92 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 117. 



shire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and 

 Surrey ; as well as in MSS. of rare access. These 

 various notices would be too numerous, and, to 

 the many, too uninteresting, to engross your 

 pages, or I would gladly draw them out. Those 

 who feel interested may receive further informa- 

 tion on communicating their wishes to me by 

 letter. John D' Alton. 



48. Summer Hill, Dublin, New Year's Day, 1852. 



Serjeants' Rings (Vol. v., p. 59.). — T. P. asks 

 if the custom of serjeants-at-law presenting rings 

 on taking the coif prevailed so long back as 

 1670-80; and in C. \V. Johnson's Life of Sir 

 Edward Coke, 1845 (vol. i. p. 217.), he will find 

 as follows : 



" On the rings given by Coke were inscribed, ' Lex 

 est tutissima cassis ' — the law is the safest helmet — a 

 motto which has been thought very well to apply to 

 his future fortunes. 



" This custom of giving rings is of very old standing. 

 Chancellor Fortescue, who wrote about 1465, tells us 

 that all Serjeants, at their appointment, ' shall give rings 

 of gold to the value of forty pounds at the least ; and 

 your Chancellor well remembereth that at the time he 

 received this state and degree, the rings which he then 

 gave stood him in fifty pounds.' {Laud. Leg., c. 59.) 

 Dugdale also gives an account of the Serjeants' rings 

 in 1556. Some rings given in 1669 were objected to 

 as wanting weight." 



I do not know where to refer T. P. for any re- 

 cord of the rings ; but I think if the mottoes and 

 names of donors could be obtained, a very amusing 

 paper might be furnished : the variety would be 

 great, some, as Coke's, alluding to the importance 

 of law; some, as Serjeant Onslow's "Festina lente," 

 punning on the name, &c. E. N. W. 



Southwark. 



[We should be obliged by our correspondents fur- 

 nishing any such particulars of the mottoes and donors 

 of Serjeants' rings as they may meet with in their 

 reading.] 



" Crowns Jiave their Compass" (Vol. iv., p. 428.). 

 — The author of these lines was Robert Barker, 

 as is ascertained from a MS. in the Ashmolean 

 Museum, quoted in Halliwell's Life of Shakspeare, 

 p. 207., where they are entitled, " Certayne verses 

 wrighten by Mv. Robert Barker, his Majestis 

 printer, under his Majestis picture." This is quite 

 confirmatory of, and is confirmed by, Margaret 

 Gatty's communication. R. 



[A. Grayan, who refers us to Dibdln's Ames, vol. ii. 

 p. 1090., for the foregoing information, adds, that the 

 last line in the MS. reads — 

 " That knowledge makes the Kinge most like his 

 Maker."] 



Hell paved with the Skulls of Priests (Vol. iv., 

 p. 484.). — The French priest referred to in this 

 Query had most probably quoted, at second or 



third hand, and with rhetorical embellishment — 

 certainly not from the original direct — an ex- 

 pression of St. Chrysostom, in his third homily on 

 the Acts of the Apostles : 



" ovti oJ/xai eiva.1 t:6\\ovs iv to7s fepeDfri rolis ffca^oixe- 

 vovs, aXAa ttoW^ ir\ciovs rovs ciiroAAv/Uej'ous." 



" I know not if there be many in the priesthood who 

 are saved, but I know that many more perish." 



Gibbon has also quoted this passage at second 

 hand (v. 399. note z.), for he says : 



" Chrysostom declares his free opinion (torn. ix. 

 hom. iii. in Act. Apostol. p. 29.) that the number of 

 bishops who might be saved, bore a very small pro- 

 portion to those who would be damned." 



It may be safely asserted that the above ex- 

 pression of Chrysostom is the strongest against the 

 priesthood to be found in any of the Christian 

 Fathers of authority in the Church. 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Lichfield. 



Coopei-s Miniatu7'e of Cromwell (Vol. v., p. 17.). 

 — The writer saw a beautiful miniature of this 

 celebrated man by Cooper in the possession of 

 Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P. W. A. 



King Street Theatre (Vol. v., p. 58.). —For the 

 information of your correspondent B. N., I beg to 

 suggest the " Bristol Theatre " as the one referred 

 'to°on the silver ticket of admission ; it having 

 been situated in King Street in that city long 

 before the days of Garrick, and there it now 

 stands. And althouo^h silver is still the medium 

 of admission to it, silver counters have ceased to 

 exist in connexion with it. In its palmy days I 

 doubt not it possessed such luxuries, it having 

 been considered one of the best schools for actors 

 out of London. J- H* 



Groom, Meaning of (Vol. v., p. 57.).— G^wma 

 in Anglo-Saxon, and the Codex Argenteus, means 

 simply man. Home Tooke derives bridegroom 

 from it. 



" Consider groom of the chambers, groom-porter." 

 — Nares. 



Herd grooms, in Spenser's Pastorals, and a 

 passage in Massinger : Gifford, vol. iii. p. 435. 



Grome is quoted by Halliwell, as meaning a 

 man. Also gom,e, which he says lasted till the 

 civil wars. C. B. 



Schola Cordis (Vol. iv., p. 404.).— Mariconda 

 asks for Mr. Tegg's authority for attributing the 

 Schola Cordis to^Quarles in his edition of 1845, 



The following extract from a very Interesting 

 and characteristic note, dated November 24, 1845, 

 that I received from Mr. Tegg in reply to my 

 query of a similar description, will afford the in- 

 formation : — 



" Quarles' works were originally printed for me by 

 Mr. Whittingham of Chiswick, who, with my appro- 



