2»d S. N« 79., JULT 4. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



IS 



made, he had a daughter Jane, who died ; he 

 therefore renewed the name that there might be 

 no loss for aa heir, male or female. P — B — y. 



rOBTBAITS OF MABT QUEEN OF SCOTS. 



(2"'i S. iii. 448. 511.) 



In the list of portraits of Mary Queen of Scots 

 given by your correspondent Edward F. Rim- 

 UAULT, p. 511., he has omitted one of at least 

 local celebrity. In the absence of a copy of the 

 inscription, the following translation from an ac- 

 complished author must suffice to explain the 

 little that is Icnown of this portrait. From re- 

 peated inspection there can be no hesitation in 

 characterising the picture as a pretty and well- 

 painted likeness of a beautiful woman. Edmond 

 Le Poittevin de la Croix, in his Histoire, Physique, 

 et MoJiumentale de la Ville VAnvers, speaking of 

 the monument and portrait in the church of St. 

 Andre, at p. 498., says : 



" Le monument le plus interessant que possede cette 

 eglise est le mausolee en niarbre eleve h. la me'moire de 

 deux dames d'honneur de Marie Stuart, Reine d'E'cosse. 

 Le portrait de cette infortun^e princesse lequel surmonte 

 I'epitaphe. est d'une bonne re^semblance ; il est du aa 

 pinceau de Porbus et peint dans le style de Van Dj-ck, 



" Le monument funeraire est decore des statuettes de 

 Ste Barbe et de Ste Elizabeth et porte deux inscriptions 

 latines en lettres d'or, sur un fond de marbre noii\ En 

 voici la traduction : — 



" ' Marie Stuart, Reine D'E'cosse et de France, mfere de 

 Jacques I., Roi de la Grande-Bretngne, chercha en 1568 

 un asile en Angleterre, oil, par la parfidie de la Reine Eli- 

 zabeth, sa parente et I'inimitie d'un Parlement heretique, 

 elle fut decapitee aprfes une captivitede 19 ann^es, et y 

 souffrit le martyre, en 1587, la quarante-cinquieme annee 

 de son i-fegne et de son age. 



" ' E'tranger, tu vois ici le monument oh reposent en at- 

 tendant la resurrection des justes, les restes morteis de 

 deux nobles dames Anglaises, dont I'attachement a la re- 

 ligion orthodoxe leur fit abandonner leur patrie, pour 

 venir se placer sous la protection de Sa Majestie Catho- 

 lique. 



" 'La premifere, Barbara Maubray, fille du Baron John 

 Maubraj', Dame d'honneur de Sa Gracieuse Majeste, Marie 

 Stuart, Reine d'E'cosse, epousa Gilbert Curie, qui, pen- 

 dant plus de vingt ans, fut Secretaire du Roi. lis vecurent 

 ensemble pendant 24 ans dans I'union la plus parfaite, et 

 elle donna le jour h, huit enfans, dont six ont dej&, ete ap- 

 peles au Seigneur. Les deux fils qui ont survlcu furent 

 ^lev^s dans la carrifere des lettres ; Jacques, I'aine, entra 

 dans la Societe de Jesus h, Madrid. Hyppolite, le cadet, 

 devint ^galement membre de la milice du Christ en se 

 fais int membre de la meme Societe dans la province de 

 la Gaule Belgique. 



" ' Ce dernier, pleurant la perte de le meilleure des 

 meres, qui quitta cette existence terrestre pour une vie 

 e'ternelle, le 31 Juillet, 1616, ^ge'e 57 ans, a fait Clever ce 

 monument. 



" ' La seconde, Elizabeth Curie, descendant de la m^me 

 illustre famille de Curie, fitait aussi Dame d'honneur de la 

 Reine Marie Stuart, et, aprfes avoir ete pendant huit ans 

 sa campagne fiddle dans la captivite, ce fut elle qui peu 

 d'instants avant rex&ution de la Reine re9Ut son dernier 

 baiser. 



" 'C'est ^galementen I'honneur et k la memoire de cette 



Dame, sa tante, que Hyppolite Curie, fils de eon frfere, a 



^rig^ ce monument, comme un temoignage de sa piet^ et 



de sa reconnaissance. 



«• « Elle quitta cette vie le 29 Mai, 1620, slg^B de 60 ans. 



*' • Qu'elles reposent en paix ! " 



Hbmbt D'Avenet. 



In one of the churches of Antwerp, I believe 

 St. Jaques, there is a portrait of Mary Queen of 

 Scots, painted on stone and placed over the me- 

 morial tablet of one of her maids of honour. The 

 tablet, so far as I remember, is near the south- 

 west corner of the transept arch of the church, 

 and the portrait is well known to the Swiss. 



W.B. 



Warrington. 



TO BE WORTH A PLUM. 

 (2"'i S. iii. 389.) 



I respectfully submit for consideration, to your 

 learned correspondent who hails from Leather- 

 head, an explanation of this phrase, which is not 

 of great antiquity, though it has now passed into 

 disuse. The expression is Spanish, and was pro- 

 bably borrowed by our London merchants from 

 those of Spain. 



Pluma, which in Spanish signifies plumage, bears 

 also in that language the metaphorical and col- 

 loquial signification of we^Uh. The Spaniards, 

 speaking of a man who has acquired riches, and 

 of whom we should say that he had " feathered, 

 his nest," use the expression " tiene pluma " (he 

 has got plumage). Hence our English expression, 

 he has got a plum. 



The case, however, is one of those, many of 

 which will occur to the experienced etymologist, in 

 which a phrase, adopted from without, adjusts 

 itself the more readily to our vernacular, because 

 it falls in with some native term or form of speech. 

 Plume, in old English, stands for the prize of a 

 struggle or contest, the emblem of success. Thus 

 Milton speaks of winning a plume. We may sup- 

 pose, theii, that from this English use of the word 

 plume, as well as from the Spanish phrase, the 

 London merchant who by honourable enterprise 

 had realised 100,000Z., the prize of mercantile 

 success being set at that amount, was said to have 

 got a plume, or plum ; while the man who had 

 realised 50,000^. was said to be worth half a plum. 



But here the question may be asked, " What, 

 after all, has the term plum to do with 100,000/., 

 more than with any other amount ? " 



To this we might reply that few, perhaps none, 

 of the cant terms for money, adopted in our lan- 

 guage, originally signify the exact sum for which 

 we employ them. Thus, neither z. pony^ (which is 

 properly a deposit — or the guardian of a deposit, 

 for a stakeholder is also sometimes called a pony), 



