July 22. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



75 



that inference. I also think Mr. Denton wrong 

 in supposing that Home Tooke would deny truth 

 " to have any objective existence," if by that ex- 

 pression Mr. Dentox means that he would deny 

 " things to be causes of our ideas, of our thoughts." 

 Let Mr. Denton, and J. O. B. also, refer to 

 Home Tooke's etymology of thmk ; and also re- 

 flect that in all his explanations of past participles 

 and adjectives (having in his view the doctrine of 

 abstraction, and abstract ideas), he maintained 

 that there was an aliquid, a quidquid, a res ob- 

 jecta always understood. 



Tooke also most carefully and constantly dis- 

 tinguished the etymological or intrinsic meaning 

 of a word from our application of it, founded 

 upon and deduced from that meaning ; and, with 

 his usual correctness and consistency, he would 

 include in our legal application of the word libel, 

 all that the law intends by the word. And his 

 complaint in his own case was, not that the law 

 was absurd, but that the law was not complied 

 with in the information filed against him by 

 Thurlow — that the libel was not so sufficiently 

 set forth and described as the law required. 



My opinion is, that Tooke has been and is 

 much misunderstood, and quite as much misre- 

 presented by such interpretations as the above, as 

 Berkeley was by the witticisms of Reid. And 

 farther, that it is time justice should be done to 

 his noble theory. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



" Cutting off with a shilling" (Vol. ix., p. 198,). 

 — Your correspondent J. H. Chateau will, I 

 think, find the answer to his Query in the follow- 

 ing extract from Blackstone, book ii. ch. xxxii. : 



" The Romans were also wont to set aside testaments 

 as being inofficiosa, deficient in natural duty, if they 

 disinherited or totally passed by (without assigning a 

 true and sufficient reason) any of the children of the 

 testator. But if the child had any legacy, though ever 

 so small, it was a proof that the testator had not lost his 

 memory or his reason, which otherwise the law presumed ; 

 but was then supposed to have acted thus for some sub- 

 stantial cause, and in such case no querela inofficiosi testa- 

 menti was allowed. Hence, probably, has arisen that 

 groundless error of the necessity of leaving the heir a 

 shilling, or some such express legacy, in order to disin- 

 herit him effectually. Whereas the law of England makes 

 no such constrained suppositions of forgetfulness or in- 

 sanity ; and, therefore, though the heir or next of kin be 

 totally omitted, it admits no querela inofficiosi to set aside 

 such a testament." 



G. Gervais. 



Consecration of Regimental Colours (Vol. x., p. 

 10.). — The old Ordo Romanus, in the tenth cen- 

 tury, contains a form for the consecration of a 

 knight's gonfalon, as an essential feature in the 

 ceremonial of his investiture. It much resembles 

 the prayer at present in use. The early Church 

 displayed banners in its solemn processions, as 



St. Augustine carried one ensigned with a cross 

 (like the Labarum of Constantine) before K. 

 Ethelbert, at Canterbury. Every great Monas- 

 tery had its special banner, and sent it forth to 

 battle. Stephen carried St. Wilfrid's, of Ripon, 

 at Northallerton. A priest of Beverley carried 

 St. John's in the army of King Edward I. The 

 Earl of Surrey had the loan of St. Cuthbert's, of 

 Durham, in his northern expedition ; and Skelton 

 speaks of St. William's, of York, being borne by 

 the same gallant nobleman. The Edwards and 

 the Henries won their victories under the banners 

 of St. Edward the Confessor and St. Edmund of 

 Bury. Henry VII. offered, after his winning of 

 the Crown on Bosworth Field, the banner of St. 

 George in the Cathedral of St. Paul. The Ori- 

 flamme of St. Denis' Abbey was borrowed by S. 

 Louis, by Philip le Bel, and Louis le Gros, when 

 he defended France against Germany. The Pope 

 sent consecrated colours to Charlemagne, and to 

 Philip of Spain for his armada. The bannered 

 cross led the crusader in the East, and the armies 

 of Ferdinand beneath Granada against the Cres- 

 cent. The dignity of a " banneret" was the first 

 among those of the second order of nobility. The 

 banners of the Knights of the Garter hang in St. 

 George's, those of their brethren of the Bath in 

 Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster : the banners 

 of an enemy are suspended in our churches. The 

 banner of England is composed of the crosses of 

 St. George, St. Patrick, and St. Andrew. The 

 Eastern Church had no service for the benedic- 

 tion of colours. In the Church of England, the 

 form, which is merely traditional, is varied accord- 

 ing to the pleasure of the officiating clergyman. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Roger Aschanis Letters (Vol. ix., p. 588.). — 

 Since I sent a Query about Ascham's Letters, I 

 have met with one dated Landau, Oct. 1, 1552, in 

 the Hardwicke Papers, vol. i. p. 48. It may per- 

 haps be well to add that the editor of the Zurich 

 Letters (Second Ser., Nos. 30. and 40.) has printed 

 two letters which had already (though he seems 

 not to have been aware of it) been printed as the 

 r2th and 13th of the 1st book of Aschami Epistolee., 

 Oxon. 1703. There are several variations, where 

 the new copy seems to be more correct than the 

 old; the last letter is dated by Dr. Robinson 

 Oct. 21, instead of Oct. 20, J. E. B. Mayor. 



Elizabeth Elstob (Vol, ix., p. 200,), — On re- 

 ference to the burial register- book of St. Mar- 

 garet's, Westminster, I find the record of the in- 

 terment of Elizabeth Elstob on June 3, 1756, a 

 plain proof that this learned and amiable lady was 

 above the petty pride of being ashamed of her 

 " noble poverty." Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Odd Fellows. — In answer to C. F. A. W., 

 Vol. ix,, p. 327., I once saw in a bookseller's 



