Mar. 27. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



297 



tianity into England, mass was occasionally cele- 

 brated upon them. In some of the local guide- 

 books they are called Almias Cliff. Whence is 

 the name derived ? Can it be a corruption of 

 holy mass, or hallo wmas ? G. H. of S. 



Harrogate. 



AmyclcB. — What special ordinance of taciturnity 

 had the burghers of Amyclaj ? 



Mortimer Collins. 



Cynthia's Dragon Yoke. — 



" While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, 

 Gently o'er the acciistom'd oak." 

 Can any of your correspondents inform me to 

 what classical writer, or to what source, Milton is 

 indebted for Cynthia's " dragon yoke ? " 



H. T. P. Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A. 

 London Genealogical Society. — AVill you, or one 

 of your correspondents, oblige a subscriber with 

 information as to the above society ? Is it in ex- 

 istence, and has it published any of its works, and 

 how obtainable ? W. iP. A. 



The Article " An." — It is asserted that the article 

 an is prefixed before six words only that begin 

 with the letter h. Is hospital one of them ? The 

 others are, I believe, heir, honest, honour, hotel, 

 humble. Nil Nemini. 



Tunbridge Wells. 



^'^ Black Gowns audited Coats." — Can any of your 

 readers give me any information about a poem 

 called " Black Gowns and Red Coats ? " It is a 

 satire on Oxford, which was published in 1834, 

 at the time of the Duke of Wellington's instal- 

 lation as Chancellor ; but the satire was so severe, 

 that it was at once suppressed. The author is 

 said to be dead ; I should like to know something 

 of the circumstances of its publication, for I had 

 once seen it, and it bore the marks of very great 

 genius. If any one has a copy to dispose of, I 

 would gladly buy it. S. F. C. 



Oxford. 



Coleridge's " Friend" — Who is the person 

 alluded to in the following note in Coleridge's 

 Friend, 1st edition, No. 8. Oct. 5, 1809, p. 124.? 



" He is gone, my friend, my munificent co-patron, 

 and not less the benefactor of my intellect ! he who, 

 beyond all other men known to me, added a fine and 

 ever-wakeful sense of Beauty to the most patient accu- 

 racy in Experimental Philosophy and the profounder 

 researches of Metaphysical Science," &c. 



J. M. 



Wycherleys Verses on Plowden and Lady Sun- 

 derland. — In Phillips and Herbert's History of 

 Shrewsbu7-y, pages from 263 to 266, vol. ii. 4to. 

 1837, giving an account of the ancient family of 

 the Plowdens, and their claim to the barony of 

 Dudley, allusion is made to a passage in Baker's 

 History of Northamptonshire respecting some comic 



verses of \\x& poet Wycherley on Plowden, of. 

 Plowden Hall, and the Countess of Sunderland.. 

 I cannot find these verses in Wycherley's Works 

 in the British Museum. Can any of your readers 

 inform rae where they are to be found? Baker' 

 seems to allude to them as being well known in 

 his time. Albion. 



" Salusbury Welsh Pedigree Book." — Having 

 sometimes occasion to investigate the lineage of Irish 

 families derived from Wales, I am very anxious 

 to learn, through your valuable oracle, where- 

 may now be that genealogical collection. Ac- 

 cording to the notes I have of it, it contained 

 " the pedigrees of all the gentlemen in North 

 Wales, and of some adjacent counties, with their 

 arms finely illuminated ; " and took its name from 

 the compiler, John Salusbury, Esq., of Erbistock, 

 who lived about the middle of the seventeenth 

 centurj^, and is reported as having executed the, 

 labour with great accuracy. Does its actual 

 scope justify the above description, and where is- 

 it now ? About the year 1780 it was in the pos- 

 session of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the very 

 surname on which I am at present engaged. 



John Daltow. 



48. Summer Hill, Dublin. 



[In all probability, the present Sir W. W. Wynn 

 could give some information upon the subject if ap< 



plied to.] i 



The Earl of Erroll. — I have somewhere seeu 

 it stated, that in virtue of his distinguished officei 

 as Great Constable of Scotland, which was granted 

 to his ancestry by King Robert Bruce, in 1312, 

 his lordship is by birth the first subject in Scot- 

 land ; and in right of this privilege, on all state 

 occasions, where the sovereign is present, appears 

 at his or her right hand, and takes precedence of 

 the entire peerage of Scotland. Is it so ? 



Petropromontoriensis. 



[His Lordship cannot be by hirth entitled to precede 

 the whole peerage of Scotland, though as Lord High 

 Constable, when attending the sovereign, he may have 

 that precedence.] 



Heraldic. — A friend has sent me the following 

 Note " from a local paper :" 



" In the hall, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, is an 

 escutcheon, containing no less than 334 quarterings." 



Can any of your correspondents verify this 

 statement, or refer me to any other example of so 

 full a blazonry ? W. Sparrow Simpson, B. A. 



[The shield is probably that of Knightley, whose 

 quarterings are very numerous. We do not know 

 where to refer our querist to an emblazoned shield, but 

 there are other families whose quarterings would be as 



