Oct. 14. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



315 



this memorandum, signed by an eminent literary ac- 

 quaintance of Lord Byron : ' 'the MS. notes in this copy 



were transcribed by from a copy of Lord Bj'ron's 



own, which he saw when at , and by him commu- 

 nicated to me. The original notes are in Lord B.'s own 

 handwriting.' " 



Cervus. 



" Rule Britannia " (Vol. x., p. 222.). — The 

 crest of " N. & Q." is an elephant's trunk, which 

 is apt at all things, from unrooting a tree to 

 picking up a pin. On the pin headed as above, 

 it may be noted that the little solecism in gram- 

 mar, " not so blest as thee," is so nearly sancti- 

 fied by common usage, that it gives no offence. 

 It has ceased to be malum in se, though still 

 malum prohibitum. This happens especially with 

 pronouns ; and when corresponding things happen 

 in Greek, they have their learned names, by which 

 Discipulus must be prepared to defend them, on 

 pain of what next. Nothing is more common 

 than "between you and I," which should be "be- 

 tween yo!i and me ; " but even Tom Moore, a 

 correct writer, has — 



" To make up a little speech, 

 Just between little you and little I, I, I." 



where it would have been as easy to have made 

 the little pair see between you and me, as try be- 

 tween you and /. 



The amendment proposed by your correspon- 

 dent contains, in the words " free as now," some- 

 thing which I cannot describe of incongruity, 

 such as exists in a very exaggerated form in the 

 following : 



" The nations not so blest a? you, 



Shall in their turn to tyrants fall ; 



But j'ou shall flourish, good as new. 



The dread and envy of them all." 



My emendation would be on the matter. The 

 prophecy is savage, and the word dread is neither 

 true in fact, nor desirable, nor producible to 

 foreigners with any show of courtesy. Suppose 

 it ran thus : 



" Though nations not so blest as thee, 

 Should in their turn to tyrants fall ; 

 Thou still shalt flourish, great and free, 

 The hope and envy of them all." 



Shortly after the revolution of 1830, l\Ir. J. S. 

 Buckingham published our national songs with 

 some variations in favour of a more kindly feeling 

 towards foreigners. What he did with the verse 

 in question I forget. M. 



Notaries (Vol. x., p. 87.). — The use of notarial 

 seals would seem to be of English origin. The 

 French, like the Spanish, have adopted, in their 

 stead, a pen-and-ink device which they call a 

 " paraphe," and which is generally of a very in- 

 tricate and inimitable form. As the use of seals 

 has become in England the ordinary method of 

 authenticating public documents, so has the " pa- 



raphe" in France; with this difference, that the 

 difficulty of counterfeiting the latter affords a 

 greater security against any attempt at forgery. 

 " Paraphes " are now commonly used throu"-hout 

 the continent, not only by notaries and public 

 men, but by persons of every class ; and even the 

 ladies seldom sign their names, without attemptin"- 

 a "flourish" of some sort. With a foreigner, the 

 "paraphe" is as necessary an appendage to his 

 signature as the moustache is to his face. 



Henry H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia. 



Canaletto (Vol. ix., p. 106.). — Four of the 

 paintings of Canaletto to which Gondola, alludes, 

 are at the Hyde in Essex, the seat of J. Disney, 

 Esq. The subjects, if I remember right, are 

 Whitehall, Kanelagh, St. Paul's, and a wooden 

 bridge over the Thames at or near Kingston. 



Memor. 



" Pranceriana " (Vol. x., p. 185.). — The prin- 

 cipal contributor to Pranceriana, if not the sole 

 author, is generally believed to be Dr. Duigenan, 

 a strong opponent of Dr. Hutchinson, the Provost 

 of Trinity College, Dublin, who is the hero of that 

 clever and bitter pasquinade. 



A Dublin Graduate. 



Uniform of the Army (Vol. x., p. 127.). 



In Henry VIII.'s reign, green and white (the 

 Tudor colours) were worn by the army ; and 

 white, with a red cross, by the city of London 

 contingent. Across the breast-plates of the cava- 

 liers were thrown scarfs of the royal or colonel's 

 colours; and, on the discontinuance of body 

 armour in the reign of Queen Anne, scarlet and 

 blue were definitely fixed as the uniform of the 

 army. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Scarlet, how long used in the Army (Vol. ix., 

 p. 55.). — Edward, Earl of Derby, in a circular 

 respecting troops for the Scottish expedition of 

 1547, makes mention of a " light horseman, well 

 harnessed as apperteyneth, with a redde coate 

 made of the cassok fason." Anon. 



I have been told by a friend well acquainted 

 with history, that Canute maintained a body-guard 

 who were distinguished by a scarlet uniform. I 

 do not know in what historian this is to be found. 



Hearsay. 



*' That will he a feather in his cap" (Vol. ix., 

 pp. 220. 378.). — Among the ancient warriors it 

 was customary to honour such of their followers 

 as distinguished themselves in battle by present- 

 ing them with a feather for their caps, which, 

 when not in armour, was the covering for their 

 lieads. From this custom arose the saying, when 

 a person has effected a meritorious action : " That 

 will be a feather in his cap." W. W", 



SLilta. 



