156 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»<» S. VIII. Aug. 20. '59. 



the Welsh Mabinogi, which has been adapted and 

 slightly altered by the trouveur, Chrestien de 

 Troyes, and entitled by him " Erec and Enide." 

 A translation of the original will be found in the 

 second volume, of Lady Charlotte Guest's Ma- 

 hinogion (8vo,, London, 1849). Her ladyship has 

 also given, in the same volume, a brief analysis of 

 Chrestien's version, as well as copious extracts 

 from it ; and intimates that the entire work was 

 about to be republished, under the auspices of the 

 Count de la Villemarque, the eminent French 

 antiquary. There are also German and Icelandic 

 versions of the same story, avowedly borrowed 

 from Chrestien de Troyes. )3. 



Vertue's ^'■Draughts" (2"'^ S. viii. 26. 93.)— Me. 

 Boys was not aware that I had exhausted all the 

 means which the British Museum afforded. I 

 believe that when Mr. Leake wrote (1^' S. xi. 

 380.) "Vertue's Draughts,^' he did not mean 

 "Vertue's Engravings'* His descriptions of 

 crowns, though generally corresponding with the 

 engravings, do not always do so. Hence I feel 

 confident that he had seen the draughts. And 

 these latter are what I want to discover. 



It is matter of history that Vertue travelled 

 over England to make drawings from tombs and 

 statues. It is quite evident that these drawings 

 from existing remains would be of infinitely more 

 value than his engravings, vamped up for the 

 booksellers. Now his drawings, on his death, 

 were sold by auction. Many of them went into 

 Lord Besborough's collection. But Lord Bes- 

 borough's collection is elsewhere spoken of as 

 having been "dispersed." Still, such valuable 

 remains as these could hardly be lost or destroyed. 

 And my impression, from Mr. Leake's papers, is, 

 that he had had access to them. Sh£EN. 



Shooting Soldiers (2°* S. viii. 70.) — As I do 

 not find the Query made by A. A. on July 23, 

 answered in your number for August 6, I beg to 

 offer the following scraps of information on the 

 subject of military executions in Hyde Park. 



I remember an upright stone in the Park near 

 Cumberland Gate, which was said to mark the 

 spot where soldiers were shot. In fact, for there 

 is no question about it, they stood in front of the 

 stone itself. When Mr. Hope's new gates were 

 erected, the ground was raised, and, as the stone 

 was firmly set in the earth, it was simply covered 

 over and not removed. The executions were 

 usually on account of repeated desertion ; — a 

 purely military offence met a military penalty, 

 and the delinquent suffered a soldier's death. In 

 1747, however, an exception presents itself in the 

 case of Serjeant Smith, who had deserted to the 

 French, returned, was pardoned, re-admitted to 

 the army, and subsequently went over to the 

 Pretender. In the latter service Wade captured 

 him. He was brought to London, tried by court- 



martial, and being sentenced to be hanged, he 

 was marched from the Savoy, through St. James's 

 to Hyde Park, where he was gibbetted, and late 

 in the day buried. Comrades and recruits were 

 always present, under their respective officers, to 

 witness these executions. 



Wearing oak-apples — not yet quite extinct — 

 on the 29th of May, became a military offence 

 under the first Georges. For a soldier to "sport" 

 this emblem was to manifest a love for the Stuarts 

 and a hatred for the House of Brunswick. As a 

 military offence, soldiers who ventured to show 

 but an oak-leaf in their fingers were flogged al- 

 most to death in the bloody corner of Hyde Park. 

 Civilians were also amenable to the law if they 

 thus offended on the anniversary of the Kestora- 

 tion. Imprisonment, whipping, and fine punished 

 their lingering loyalty for the helpless race. I 

 fancy the regular military executions at the stone 

 which lies near the Marble Arch commenced after 

 the downfall of the Stuarts, and continued till the 

 younger Pretender had ceased to have preten- 

 sions. Pepys, at all events, records the hanging 

 of two soldiers in the Strand, but they had been 

 concerned in a mutiny at Somerset House. 



J. DORAN. 



Greek Word (2"« S. viii. 88.) — My learned 

 friend, the Rev. A. S. Thelwall, Teacher of Public 

 Reading at King's College, London, suggests that 

 the Greek word required can be no other than 

 elxiKpivijs, which lexicographers derive from (Iki] 

 (splendor solis) and Kplvofiui : — 



*' Impermixtus, Purus, Sincerus, Merus, Veras, Non 

 fucatus : item et Apertus, Manifestus, Perspicuus : et 

 quasi dicas rp eUjj Kpivofievot, quoniam ad splendorem 

 solis, i, e, TTiv eiK-qv, to, fie;u,i.y;aei'a Kal ra afny^ facile SiaxpC- 

 vtTM." (Steph. Thes.) 



Thomas Boys. 



The Greek word in question is elKlKptv-fiSf exa- 

 mined (say Liddell and Scott) by ike sun's light, 

 and so found genuine. C. W. Bingham. 



Motto (2°^ S. viii. 110.) — Your correspondent 

 W. J. D. asks the meaning of the following motto 

 appended to the arms of an ancient Irish family : 

 " His calcabo gartos." Though, as your corre- 

 spondent observes, Ducange has afforded him no 

 assistance in the elucidation of this quaint sen- 

 tence, the Irish language may afford some aid. 

 Gartos is a latinised form of ceart (in composition 

 g-ceart) and the latter means a right. As the 

 Irish word is used, it clearly means a native Irish 

 right, like those of which the leabhar na g-ceart 

 treats. The motto therefore shows that the family 

 which uses it, or the family from which it may 

 have been taken, at some period subverted the 

 power and occupied the territories of some fierce 

 Gathelian chief or sept, and gloried in so doing. 

 The family referred to has escaped me. Its his- 

 tory may bear out my etymon. H. C. C. 



