482 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 185. 



fied himself that this animal was not a native of 

 these islands : " I cannot," he says, " particularly 

 mark the date of its first appearance, yet I think 

 it is within the memory of man;" and finding 

 favour in its original mine affamee state with a 

 few of the most starved and hungry of the English 

 rats from the common sewer, he proceeds to show 

 that it did extirpate the natives ; but whether this 

 is the best account, or whether the facts of the 

 case as here set forth will satisfy your correspon- 

 dent, is another thing. According to my authority, 

 the aboriginal rat was, at the period of writing, 

 sorely put to it to maintain his ground against the 

 invading colonists and their unnatural allies the 

 providers ; and the present work seems to have 

 been an effort on the part of one in the interest of 

 the former to awaken them to a sense of their 

 danger. In his laudable attempts to rally their 

 courage, this advocate reminds them of a similar 

 crisis when their country was infested with a 

 species of frog called Dutch frogs : " which no 

 sooner," says he, " began to be mischievous, than 

 its growth and progress was stopped by the 

 natives." " Had we," he continues, " but the same 

 public spirit with our ancestors, we need not com- 

 plain to-day of being eaten up by rats. Our 

 country is the same, but alas ! we feel no more 

 the same affection for it." In this way he stimu- 

 lates the invaded to a combined attack upon the 

 common enemy, and we need not tell our readers 

 how successfully, nor how desperate the struggle, 

 the very next year ; which ended In the complete 

 ascendency of the Hanover rat, or reigning family, 

 ■over the unlucky Jacobite native. Under his 

 figure of a rat, this Jacobite is very scurrilous 

 indeed upon the Hanoverian succession ; and, 

 continuing his polypian imitations, relates a few 

 coarse experiments upon his subject illustrative of 

 its destructive properties, voracity, and sagacity, 

 which set at nought " all the contrivances of the 

 farmer to defend his barns ; the trader his ware- 

 house ; the gentleman his land ; or the inferior 

 people their cup-boards and small beer cellars. 

 ISo bars or bolts can keep them out, nor can any 

 gin or trap lay- hold of them." 



Luckily for us living in these latter days, we 

 can extract amusement from topics of this nature, 

 ■which would have subjected our forefathers to 

 severe pains and penalties ; and looking at the 

 character and mischievous tendency of The Ha- 

 nnover Rat, I am curious to know If Mary Cooper, 

 the publisher, was put under surveillance for her 

 share in its production ; for to me it appears a 

 more aggravated libel upon the reigning family 

 than that of the Norfolk Pi-ophecy — for the pub- 

 lication of wiiich, Boswell says, the great Samuel 

 Johnson had to play at hide and seek with the 

 officers of justice. 



The advent of both Pretenders was preceded by 

 straws like these cast out by their adherents, to 



try how the current set. The present jeu d' esprit, 

 however, is a double-shotted one : for, not con- 

 tent with tampering with the public allegiance, 

 this aboriginal rat seems more innocently enjoy- 

 ing a laugh at the Royal Society, and Its ingenious 

 fellow Mr. Baker, in as far as regards the afore- 

 said elaborate treatise upon polypes. J. O. 



FONT INSCEIPTIONS. 



(Vol. vli., p. 408.) 



Mr. Ellacombe desires examples of these. I 

 can supply the following ; — 



At Bradley, Lincolnshire, is a very large font,' 

 of the Decorated period, with this inscription 

 round the bowl in black letter : 



" Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Criede, leren ye chyld 

 yt es nede." 



This is an early instance of the use of English for 

 inscriptions. The sketch was engraved In the 

 work on Baptismal Fonts. 



At Threckingham, Lincolnshire, I believe I 

 succeeded in deciphering an inscription round 

 the font, which was said to have been previously • 

 studied in vain. It is somewhat defaced ; but in 

 all probability the words are, — 



" Ave Maria gracia p . . . d . . . t . . ." 



i.e. of course, "plena, dominus tecum." The bowl 

 of the font is Early English ; but the base, round 

 which the inscription runs, appears to be of the 

 fifteenth century. 



At Burgate, Suffolk, an inscription in black 

 letter is Incised on the upper step of the font : 



"[Orate pro an — b'] Will'mi Burgate militis et dne 

 Elionore uxoris eius qui istum fontem fieri fecerunt." 



Sir William Burgate died in 1409. It is engraved 

 in the Proceedings of the Bury and West Suffolk 

 ArchcBological Institute. 



At Caistor, by Norwich : 



" Orate pro animab .... liis . . . . ici de Castre." 



At Walsoken, Norfolk : 



"Remember the soul of S. Honyter and Margaret 

 his wife, and John Beforth, Chaplain." 



with the date 1544. 



At Gaywood, Norfolk, is a font of Gothic de- 

 sign, but probably of post-Reformation date. On 

 four of the eight sides of the bowl are these in- 

 scriptions : 



" QVI . CREpIDE *' VOCE . PATER, 



RIT . ET . BAPTI NATUS . CORPORE 



ZATVS . FVERIT FLAMEN . AVE. 



SALVVS . ERIT." MAT . 3." 



*' CHRISTVM . IN 

 DVISTIS . QVOT 

 QVOT . BAPTI 

 ZATI . ESTIS." 



' I . AM . THY . GOD 



AND . THE . GOD 



OF . THY . SEEDE. 



GKN." 



