58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 221. 



hot iron crown, as a punishment for allowing himself 

 to be proclaimed King of Hungary (1513)*by the 

 rebellious peasants (see Biographie Universelle, xi. 

 604.). The two brothers belonged to one of the native 

 races of Transylvania called Szecklers, or Zecklers 

 (Forster's Goldsmith, i. 395., edit. 1854)."] 



" Horam coram Dago" — In the first volume 

 of Lavengro, p. 89. : 



" From the river a chorus plaintive, wild, the words 

 of which seem in memory's ear to sound like ' Horam 

 coram Dago,' " 



I have somewhere read a. song, the chorus or 

 refrain of which contained these three words. 

 Can any of your readers explain ? X 



[Our correspondent is thinking of the song " Amo, 

 amas," by O'Keefe, which will be found in The Uni- 

 versal Songster, vol. i. p. 52., and other collections. 

 We subjoin the chorus : 



" Rorum coram, 

 Sunt divorum, 

 Harum scarum 

 Divo ! 

 Tag rag, merry derry, perriwig and hat-band, 

 Hie hoc horum genitivo ! "] 



HOBY FAMILY. 



(Vol. ix., p. 19.) 



Many years have passed away since I went over 

 Bisham Abbey ; but I was then informed that any 

 family portraits belonging to the old House had 

 been taken away by the widow of Sir John Hoby 

 Mill, Baronet, who sold the property to Mr. George 

 Vansittart in 1780, or shortly afterwards. I am 

 not aware that there are any engraved portraits 

 of the Hobys, excepting those mentioned by your 

 correspondent Mr. Whitborne, which form part 

 of the series of Holbein's Heads, published in 

 1792 by John Chamberlaine, from the original 

 drawings still in the royal collection. In the 

 meagre account of the persons represented in that 

 work, Lady Hoby is described as " Elizabeth, one 

 of the four daughters of Sir Antony Cooke, of 

 Gidea Hall, Essex," and widow of Sir Thomas 

 Hoby, who died in 1566, at Paris, whilst on an 

 embassy there. The lady remarried John Lord 

 Russell, eldest son of Francis, second Earl of 

 Bedford, whom she also survived, and deceasing 

 23rd of July, 1584, was buried in Bisham Church, 

 in which she had erected a chapel containing 

 splendid monuments to commemorate her husbands 

 and herself. The inscriptions will be found in 

 Ashmole's Berkshire, vol. ii. p. 464., and in Wot- 

 ton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 504., where the Hoby 

 crest is given as follows ; " On a chapeau gules 

 turned up ermine, a wolf regreant argent." The 



armorial bearings are described very minutely in 

 Edward Steele's Account of Bisham Church, 

 Gough MSS., vol. xxiv., Bodleian, which contains 

 some other notices of the parish. Braybrooke. 



POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 242. 452. 626.) 



I send two specimens from this neighbourhood, 

 which may, perhaps, be worth inserting in your 

 columns. 



The first is from a public-house on the Basing- 

 stoke road, about two miles from this town. The 

 sign- board exhibits on one side "the lively 

 effigies " of a grenadier in full uniform, holding in 

 his hand a foaming pot of ale, on which he gazes 

 apparently with much complacency and satisfaction. 

 On the other side are these lines : 

 " This is the Whitley Grenadier, 



A noted house for famous beer. 



My friend, if you should chance to call, 



Beware and get not drunk withal ; 



Let moderation be your guide, 



It answers well whene'er 'tis try'd. 



Then use but not abuse strong beer, 



And don't forget the Grenadier." 



The next specimen, besides being of a higher 

 class, has somewhat of an historical interest. In 

 a secluded part of the Oxfordshire hills, at a place 

 called Collins's End, situated between Hardwick 

 House and Goring Heath, is a neat little rustic 

 inn, having for its sign a well-executed portrait of 

 Charles I. There is a tradition that this unfor- 

 tunate monarch, while residing as a prisoner at 

 Caversham, rode one day, attended by an escort, 

 into this part of the country, and hearing that 

 there was a bowling-green at this inn, frequented 

 by the neighbouring gentry, struck down to the 

 house, and endeavoured to forget his sorrows for 

 awhile in a game at bowls. This circumstance is 

 alluded to in the following lines, which are written 

 beneath the sign-board : 



" Stop, traveller, stop ; in yonder peaceful glade, 

 His favourite game the royal martyr play'd ; 

 Here, stripp'd of honours, children, freedom, rank, 

 Drank from the bowl, and bowl'd for what he drank ; 

 Sought in a cheerful glass his cares to drown, 

 And changed his guinea, ere he lost his crown." 



The sign, which seems to be a copy from Van- 

 dyke, though much faded from exposure to the 

 weather, evidently displays an amount of artistic 

 skill that is not usually to be found among common 

 sign-painters. I once made some inquiries about 

 it of the people of the house, but the only inform- 

 ation they could give me was that they believed it 

 to have been painted in London. G. T. 



Reading. 



