426 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 292. 



pointed downwards, ppr. Crest, a snake ppr. en- 

 twining a sheaf of five arrows points downwards. 

 Gules, barbed and sheafed argent. 



2. Azure, a cross argent, voided of the field, a 

 lion rampant in each quarter. 



3. Vert, a passion cross with spread cordon de- 

 pending from the foot between three cinquefoils 

 argent. (These two shields tied together with 

 true-lovers' knot.) Crest, a hermit with staff ppr. 



4. Sable, on a chevron or, three escallop shells 

 of the field, between three cross crosslets or. Crest, 

 ostrich's head argent, neck encircled with a coronet 

 or. Inquirer. 



P. S. — 2. and 3, I have some reason to believe 

 are foreign, but perhaps not. 



St. Gervaise. — Being interested in a church 

 dedicated to this saint, some particulars respecting 

 him would be acceptable. • Ci.ericus. 



" The Coat and the Pillow." — Where is a poem 

 to be found with this title, and commencing thus : 



" It chanced that the coat of a very fine fellow 

 Was thrown on the bed and lay close to the pillow ? " 



A dialogue between the two is given, the moral of 

 the piece being, that a man's pillow can tell a very 

 different story from that told by his coat. I think 

 that it is in one of the British essayists. P. A. F. 

 Philadelphia. 



^^Dialogus de Lamiis et Pythonicis." — There 

 was printed at Cologne, by Gerard Grevenbruch, 

 in 1593, a very curious little tome in 12mo. ; in 

 which the interlocutors are Sigismund, Archduke 

 of Austria, and Ulric Molitor " de Constantia," as 

 he is designated. In the address by the printer 

 to the Reader, it is asserted to have been a re- 

 print from an edition printed at Cologne in 1489, 

 which had been found in going over an old li- 

 brary. I never saw this edition, if it ever existed ; * 

 and do not know any other copy of the reprint, as 

 'it is termed, than the one before me, which con- 

 sists of twenty-nine pages only. It is a perfectly 

 serious tractate ; otherwise it might have been 

 conjectured to be one of those very odd books of 

 Facetiae, which were common enough then, and 

 more so at a still later period in Germany. J. M. 



'■^ Antrix." — "What is the meaning of this word? 

 It occurs in the following legend on the brass of 

 Agnes Scot, in Swithland Church, Leicestershire : 



" Hoc in conclave jacet Agnes Scot camerata, 

 Antrix devota domine Ferrers vocitata, 

 Quisquis es qui transieris," &c. 



This word has always puzzled me, and I am 

 therefore anxious to submit the difficulty to the 

 readers of " N. & Q." for solution, Nichols 



[* It is noticed by Panzer, Annates Typoqrapliici, vol. i. 

 p. 301.] 



{Hist. Leic, vol. iii. p. 1051.), quoting from Bur- 

 ton, says : 



" This Agnes Scot, as I guess, was an anchoress ; and 

 the word antrix, in this epitaph, is coined from antrum, a 

 cave, wherein she lived ; and certainly (as I am credibly 

 informed) there is a cave near Leicester upon the west 

 side of the town, at this day called ' Black Agnes's Bower.' "■ 



Tliis explanation seems hardly satisfactory. 

 Nichols, on the same authority, adds : 



" In the east window of the chancel is a picture in 

 glass, drawn to the life, in the same habit, with a ring on 

 her finger." 



This is now gone : no stained glass at all remains. 



I shall be happy to send a rubbing of the brass 



to any one desiring to see it, in exchange for 



another. Charles F. Powell. 



Normanton-on-Soar, Loughborough. 



Bon-mot attributed to U Alemhert. — Bishop 

 Watson, in his Autobiography, observes : 



» It has been said (I believe by D'Alembert), that the 

 highest offices in church and state resemble a pyramid, 

 whose top is accessible to only two sorts of animals — 

 eagles and reptiles." — Vol. i. p.' 115. 



Is this saying correctly attributed to D'Alembert, 

 and where is it to be found ? F. 



" Pot-luck" — Is this phrase of English or French 

 origin? In the Memoires de Grimm (Colburn, 

 1813), vol. i. p. 12., I read : " Vous me prenez au 

 depourvu ; il faudra vous contenter de la fortune 

 du pot." The pot is proper to French, rather than 

 to English cookery ; but the homely brevity of 

 the English expression gives it an original air. F. 



Jute. — Might not jute be made to serve as a 

 substitute for flax in paper- making ? I believe it 

 is a sort of flax, and not scarce. I have helped to 

 stow many a bale in Calcutta. Bagna Cavallo. 



Vigors. — In the Memoirs of Peter the Greaty 

 1832, p. 152., mention is made of Mrs. Vigors, the 

 wife of the British Resident at the Court of St. 

 Petersburg. Any particulars regarding them 

 will be most acceptable to Y. S. M. 



Lava. — What is the average depth or thick- 

 ness of a stream of lava ? From no account of an 

 eruption have I been able to learn this. 



Bagna Cavallo. 



Quotations wanted. — Where are the following- 

 lines to be found ? I cannot trace them in Dryden, 

 to whom I believed they belonged : 



" Abra was ready ere he named her name, 

 And though he called another, Abra came." 



A. B. C. 



Stone Altars. — Can your correspondent Ceyrep, 

 or any others versed in ritual matters who con- 

 tribute to your valuable periodical, inform me 

 whether there are any instances of stone altars 



