538 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 214. 



know that a very ancient golden collar was lately 

 found in the village of Stanton, Staffordshire, 

 which is about three miles north of Ashbourne. 



A labourer digging up a field, which had not 

 heen ploughed or dug up in the memory of man, 

 turned up the colhir, which, being curled up at 

 the time, sprang up, and the labourer taking it for 

 A snake, struck it out of his way with his spade : 

 the next morning it was discovered not to be a 

 snake. Unfortunately the blow had broken off a 

 small piece at one end. The collar is now in the 

 possession of the person with whom the curate of 

 Stanton lodges. The description given to me is, 

 that it is about two feet long, and formed of three 

 pieces of gold twined together, and, with the above 

 ^exception, in a very good state of preservation. 



I hear that there is a similar collar in the 

 British Museum, that was found in Ireland, but 

 none that was found in England; and that the au- 

 thorities of the Museum have been informed of 

 this collar, but have taken no steps to obtain pos- 

 session of it. S. G. C. 



[Our coirespondent is under an erroneous impression 

 as to gold torques not being found in England. Se- 

 veral are figured in the Archaologia, and we have some 

 reason to believe that the torque now described, and of 

 which we should be glad to receive any farther par- 

 ticulars, resembles one which formed part of the cele- 

 brated Polden find described by Mr. Harford in the 

 fourteenth volume of tlie Archceologia, and figured at 

 p, 90. ; and also that found at Boyton in Suffolk in 

 1835, and engraved in the Archasologia, vol. xxvi. p. 471. 

 — Ed.] 



^xxtviti. 



PICTURES IN HAMPTON COURT PALACE. 



There are two or three of these concerning 

 'which I should be obliged to any reader of your 

 publication who would satisfy my Queries. 



No. 119., " The Battle of Forty," by P. Snayers. 

 This seems a kind of combat a outrance of knights 

 armes de pied en cap. Where can I find any ac- 

 count or detidl of it ? 



No. 314., "Mary of Lorraine, mother of Mary 

 Queen of Scots." This is a very pleasing picture, 

 in good preservation, and as it was not in its 

 present position two years ago, I conclude it has 

 recently been added. She was ninth child of 

 Claude de Lorraine, first Due de Guise, born in 

 1515, and married in 1538 to James V. of Scot- 

 land, and she died in the forty-fifth year of her 

 age, 10th June, 1560. There are the arms of the 

 Guise family in the right-hand corner, with a date 

 of 161 1. Pray by whom was it painted, and where 

 can I find any notices respecting it ? 



No. 166., " George IIL reviewing the 10th 

 Light Dragoons, commanded by the Prince of 

 Wales." This picture was considered the chef 

 iTceuvre of Sir William Beechey, and was painted 



in 1798 ; and it has been supposed the likeness of 

 the Duke of York was the best taken of that 

 Prince. Could any reader inform me on what day 

 this review took place ? * 



When one sees a picture of Shakspeare, No. 276., 

 and more especially in the palace of his cotem- 

 porary sovereigns, one is naturally led to inquire 

 into its authenticity. I am therefore desirous to 

 obtain some information relative to it. 



In "N. & Q.," Vol. vi,, p. 197., you had several 

 correspondents inquiring concerning the custom of 

 royalty dining in public : perhaps it may interest 

 them to know that there are two very attractive 

 pictures of this ceremony in this collection, num- 

 bered 293 and 294 : the first is of Charles I. and 

 Henrietta Maria ; the other Frederick V., Count 

 Palatine and King of Bohemia, who married Eliza- 

 beth, daughter of James I. These two pictures 

 are by Van Bassen, of whom, perhaps, some cor- 

 respondent may be enabled to give an account. 



*. 



Richmond, Surrey. 



Miviax (Sucrtc^. 



Helmets. — What is the antiquity of the prac- 

 tice of placing helmets over the shields of armorial 

 bearings ; and what are the varieties of helmets in 

 regard to the rank or degree of persons ? S. N. 



The Nursrow. — What is the origin of the word 

 Nursrow, a name applied by Plott, in his History of 

 Staffordshire., to the shrew mouse, and by the com- 

 mon people in Cheshire at the present day to the 

 field-mouse ; or rather, perhaps, indiscriminately 

 to field and shrew mice ? N. 11. 



City Bellmen. — When were city bellmen first 

 established ? By whom appointed ? What were 

 their duties ? What and how v/ere they paid ? 

 What have been their employment and duties 

 down to the present day ? Crito. 



* George III. had one or two copies of this pic- 

 ture taken for him ; and there is a curious circumstance 

 relative to one of these, which Lady Chatterton men- 

 tions in her Home Sketches, published in three vols. 

 8vo., 1841: "In one respect the picture (which 

 George III. gave to Lord Sidmouth, and which the 

 latter had put up at the stone lodge in Richmond New 

 Park) differs from the original at Hampton Court : it 

 is singular enough that in this copy the figure of the 

 Prince is omitted, which was done hy the Kings desire, 

 and is a striking and rather comical proof of the dislike 

 which he felt towards his son. When the Prince be- 

 came King, he dined here, and remarked to Lord Sid- 

 mouth that his portrait had been omitted, and hinted 

 tliat it ought to be restored. This, however, was 

 evaded, and the copy remains in its original state." — 

 Vol. i. pp. 18, 19. 



