Aug. 12. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



127 



pulsed with very heavy loss by the Spanish gar- 

 rison. Neither Napier, Hamilton, or other writers 

 whom I have consulted, and who give very full 

 accounts of the siege, make the least mention of 

 this assault, important a feature as it would have 

 been of the operations. Did no such attack ever 

 take place ? or is it an exaggerated account of some 

 trifling alarm ? J. S. Wabden. 



Barony of Scales. — "Who was the Lord Scales, 

 who commanded the British auxiliaries, and was 

 killed in the battle of St. Aubin-du-Cormier, July 

 27, 1488? Washington Irving, in a note to his 

 Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, appears 

 to identify him with the "Lord Scales, Earl of 

 Rivers, a near connexion of the royal family of 

 England," who played so distinguished a part at 

 the siege of Loxa, in 1486; but does not explain 

 why the French historians designate him only by 

 the inferior title. In fact, the legal connexion 

 between the barony of Scales and the earldom of 

 Rivers ceased on the death of Anthony Widville 

 in 1483, although it is possible that his brother and 

 successor, Richard, whom I presume to have been 

 the volunteer of Loxa, still was vulgarly designated 

 by the title which had been so long associated with 

 the earldom of Rivers, but to which he had not 

 the smallest right, either by descent or marriage. 

 However, as Earl Richard appears to have sur- 

 vived till 1491, we must look somewhere else for 

 the leader of the British auxiliaries in the battle 

 that decided the fate of Bretagne, and the marriage 

 of its heiress. Most likely the French writers 

 were mistaken in the English title, a case which 

 has happened to them numberless times both before 

 and since 1488. All the peerages agree in stating 

 the barony to have fallen into abeyance in 1483, 

 and to have remained so ever since, 



J. S. Warden. 



Dimidiation — The Half Eagle. — Not under- 

 standing heraldry, I do not know whether the 

 practice of dimidiation, referred to by L. C. D. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 110,), is supposed to have a meaning. 

 Schiller seems to ascribe one in Wallenstein's 

 Death, Act III. So. 3. : 



" Wallmstdn. Ye were at one time a free town, I see 

 Ye bear the half eagle in your city arms. 

 Why the half eagle only ? 



Burgomaster. ' "We were free, 



But for these last two hundred years has Egra 

 Eemain'd in pledge to the Bohemian crown ; 

 Therefore we bear the half eagle, the other half 

 Being cancell'd till the empire ransom us, 

 If that should ever be." — Coleridge's Translation. 



" Doch seit zwei hundert Jahren ist die Stadt, 

 Der bohm'schen Kron' verpfandet. Daher riihrt's 

 Dass wir nur noch den halben Adler fiihren, 

 Der untre Theil ist cancellirt, bis etwa 

 Pas Reich uns wieder einlost." 



G. Gervais. 



Cook's Translation of a Greek MS. — 



" Vincent Cook translated a Greek MS. of doubtful 

 authenticity, giving an account of Plato's residence in 

 Italy. It is ascribed to Cleobulus, but the sentiments are 

 those of a later age." — Outlines of Ancient Philosophy, by 

 Philip E. Butler, Philadelphia, 1831, p. 28. 



Can any of your readers give me the title of 

 the above-mentioned work, or tell me where it is 

 to be found ? J. Talbot. 



Old Ballad. — Forty years ago I frequently 

 heard a ballad sung by the rustics of Derbyshire, 

 only two lines of which I can remember. They 

 were : 



" The Brownie Girl saw fair Eleanor's blood 

 Run trickling down to knee." 



Can any reader of *' N. & Q." inform me where 

 I can discover this ballad ? Thomas R. Pottee. 



Mutilation of Tacitus. — Since I became con- 

 vinced that there was a great preponderance of 

 evidence in favour of the opinion that our Lord's 

 crucifixion took place in April, a.d. 30, and that 

 his public ministry did not last much more than a 

 year, it has often occurred to me that the loss of 

 the portion of the Annals of Tacitus relating to 

 that period was not accidental ; but that the MS. 

 was designedly mutilated by some enemy, or more 

 probably by some injudicious friend of Chris- 

 tianity, who wished to suppress the testimony of 

 Tacitus as to the events connected with its origin. 

 The one manuscript of the early part of the 

 Annals is, I believe, at Florence ; and I desire to 

 know if it presents the appearance of being inten- 

 tionally mutilated. An exact description of it in 

 reference to this suggestion, would be interesting 

 to many of your readers. Perhaps some corre- 

 spondent may be able to speak from recollection 

 of what he has already seen. Or some Italian 

 tourist may be induced to examine the manu- 

 script, so as to enable him to decide the question. 



E. H. D. D. 



Rubrical Query. — The rubric to the versicles 

 that precede the three collects at Morning and 

 Evening Prayer says : " Then the priest standing 

 up, shall say," &c. After this rubric, on what 

 authority does the priest kneel down again ? 



Wllil-IAM Feaseb, B,C.L. 



Army. — I wish to know when scarlet was first 

 adopted by our soldiery ; when the first scale of 

 pay was made, and at what rate for officers, both 

 of cavalry and infantry regiments. Could any of 

 your correspondents give me information on any 

 of these points ? F. 



Oxford. 



The first English Envoy to Russia. — Sir 

 Jeremiah Bowes was ambassador from Queen 

 Elizabeth to the then Czar of Muscovy (Ivan the 



