410 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"i S. Xo 99., Nov. 21. '5V. 



" Under aa armed woman, holding a spear, book, and 

 palm branch, is the word 



• VICTORIA ; ' 

 " Under another woman : 



" Under a river god : 



' LIBERTAS ; ' 



' SCAT.DA.' 



"This curious gun, vulgarlj' called Queen Elizaheth's 

 Pocket Pistol, was a present from the emperor Charles V. 

 to Hen?-!/ VIII., while they were engaged together in a 

 Avar with France. The author of the Magna Britannia 

 gives it tlic name oi Basilisco \_BasiUscus or BacriXtKoi'?]. 

 It requires 15 pounds of powder, and will carry a ball seven 

 or eight miles, or, as thej' say, to Calais [in compliance 

 with an oral order of Charles ?] 



" I am, yours, &c. 



"D. H." 



Having thus, to the best of my knowledge, an- 

 swered tlie inquiry of D. H., I too shdftld like to 

 address some questions to those who have a better 

 opportunity for information on this subject. I 

 wish to know, — 



1st. Whether the above-mentioned monster gun 

 be still extant, and whereabout ? 



2nd. Whether its length be accurately given ; 

 the diameter of the bore, and the weight of the 

 ball? 



3rd. Whether it ever was used ? 



4th. Whether the name of "Queen Elizabeth'' s 

 Pocket Pistol " be a proof that it was used in her 

 time ? 



5th. Whether the copy of the principal inscrip- 

 tion, as it reads here (ich for ick), can be relied 

 on? 



A transcript of what the author of Magna Bri- 

 tannia says about the subject* would be acceptable 

 to J. H. VAN Lennep. 



Mompadt House, near Haarlem. 



Chief Justice Sir Oliver Leader. — Your cor- 

 respondents' information is requested as to the 

 ancestors or descendants of Sir Oliver Leader, 

 who was Chief Justice I of the Court of Common 



wall and rampart'^, am I called; thivugh mount and vale 

 bores my hall, by me hurled. 



Scuret is for scheuret, scheurt, from scheuren, to rend, to 

 tear. 



The founder's name sounds, in English, John Tothuvs 

 of Utrecht.^ 



[* It is thus noticed in the Magna Britannia, p. 1172. 

 *' There is a curiously engraven piece of ordnance (called 

 Basilisco) twenty-four foot long, reported to have been 

 presented to King Henry VIII. by the Emperor."] 



[t No such name appears in Foss's List of the Judges 

 for these reigns. — Ed. "N. & Q."] 



^ Anglice, Bridget Rendall. 



^ It appears not to have been unusual in those times to 

 name guns. 



Pleas under Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Ed- 

 ward VI., and died in the year 1532 or 1553. He 

 was buried at Great Stoughton, Hunts. In his 

 will he spells his name Leder, Ledre, Leeder, and 

 Leader. V. S. D. 



Quotations wanted. — 

 " There's something ails the spot, the place is cursed." 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." supply the re- 

 ference and context of the above line ? I am not 

 quite sure as to the exact accuracy of the quota- 

 tion. NORTHUMBRIENSIS. 



" Admire, weep, laugh, exult, despise. 

 For here is room for all such feeling." 



A. B.C. 



Female Society at Hitcham. — Mrs. Carter, in a 

 letter dated in 1768, vol. ii. p. 16., writes : — 



" You never told me that the society at Hitcham was 

 dissolved. My informant makes grievous lamentation 

 for the scandal which she supposes this event will reflect 

 on female friendship. Possibly it maj' ; but the true state 

 of the case seems to me, that people do not disagree either 

 because they are men, or because the}- are women, but 

 because they are human creatures. Indeed it ought to 

 raise no disadvantageous ideas of these ladies, that they 

 did not find themselves so happy as they had expected 

 to be in their scheme of living together. " The only error 

 was, the want of consideration from which tliej' embarked 

 in it." 



Who was the founder of this society? What 

 was its object, and who were the members or chief 

 managers of it ? Fra. Mewburn. 



Physicians to the late Duke of YorJc. — Can you 

 help me to any information about a physician named 

 Molloy, who was much about the late Duke of 

 York ? Also, can you tell me who were the 

 Duke's physicians previous to Dr. M'Gregor ? 

 who was, I believe, the last who held that post. 



E. A. C. 



Irish, the Court Language of Scotland. — My 

 query is, When did the Irish or ancient Scotic 

 language cease to be spoken at the court of the 

 kings of Scotland ? 



The Gaelic King Kenneth united his own Sco- 

 tic kingdom with that of the Picts, whom he sub- 

 dued, about the year 843. At that period, and 

 for many generations afterwards, the king and his 

 nobles would doubtless retain and speak their 

 own Erse dialect ; for probably they would not 

 have a choice of speaking any other. But after 

 the seat of royalty was removed into the Lothians, 

 the influence of the Teutonic branch of the popu- 

 lation of Scotland must have made itself felt, and 

 the result showed itself in the English (or Inglis) 

 language becoming the language of the court. 

 But when was this revolution effected ? And are 

 there any existing data which show its epoch? 



There are soupgons, certainly, that the Gaelic 

 tongue was in favour with Scottish royalty until a 



