55S 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 188. 



KOBEBT WAUCHOPE, ARCHBISHOP OP ARMAGH. 



(Vol. vii., p. 66.) 



This prelate seems to have been a cadet of the 

 family of Wauchope, of Niddry, or Niddry Maris- 

 chall, in the county of Midlothian, to which family 

 once belonged the lands of Wauchopedale in Rox- 

 burghshire. The exact date of his birth I have 

 never been able to discover, nor which "laird of 

 Niddrie" he was the son of. Robert was a fa- 

 vourite name in the family long before his time, 

 as is evidenced by an inscription at the entry to a 

 burial chapel belonging to the family to this effect : 

 *' This tome was Biggit Be Robert Vauchop of 

 •l^iddrie Marchal, and interit heir 1387." I am at 

 present out of reach of all books of reference, and 

 have only a few manuscript memoranda to direct 

 further research ; and these memoranda, I am sorry 

 to say, are not so precise in their reference to 

 chapter and verse as they ought to be. 



According to these notes, mention is made of 

 Robert Wauchope, doctor of Sorbonne, by Leslie, 

 bishop of Ross, in the 10th book of his History; 

 by Labens, a Jesuit, in the 14th tome of his Chro- 

 nicles; by Cardinal Pallavicino, in the 6th book of 

 his Hist. Cone. Trid.; by Fra Paolo Sarpi, in his 

 Hist. Cone. Trid. Archbishop Spottiswood says 

 that he died in Paris in the year 1551, "much 

 lamented of all the university," on his return home 

 from one of his missions to Rome. 



One of my notes, taken from the Memoirs of 

 Sir James Melville, I shall transcribe, as it is sug- 

 gestive of other Queries more generally interesting. 

 The date is 1545 : 



" Now the ambassador met in a secret part with 

 Oneel (?) and his associates, and heard their offers and 

 overtures. And the patriarch of Ireland did meet him 

 there, who was a Scotsman born, called Wauchope, and 

 was blind of both his eyes, and yet had been divers 

 times at Rome by post. He did great honour to the 

 ambassadour, and conveyed him to see St. Patrick's 

 Purgatory, which is like an old coal pit which had 

 taken fire, by reason of the smoke that came out of the 

 hole." 



Query 1. What was the secret object of the 

 ambassador ? 



Query 2. Has St. Patrick's Purgatory any ex- 

 istence at the present time ? D. W. S. P. 



SEAL OF WILLIAM » ALBINI, 



(Vol. vii., p. 452.) 



The curious article of your correspondent 

 Senex relative to this seal, as described and 

 figured in Barrett's History of Attleburgh, has a 

 peculiar interest as connected with the device of a 

 man combating a lion. 



The first time I saw this device was in a most 

 curious MS. on " Memorial Trophies and Funeral 



Monuments, both in the old Churches of London 

 before the Fire, and the Churches and Mansions 

 in many of the Counties of England." The MS. 

 is written by Henry St. George, and will be found 

 in Lansd. MSS. 874. The arms and tombs are 

 all elaborately and carefully drawn, with their 

 various localities, and the epitaphs which belong 

 to them ; and the whole is accompanied with an 

 Index of Persons, and another of Places. 



At p. 28. this device of a man combating a lion 

 is represented associated with a shield of arms of 

 many quarterings, showing the arms and alliances 

 of the royal family of Stuart, and is described a& 

 having formed the subject of a window in the 

 steward's house adjoining the church of St. An- 

 drew's, Holborn. In the Catalogue of the Lans- 

 downe MSS. is a long and interesting note on this 

 device, with references to the various works where 

 it may be found, to which I have had access at the 

 Museum, and find them correct, and opening a 

 subject for investigation of a most curious kind. 



The figure of the knight, in this drawing, differs 

 considerably from that on Dr. Barrett's seal. He 

 is here represented on foot, dressed in the chain 

 mail and tunic of the eleventh and twelfth cen- 

 turies, with a close-barred helmet, with a broad 

 flat crown, such as was worn in France in the time 

 of Louis IX., called St. Louis. The lion is in the 

 act of springing upon him, and he is aiming a 

 deadly blow at him with a ragged staff, as his sword 

 lies broken at his feet. The figure is represented 

 as fighting on the green sward. From a cloud over 

 the lion proceeds an arm clothed in chain mail, and 

 holding in the hand, suspended by a baldrick, a 

 shield bearing the arms of France (modern*) — 

 Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or. On a scutcheon of 

 pretence In the centre, Argent, a lion ramp, gules, 

 debruised with a ragged staff, proper. This device 

 forms the 1st quarter of the quarterings of the 

 Stuart family. 



In this device there is no figure of a lizard, 

 dragon, or chimera, whichever it is, under the 

 horse's feet, as represented In the seal of D'Albini, 



I could much extend this reply, by showing the 

 antiquity of this device, which by a long process 

 of investigation I have traced as connected with 

 the legendary songs of the troubadours; but I 

 think I have said sufficient for the present, in reply 

 to Senex. 



In .addition to the above, I may mention a 

 seal of a somewhat similar character to that of 

 D'Albini, representing a knight on horseback, with 

 his sword in his hand, and his shield of arms, 

 which are also on the housings of the horse, under 

 whose feet is the dragon : on the reverse is the 



• I say modern, for the ancient arms of France were 

 Azure, semee of fleurs-de-lis, as they are represented la 

 old glass, when quartered with those of England by 

 our Henries and Edwards. 



