April 2. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



331 



the Duke of Wellington was descended from the 

 same monarch." Unbda. 



Are White Cats deaff — White cats are reputed 

 to be " hard of hearing." I have known many 

 instances, and in all stupidity seemed to accom- 

 pany the deafness. Can any instances be given of 

 white cats possessing the function of hearing in 

 anything like perfection ? Shirley Hibberd. 



Arms in DygdaWs " Warwickshire^' Sfc — In 

 Dugdale's Wanoickshire (1656), p. 733. fig. 21., is 

 a coat of arms from the Prior's Lodgings at Max- 

 stoke, viz. Or, fretty often pieces sa. with a canton 

 gu. And in Shaw's Hist, of Staffordshire^ vol. i. 

 p. *210., is the notice of a similar coat from Ar- 

 mitage Church, near Rugeley, extracted out of 

 Church Notes, by Wyrley the herald, taken about 

 1597 : viz. " Rugeley as before, impaling O. fretty 

 of . . . . S. with a canton G. Query if . . ." 



Dugdale gives another coat, p. 111. fig. 12., from 

 the windows of Trinity Church, Coventry; viz. 

 Arg. on a chev. sa. three stars of the first. There 

 is a mitre over this coat. 



Can any of the correspondents of " N. & Q." 

 assign the family names to these arms ? Does the 

 mitre necessarily imply a bishop or mitred abbot ; 

 and, if not, does it belong to John de Ruggeley, 

 who was Abbot of Merevale (not far from Coven- 

 try) temp. Hen. VI., one branch of whose family 

 bore — Arg. on a chev. sa. three mullets of the first. 

 I may observe that this John was perhaps other- 

 wise connected with Coventry ; for Edith, widow of 

 Nicholas de Ruggeley, his brother, left a legacy, 

 says Dugd., p. 129., to an anchorite mured up at 

 Stivichall Church, a member of St. Michael's 

 Church, Coventry, 



The same coat (i. e. with the mullets) is assigned 

 by Dugd., p. 661. fig. 12., to the name of Knell. 



J.W. S.R. 



Tombstone in Churchyard. — Does any one know 

 of a legible inscription older than 1601 ? A. C. 



Argot and Slang. — I shall be much obliged by 

 learning from any correspondent the etymons of 

 argot (French) and slang, as applied to language ; 

 and when did the latter term first come into use ? 



Thos. Lawrence. 



Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 



Priests' Surplices. — Will some of the readers of 

 " N. & Q." favour me with a decision or authority 

 on the following point ? Does a priest's surplice 

 differ from that worn by a lay vicar, or vicar 

 choral ? I have been an old choir-boy ; and some 

 few years since, as a boy, used to remark that the 

 priests' surplices worn at St. Paul's, the Chapel 

 Royal, and Westminster Abbey, were, as a semp- 

 stress would term it, gaged, or stitched down m 

 rows over the shoulders some seven or eight times 



at the distance of about half an inch from each 

 other. In the cathedral churches of Durham, 

 York, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and Ox- 

 ford, I have remarked their almost universal adop- 

 tion ; but, to the best of my belief, I have never 

 seen such a description of vestment in use among 

 parochial clergymen, above half-a-dozen times, 

 and I am desirous of knowing if the gaged sur- 

 plice is peculiar to cathedrals and collegiate 

 churches (I have even seen canons residentiary in 

 them, habited in the lay vicar's surplice), or is the 

 surplice used by choristers, undergraduates, and 

 vicars choral, which, according to my early expe- 

 rience, is one without needlework, the correct 

 officiating garment ; the latter is almost univer- 

 sally used at funerals, where the officiating priest 

 seldom wears either his scarf or hood, and pre- 

 sents anything but a dignified appearance when 

 he crowns this negligee with one of our grotesque 

 chimney-pot hats, to the exclusion of the more 

 appropriate college cap. Amanuensis. 



John, Brother German to David 11. — Can any 

 of your readers solve the problem in Scotch his- 

 tory, who was John, brother german to King 

 David n., son of Robert Bruce ? David II., in a 

 charter to the Priory of Rostinoth, uses these 

 words: "Pro salute animse nostrse, etc., ac ob 

 benevolentiam et affectionem specialem quam erga 

 dictum prioratum devote gerimus eo quod ossa 

 Celebris memorise Johannis fratris nostri germani 

 ibidem (the Priory) humata quiescunt dedimus, 

 etc., viginti marcas sterlingorum, etc." Dated at 

 Scone, " in pleno parliamento nostro tento ibidem 

 decimo die Junii anno regni sexto decimo." 



The expression "Celebris memorise" might 

 almost be held to indicate that John had lived to 

 manhood, but is perhaps only a style of royalty ; 

 nevertheless, the passage altogether seems to lead 

 to the inference, that the person had at least sur- 

 vived the age of infancy. King Robert's bastard 

 son. Sir Robert Bruce, had a grant of the lands 

 of Finhaven, in the neighbourhood of Rostinoth.* 



De Camera. 



Scott, Nelson*s Secretary. — C&vl any of your 

 readers give me information as to the pedigree 

 and family of John Scott, Esq., public secretary 

 to Lord Nelson ? He was killed at Trafalgar on 

 board the Victory ; and dying while his sons were 

 yet very young, his descendants possess little 

 knowledge on the subject to which I have alluded. 

 He was, I think, born at Fochabers, near Gordon 

 Castle, where his mother is known to have died. 



A Subscriber. 



* Dr. Jamieson has a note on King David II., 

 brother, in his edition, of Barbour's Bruce ; but does 

 not quote the words of the charter so fully as they 

 are here given. — The Bruce and Waliace, 4to., Edin. 

 1820, vol. i. p. 485. 



