July 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



49 



the pen, I believe, of the late Dr. Robinson of 

 Cambridge." Both your correspondents have 

 quoted it wrongly; each has altered one of the 

 points ; and I have vpaited with curiosity and 

 amusement to see whether any one would give a 

 correct copy. Mr. M'Grath quoted it as 1 have 

 seen it before, except only that he inserted a 

 word — the (Bible's) sacred page — and spoiled 

 the metre. It now runs as follows : 

 " Bold Infidelity, turn pale and die ; 



Beneath this stone four sleeping infants lie ; 

 Say, are they lost or saved ! 



If death's by sin, they sinn'd, for they are here ; 



If Heaven's by works, in heaven they can't appear. 

 Ah reason, how depraved ! 



Revere the sacred page, the knot's untied — 



They died, for Adam sinn'd ; they live, for Jesus died ? " 



I made a note of this long ago, partly on ac- 

 count of tlie ingenious manner in which the di- 

 lemma is packed, and partly on account of the 

 incongruous appearance which is given by one 

 word of poetic license, too bold for the precision 

 of language which follows it. Supposing the di- 

 lemma unanswerable, it is not infidelity which is 

 cauglit by it, but some kind of Christianity. It 

 rather reminds me, when this one word is con- 

 sidered, of a young missionary I once heard of, 

 who was educated in one of those colleges in 

 which they teach at great length what a heathen 

 is to be converted into, and at no length at all 

 what a heathen is to begin with. An older mis- 

 sionary was giving this young man some advice 

 about his proceedings, and was interrupted with — 

 " Oh ! of course, I shall assume justification by the 

 faith." Query, A suitable alteration in the first 

 line ? M. 



In the graveyard of Square (Independent 

 chapel) in this town, the epitaph, "Ere sin could 

 blight," &c., is inscribed over an infant who died 

 in 1835. I have seen it elsewhere, I think in or 

 near Worcester, but cannot now name the spot. 

 It is, I presume, pretty well known. I find it in 

 Sm.irt's British Poetical Miscellany, 12mo., Hud- 

 dersfield, 1818, with Coleridge's name to it. 



The epitaph, " Bold Infidelity," &c., is usually 

 attributed to the Rev. Robert Robinson, author 

 of Village Discourses, &c., and the predecessor of 

 the Rev. Robert Hall in the pastorate of the Bap- 

 tist church at Cambridge. H. Maktin. 



In answer to one of the inquiries of JN". L. T., 

 the following lines are sent. They are taken from 

 Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, vol. i. p. 333., where 

 they are said to be inscribed on a tomb of four in- 

 fants Uiimed Hall, in Sibthorpe churchyard: 



.« The cup of life just with their lips they press'd, 

 They found it bitter, and declin'd the rest. 

 Averse then turning from the face of day. 

 They softly sigh'd their little souls away." 



Sttlites. 

 No. 299.] 



PAGET ARMS. 



(Vol. xi., pp. 385. 494.) 



The obliging reply of Mb. Arthur Paget to 

 my Query concerning the Paget coat of arms, 

 does not (he will permit me to say) satisfy my 

 curiosity or exhaust the question. I think the 

 shield bears evidence, on the fiace of it, of an 

 origin more remote than the days of the virgin 

 queen. The cross and the escallop (symbols used 

 in earlier times than those of Elizabeth) indicate 

 that the grant was made when the crusader and 

 the pilgrim were not characters who lived merely 

 in the pages of romance, but persons of every-day 

 life and active reality. 



The cross is, I am aware, one of the frequently 

 displayed honourable ordinaries of heraldry ; but 

 I am inclined to believe there is a family group of 

 shields (if I may so speak) traceable to a common 

 parent, in which the cross is conspicuous. As with 

 the cinquefoil of the ancient earls of Leicester, the 

 chevron of the house of Albany, and the maunch 

 of the Hastingses, these charges, and the ordinary, 

 were often repeated in the coats worn by the 

 vassals of the chief lord ; so the cross, displayed 

 by some great feudal baron, was repeated in the 

 armorial ensigns of his military followers. I will 

 cite a few examples of the cross used in this way, 

 with a view to elicit some farther remarks from 

 your contributors : 



Azure, a cross engrailed or, was the coat of 

 the Charnels of Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire ; and 

 most lof the other instances I am about to quote 

 are ancient arms of families once seated in that 

 county. 



Gules, a plain cross argent. The Knights 

 Hospitallers. 



Sable, a cross argent. Anonymous, Shacker- 

 stone. 



Azure, a cross petty gules. Shepey, Shacker- 

 stone. 



Sable, a cross engrailed or. Ufford, Snarestone. 



Gules, a cross engrailed argent, charged with 

 five cinquefoils gules. Amary. 



Azure, a cross engrailed argent. Aleshury, 

 Frowlesworth. 



Azure, a cross or. This coat is assigned to 

 Lorty of Stoughton and Shelton of Lockington. 



Azure, a cross or. Anonymous, Stoughton. 



Or, on a cross engrailed az., five mullets or. 

 Hospitallers, Burton-on-Trent. 



Ditto, ditto. Arms of Bourchier. 



Argent, a cross gules. Anonymous, Appleby. 



Or, a plain cross sable. Anonymous, EstwelLt* 



Argent, a cross vert. Hassey. 



When I state that six of the families named 

 above were seated in the western side of the 

 county of Leicester, in the Middle Ages, it will 

 appear probable they held under some common 

 suzerain; and as a branch of the Paget family 



