206 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. 15. 1855. 



Museum relating to an individual of the name 

 (temp. Charles I.) ; can any of your readers assist 

 me to re-find them ? A. Challsteth. 



Opinion of an English Bishop on mixed Mar- 

 riages. — In Letters to a Russian Gentleman on the 

 Spanish Inquisition, by the Count de Maistre, in 

 1815, translated and published in London, 1851, 

 at p. 81., he writes : 



" You cannot, I am sure, Sir, liave forgot that, in the 

 year 1805, an English bishop was consulted by a lady, 

 one of his friends, on the important and especially difficult 

 question, whether she could in conscience marry her 

 daughter to a man who was alien to the Anglican Church 

 (although neither Catholic nor Protestant). 



" The reply, which the principal parties interested did 

 not keep secret, and which was communicated to me in 

 your company, is one of the most curious things I ever 

 read in my life. 



" He himself knew a gentleman, an alumnus of Eton 

 and Cambridge, who, after having duly examined, to the 

 best of his abilitj', the grounds for the two religions, 

 decided for that of Eome. He does not blame him, and 

 consequently he believes that the tender mother may, 

 with all safety to her conscience, marry her daughter out 

 of the Anglican Church, although the children by this 

 marriage should be educated in the religion of her 

 husband." 



And in a note : 



" The words of the good bishop are as follows : ' If in 

 every other respect the match meet with her approbation, 

 and that of her parents, it must not be declined from any 

 apprehension of her children's salvation being risked by 



being educated in the R Church, - - - - especially 



as, when they arrive at mature age, they will be at liberty 

 to examine and judge for themselves which of all the 

 Christian Churches is most suitable to the Gospel of 

 Christ.'— C P , March 27, 1805." 



Can any of your readers say v?ho was the bishop 

 or the lady who consulted him ; or who was the 

 convert to the Roman Church above referred to ? 

 The hyphens in the note are not mine. I should 

 conclude that the intended husband was of the 

 Bussian Church. H. P. 



Armorial Bearings. — In the tax-papers the 

 commissioners used, within these few years, to 

 give a long comment, in which it was set forth 

 that every person was liable for armorial bearings 

 who had in his possession any seal bearing any 

 device whatever, &c. So wide was the wording 

 that persons who did not wish to pay for being 

 symbolised as bears, monlceys, or lions, might 

 almost fear to have a wafer-stamp seal, lest it 

 should be brought in as a shield counterchecky, 

 or some such heraldic bearing. AVas the question 

 ever tried ? Was it ever decided by the courts, 

 for example, that a collector of seals, claiming no 

 arms of his own, was liable because he was in pos- 

 session of the arms of other people ? M. 



Descendants of Authors. — Are you able to 

 specify any celebrated authors of the last two 

 centuries of whom lineal descendants — whether 



No. 307.] 



in the male or female line — are now living ? As 

 regards the eighteenth century, the only one that 

 occurs to me at this moment is Richardson ; 

 though, as his cotemporary and rival, Henry 

 Fielding, left daughters at his decease, he may, 

 possibly, be another. It is needless to remark 

 that of the greatest the race is dead : in every 

 instance, with the exception of Addison, it died 

 with the person who had made his name illustrious. 

 Some contributor to " N. & Q." has most pro- 

 bably the means of elucidating this subject of 

 inquiry, which affords matter of curious specula- 

 tion, not indeed in connexion with what Dr. 

 Johnson called the " propagation of understand- 

 ing" (the Horatian maxim, " fortes creantur 

 fortibus," does not hold good as to intellectual 

 force), but merely with reference to the physical 

 deduction from men of the highest order of 

 genius, and the "rationale" (if one may be sug- 

 gested) of the scarcity of known instances of it. 

 We have an abundance of offshoots (some of 

 them at a considerable interval) from great law- 

 yers, great statesmen, and great commanders — the 

 "tenth transmitters" of "foolish faces" are very 

 plentiful ; while of great writers, from whom it 

 has been said that a country derives its chief re- 

 nown, the genealogical extinction is all but uni- 

 versal. The heroes of literature are represented, 

 perhaps more suitably, by their immortal works. 



I omitted to mention Lady M. W. Montague, 

 whose descendants are numerous among the noble 

 of the land. A. L. 



Medal of Charles I. — A friend of mine has 

 found a small silver coin or medal, date 1625. 

 Two busts, male and female, with a glory over ; 

 the inscription round is " ch. mag. et hen. m. a. 

 BRIT. REX. ET REG." The obversc, Cupid with 

 roses and lilies. Around, " fundit amor lilia 

 MIXTA Rosis." On what occasion was tliis coined ? 



W. COLLYNS. 



[This is a small medal, struck upon the marriage of 

 Charles I. and Henrietta Maria; when the lilies of France 

 were mingled with the roses of England. They must 

 have been distributed largely, for there are several varie- 

 ties; and of some, more than one pair of dies were used.] 



Rosemary. — Will some correspondent explain 

 the allusion to this plant in the following passage 

 from Hudibras (Part II. canto I. v. 845-8) ? 

 "A Persian emp'rour whipp'd his grannam 

 The sea, his mother Venus came on ; 

 And hence some rev'rend men approve 

 Of rosemary in making love." 



A. Challsteth. 

 [Zachary Grey has the following note on this passage : 

 "As Venus was reported to have sprung from the foam of 

 the sea, Butler intimates that rosemary (Rosmarinus) or 

 sea-dew, as resembling in a morning the dew of the sea, 

 was in use in making love."] 



