July 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



^ 



brain ; but still further research may brinw curious 

 matter forward. It is not probable, I think, that 

 auy Enirlish family of that name existed. Perhaps 

 some of your foreign heraldic readers may clear up 

 the question. In the meanwhile, allow me to 

 make the following conjecture: — It is by no 

 means clear wiiy the bird was called a "Dodo." 

 Most people think from his dull stupid look and 

 behaviour. Hence he was styled Dodo or fool, 

 and Dodaers, an epithet which would seem to im- 

 ply he was one of those Christians to whom old 

 Kichard Baxter would have applied a " Shove." 

 However, be this as it may, it is clear there were 

 several persons who bore this nume. The witty 

 writer of a review of Mr. Strickland's work in 

 Blackwood (January, 1849) mentions two ; a third 

 founded Tewkesbury Abbey ; a fourth was Bishop 

 of Angers in 837. From these it is evident the 

 Dodos were decidedly a church fmiily. I find a 

 fifth gentleman of this name : " Athelstan Dodo, 

 fils du Cointe Dodo, fut au temps de la Conqueste 

 Comte d'Ardene et de Someril, et Sieur de Dudley, 

 oil il fut inhume^porte or 2 lions pissans azur." 

 {Add. MSS. 17,455. British Museum.) A sixth 

 worthy Dodo I made acquaintance with in Moreri's 

 great Dictionary, and it is to this excellent genile- 

 man (also ecclesiastical) I would call the attention 

 of your readers. '•'■Dodo (Augustin), natif de la 

 province de Frise, dans les Pays Bus, et Chanoine 

 de S. Leonard a Basle." He was the first collec- 

 tor of St. Augustine's works. He was carried off 

 "par une maladie contagieuse" in 1501 ; and thus 

 perished the last human Dodo I have been able to 

 trace. Whether his cranium and legs are pre- 

 served anywhere, I cannot say. Now, what were 

 Mr. Augustin Dodo's armorial be irings I know 

 not. He was a native, however, of Friesland. On 

 the east of this country is the small province of 

 Drenthe. Was Drenthe ever included in Fiies- 

 land ; or, at all events, would not all come perhaps 

 under the denomination " Frisia ? " Here, then, 

 at the commencement of the sixteenth century, 

 was living a family of the name of Dodo. Were 

 they DoJos of Drentlie? When the Dutch 

 discovered Mauritius, might they not have named 

 the new bird in honour, or otherwise, of Mr. 

 Dodo of Drenthe, to whom perhaps some of 

 the discoverers might have been related? Has 

 Dronte any affinity to Drenthe ? Perliaps the 

 herald painters, in blazoning the arms of Dodo, 

 had figured a queer-looking bird, and the Dutcth 

 voyagers named their unwieldy, unpalatable, 

 walgh-vogeh after him, for want of a better de- 

 scription. Heraldry might throw some light upon 

 the subject. My own family, in contradistinction 

 lo other Hoopers, have for some generations borne 

 a Hooper, or wild swan, for their crest ; and verily 

 ■upon some of the more ancient family spoons he 

 looketh more like a Dodo than a Hooper ; and 

 some future Raudle Holme may describe him as a 



" Dronthe proper," as he is most decidedly a 

 Hooper improper. Pray, then, Mr. Editor, do trj 

 and settle the question (if you can) why was the 

 Dodo called a Dronte ? Richaed Houp£B. 



St. Stephen's, Westminster. 



Similiiude of an Eagle in a Braken Stalk- — It is 

 well known that if the stem of a braken or female 

 fern be cut across near the root, the veins or ves- 

 sels present the appearance of a spreading oak tree. 

 Linne likened them to a spread eagle, and called 

 the fern Pteris Aquilina. In Erasmus's famous 

 colloquy, The Religious Pilgrimage, the same idea 

 occurs : 



" Perhaps people may fancy the likeness of a toad in 

 the stone, as they do that of an eagle in the stalk of a 

 brake or fern." — Sir Roger L'Estrange's Trans., 172S. 



Or, as an older translation gives it : 

 " Peradventure they ymagyne the symylytude of a 

 tode to be there : even as we suppose when we cutte the 

 fearne stalke there to be an egle." 



What is the earliest mention of this idea of re- 

 semblance to an eagle? I have not a Pliny by me, 

 but, as well as I remember, he does not mention it. 

 The resemblance to an oak is very striking ; to aa 

 eagle, very fanciful. I never could hit on the latter ■ 

 in any fern I ever cut. Mariconda. 



Dictionnaire Bihliograpliique. — Who is the 

 author of Dictionnaire Bibliographique, ou, Nouveau 

 Manuel du Libraire et de V Amateur de Livres, par 

 M. P*****, printed at Paris in 1 824 ? Is it by 

 M. Peignot ? W. J. B. 



Continental Writers on Popular Antiquities. — 

 Are there any works in German, Italian, French, 

 Spanish, or Portuguese, which treat of popular 

 snperstiiious agricultural customs in the several 

 countries of Europe ; like Brande's Popular Anti- 

 quities, and a book by Wright in two vols. ? 



F.O.W, 



Was William the Conqueror buried unthout a 

 Coffin ? — The words of Orderieus Vitalis are 

 (lib. vii. sub fin., ad ann. 1087; ap. Gesta Nor- 

 mannorum, p. 662.) : 



" Poiro, dum corpus in sarcofagum mitteretur, et 

 violenter, quia vas per imprudentiam coementariorum 

 breve structum erat, complicaretur, pinguissimus venter 

 crepuit," &c. 



How should the word vas be interpreted ? 



J. Sansom. 



Comitissa Ysdbel. — In Madox's Formulare An- 

 gVcarum, n. cccc, among the witnesses to a dona- 

 tion of tithes from Baderon de Monmouth to the 

 Priory of Monmouth, occur the names of Odo 

 Striguiliensis Prior, and Comitissa Ysubel. Ca i 

 any one kindly inform me who the latter peraoa 



