Oct. 8. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



351 



allusion. In speaking of the offensive compo- 

 sition, well known to sailors, the word revenge, 

 and not defend, was used by Bramhall. R. G. 



Longevity (Vol. viii., p. 113.). — I do not think 

 any of your correspondents has noticed the case 

 of John Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Albans, who 

 wrote a Chronicle of the period between 1441 and 

 14G1 : " He was ordained a priest in 1382, and died 

 in 1464, when he had been eighty-two yeai's in 

 priest's orders, and was above one hundred years 

 old." Surely this is a case sufficiently authen- 

 ticated for your more sceptical readers. (Henry's 

 History of Great Britain, 2nd ed., Lond. 1788, 

 vol. X. p. 132.) Tewabs. 



Chronograms (Vol. viii., pp. 42. 280.). — The 

 following additional specimen of this once popular 

 form of numerical puzzle is not, I think, unworthy 

 a corner in " N. & Q." 



On the upper border of a sun-dial, affixed to 

 the west end of Nantwich Church, Cheshire, there 

 appeared, previous to its removal about 1800, the 

 undermentioned inscription : 



" Honor DoMIno pro paCe popVLo sVo parta," 



Now, seeing that Nantwich was, during the 

 civil dissensions which culminated in the murder 

 of Charles I., a rampant hot-bed of anarchy and 

 rebellion, we should hardly be prepared for such 

 a complete repudiation of those principles as is 

 conveyed in the line before us, did we not know 

 that the same anxiety to get rid of the " Bare- 

 bones" incubus universally prevailed. The nu- 

 merals, it will be seen, make up the number 1661, 

 which was the year of the coronation of King 

 Charles II. ; and, no doubt, also the year in which 

 the dial in question was erected. T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



Heraldic Notes (Vol. viii., p. 265.). — The bear- 

 ing of the arms oif Clare Hall by Dr. Blythe is not 

 strictly correct, because, with the exception of the 

 three principal Kings of Arms, the Earl Marshal, 

 the Master of Ordnance, and a few others espe- 

 cially, arms of office do not exist in England. The 

 general mode of bearing them is by impalement, 

 giving the preference (dexter) to the arms of dig- 

 nity. In the example under notice, the arms of 

 dignity or office are borne upon a pile, which has 

 somewhat the appearance of an inverted chevron. 

 It is not at all a common mode of bearing addi- 

 tions; but I remember one case, viz. the grant by 

 King Henry VIII. to the Seymours, after his mar- 

 riage to Lady Jane, of the lions of England on a 

 Pi^6- Bboctuna. 



Bury, Lancashire. 



Christian Names (Vol. \i\. passim). — May I be 

 permitted to correct one or two errors in Mb. 

 Bates's Note on this subject, Vol. vii., p. 627. ? 



The person described as a "certain M. L-P. 

 Saint-Florentin " was no less a person than the 

 Duke de la Vrilliere, who filled several important 

 offices during the reign of Louis XV, The allu- 

 sion in the epigram to his " trois noms " has no 

 reference to his names, whether Christian or patro- 

 nymic, in the sense in which the question has been 

 discussed in " N. & Q.," but to the three titles 

 which he successively bore as a public man. He 

 commenced his career as M. de Phelippeaux ; was 

 afterwards created Comte de Saint-Florentin, and 

 sometime before his death was raised to the dignity 

 of Duke de la Vrilliere. 



My authority for this statement is the cotempo- 

 rary work, Les Memoires secrets de Bachaumont, 

 where, under date of December, 1770, the epigram 

 is thus introduced, with a variation in the first 

 line : 



" Un autre plaisant a fait d'avance I'epitaphe de M. 

 le due de la Vrilliere. EUe roule sur ses trois noms dif- 

 ferents de Phelippeaux, Saint-Florentin, et la Vrilliere: 



• Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun, 

 Ayant porte trois noms, et n'en laissant aucun.' " 



The sense being, that his titles had been his only 

 distinction, and that even they had not been suffi- 

 cient to rescue his chai*acter from obscurity and 

 contempt. 



However " applicable " this epigram may be to 

 the bearers or borrowers of three names, it will be 

 some comfort to them to know that its point was 

 not directed against them, but against a class of 

 men of much higher pretensions, of one of whom 

 it has been said : 



" He left the name, at which the world grew pale, 

 To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 



Henby II. Bbeen. 

 St. Lucia. 



^'■I put a spoke in 7iis wheel" (Vol. viii., p. 269.). 

 — If G. K., being wronged, should cherish the un- 

 christian spirit of revenge, let him playfully insert 

 a spoke in the wheel of his friend's tandem, as it 

 bowls along behind a pair of thorough-bred tits, 

 with twelve months' hard condition upon old oats 

 in them. 



By simply putting a spoke in the wheel of the 

 waggon employed in the removal of the Manchester 

 College to London, one trustee opposed a decided 

 " impediment to the movement" of that institution. 



w. c. 



p. S. — Allow me to point out a misprint at 

 Vol. viii., p. 279., "Manners of the Irish:" for 

 chuse read cheese. 



Judges styled Reverend (Vol. viii., pp. 158. 276.). 

 — ^With respect to the error into which I was led 

 in making Anthony Fitzherbert Chief Justice of 

 the Common Pleas, I beg to express my thanks 

 for our good friend's correction. My statement 



