998 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 138, 



on whose walls was soon triumphantly planted the 

 royal banner of the Plantagenets. Now the hare 

 and rabbit frequently occur upon the coins of 

 Spain and Sicily, of which countries they were, 

 indeed, the particular and well-recognised symbols. 

 (Fosb. Ency. Antiq , pp. 722. 728.); and I would 

 suggest that the device in question has reference 

 to Richard's proceedings in the latter kingdom, 

 which, in an age whose acknowledged principle 

 was that " Might makes Right," would be looked 

 upon as redounding vastly to his credit and re- 

 nown, and most worthy, therefore, of commemora- 

 tion amongst the other emblematic representations 

 which give so remarkable a character to the monu- 

 mental effigies at Rouen. Regarding it in this 

 point of view, there appears to be much inventive 

 «ignificancy in this device, and the exercise of a 

 little ingenuity would soon, I think, render mani- 

 fest the peculiar applicability of its " singular de- 

 tails " to the circumstances of Richard's transac- 

 tions with Tancred, as they are presented to us by 

 our own chroniclers. 



The appearance of this symbol or device of a 

 rabbit, upon old examples of playing cards, as re- 

 ferred to by Symbol, is easily accounted for. 

 These " devil's books " came to us originally from 

 Spain ; and in ancient cards of that country, 

 columbines were Spades, rabbits* Clubs, pinks 

 Diamonds, and roses Hearts. — Fosb. utsup., p. 602. 



COWGILL. 



Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Irish Coast 

 (Vol. v., p. 491.). — A fair account of this eventful 

 visitation may be expected from the Annals of the 

 Four Masters, a work compiled within forty years 

 of the occurrence, and not near so many miles re- 

 moved from the waters over which most of its 

 fatalities were felt : 



" A large fleet (says this work) consisting of eight 

 sure ships, came on the sea from the King of Spain 

 this year (1588), and some say it was their intention 

 to take harbour and land on the coasts of England 

 should they obtain an opportunity; but in that they 

 did not succeed, for the Queen's fleet encountered 

 them at sea, and took four of their ships, and the rest 

 of the fleet was scattered and dispersed along the 

 coasts of the neighbouring countries, viz., on the 

 eastern side of England, on the north-eastern shores 

 of Scotland, and on the north-western coast of Ireland. 

 A great number of the Spaniards were drowned in 

 those quarters, their ships having been completely 

 wrecked ; and the smaller proportion of them returned 

 to Spain, and some assert that 9,000 of them were lost 

 on that occasion." 



This narrative is utterly innocent of the whole- 

 sale, or of any execution of the unfortunate in- 

 vaders; and, in truth, our Lord Deputies have too 



* The Clubs, in Spanish cards, are not, as with us, 

 trefoils, but cudgels, i. e. hastos : the Spades are swords, 

 L e. espadas.— Fosb. ui sup.; see the plate of " Sports, 

 Amusements," &c. 



much to answer for, without throwing the barba- 

 rism of such a massacre upon one of them. Some 

 colouring is, howevei", given to the charge by the 

 writings of Smith, History of Kerry; Cox, Hi- 

 bernia Anglicana ; and even Leland, History of 

 Ireland, vol. ii. p. 322. The deviation of these 

 Spaniards northwards can be, I think, accounted, 

 for by the discomfitures they sustained from the 

 English and Dutch fleets, who so kept the seas 

 east and south of England, as to make a circuit 

 round the Orkney Islands, with a descent to the 

 westward of Ireland, the most advisable, though, 

 as it proved, not the less dangerous line of return. 



John D' Alton, 

 48. Summer Hill, Dublin. 



Second Exhumation of King Arthurs Remains 

 (Vol. v., p. 490.). — The details of the circum- 

 stances attending the first (I am not aware of any 

 second) exhumation of these remains at Glaston- 

 bury in 1189, have been transmitted to us by 

 Giraldus Cambrensis, who saw both the bones and 

 the inscription, by the Monk of Glastonbury, and, 

 briefly, by William of Malmesbury, all cotem- 

 poraries with the event. Sharon Turner, in his 

 History of the Anglo-Saxons, 8vo. edit., 1823, 

 vol. i. pp.279 — 282., gives a full account, from 

 these and other authorities, of this remarkable 

 discovery. Cowgill. 



Etymology of Mushroom (Vol. iii., p. 166.). — • 

 Db. Rimbault states that the earliest example 

 with which he is acquainted of this word, being 

 spelt mushrump, occurs in the following passage 

 in Robert Southwell's Spirituall Poems, 1595 : 



" He that high growth on cedars did bestow, 

 Gave also lowly mushrumps leave to growe." 



I suppose that this word has been derived from 

 Maesrhin, one of the names of the mushroom in 

 Welsh. As the meanings of the word rhin are " a 

 channel," "a virtue," " a secret," "a charm," none 

 of which are applicable to a mushroom, I conjec- 

 ture that it is a corruption of the word 7-hum (also 

 spelt rhump), but I am unable to mention an in- 

 stance of the word being spelt by any Welsh 

 writer of ancient times. The etymology which I 

 suggest is maesrhum ; from maes, " a field," and 

 rhum, " a thing which bulges out." This meaning 

 very nearly resembles that of the French name of 

 one kind of mushroom, champignon. S. S. S. (2.) 



The Grave of Cromwell (Vol. v., p. 477.). — 

 Mk. Oliver Pembekton has referred your corre- 

 spondent A. B. to Lockinge's Naseby for an ac- 

 count of the Protector's funeral and probable 

 burial on the field of Naseby. As the volume 

 may not be very generally known, would A. B. 

 like a summary of Mr. Lockinge's ten 12mo. 

 pages ? or could you, Air. Editor, spare room for 

 the whole? Mastin, in his History of Naseby^ 

 alludes to the doubts that have beeu expressed 



