Aug. 12. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



123 



Satire on Mr. Fox. — Many'years ago I heard 

 the following lines repeated : as the satire which 

 they contain is harmless, I send them to " N. & 

 Q." — the Query being, are they worth preserving 

 in print ? 

 "At Brooks's of pigeons they say there are flocks, 



But the greatest of all is one Mr. Fox, 



If he takes up a card, or rattles a box, 



Away fly the guineas of this Mr. Fox. 



ye gamblers, your hearts must be harder than rocks, 

 Thus to win all the money of this Mr. Fox. 



He sits up whole nights, neither watches nor clocks 



Ever govern the movements of this Mr. Fox. 



Such irregular conduct undoubtedly shocks 



All the friends and acquaintance of this Mr. Fox. 



And they very much wish they could put on the stocks. 



And make an example of this Mr. Fox. 



Against tradesmen his door he prudently blocks. 



An aversion to duns has this Mr. Fox. 



He's a great connoisseur in coats and in frocks. 



But the tailors are losers by this Mr. Fox. 



He often goes hunting, though fat as an ox : 



1 pity the horses of this Mr. Fox. 



They certainly all must be lame in the hocks, 

 Such a heavy-tail'd fellow is this Mr. Fox." 



Charles James Vulpes. 

 Storey's Gate. — 



'Tis well the Gate is down ! 

 • Who was this Storey, that his long-lost name 

 Should be inscribed upon the roll of fame 

 And after ages of oblivion claim 



A posthumous renown ? 

 Came he of gentle blood, or humble birth ? 



Plebeian was he, or patrician ? 

 Was he in trade ? or did he till the earth ? 



Was he a parson, or physician ? 

 Perhaps he fiU'd some office in the State ! 



But was he ever known as Whig or Tory ? 

 All seems a blank. Tho' Storey had a gate, 



'Tis plain his gate will never have a story. 



Cecil Harbottle. 



[Our good friend Cecil Harbottle has sacrificed his 

 historical knowledge to the point of his epigram ; for we 

 are sure he knows as well as anybody that Edward 

 Storey, who gave his name to the gate, was keeper of 

 the volary to Charles II., which volary or aviary was so 

 large that the birds could fly about in it.] 



Ancient Bell. — There is a note to Throsby's 

 edition of Thoroton's Nottinghamshire (vol. ii. 

 p. 88.) which may possibly interest Mr. Ella- 

 combe and other lovers of Campanology : 



" In the year 1795, a gentleman of considerable fortune 

 came to Leicester purposely to see an old bell brought to 

 Mr. Arnold, bell-founder, to be recast. On it was the 

 head of Henr)' III., King of England in the time of Pope 

 Benedict. Round the crown this : 



'^auncte €mltiiat CrtiSti %tnztiittt nra pro 

 nobtS iSfum.' 



The history of this bell is this : — When Broughton 

 Church, in Northamptonshire, was knocked down by 

 Cromwell, the bell was taken to the church of Moulton, 

 near Northampton ; thence brought to Leicester in 1795, 



to be recast with the rest of the church bells. Its weight 

 27 cwt. Mr. Smith, the gentleman noticed above as a 

 curioso in ancient bells, says that there is only one more of 

 the age that he knows of in England." 



Thomas R. Potter. 



Earliest Mention of Porter. — You were kind 

 enough, in your eighth volume, to give me some 

 information as to the first introduction of this 

 beverage. I have since found the passage to which 

 I referred, in Nicholas Amherst's Terras Filius 

 for May 22, 1721, somewhat earlier than the date 

 you have mentioned ; " We had rather dine at a 

 cook's shop upon beef, cabbage, and porter, than 

 tug at an oar, or rot in a dark, stinking dungeon." 

 This is probably the very earliest mention in print 

 of porter. Henry T. Eilet. 



Bosses in Morwenstow Church. — Sigel of Solo- 

 mon. — The pentacle ; symbol of Omnipotence ; 

 the hand of God. Its five points signify the 

 fingers of God. It is said to have been graven 

 on a precious stone, and worn in a ring by Solo- 

 mon with the tetragrammaton inscribed in the 

 midst. Thereby He ruled the angels and they 

 served Him. 



" Hence all his might, for who could these oppose ? 

 And Tadmor thus and Syrian Baalbec rose ! " 



The Shield of David. — A six-angled figure ; 

 another point added to the pentacle to represent 

 the human nature of " David's son." The man- 

 hood taken into God. 



The double-headed Eagle. — As the dove in the 

 New Testament, so the eagle in the Old was the 

 type of the Holy Ghost. After the time of Elijah, 

 and the promise of a double portion of His spirit 

 to his successor Elisha, the eagle with two heads 

 denoted this increased access of the Third Person 

 of the Trinity to man's kind. Like many other 

 church emblems, this crest was subsequently 

 adopted in the shield of mere earthly kings. 



Four Faces. — In the likeness of man, three ; 

 one feminine. The Trinity and the Blended 

 Mother of Messias were thus pourtrayed. 



K. S. H. 



<kutxiti. 



EPISCOPAL SALUTATION. 



So far as I remember to have observed the 

 current style of episcopal documents in England, 

 it differs from the ancient form, in which the 

 bishops were not used to withhold from their 

 "faithful children in Christ" their benediction: 

 for example, in the marriage licence of the poet 

 Gower (Vol. ix., p. 487.), we find, " dilecto in Christo 

 filio, domino Willelmo, etc., salutem, gratiam, et 

 benedictionem." And, in the Compleat Clerh,^ or 

 Conveyancers' Light of 1671, the ecclesiastical 



