2»'> S. V. 129., Junk 19. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



505 



may become his own grandfather in the sense in- 

 tended by W. J. F. no one can ever have doubted, 

 but why not state the case shortly thus? — A 

 widower and his son marry. The father marries 

 the daughter of a widow, and the son marries the 

 young lady's mother, thereby becoming father to 

 his own father, and consequently grandfather to 

 his father's son ; t. e. himself. W. R. M. 



Mary Queen of Scots' Portrait (2"'' S. iv. passim.) 

 — A very beautiful portrait, and believed by com- 

 petent judges to be of Mary Queen of Scots, is 

 now in the collection of a clergyman in Norwich. 

 On the same authority it is attributed to Fran- 

 coise Clouet, better known as Jeanette or Janet, a 

 French artist who flourished during the interval 

 between 1540 and 1560. The figure is matronly, 

 and the dress has the usual standing ruff; the 

 tippet is of white satin, with acanthus pattern in 

 imitation of inlaid armour, and edged with er- 

 mine. The general tone of the painting is of the 

 Elizabethan period, and the texture of the canvas 

 is also corroborative of the alleged date. This 

 portrait was formerly in the possession of the 

 Duke of Grafton. 



To such of your readers as are interested in 

 this subject these particulars will be acceptable, 

 and any information that may tend to establish 

 the authenticity of this portrait or disprove the 

 claim to originality will be alike duly appreciated. 



H. Daveney. 



Masterson Family (2"'' S. v. 395.) — Master- 

 son neither is, nor does it sound like, a good old 

 Lancashire name, such being generally taken from 

 the name of some township or other place in which 

 it is not uncommon to find the family still holding 

 property. The Heralds' Visitation of 1664 gives 

 above 170 of these local names, sixty of which 

 are " of that ilk," as Traffordof Trafford, Hoghton 

 of Hoghton, &c. Six names only end in son. 

 Eight, viz. three Butlers (Pincerna), two Parkers, 

 one Porter, one Mercer, and one Sclatour (Sla- 

 ter ?), may be termed professional, and about fifty 

 rank under none of these heads. P. P. 



Paintings of Ch-ist bearing the Cross (2°'* S. v. 

 378. 424.) — Ingram adds, that the altar-piece in 

 Magdalen College chapel, Oxford, has been " at- 

 tributed in succession to three different artists — 

 Guido, Ludovico Caracci, and Moralez el Divino ;" 

 and that "it has been copied by Egginton in the 

 east window of the church of Wanstead, in Essex." 

 (^Memorials, ii. 24.) Cuthbebt Bede. 



Etymology and Heraldry (2"'' S. v. 442.) — 

 Heraldry would scarcely be of so much use to 

 etymologists as G. C.G. supposes, because heraldic 

 terms are generally merely the French words for 

 what heralds wish to express, now, indeed, some- 

 what antiquated and corrupted. Thus fitchy, or 

 Jichee^ as Guillim has it, is applied to a cross 



sharpened at the lower end, because ficher is the 

 French verb " to stick into, pitch or thrust in." 

 We have coward, cowardice, and the provincialism 

 to cow, i.e. daunt, from the old French words 

 couard and couardise. Guillim does not admit 

 couard among heraldic terms at all, nor gives any 

 print of an animal thus degraded. Robson tells 

 us couee is a French term for coward, and that a 

 lion with his tail so hanging down is termed dif- 

 fame by French heralds. Such a bearing would 

 in fact be a disgraceful one, which accounts for 

 its extreme rarity, if it be in use at all in actual 

 heraldry at present. I am not aware of any 

 family who bear animals couard. 



I am neither gainsaying nor upholding the deri- 

 vation of couard from queue, but only questioning 

 the value of heraldry to etymologists. If we have 

 never seen a lion couard on a shield we all know 

 how a frightened dog holds his tail, and a French 

 Dictionary is a safer guide than the heraldic glos- 

 sary corrupted from it. P. P. 



Mortar carrying a Punishment for Scolds (2°'' 

 S. V. 48.) — G. L. R. is perfectly correct in 

 stating that in some towns a scold was punished 

 by being made to carry a wooden mortar. In 

 Boys's History of Sandwich, in describing the 

 Town Hall, he says : — 



" In the second story the armour, offensive and defen- 

 sive, of the trained bands, and likewise the cucking-stool 

 and wooden mortar for punishment of scolds, were pro- 

 served till lately'." — P. 789. 



And in his Annals of the Town, p. 708., 1637: — 



" A woman carried the wooden mortar throughout the 

 town hanging on the handle of an old broom upon her 

 shoulder, one going before her tinkling a small bell, for 



abusing Mrs. Mayoress, and saying she cared not a 



for her." 



On the cucking-stool was engraved — 

 " Of members y« tonge is worst or best ; 

 An yll tonge oft doeth breede unrest." 



C. BE D. 



Cutts Family (1»' S. xii. 353. 501.) — Having a 

 marriage settlement (temp. Henry VIII.) and a 

 few other papers relating to the family of Cutts, I 

 wish to learn who is the present representative of 

 that race. Joseph Rix. 



St. Neots. 



Pancake Bell (2"'' S. v. 391.) — H. B. is in- 

 formed that in Jackson's History of St. George's 

 Church, Doncaster, page 68., it is stated that at 

 that town a " Pancake bell is rung at ten, for- 

 merly at eleven, o'clock, on Shrove Tuesday 

 morning." With the destruction of the church 

 bells by the fire of 1853, however, the custom has 

 most probably perished also. Frying- Pan. 



Cryptography (2°^ S. v. 388. 397. 444.)— Your 

 correspondent may further consult page 13. of 

 " The Jewell-house of Art and Nature, 1594," 



