280 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 285. 



St. John of Jerusalem, Ireland. — Enivri of 

 Cushendal, in Ireland, has expressed bis intention 

 of making collections in relation to the Knights 

 Templars, so far as tbey have been connected 

 with Ireland. If records similar in character to 

 the following will be of any use to him, it will give 

 me pleasure to supply him with copies : 



" Audita petitione fratris Henrici Danet magistri militie 

 Templi in Hibernia et fratriim suoi'ura ejusdem ordinis 

 supplicantium quod possunt esse per manucaptionem 

 sicut in prima captione sua esse consueverint, et si illam 

 gratiam adipisci non possunt, tunc petunt quod dominus 

 Justiciarius diviue caritatis intuitu et pro anima bone 

 memorie domini E. patris domini Regis nunc recipere 

 velit et tenere maneria de Kilclogan Crok et Kilbarry 

 cum ecclesiis et aliis rebus et possessionibus omnibus que 

 Comes Cornubie nuper tenens locum domini Regis in hac 

 terra ipsis Templariis concesserat pro sustentatione sua et. 

 quod ipse Justiciarius pro maneriis et possessionibus pre- 

 dictis invenire velit ipsis templariis suam sustentationem 

 quia ipsi sic detenti sufficientem custodiam pro maneriis 

 predictis custodiendis apponere non possunt ; Inspectis 

 brevibus domini Regis de ipsis Templariis detinendis in 

 Castro Dublinensi patet quod Justiciarius hie, etc., non 

 potest eos deliberare sine speciali mandato domini Regis 

 set ad instantiam Cancellarii Hiberniae et aliorum de con- 

 eilio domini Regis tunc presentium prefatus Justiciarius 

 concessit recipere predicta maneria, ecclesias, res et pos- 

 sessiones predictas sub eadem forma qua ipsi Teraplarii ea 

 tenuerunt per concessionem predicti Comitis et consilii 

 domini Regis in hac terra, et inveniet eis rationabilem 

 sustentationem, etc., quamdiu ea sic tenuerit, etc. Et per 

 ipsum Justiciarium et totum consilium ordinatum est et 

 concordatum quod prefatus Justiciarius habeat inde 

 literas domini Regis patentes sub sigillo hujus Scaccarii, 

 etc., sub forma commissionis prius inde facto, etc. Cujus 

 tenor patet in sequent! ." — Memoranda Roll of the Irish 

 Exchequer, 5 Edward II., mem. 12. dorso. 



J. F. F. 



Dublin. 



*' Piers PlowmmCs Visions." — At line 2979 we 

 read: 



" I have lent to lordes. 

 Loved me nevere after, 

 And have y-maad many a knyght •■ 

 Bothe mercer and draper, 

 That payed nevere for his prentishode 

 Noght a peire gloves." 



Are there earlier or other cotemporary allusions 

 to the lesser nobility seeking the privileges of 

 citizenship by becoming apprentices ? 



In this and a preceding note I have made use 

 of Mr. Wright's edition of Piers Plowman. At 

 p. xlix. of the preface, the editor acknowledges 

 his obligations to " Sir Henry Ellis, who kindly 

 lent him his own manuscript notes," whilst " he 

 regrets that at the time he received them the 

 notes were already so far printed as to hinder hira 

 from making so much ase of them as he could 

 have wished." From Sir Henry Ellis's liberality 

 in communicating his MS. notes to Mr. Wright, I 

 presume they are not intended for any separate 

 publication, but he would surely confer an obliga- 

 tion upon many of your readers and all lovers of 

 old English literature and history, if the notes of 



so competent an annotator could be given to us 

 in your pages. We have had notes on Pope, on 

 Shakspeare, on Pepys, and occasionally on Chaucer; 

 it would surely be no slight addition to the value 

 of " N. & Q." if it should be the means of enlarg- 

 ing our knowledge of this old English worthy. 



W. Denton. 



Nelson. — The great admiral's watchword be- 

 fore the battle of the Nile was " A peerage or 

 Westminster Abbey." Wise men now commonly 

 quote this : " Victory or Westminster Abbey ; " 

 as if Nelson ever doubted of victory ; or as if, 

 supposing he had not got the victory, he would 

 have been likely to have been buried in West- 

 minster Abbey. H. G. 



77ie Chinese Revolution and Masonry. — The 

 M. W. G. M. of the Grand Lodge of Masons in 

 Ohio states in his annual communication that the 

 original cause of the present insurrection in China 

 was the cruel order of the emperor for the sup- 

 pression of the " Triads," a masonic fraternity in 

 the celestial empire. Several distinguished mem- 

 bers of that order are known to have been mas- 

 sacred in the most cruel manner before the revo- 

 lution commenced. W. W. 



Malta. 



A Bhie Pose. — 



« The horticulturists of Paris have succeeded by arti- 

 ficial crossings in obtaining a natural rose of blue colour, 

 which is the fourth colour obtained by artificial means ; 

 that, and the yellow or tea rose, the black or purple rose, 

 and the striped rose, being all inventions, and the result 

 of skilful and scientific gardening." 



Mr. Pao-e, a well-known horticulturist in the 

 United '^States, under the above heading thus 

 continues : 



" Some years ago nearly the identical paragraph now 

 copied throughout the country about this blue rose was 

 circulated in all the papers of the day, and has reappeared 

 nearly every year since. It must be that some editor 

 occasionally inserts the pile of marvels, and others copy, 

 oblivious of a thing so unimportant as a blue rose. In a 

 pecuniary point of view, however, a blue rose is not a 

 trifle. Independent of a handsome standing premium 

 off'ered by the Horticultural Society of Paris, a blue rose 

 would make its possessor a princely fortune. I have been 

 told by an old rose-grower that the recent speculation in 

 the Augusta rose yielded its perpetrators 20,000 dollars 

 profit (4000Z.). Surely the commercial value of the rose 

 has not depreciated since the days of Cleopatra and Nero. 

 On the fourth day of her festival Cleopatra treated Marc 

 Antony to a carpet of 600 dollars' worth of rose leaves, 

 and Nero at a single festival expended 20,000/. for roses 

 alone. Such sums must in those days have stripped the 

 empire of every rose in existence ; but now, when there 

 are over 12,000 varieties of roses, and the culture so wide 

 spread that in our city alone (Washington) the nursery- 

 men have altogether this winter about 50,000 cuttings m 

 process of rearing, 20,000 dollars for one rose forces us to 

 exclaim ♦ tempera, roses ! ' But so it is. The rose is 

 immortalised, and that blue rose man, if he manage well, 



