32 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 245. 



in the Ormonde family, has been adopted in 

 honour of the monarch whom William dethroned. 

 From the same authority it will also be seen that 

 not only are all the sons of the late Earl of 

 Carlisle named George, but all the daughters 

 Georgiana. Anon. 



ABMORIAIi. 



(Vol. ix., p. 398.) 



I have searched for the coats mentioned by 

 CiD, without being able to find more than two of 

 them, which are, 1. Brendesley, Per pale or and 

 sable (I could not find a coat sable and or), a 

 chevron between three escallops counterchanged. 

 2. Mackmorough. Gules, a lion rampant argent. 

 There are many coats quarterly per fess indented, 

 but not one of the colours named : the same 

 remark applies to the three conies. 



The case put by the same correspondent is one 

 not to be easily answered by an amateur herald 

 or a non-professional writer. My first impression 

 was that, except by the will of A., his arms could 

 not be borne legally by his daughter's children, 

 her husband being no gentleman of coat armour. 

 And for this reason ; he, bearing no arms, could 

 neither impale those of his wife, nor bear them 

 on an escutcheon of pretence. Much less then 

 could he transmit them to his issue. 



I expected to find that some of our learned 

 writers would solve the question, and spent some 

 time in searching the pages of Gwillim, Gerard, 

 Legh, Nisbet, Berry, Robson, the Glossary, and a 

 host of smaller fry, without success. At length I 

 met with a copy of the MS. (preserved in the 

 College of Arms) of the indefatigable Glover, en- 

 titled Rules for the deioe quartering of Arms. The 

 eighth of these Rules states that — 



" If an inheritrix marrie a man that bearith no 

 armes, her issue by that husband shall not bear the 

 mother's father's armes, because the heires of inherit- 

 ance be only permitted to quarter the armes of her 

 ancestors with his owne, which he having none, cannot 

 do ; and if he should bear them alone as his own proper 

 coate of name, it were an injury to the issue male of 

 her ancestors, which is not to be permitted or suffered : 

 bot iff at any tyme either the husband of such in- 

 heritance or any her issues by him have armes to them 

 given, then may they lawfully quarter their father's 

 arms therewith." 



In the case before us there is certainly this 

 slight difference, that A. is said to have been the 

 last and only representative of his family, where- 

 fore there could be no "injury to the issue male " 

 of his daughter's ancestors ; but the adoption of 

 his arms by B.'s descendants would be likely to 

 bring contempt upon both them and the " gentle 

 science of armorle." Broctuna. 



Bury, Lancashire. 



It would be, I believe, quite irregular for the 

 issue of B. to use the arms, quarterings, crest, 

 and motto of A. under the circumstances stated. 

 The proper course to be adopted is for the issue 

 of B. (who are said to have no arms of their own) 

 to apply to the Heralds' College for a grant of 

 arms ; they will then be in a legal position to bear 

 the arms and quarterings of A. quarterly with 

 their own family arms, assuming that A. had a 

 legal right to them himself, which, as " being the 

 representative of an ancient family," most pro- 

 bably he had. C. J. 



INN SIGNS, ETC. 



(VoLix., pp. 148.251.) 



" Chequers. — During the Middle Ages it was usual 

 for merchants, accountants, and judges, who arranged 

 matters of revenue, to appear on a covered ' banc,' so 

 called from an old Saxon word meaning a seat (hence 

 our bank). Before them was placed a flat surface, 

 divided by parallel white lines into perpendicular co- 

 lumns; these again divided transversely by lines crossing 

 the former, so as to separate each column into squares. 

 This table was called an exchequer, from its resemblance 

 to a chess-board, and the calculations were made by 

 counters placed on its several divisions (something 

 after the manner of the Roman abacus). A money- 

 changer's office was generally indicated by a sign of 

 the chequered board suspended. This sign afterwards 

 came to indicate an inn or house of entertainment, 

 probably from the circumstance of the innkeeper also 

 following the trade of money-changer; a coincidence 

 still very common in seaport towns." — Dr. Lardner's 

 Arithmetic, p. 44. 



A. A. D. 



In reply to your correspondent S. A., I beg to 

 inform him that wine-shops with the sign of the 

 chequers were by no means uncommon in Italy. 

 Two such were recently excavated at Pompeii. 

 A temple dedicated to Isis, the fabled wife of 

 Osiris, who corresponded to the Ceres, as her 

 husband to the Bacchus of the Romans, was dis- 

 interred at the same place ; but what the symbol 

 represents has never been clearly discovered. 

 Some suppose it to bear the same signification as 

 it properly does in England, viz. a licence to the 

 frequenters of that house to play at dice or similar 

 games of chance. . A. F. 



Oxford. 



Many years since, while on a tour in Cornwall, 

 I remember seeing on the signboard of the inn 

 at Sennen, a small village near the Land's End, 

 on one side " The First Inn in England," and on 

 the other " The Last Inn in England." 



Henrt Stephens. 



Your correspondent G. W. Thornbury says 

 the Goat with the Golden Boots is from the Dutch 

 " Goed in der Gooden Boote," Mercury, or the 



