590 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 164. 



royal plate and furniture, which they conveyed for 

 security to Warwick Castle. They apprehended 

 all messengers and suspected persons, and fre- 

 quently attacked and reduced small parties of the 

 Royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry. 

 Hence the expression respecting a refractory per- 

 son, " Send him to Coventry." Philip S, King. 



Highlands and Lowlands (Vol. vi., pp. 363. 517.). 

 — Allow me to thank your correspondent Mr. 

 Mansfield iNGLEnr for his kind reply to my 

 question on this subject, and to assure him that I 

 should feel greatly obliged to him if he would 

 furnish the readers of " N. & Q.," as well as myself, 

 with the information he has offered as to the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the Gaelic people and 

 language. C. Fobbes. 



3. Elm Court, Temple. 



Admiral Vernon (Vol. vi., p. 461.). — I believe 

 that the inscription mentioned by Mr. Paget was 

 composed in confident anticipation that Admiral 

 Vernon would- succeed in capturing Carthagena. 

 Certain it is that no less than twelve medals and a 

 button were struck upon this expected conquest. 

 See a paper by Edward Hawkins, Esq., F.S.A., in 

 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 284. 



C. H. COOPBB. 



Cambridge. 



Ancient Dutch Allegorical Picture (Vol. vi., 

 p. 457.). — It seems to me that your correspondent 

 may be mistaken in thinking St. John Baptist to 

 be the subject of the middle picture (vide Vol. vi., 

 p. 458. second column). Does it not rather re- 

 present the Triumphant Saviour ; especially as the 

 subjects of the pictures on either side of it are 

 Christ bearing His Cross, and the Crucifixion ? 

 The Triumphant Saviour was commonly repre- 

 sented as standing in a vesica piscis, or aureola, 

 which, though generally elliptic or almond-shaped, 

 sometimes took a four-sided form, to accommodate 

 the outline of the head, arms, and feet ; and this 

 might be the " lozenge-shape " described. The 

 right hand raised is the act of benediction, if 

 (according to the symbol of the Latin Church) 

 the thumb, index, and middle fingers be extended. 

 The banner in the left hand is In token of the 

 victory over Sin and Death. Perhaps the female 

 figure (on the frame) holding a flaming heart, and 

 having a child on her knee, with two others on 

 either side, is intended for the Virgin Mary, with 

 the Infant Christ and his two "brethren:" for 

 although the flaming heart Is an emblem of Charity, 

 yet it often accompanies representations of the 

 Virgin. .The grapes may mean the "true Vine." 



CUTHBERT BeDE. 



Wit referred to by Coleridge (Vol. vi., p. 461.). — 

 *'The noted English wit" was probably Theodore 



Hook, whose wonderful talent for extemporaneous 

 versification was perhaps never more strikingly 

 displayed than on a certain night at a gay bache- 

 lor's party at Highgate, when Coleridge himself 

 formed the subject of his song. After a "very 

 wet evening," punch had been introduced at the 

 suggestion of Coleridge, when Hook, sitting down 

 to the piano, burst into a bacchanal of egregious 

 luxury, every line of which had reference to the 

 author of the Lay Sermons and the Aids to He- 

 flection. The room was becoming excessively hot: 

 the first specimen of the new compound was handed 

 to Hook, who paused to quaff it, and then, exclaim- 

 ing that he was stifled, flung his glass through the 

 window. Coleridge rose with the aspect of a be- 

 nignant patriarch, and demolished another pane ; 

 the example was followed generally ; the window 

 was a wreck In an instant : the kind host was 

 farthest from the mark, and his goblet made havoc 

 of the chandelier. The roar of laughter was 

 drowned in Theodore's resumption of the song ; 

 and window, and chandelier, and the peculiar shot 

 of each individual destroyer had apt. In many cases 

 exquisitely witty, commemoration. With the re- 

 membrance of this, and many similar displays of 

 Theodore Hook's powers before him, Coleridge 

 would doubtless refer to that " noted English wit'* 

 in the passage quoted by A. A. D. 



CUTHBEBT BbDB. 



Ireland's Freedom from Reptiles (Vol. vi., 

 pp.42. 400.). — This peculiarity did not escape the 

 notice of Julius Solinus, whose Polyhistorice may 

 be assigned to the close of the first century after 

 Christ. He writes (c. xxll.) : 



" Illlc (i. e. in Hibernia), nullus unguis, avis rara, 

 gens inhospita et bellicosa." 



The story, therefore, of St. Patrick's triumph, in 

 so far as It related to the literal serpent, must be 

 now abandoned as a myth. C. H. 



Don of Pitfichie, Momjmusk, Aberdeenshire 

 (Vol. iil., p. 143.). — If your correspondent A. A., 

 Abridge, will be kind enough to furnj^h any addi- 

 tional particulars as to when any of the above 

 family flourished at Monymusk, I shall endeavour 

 to trace them. They do not appear to be a pro- 

 minent Aberdeenshire family. 



Petropromontoriensis. 



Tumhle-Down Dick (Vol. vi., pp. 391. 469.).— 

 On the great road to Winchester, near Farnham, 

 there is a country Inn with a sign so inscribed, of 

 a John Bull tumbling from his chair, as described 

 by Mr. Woodward, The house is, I think, close 

 to, and visible from, the Farnborough station of 

 the South- Western Railway. I think It worth 

 notice in reference to the supposed allusion to 

 Richard Cromwell ; for this inn is about half-way 

 between London and Hursley, Richard's usual 

 residence. C. 



