2»'» S. NO 113.. Feb. 27. '58.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



175 



that he jjave them a deliberate answer. There is 

 no allusion to the story of the prophecy, or to the 

 king's seizure at Westminster. L. 



3RcpIte^ ta Minav ^Luttitg. 



Portcullis (2""* S. V. 131.)— This office was 

 undoubtedly created early in the reign of King 

 Henry VII., and the name of Ralph Lagis or J^a- 

 gysse appears as the first officer so named. He 

 was York Herald in the reign of King Henry 

 VIII., and attended that monarch to his meeting 

 with the French King, Francis I., and died in 

 1528. 



Anstis, Garter, gives the following account of 

 the office and derivation of the title, viz. — 



" Porte-coulisse is French for that Wooden instrument 

 or machine plated over with Iron, made in the form of a 

 Harrow or Lozenge, hung up with pullies in the Entries 

 of the Gates of Castles to be let down upon any occasion, 

 by which title a Pursuivant was erected by Henry VII., 

 taken from that Badge used by him which descended to 

 him from the Beauforts by his mother, with Avhich his 

 Tomb is adorned, and wherewith some Brass Coins of his 

 Successor were impressed, and also one of his Medals, 

 unless that be of Henry VII." 



In 6th Henry VII. (1490), Portecolyse Purse- 

 vant received a reward of 40*., and was sent to 

 the King of Scots, and also gave attendance on 

 and conducted the ambassador of Scotland to the 

 seaside ; and in the 8th year was appointed to 

 wait on the captains then sent into Ireland, during 

 which reign the Catalogues place Ralph Lagis and 

 William Fellow. G. 



Bates " Mysteries of Nature and Art" (2"^ S. v. 

 90.) — In my copy of this curious book, a MS. 

 note says " the author was a physician in Buck- 

 inghamshire." In your editorial description of 

 the book it is stated " The second edition has the 

 figure of a green man," &c. This figure occurs 

 in my copy of the first edition, " printed by 

 Thomas Harper for Ralph Mab, 1634." It is on 

 the title-page of "The Second Booke, teaching 

 most plainly, and withall most exactly, the com- 

 posing of all manner of fire- works for triumph and 

 recreation." The green man has been copied in 

 Strutt's Sports and Pastimes. 



The second edition of Bate's book, printed in 

 1635, should have a portrait of the author as a 

 frontispiece. It is mentioned by Granger, Brom- 

 ley, and Evans, but I have never been able to 

 meet with it, either with or without the book. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



Sign of"- the Honest Lawyer" (2"'^ S. v. 131.) — 

 The not very complimentary meaning of the " inn 

 sign representing a man carrying his head under 

 his arm, and called ' The Honest Lawyer,' " may 

 be inferred from another inn sign which is still 

 visible in an easterly part of our island. This 



latter sign represents a female carrying her head 

 in like manner, and is inscribed " The Good Wo' 

 man" On inquiring, in my simplicity, some fifty 

 years ago why a " Good Woman " was so por- 

 trayed, I received the rough reply, " Because they 

 are all bad together ; not one of them is good, 

 that has a head upon her shoulders. There is no 

 way of making them better, except by making 

 them a head shorter." This answer, worthy only 

 of a Bluebeard or of Harry the Eighth, may serve 

 to indicate what would have been the proba- 

 ble reply of my informant to Arch^ologist's 

 Query. General imputations, however, affecting 

 entire classes, communities, or professions, are un- 

 charitable and unjust. Most of us, in the course 

 of our lives, have met amongst our friends and ac- 

 quaintances not only "good women" but "honest 

 lawyers," whose " hearts were in the right place," 

 as well as their heads. Thomas Bors. 



Hugh Stuart Boyd (2"'' S. v. 88.) — X. desires 

 some information regarding the above-named au- 

 thor. I regret that I cannot furnish information 

 of the kind exactly required, but it may interest 

 X. to know that some years ago (in 1814), Mr. 

 Boyd published Select Passages of the Writings of 

 St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. 

 Basil, which translations were most ably and 

 amusingly noticed in the Edinburgh Review, No. 

 xxiv., p. 58., by the late Thomas Moore. 



J. P. Yabrum. 



Dublin. 



Coron (2^^ S. v. 131.) — I cannot pretend to 

 say what is the meaning of the word. I do not 

 doubt that J. P. has given the passage as it stands 

 in the edition of 1563; or that the "i. e." and 

 " coron " are omitted in the modern edition with 

 which Canon Townsend was concerned. It is due 

 to him, however, to say that, if there was any 

 fault in the omission, he was not to blame, as he 

 had nothing to do with that part of the work. 

 But I suspect that nobody was to blame : for that 

 whatever it may mean, and however it may have 

 got into the first edition of 1563, " coron " cer- 

 tainly did not keep its place in the second of 1570, 

 or in the third of 1576, in neither of which does it 

 appear. The fourth edition of 1583 (of which 

 the modern edition was professedly a reprint), I 

 have not at present the opportunity of consulting ; 

 but I have the fifth of 1597, which agrees with 

 those of 1570 and 1576. Does not this look as if 

 it was only an error of the scribe or the printer, 

 which was corrected as soon as it was discovered ? 



N. B. 



Petrarch's Translators (2"^ S. v. 148.) — I have 

 to add to the translations of Petrarch mentioned 

 by your correspondent W., the Vieio of Human 

 Life, translated by Mrs. Dobson, 1797.^ There 

 are also some translations from Petrarch in Char- 

 lotte Smith's Elegiac Sonnets. R. H. S. 



