June 26. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



619 



years since, prevalent in this neighbourhood among 

 the inhabitants of the villages therein mentioned. 

 The legend has been noticed by Peck : 



" Mountsorrel he mounted at, 

 Rodely* he rode by, 

 Onelepf he leaped o'er, 

 At Birstall he burst his gall, 

 And Belgrave he was buried at." 



Leicestriensis. 



The following I had years ago from a Bucking- 

 !bamshire gentleman : 



•' Tring, Wing, and Ivinghoe, 

 Three dirty villages all in a row. 

 And never without a rogue or two. 

 Would you know the reason why ? 

 Leighton Buzzard is hard by." 



J. Eastwood. 



Birthplace of Josephine (Vol. v., p. 220.). — 

 Mk. Breen's able and interesting Note seems to 

 establish beyond dispute that Josephine was born 

 in St. Lucia, and not, as is commonly supposed, in 

 Martinique. 



But can Mr. Breen, or any other of your cor- 

 respondents, speak to this still more curious Query, 

 •whether or no she had African blood in her veins ? 

 I heard it confidently asserted lately by a gentle- 

 man of high standing on this island, who has busi- 

 ness relations with Martinique, that such was the 

 case, and that either the grandmother or great- 



Scf-andmother of the Empress was a negress slave, 

 e had the fact, he said, on good local authority, 

 and appeared satisfied in his own mind of the truth 

 of the statement. The sudden and surprising 

 elevation of her grandson gives some interest to 

 the inquiry. A. Keb. 



Antigua. 



The Curse of Scotland (Vol. i., pp. 61. 90.; 

 Vol. iii., pp. 22. 253. 423. 483.).— 



" There is a common expression made use of at 

 cards, which I have never heard any explanation of; I 

 mean the nine of diamonds being commonly called the 

 Curse of Scotland. 



" Looking lately over a book of heraldry I found 

 nine diamonds, or lozenges, conjoined, or, in the heraldic 

 language, Gules, a cross of lozenges, to be the arms of 

 Packer. 



" Colonel Packer appears to have been one of the 

 persons who was on the scaffold when Charles the First 

 ■was beheaded, and afterwards commanded in Scotland, 

 and is recorded to have acted in his command with 

 considerable severity. It is possible that his arms 

 might, by a very easy metonymy, be called the Curse 

 of Scotland ; and the nine of diamonds, at cards, being 

 very similar in figure to them, might have ever since 

 retained the appellation." — Gent. Mag., vol. Ivi. p. 301. 



* Noar Rothley. 



f Now Wanlip. 



" I cannot tell whence he learns that Colonel Packer 

 was on the scaffold when King Charles was beheaded." 

 — Ibid., p. .390. 



" When the Duke of York (a little before his suc- 

 cession to the crown) came to Scotland, he and his 

 suite introduced a new game, there called Comet, where 

 the ninth of diamonds is an important card. The Scots 

 who were to learn the game, felt it to their cost : and 

 from that circumstance the ninth of diamonds was nick- 

 named the Curse of Scotland." — Ibid., p. 538. 



" The nine of diamonds is called the Curse of Scot- 

 land because it is the great winning card at Comette, 

 which was a game introduced into Scotland by the 

 French attendants of Mary of Lorraine, queen of 

 James V., to the ruin of many Scotch families." — 

 Ibid., p. 968. 



The explanation supplied by the game of Pope 

 Joan is doubtless the correct one. Goodluck. 



Waller Family (Vol. v., p. 586.). — Francis 

 Waller, of Amersham, Bucks, grandfather of 

 Edmund Waller the poet, by his will, dated 

 13th of January, 1548-49, entails his mansion 

 house in Beaconsfield, and other estates in Bucks, 

 Herts, &c., on the child of which his wife Anne 

 is "now y)regnant," with repiainders to his two 

 brothers, Thomas and Edmund, in tail, with divers 

 remainders over, to Francis Waller, son of his 

 brother Ralph AValler, and the heirs of his " sister 

 Pope " and his sister Davys. The lady in question 

 was of the Beaconsfield branch of the Wallers, 

 and great aunt to the poet. (From the family mu- 

 niments.) . Lambert H. Larking. 



" After me the Deluge'' (Vol. iii., pp. 299. 397.). 

 — The modern, whoever he may be, can only lay 

 claim to reviving this proverb of selfishness, which 

 was branded by Cicero long ago : 



" Ilia vox inhumana et scelerata ducitur, eorum, qui 

 negant se recusare, quo miniis, ipsis mortuis, terrarum 

 omnium deflagratio consequatur, quod vulgari quodam 

 versu Grasco ['EjctoO Qolvovtos yata. fnixdiiTw irupi] pro- 

 nuntiari solet." 



This passage occurs in his treatise De Finibus, 

 III. xix., vol. xiv. p. 341. Valpy's edition, 1830. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Sun-Dial Motto (Vol. v., p. 499.).— Y. is in- 

 formed that Hazlitt, in his Sketches and Essays^ 

 has an essay on a sun-dial, beginning with these 

 words : 



" Horas non nitmero nisi serenas, is the motto of a 

 sun-dial near Venice." 



In La Gnomonique Pratique of Francois de 

 Celles, 8vo., there is a pretty long list of Latin 

 mottos for sun-dials, but I do not find the above 

 amongst them. It scarcely reads like a classical 

 quotation. Kobert Snow. 



Lines by Lord Palmerston (Vol. i., p. 382. ; 

 Vol. ii., p. 30. ; Vol. iii., p. 28.).— In Vol. i., p. 328., 

 Inbagator inquired whether there was any au- 



