Sept. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



233 



connexion with masonry. The] one is local, the 

 other universal ; the one entirely political in 

 origin and offensive in character, the other purely 

 social, charitable, and innocuous. That an instru- 

 ment of the angry passions, this an organ of 

 general benevolence ; that is notoriously used at 

 times for purposes of crime, while of this the 

 ruling aim is the inculcation of truth, honour, and 

 virtue. 



I speak of the end sought, not of the forms 

 adopted, by either, and so speaking cannot see 

 how or wherein it is possible for two societies to 

 be more essentially antagonistic. 



To confound them is as though one were to 

 mention in the same terms the Athenseum Club 

 and the Sons of Harmony at the Cock and 

 Cherub, Seven Dials. 



As to the word revolution, it is sufficient to re- 

 mark that the masonic system strictly prohibits 

 the disturbance of the peace and good order of 

 society. The D. P. G. M. of British 



Masonry in China. 



Hong Kong. 



Roads of the Romans (Vol. x., p. 175.). — See a 

 paper in the Transactions of the Architectural In- 

 stitute of Scotland, Session 1854 — 55, by A. Thom- 

 son, Esq., of Banchory. J. Macray. 



Oxford. 



Tennyson and his '■'■ Baly" (Yol. xii., p. 183.). 

 — I cannot see why Tennyson's use of the word 

 " baby " as an adjective should be the subject of 

 remark, for if we look into Shakspeare, we find 

 he has excellent authority for the practice. 



Macbeth says : 



" And wears upon his baby brow the round 

 And top of sovereignty." 



Lewis the Dauphin, in King John, says : 



' " Commend these waters to those baby eves, 

 That never saw the giant world enrag'd." 



And we have in the Winter s Tale : 



" Whereof I reckon 

 The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter, 

 To be or none, or little." 



D. S. 

 Beckett Pedigree (Vol. xii., p. 146.). — The 

 pedigree of the Ormonde, not of the Beckett 

 family, of which I made mention upon a former 

 occasion with reference to Theobald Walter, will 

 be found amongst the Harleian MSB., British 

 Museum, marked (if I mistake not) No. 1425. 

 p. 79. Giraldus Cambrensis, in his Conquest of 

 Ireland, translated by Hooker, makes mention of 

 Theobald Walter in these words : 



« This Theobald Fitz Walter, who bv his nation was 

 named Becket, but by his office Butler," was the sonne of 

 Walter the sonne of Gilbert, and was the first Butler that 

 came into Ireland, who being a wise and an expert man, 

 was first sent with William Fitzaldeline," &c. 



No. 308.] 



At present I am unable to reply to L. M. M.'s 

 Queries relating to Maud de Valois and Nicholas 

 de Verdon. The latter, however, I presume was 

 one of the ancient family of the De Verdons of 

 the county of Louth in Ireland. 



James F. Ferguson. 



Nursery Rhyme (Vol. xii., p. 91.). — The rhyme 



quoted by G. N. from George Sinclair is still 



prevalent in Kent, Essex, and East Anglia. A 



better version is, — 



" Chum, butter, chum ; 



Come, butter, come ; 



Peter stands at the gate, 



Waiting for butter to his cake ; 



Churn, butter, churn, 



Come, butter, come." 



Being alliterative instead of rhymed, it is most 

 likely very old. Hyde Clarke. 



Grants of Queen Elizabeth (Vol. xii., p. 185.). 

 — The Rolls in Chancery Lane is the more pro- 

 bable place of deposit, where Centurion will find 

 much courtesy and some information. C. H. 



Arms of Bishop Towers (Vol. xii., p. 152.). — 

 In Burgate Church, Suffolk, is a stone for Spencer, 

 wife of Robert Pykardl, Rector, and daughter of 

 John Towers, Bishop of Peterborough, who died 

 Feb. 16, 1657-8, aged thirty-seven. Arms : Sable, 

 a swan argent, and a chief, ermine, for Pykarell ; 

 impaling, a tower, triple towered, for Towers. In 

 Burke's Armoury, the tinctures to the name of 

 Towers are given as azure and or, or azure and 

 gules. There are also several coats for the name 

 of Milbourne and Roberts. C. R. M. 



Old English Proverbs (Vol. xii., p. 185.). — 

 Upon the authority of Bailey, the old lexico- 

 grapher, I am enabled to expound the first and 

 seventh of the proverbs given by M., with a hope 

 that some more sagacious correspondent may 

 answer the rest. 



1. "An inch breaketh no square." That is, It 

 is hardly worth while to break off a bargain, or 

 contest an argument, or dispute with a neighbour 

 or friend, for a trifle. 



7. " Leave is light." It is but the expense of a 

 little breath, and therefore they who are under 

 command are very much to blame to hazard dis- 

 obliging their superiors by not asking. If this 

 neglect proceeds from a diffidence, it is the more 

 inexcusable, because that seems, in some measure, 

 to imply a conviction of what we have to ask 

 being unreasonable. Charles Hook. 



Umbrellas (Vol. iii., p. 483.). — In Bohn's 

 edition of the prose translation of Aristophanes, 

 vol. i. p. 376., is the following stage direction : 

 " Enter Prometheus, muffled up and covered with 

 an umbrella." How is this to be reconciled with 

 the recent origin of umbrellas assumed by all 

 your correspondents ? G. D. S. 



