2°'« S. X. Sept. 8. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



borough, on either side of his arms appear the 

 reverses of two Roman medals, one inscribed 

 " iEquitus Augusti," the usual type, appears very 

 suitable ; the other is inscribed " Rhedycina," a 

 female seated on a celestial globe, in the right 

 hand a cornucopoeia, left a sceptre, crowned with 

 a mural crown : S. C. in exergue. 



My Query is. What person or province is sym- 

 bolised by this coin ? and why is it appropriate in 

 reference to Mr. Justice Blackstone ? 



Also, whom did his sons marry, and what male 

 descendants of the Judge are now living ? S. S. 



Maori Language. — Is there an English and 

 Maori Grammar and Dictionary to be had any- 

 where ? and if more than one has been published, 

 which is the best? Scbsceiber. 



Sir Ralph Abercromby. — Can any of your 

 correspondents give the exact date of the general's 

 birth ? In Knight's National Cyclopmdia, Cham- 

 bers's Encyclopaedia, and other works, the year 

 1 734 is given ; whilst the Annual Register, the 

 new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and 

 other authorities place it in 1738. Inquirer. 



Anecdote in Walpole's Letters. — When 

 Walpole wishes to describe a man so engrossed 

 by his private affairs as to be indifferent to public 

 events, he several times quotes the story of the 

 country squire living near Edgehill, who was seen 

 going out with his dogs, for his morning's sport, 

 just as the royalist and parliamentary armies were 

 about to join battle. By whom is this story (too 

 good, I think, to be true) originally told ? It is 

 curiously varied by a writer in the current number 

 of the Quarterly Review (April, 1860, p. 342.), 

 who says : — 



" We read with indignation and contempt of the country 

 squire, who, on the morning of the battle of Marston 

 Moor, was seen within hearing, and almost within sight, 

 of the hostile armies, quietly drawing his covers for a 

 fox." 



Gervase Markham might have informed the 

 reviewer that, in the days of Marston Moor, 

 sportsmen did not " draw covers " for foxes, in 

 the modern style, but treated them like vermin, 

 and knocked them on the head in the most igno- 

 minious manner possible. Jaydee. 



[We may perhaps be pardoned if we take occasion 

 from the repetition of this Query, which has already ap- 

 peared in our 1^' Series, to point out how its history il- 

 lustrates the utility of " N. & Q." One of the first 

 communications which we received from the late Right 

 Hon. J. W. Croker was the Query (!»' i. 93.) : " Where 

 did Walpole find this anecdote?" Being ourselves un- 

 able to answer this inquiry, we wrote a private note to a 

 distinguished man of letters, who was and is, we believe, 

 the highest authority on all points of history connected 

 with Charles and Cromwell. From him we received a 

 very characteristic reply, expressing his entire disbelief 



in the story, which he characterised as an after-dinner 

 lie of Walpole's; and adding his conviction that at the 

 time when Edgehill was fought, every man in England 

 was up and doing his part in the great work that was 



then going on. We felt that if neither Croker nor 



could trace Walpole's authority, it probably rested on 

 tradition, and gave up the hope of finding it. But we 

 were wrong. In the course of a few weeks a correspon- 

 dent, F. C. B., to whom the readers of " N. & Q." have 

 been indebted for many curious and valuable articles, 

 gave us the information required (1" S. i. 338.). The 

 story is to be found in Dugdale's Warwickshire (edit. 

 Thomas, 1730, 1. 309.), where we are told that the merry 

 sportsman was Richard Schuckburgh of Upper Schuck- 

 burgh — that the meeting took place on the 22nd Oct. 

 1642 — " that the next day he attended the King in the 

 field, when he was knighted, and was present at the 

 battle of Edgehill."] 



Humphry Duke of Gloucester and Quin. 

 —If you can find a space in your valuable pub- 

 lication for the purpose of further information on 

 the following quotation, you will much oblige a 

 constant subscriber. 



" The discovery in 1703 of the body of Humphry, the 

 good Duke of Gloucester, lying in pickle in the Abbey 

 Church, gave rise to a well-known epigram written by 

 Garrick as a Soliloquy of the epicure Quin." — Gentleman's 

 Magazine, " History of Hertfordshire," vol. Ixxxvii. Pt. 

 II. p. 231. 



W. D. Haggard. 



[The following are the lines referred to : — 



" A plague on Egypt's arts, I say ! 

 Embalm the dead ! on senseless clay 



Rich wines and spices waste ! 

 Like sturgeon or like brawn shall I, 

 Bound in a precious pickle, lie. 



Which I can never taste. 



" Let me embalm this flesh of mine 

 With turtle fat and Bordeaux wine, 



And spoil th' Egyptian trade. 

 Than Humphry's Duke more happy, I 

 Embalm'd alive, old Quin shall die 



A mummy ready made."] 



Vulgar Errors in Law. — Has any collection 

 been made of "vulgar errors" in law? Allow 

 me to state three, and to ask if they are devia- 

 tions from any truth ? 



That first cousins may marry, but second not. 



That all notices from landlords to tenants must 

 be in writing ; but that verbal notice to the land- 

 lord is sufficient, if the tenant is a farmer occupy- 

 ing on the ^outh of the Thames. 



That a locksmith is guilty of felony if he make 

 a key from a pattern, unless he has also the lock. 



The first is widely diffused, and I have heard 

 the second and third in various parts, but chiefly 

 south of the Thames. C. E. 



[We do not profess to answer legal questions, con- 

 scious, if we did so, that our "opinions" would be of 

 even less value than those given at the dinner-table or 

 in a stage coach are reputed to be. But we are assured 

 by the friends we have consulted, eminent both in foren- 

 sic and chamber practice, that neither of the three dicta 

 inquired after by our correspondent are recognised as 

 truth in the science of law : and our own limited expe- 



