the officers of the court and the king's 

 counsel sat at it, the other counsel sitting in ranks 

 behind them. The table was ten or twelve feet 

 square, and was covered wilh a wopUen cloth, 

 the ground-colour of which was white, with a very 

 dark blue chequered pattern over it ; the dark 

 stripes being about three inches wide, leaving be- 

 tween them white squares of about four inches 

 across. 



