68 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 247. 



Bear and Ragged Staff. — When was the crest 

 of the " bear and ragged staff" first assumed by 

 the family of Leicester ? Is there any known 

 reason for the combination of the two parts of 

 this crest ? J. G. T. 



Falconhurst. 



[Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was the first of that 

 family who adopted this right noble cogn'zance of the 

 Beauchamp- Nevilles. Fuller, in his Worthies, art.. War- 

 wickshire, says, " When Robert Dudley was governor of 

 the Low Countries, with the high title of his excellencj', 

 disusing his own coat of the green lion with two tails, he 

 signed all instruments with the crest of the bear and 

 ragged staff. He was then suspected, bj' many of his 

 jealous adversaries, to hatch an ambitious design to make 

 himself absolute commander (as the lion is king of beasts) 

 over the Low Countries. Whereupon some (foes to his 

 faction, and friends to the Dutch freedom) wrote under 

 his crest, set up in public places : 



' Ursa caret cauda, non queat esse Leo.' 



' The bear he never can prevail 



To lion it, for lack of tail : ' " 



which gave rise to a Warwickshire proverb, in use at this 

 day, " The bear wants a tail, and cannot be a lion." This 

 singular cognizance sprang, according to the family tra- 

 dition, from Arthgal, one of the knights of King Arthur's 

 Round Table. Arth or narth, in the British language, is 

 said to signify a bear ; hence this ensign was adopted as 

 a rebus or play upon his name. Morvidus, another earl 

 of the same family, a man of wonderful valour, slew a 

 giant with a young jtree torn up by the roots and hastily 

 trimmed of its boughs. In memory of this exploit his 

 successors bore as their cognizance a silver staff in a 

 shield of sable. (Lower's Curiosities of Heraldry, p. 164.) 

 That pious and amorous Saxon cavalier, Guy Earl of 

 Warwick, also bore this renowned badge.] 



Bishop Andrewes' Epitaph. — The conclusion of 

 the epitaph on Bishop Andrewes, in vol. i. of the 

 Anglo- Catholic Library (Parker, 1841), is this : 



" Tantum est. Lector, quod te mserentes posteri 

 Nunc volebant, atque ex voto tuo valeas, dicto 

 Sit Deo Gloria." 



How is this translated ? G. 



[Our correspondent's Query is not at all surprising, as 

 Kippis and the other biographers of the good bishop have 

 shirked the translation of the conclusion of his epitaph. 

 Turning to old Stowe (book iv. p. 12., edit. 1720), it 

 seems that an important word, scire, is omitted, so that 

 the first line stands thus : 



" Tantum est (Lector) quod te scire maerentes posteri." 

 This reading will be easily comprehended by G. ; how- 

 ever we will give a version of it: "This is just what 

 mourning posterity wished you to know. Reader, and 

 having said ' Glory to God,' may you be well and prosper 

 as you wish."] 



Searches at Heralds' College. — How must I 

 proceed to have a search tor arms in the Heralds' 

 College ; and what would be the expenses ? Does 

 the Heralds' College give genealogical inform- 

 ation ; and at what price ? W. E. H, 



[The expense of an ordinary search at the Heralds' Col- 

 lege is five shillings ; for a general search, two guineas ; 

 for copies of pedigrees, five shillings each generation ; for 



other matters, the expense of course depends on the 

 nature of the document or information required. If 

 parties desirous of information address themselves direct 

 to the Heralds' College, what they will receive may be 

 depended upon ; which is more than can be said of much 

 that is supplied by some purveyors of genealogical mat- 

 ters. Our columns have afforded some curious illustrations 

 of the manufacture of " Factitious Pedigrees." See, inter 

 alia, Vol. ix., pp. 221. 271. 275.] 



Nova Scotia. — In Chambers' Journal of June 10, 

 a writer thus alludes to Nova Scotia : 



"The great mineral fields of that ill-used province, 

 gifted by a late English sovereign to a favourite, are pretty 

 nearly useless either to the possessor or to the public." 



Who are the sovereign and favourite alluded 

 t^ ? Is not the province as much a possession of 

 the English crown as Canada? B. T. 



[The first grant of lands was made to Sir William 

 Alexander by James I., from whom it received the name 

 of Nova Scotia, instead of Acadia, as it was called by the 

 French. It has more than once changed proprietors, but 

 was confirmed to England at the Peace of Utrecht. At 

 present it is immediately dependent on the British crown.] 



Meaning of " doted." — I met with the following 

 passage the other day in a pamphlet, called 

 Answers to the Calumnies of Reviewers on Ship- 

 builders : 



" The ' Royal William ' was planked under water with 

 beech, which, if used before it becomes doted, answers the 

 purpose quite as well as English oak." 



Can you, Mr. Editor, throw any light upon the 

 word doted, which is not mentioned in Johnson ? 



B. 



[The word occurs in Todd's Johnson : " To dote, v. a. to 

 decay, to wither, to impair ; " with the following example 

 from Bishop Howson's Sermon, 1622, p. 33. : " Such an old 

 oak, though now it be doted, will not be struck down at 

 one blow." Halliwell spells it doated, "beginning to 

 decay, chiefly applied to old trees. East."'] 



Shakspeare^s Historical Plays. — 'Will any of 

 your readers kindly inform me where I can find 

 the best biographical illustrations of Shakspeare's 

 historical plays ? . M. D. 



[We would refer our correspondent to Commentaries on 

 the Plays of Shakspeare, by the Rt. Hon. T. P. Courtenay, 

 2 vols. 8vo., 1840.] 



Me^ilte^. 



BOB£ET PARSONS OE PERSONS. 



(Vol. X., p. 8.) 



He was born at Nether Stowey, near Bridge- 

 water, in the year 1546. The titles and dates of 

 his works are thus given by Dodd : — 



1. De Persecutione Anglicana, Epistola: Bononise, 

 1581 ; Rom», 1582. 



2. Responsio ad Edictum Regmse Elizahethae ; RomaB, 

 1593. 



