Feb. 28. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



203 



«' L' Alcoran des Cordeliers, tant en Latin qu'en 

 Fran9ois ; c'est a dire, la mer des blasphemes et men- 

 songes de cest idole stigmatize qu'on appelle S. Fran- 

 cois, recueilli par le Docteur M. Luther, du livre des 

 Conformitez de ce beau S. Frangois, imprime a Milan 

 J'an 1510, et nouvellement traduit, l^mo. Geneve, 

 1556." 



The same Catalogue advertises a fine copy of 

 Father Bucchi's Liber Aureus, 1590. 



Brunet refers to the following work in reference 

 to the Alcoranus : 



" La Guerre Seraphique, ou histoire des perils qu'a 

 courus la barbc des Capucins contra les violentes at- 

 taques des Cordeliers. La Haye, 1740, in 12. — Ce 

 volume se joint a V Alcoran des Cordeliers." 



He also speaks of a work by a certain Spaniard, 

 named Father Pierre de Alva, which, for the 

 vast number of points of conformity between our 

 Lord and St. Francis adduced, and the amazing 

 fecundity of Invention and fertility of imagination 

 •displayed, completely throws Bartholomew of 

 Pisa into the shade ; it is entitled — 



" Naturae prodigium et gratiae portentum hoc est 

 Seraphici P. Francisci vitee acta ad Christ! Domini 

 vitam et mortem regulata et coaptata a P. Petro de 

 Alva et Astorga. Matriti, 1651, folio." 



To conclude with a Query : Is the book called 

 *' FioRBTTi" an Italian translation of the " Book 

 -OF Conformities ? " The title would lead one to 

 suppose it. 



" FioRETTi. Opera gentilissima et utilissima a tutti 

 li fideli Christian! laqual se chiama Li Fioretti de 

 Misser Santo Francesco asemiliativa a la vita et alia 

 passion de Jesu Cheisto e tutte le soe sancti vertige. 

 Lunardo Longo rector de la giesia de Sancto Paulo 

 de Vincenza, curendo lano. m.cccclxxvi. in 4." 



The second edition bears date, Venexia in caxa 

 <ii Nicolo GIrardengo m.cccclxxx. 4to. ; the third, 

 Perouse, 1481, 4to. Mariconda. 



Feb. 11. 1852. 



TRADITIONS OP REMOTE PERIODS. — GEORGE III. S 

 GARTER. 



(Vol. v., pp. 77. 135.) 



There is clearly some inaccuracy In the details 

 lof my statement, which I am obliged to Lord 

 Braybrooke and to G. for pointing out, and 

 which, perhaps, they may help to clear up. The 

 main fact is admitted : that " two Knights of the 

 Garter covered the period from 16S4 to 1820;" 

 and George IV.'s assertion, that " he had given 

 away a Garter that had been given but once since 

 the reign of Charles II.," I myself heard, though 

 I unluckily did not make a " Note " of it. This 

 ■could apply to nothing but the cases of the Duke 

 of Somerset and George III. Whether George IV. 

 was misinformed as to the details on which he 

 founded his assertion, I know not ; but it is un- 



likely : and that after a lapse'of about thirty years 

 I may have confounded the Regency with the 

 Accession, and Lord Moira with the Duke of 

 Buckingham, I will not deny ; for It seems that I 

 have done one or the other, though without any 

 effect on the main point. As to G.'s objection, 

 that of several Garters disposed of on the same day 

 In 1745. The Duke of Somerset's did not fall to 

 Prince George. I have not Beltz to refer to ; but 

 it strikes me as possible this may admit of explana- 

 tion : because, although Prince George was raomi- 

 nated first in the batch, It happened that he was 

 invested the last ; indeed not till the day after all 

 the others: so that he might have received the 

 badge of the Duke of Somerset. Your readers 

 are aware that the badges are not the private pro- 

 perty of the knights, but are always returned into 

 the hands of the sovereign, and that the same 

 badge is delivered to successive knights ; so that it 

 is probable that George III., on becoming sove- 

 reign, kept in his own possession the badge he had 

 originally received, and that this identical badge 

 George IV. disposed of as he stated, whether to 

 the Duke of Buckingham, or, as the impression on 

 my memory still is, Lord Moira. C 



Traditions from Remote Periods. — From time to 

 time notices have appeared in " N. & Q." of 

 " remote events brought down to our own times 

 through few links :" to these. If you should think 

 it merits Insertion, I beg to contribute the follow- 

 ing Note from Chambers's Life and Works ofBurns^ 

 vol. III. p. 205. In the address to Mr. Maxwell, of 

 Terraughty, on his birthday (p. 204.), Burns says, 

 7th line : 



" This day * thou metes threescore eleven," 

 and Mr. Chambers remarks : 



" The person addressed in these verses, John Max- 

 well, Esq., of Terraughty and Munches, was a leading 

 public man in the county of Dumfries. Ke was on 

 several accounts very remarkable, but particularly for 

 his birth, and the proximity into which his family his- 

 tory brings us with events comparatively remote ; for 

 Mr. Maxwell was grandson's grandson, and no more, 

 to the gallant and faithful Lord Herries, who on 

 bended knees entreated Queen Mary to prosecute 

 Bothwell as the murderer of her husband, and who 

 subsequently fought for her at Langside. One cannot 

 learn without a pleasing kind of surprise, that a relation 

 in the fifth degree of one who was Warden of the West 

 Marches in 1545, should have lived to the close of the 

 French Revolution wars, which was the case of Mr. 

 Maxwell, for he died in January 1 81 4." 



C. D. Lamont. 



Greenock. 



There is now living in the village of Headley, 

 Hants, a man whose father was born in the time 

 (though not In the reign) of James II. ; viz. 1697. 



* Middle of December, 1791. 



