278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 203. 



shields ; and in Vredii Genealogia comitum Flan- 

 dincB (p. 130.), on shields rounded off below. On 

 the other hand, lozenges have sometimes been 

 used by men : for instance, on a seal of Ferdinand, 

 Infant of Spain, in Vredius, 1. c. p. 148. ; also on 

 a dollar of Count Maurice of Hanau, in Kohler's 

 Milntzhelustig. 14. See again the arms of the 

 Count of Sickingen, in Siebmacher, Suppl. xi. 2. 

 So much for the use of the lozenge. Most ex- 

 planations of its origin appear equally far-fetched. 

 That of Menestrier, in his Pratique des Armoires 

 (p. 14.), seems to me the least forced. He derives 

 the French name lozange from the Dutch lofzung: 



" In Holland," he says, " the custom prevails every year, 

 in May, to affix verses and lofzangen (songs of praise) 

 in lozenge-formed tablets on the doors of newly-made 

 magistrates. Young men hung such tablets on the 

 doors of their sweethearts, or newly-married persons. 

 Also on the death of distinguished persons, lozenge- 

 shaped pieces of black cloth or velvet, with the arms, 

 name, and date of the death of the deceased, were ex- 

 hibited on the front of the house. And since there is 

 little to be said of women, except on their marriage or 

 death, for this reason has it become customary on all occa- 

 sions to use for them the lozenge-shaped shield." 



In confirmation of this may be mentioned, that 

 formerly lozange and lozanger were used in the 

 French for louange and louer ; of which Menes- 

 trier, in the above- quoted work (p. 431,), cites 

 several instances. 



Besides the conjectures mentioned by H. C. K. 

 and Beoctuna, may be cited that of Laboureur : 

 who finds both the form and the name in the 

 Greek word o^uyduws (ozenge with the article, 

 Vozenge) ; and of Scaliger, who discovers laiisan- 

 gia in laurangia, laiwi folia. See farther, Bernd. 

 Wapenwesen, Bonn, 1841. John Scott. 



Norwich. 



Sir William Hanhford (Vol. ii., p. 161. &c.). 

 — Your learned correspondent Mr, Edward 

 Foss proves satisfactorily that Sir W. Gascoigne 

 was not retained in his office of Chief Justice by 

 King Hen. V. But Mr. Foss seems to have over- 

 looked entirely the Devonshire tradition, which 

 represents Sir William Hankford (Gascoigne's 

 successor) to be the judge who committed Prince 

 Henry. Risdon {v. Bulkworthy, Survey of Devon, 

 ed. 1811, p. 246.), after mentioning a chapel built 

 by Sir W. Hankford, gives this account of the 

 matter : 



" This is that deserving judge, that did justice upon 

 the king's son (afterwards King Henry V.), wlio, when 

 he was yet prince, commanded him to free a servant 

 of his, arraigned for felony at the king's bench bar ; 

 whereat the judge replied, he would not. Herewith 

 the prince, enraged, essayed himself to enlarge the 

 prisoner, but the judge forbad; insomuch as the prince 

 in fury stept up to the bench, and gave the judge 

 a blow on the face, who, nothing thereat daunted, told 



him boldly : ' If you will not obey your sovereign's 

 laws, who shall obey you when you shall be kino- ? 

 Wherefore, in the king's (your father's) name, I com- 

 mand you prisoner to the king's bench.' Whereat the 

 prince, abashed, departed to prison. When King 

 Henry IV., his father, was advertised thereof (as fast 

 flieth fame), after he had examined the circumstances 

 of the matter, he rejoiced to have a son so obedient to 

 his laws, and a judge of such integrity to administer 

 justice without fear or favour of the person ; but withal 

 dismissed the prince from his place of president of the 

 council, which he conferred on his second son." 



Risdon makes no mention of Sir W. Hankford's 

 being retained in office by King Henry V. But 

 at p. 277., V. Monkleigh, he gives the traditional 

 account of Hankford's death (anno 1422), which 

 represents the judge, in doubt of his safety, and 

 mistrusting the sequel of the matter, to have com- 

 mitted suicide by requiring his park-keeper to 

 shoot at him when under the semblance of a 

 poacher : 



" Which report (Risdon adds) is so credible among 

 the common sort of people, that they can show the tree 

 yet growing where this fact was committed, known by 

 the name of Hankford Oak." 



J. Sansom. 



Mauilies, Manillas (Yol. vii., p. 533.).— W. H. S, 



will probably find some of the information which 

 he asks for in Two Essays on the Ring-Money of 

 the Celt(B, which were read in the year 1837 to 

 the members of the Royal Irish Academy by Sir 

 William Betham, and in some observations on 

 these essays which are to be found in the Gentle- 

 man^ s Magazine of that year. During the years 

 1836, 1837, and 1838, there were made at Bir- 

 mingham or the neighbourhood, and exported from 

 Liverpool to the river Bonney in Africa, large 

 quantities of cast-ii^on rings, in imitation of the 

 copper rings known as " Manillas " or " African 

 ring-money," then made at Bristol. A vessel 

 from Liverpool, carrying out a considerable quan- 

 tity of these cast-iron rings, was wrecked on the 

 coast of Ireland in the summer of 1836. A few 

 of them having fallen into the hands of Sir 

 William Betham, he was led to write the Essays 

 before mentioned. The making of these cast-iron 

 rings has been discontinued since the year 1838, 

 in consequence of the natives of Africa refusing to 

 give anything in exchange for them. From in- 

 quiry which I made in Birmingham in the year 

 1839, I learnt that more than 250 tons of these 

 cast-iron rings had been made in that town and 

 neighbourhood in the year 1838, for the African 

 market. The captain of a vessel trading to Africa 

 informed me in the same year that the Black 

 Despot, who then ruled on the banks of the river 

 Bonney, had threatened to mutilate, in a way 

 which I will not describe, any one who should 

 be detected in landing these counterfeit rings 

 within his territories. N. W. S. 



