2='! S. VIII. Dec. 10. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



471 



Sheriff's Precedence. — The second branch and 

 duty of the sheriff is as keeper of the King's peace, 

 "whereby " both by common law and special com- 

 mission he is the first man in the county, and 

 superior in rank to any nobleman therein during 

 his office. 



This remark in Ker's Student's Blachstone leads 

 to the inference that there is some special com- 

 mission addressed to the sherifi', whereby he be- 

 comes the first man in the county, and superior 

 to the nobleman Lord- Lieutenant. 



Will any of your readers inform me where any 

 one of these Commissions may be found ? Are 

 they under the Great Seal, or warrant from the 

 Crown ? Is it exclusively directed to the sheriff, 

 or are the judges mentioned therein? and how in 

 reference to the sheriff? J. R, 



Belvoir Castle. — Is there in existence any 

 drawing or plan of the old castle as it existed pre- 

 vious to the period of Cromwell, and if so, where 

 is it to be found ? G. N. 



Heraldic Drawings and Engravings. — When 

 were the tinctures of heraldry first indicated by 

 the courses of lines in engravings, — as vertical 

 lines to signify gtdes, dots to signify or, and so on? 

 Can you refer me with precision to the earliest 

 instance of such engraving, or to the work in 

 which the practice is for the first time suggested ? 



Jaydee. 



;^m0r cauertciS iattlj ^xxiiatxi. 



Archbishop Juxon and Family. — Information 



is requested respecting the descent of Archbishop 



Juxon, and also particulai'S of his descendants, 



and an extract from his will. H. J. 



[Abp. Juxon does not appear to have been a married 

 man. In the Harl. MS. 938. p. 10. is the following copy 

 of his will : — " My body I commit to the earth to be 

 decently buried, but without pomp. My worldly goods I 

 thus dispose : first, I give unto the poor of the parish of 

 St. Peter the Great, alias the subdeanery in the citv of 

 Chichester, 100/. To the poor of St. Giles in Oxford, 

 100/. To the poor of Somerton, co. Oxford, 50/. To tlie 

 poor of Little Compton, co. Gloucester, 100/. To the poor 

 of Lemington in the same count}', 100/. To the poor of 

 Toddenham in the same county, 50/. To the poor of 

 Lambeth and Croydon, each 100/. I give 7000/. to bo 

 disposed of for the increase of the yearly stipends of the 

 Fellows and Scholars of St. John's College in Oxford, by 

 purchase of lands for that. purpose, whereof the Fellows 

 and Scholars to have equal shares. To the repair of the 

 church of St. Faul's, if it proceed, I give 2000/. To my 

 menial servants, 1200/. My nephew, Sir William Juxon, 

 I make sole executor. If I happen to die before the hall 

 at Lambeth be finished, I will that my executor be at the 

 charge of finishing it, if mj' successor shall give leave. I 

 give to the Cathedral Cliurch of Canterburj' 500/. De- 

 clared 14 May, 1663. Probat. 4 July, 1063." The arch- 

 bishop died on June 4, 1603. Le Neve {Lives of the 

 Bishops, i. 1C2.) speaks of a codicil containing the follow- 

 ing item : " To such of my poor kindred as are not men- 

 tioned in my will, amongst them 500/." j 



" Elispirid." — What is " elis-piridf "— Wiclif, 

 Last Age of the Church, Todd's edition, p. xxxiii. : — 



" )>ei l>at treten j>es verse of Sibille alle J>at I haue seen 

 acorden in \>is J^at seculer power of J>e Hooly Goost 

 elis-piiid." . 



Todd (note, p. xcll.) thinks it corrupt. In the 

 eyes of Lewis (ibid.) it means expired. E. S. J. 



[Before giving a decided opinion, one would wish to 

 see Wiclif 's MS. ; in the absence of which all we can do 

 is to oft'er a conjecture. Our suggestion is this; that the 

 el of "elispirid" may probably have been intended by 

 Wiclif for a d. The word which he meant to write would 

 in that case be c//sp/77c/ (dispired), which we suppose to 

 have been an old form of disappeared. " To dispire " 

 would correspond, on this supposition, to the Italian dis- 

 pai-lre, to disappear: — "the secular power of the H0I3' 

 Ghost disappeared:" — much as we might say, "The 

 Jewish polity was originally a theocracy ; but when the 

 nation was finally broken up, and passed into exile and 

 captivity, all that visible manifestation of divine inter- 

 position in human aftairs ceased and determined." With 

 It. disparire, to disappear, cf. med.-L. disparere, to flee 

 away, to cease, to come to an end (Du Gauge) ; old Fr. 

 disparer, to vanish away (Cotgrave) ; and Romance des- 

 parer. "Et tost " [aussit6t] " mor e despar" (and im- 

 mediately dies and disappears. Eaynouard.) So the 

 divine agency in things secular dispired; i. e. was no 

 longer exercised perceptibly' and visibly.] 



Flower de Luce and Toads. — li\ The History of 

 Serpents by Edward Topsell, page 729., chap. 

 " Of the Toad," he says : — 



" I do marvel wh}' in ancient time the Kings of France 

 gave in their arms the three Toads in a yellow field, the 

 which were afterwards changed by Clodoveus into 3 

 Flower de luces in a field azure as arms sent unto him 

 from heaven." 



I want to see Topsell's authority for this. S. B. 



[If our correspondent will turn to Elliott's Ilorm 

 Apocali/pticcB, iii. 500., edit. 1851, he will find that Top- 

 sell had good authoritj' for hia statement. Mr. Elliott 

 has given engravings of the three frogs as they appeared 

 in the French banner, from an ancient tapestry in the 

 cathedral of Rheiras representing battle scenes of Clovis, 

 who is said to have been baptized there after his con- 

 version to Christianity ; also a representation of the three 

 frogs from Pynson's edition of Fabyan's Chronicle, at the 

 beginning of his account of Pharamond, the first King of 

 the Franks, who reigned at Tours about a.d. 420. The 

 other engraving is from the Franciscan church of Inns- 

 pruck, representing the shield of Clovis, King of France, 

 with three fleurs de lis and three frogs, with the words 

 underneath " Clodov»us der ersle Christenlich Konig von 

 Frankreich." In the sixth centurj', xlvi. of the Prophe- 

 cies of Nostradamus (p. 251.) translated by Garancieres, 

 (Lond. 1672.), there occurs the following verse : — 



" Un juste sera en exil envoye 

 Par pestilence aux confins de son siegle, 

 Response au rouge le fera desvoj-e', 

 Roi retirant a la rane, ct k I'aigle." 



On which, saj'S Garancieres : " By the eagle he meanetli 

 the Emperor ; bj' th.^ frog the King of France ; for before 

 he took the flower de luce the French bore th-ee frogs." li 



Colonel Kirke. — Would any of your corre- 

 spondents favour me with some account of the 

 Colonel Kirke, so famous for his atrocities In 



