NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION , 



FOR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



*< vrben found, make a note of." — Caftaik Cuttle. 



Vol. v.— No. 120.] Saturday, February 14. 1852. 



f Price Fourpence. 



t Stamped Edition, 5<^- 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes : — Page 



Tlie Old Countess of Desmond - . . - 145 



The Imperial Eagle of France ... - 147 



Folk Lore : — Valentine's Day — Nottingham Horn- 

 blowing — Bee Superstitions; Blessinjf Apple-trees; 

 " A Neck ! a Neck !" — Hooping Cough - - 148 



Note on the Coins of Vabalathus .... 148 

 The Agnomen of " Brother Jonathan," of Masonic 



Origin .-..-.- 149 

 Minor Notes: — Hippopotamus, Behemoth — Curious 

 Inscription —Coins of Edward III. struck at Antwerp 



in 1337 149 



Queries : — 



Is the Walrus found in the Baltic ? - - .150 



English Free Towns, by J. H. Parker ... 150 

 Minor Queries: — Bishop Hall's Resolutions — Mother 

 Huff and Mother Damnable— Sir Samuel Garth — 

 German's Lips— Richard Leveridge — Thomas Uurfey 



— Audley Family — Ink — Mistletoe excluded from 

 Churches— Blind taught to read — Hyrne, Meaning of 



— The fairest Attendant of the Scottish Queen — 

 " Soud, foud, soud, soiid ! " — Key Experiments — 

 Shield of Hercules — " Sum Liber, et non sum," &c. . 150 



Minor QiiEuiss Answered : — Whipping a Husband ; 

 Hudibras — Aldus — "The last links are broken " — 

 Under Weigh or Way — The Fope's Eye — " History 

 is Philosophy " - - . - . - 152 



Replies : — 



Coverdale's Bible, by George Offor ... 153 



" As Stars with Trains of Fire," &c., by Samuel Hickson 154 

 Dials, Dial Mottoes, &c. - . - - . 155 



Can Bishops vacate their Sees ? .... If-.G 

 Character of a True Churchman - - - .156 



Wearing Gloves in Presence of Royalty - . . 157 



Gospel Oaks 157 



The Pendulum Demonstration .... 153 



Expurgated Quaker Bible, by Archdeacon Cotton - 158 

 Junius Rumours ...... 159 



Wady Mokatteb not mentioned in Num. xi.26., by Rev. 



Dr. Todd 159 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Rotten Row — " Preached 

 from a Pulpit rather than a Tub" — Olivarius — 

 Slavery in Scotland — Gibber's Lives of the Poets — 

 Tlieoloneura — John of Padua — Stoke — Eliza Fen- 

 ning — Ghost Stories— Autographs of Weever and 

 Fuller — Lines on the Bible — Hell-rake — Family 

 Likenesses — Grimsdykc — Portraits of Wolfe, &c. - 160 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. 

 Books and Odd Volumes wanted - 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements ... 



166 

 166 

 107 

 167 



THE OLD OOUNTESS OF DESMOND. 



(Continued from Vol. iv., p. 426.) 



I feel much obliged to J. H. M., who writes from 



Bath, and has directed my attention to Horace 



Walpole's "minute inquiry" respecting the "Old 



Countess of Desmond," as also to "Pennant's 



Vol. V. — No. 120. 



Tours," all which I have had opportunity of exa- 

 mining since I wrote to you last. The references 

 do not incline me to alter one word of the opinion 

 I have ventured as to the identity of this lady ; 

 on the contrary, with the utmost respect for his 

 name and services to the cause of antiquarian re- 

 search, I propose to show that Horace Walpole 

 (whose interest in the question was, by his own 

 confession, but incidental, and ancillary to his 

 historic inquiries into the case of Richard IH., 

 and who had no direct data to go on) knew 

 nothing of the matter, and was quite mistaken as 

 to the individual. 



Before I proceed on this daring undertaking, I 

 beg to say, that an inspection of Pennant's print, 

 called " The Old Countess of Desmond," satisfies 

 me that it is not taken from a duplicate picture of 

 that in possession of the Knight of Kerry : though 

 there certainly is a resemblance in the faces of the 

 two portraits, yet the differences are many and 

 decisive. Pennant says that there are " four other 

 pictures in Great Britain in the same dress, and 

 without any difference of feature," besides that at 

 Dupplin Castle, from which his print was copied ; 

 but that of the Knight of Kerry must be reckoned 

 as a sixth portrait, taken at a much more advanced 

 period of life : in it the wrinkles and features 

 denote extreme old age. The head-dresses are 

 markedly different, that of Pennant being a cloth 

 hood lying back from the face in folds ; in the 

 Knight of Kerry's, the head-dress is more like a 

 beaver bonnet standing forward from the he;id, 

 and throwing the face somewliat into shade. In 

 Pennant's, the cloak is plainly fastened by a 

 leathern strap, somewhat after the manner of a 

 laced shoe ; in the other, the fastening is a sin;.de 

 button : but the difference most marked is tliis, 

 that the persons originally sitting for these jiic- 

 tures, looked opposite ways, and, of course, jire- 

 sented different sides to the painter. So that, in 

 Pennant's plate, the right side-face is forward ; and 

 in the other, the left : therefore, these pictures :ire 

 markedly and manifestly neither the same, i:or 

 copies either of the other. 



It does not concern us, in order to maintain tlie 

 authority of our Irish picture, to follow up llie 

 question at issue between Pennant and Walp"le 



