350 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 128. 



in question undoubtedly commemorates Dr. Robt. 

 Langton, who deceased 1518. H. H. 



EARL OF EBROLL. ] 



(Vol. v., p. 297.) 



According to Burke's Peerage for 1850, the 

 present Lord Erroll is " the twenty-second High 

 Constable of Scotland ; and as such is, by birth, 

 the first subject in Scotland after the blood-royal, 

 having a right to take place of every hereditary 

 honour, which was granted to his lordship's father 

 on the visit of George IV. to North Britain " (in 

 1822). 



In a small treatise, De Jure Prelationis Nobilium 

 Scotice, printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1827, 

 from a manuscript in the Advocates' Library, with 

 a preface and numerous additions by Sir Alex- 

 ander Seton, Lord Pitmedden, I find the following 

 remark, under the head of " Comes de ErroU" : — 



" The Earle of Erroll claims precedency of all the 

 nobilitie of Scotland nixt to the Chancellour, though of 

 ane ancienter creation than himself, be vertue of his 

 office of Constabulary, of the which that precedency is 

 a priviledge ; and to instruct that it is a priviledge, he 

 produces a Report of a Commission that was granted 

 be the King under the Gj-eat Seal anno 1631, to take 

 tryall of the priviledges of the Constable ; which Re- 

 port, in the second article thereof, bears that the prece- 

 dency is due to the Constable next to the Chancellor, 

 but he has never been in possession of it, but only takes 

 place by his antiquity as Earle," 



The report here referred to is given in Nisbet's 

 Heraldry, vol. ii. p. 67. In the eighth chapter of 

 Sir George Mackenzie's treatise on "Precedency" 

 (p. 534. of the second volume of his works), your 

 correspondent will find some interesting informa- 

 tion regarding the ancient office of High Constable. 

 In the course of his remarks the learned author 

 says : 



" Next to these (i. e. the Chancellor, Justice- General, 

 Chamberlain, High Steward, Panetarius, and Buttela- 

 rius)are named, in the laws of King Malcolm Canmore 

 (1057 — 1093), the Constable and Marishal; but now 

 the Constable and Marishal take not place as officers of 

 the Crown, but according to their creation as Earls : 

 the reason thereof I conceive to be, because of old 

 offices did not prefer those who possessed them, but 

 they took place according to their creation ; whereas 

 now the Privy Seal precedes all Dukes, and the Secre- 

 tary takes place before all of his own rank ; but the 

 Constable and Marishal, being now the only two officers 

 of the Crown that are heritable in Scotland, continue 

 to possess as they did formerly. But in France, Eng- 

 land, and all other places, the Constable and Marishal 

 take place as officers of the Crown ; and it seems very 

 strange that these, who ride upon the King's right and 

 left hand when he returns from his Parliaments, and 

 who guard the Parliament itself, and the honours, 

 should have no precedency by their offices ; and yet 



I cannot deny, but that of old other Earls were placed 

 before them ; for in the former Charter granted by 

 King Alexander, Malcolm Earl of Fife is placed before 

 them. And I conceive their precedency has not risen 

 of late to the same proportion with others, because, of 

 late, our armies have been commanded by other offi- 

 cers, and so there was little use for the Constable and 

 Marishal." 



E.N. 



THE BOWYER BIBLE. 



(Vol. v., pp. 248. 309.) 



Seeing a fresh notice of this great book in 

 No. 124. of " N. & Q.," I venture to forward a 

 few particulars concerning Bowyer, who was an 

 old friend, even of between thirty and forty years' 

 standing. He is long since gone to his rest ; he has 

 left neither widow nor child, scarcely a distant re- 

 lative, so that the following can neither "give ofience 

 nor grieve." He has often told me particulars of 

 his early career. Being a poor youth in search of 

 employment, and withal moody enough at his pro- 

 spects, he was one day walking down Newgate 

 Street, and pausing to look at a print or two in a 

 shop-window, it struck him he could take a like- 

 ness ; so he went home to his indifierent lodging, 

 having procured implements suitable, seated him- 

 self before a glass, and took his own portrait, which 

 he considered was as successful as a first effort 

 could be. Encouraged thereby, he was soon em- 

 ployed to paint others, and such note did he ac- 

 quire that his miniatures were carried into court- 

 circles, so that he became a sort of celebrity in that 

 line, and Queen Charlotte appointed him her official 

 miniature-painter — if such be the proper term. 



He soon struck out much more important occu- 

 pation, planning various publications, the most 

 promising of which was his large edition of Hume's 

 History of England ; and this was so ponderous an 

 undertaking that it was only at last disposed of by 

 a lottery. His fondness for taking portraits never 

 left him, and a very few years before his death he 

 gratified my family by volunteering to paint a 

 miniature of my father, and a capital likeness it 

 was. He was much pleased with one of his suc- 

 cesses, of which he has more than once told me 

 with great glee. Just before George III. was se- 

 cluded finally from public view, he and another 

 artist, an old acquaintance, went one Sunday to- 

 gether to the Chapel-Royal at Windsor, and during 

 the service each sketched the King on one of his 

 nails : they adjourned to an inn, and while the 

 impression was yet fresh, transferred to a sheet 

 of paper the likeness of the venerable monarch. 

 On returning with it to London, Bowyer sent it 

 for the inspection of the Prince Regent, who was 

 so pleased with this rough pencil-drawing, that he 

 sent word back he would never part with it, and 

 begged to know Bowyer's price. The latter said 



