Mar. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



249 



Duchess of Mazarin s Monument. — I read yes- 

 terday, in an interesting French work, that the 

 beautiful Hortense Mancini, a niece of Mazarin, 

 and sister to Mary Mancini, the early love of 

 Louis XIV., after various peregrinations, died at 

 Chelsea, in England, on July 2, 1699. Although 

 not an important question, I think I may venture 

 to ask whether any monument or memorial of 

 this remarkable beauty exists at Chelsea, or in its 

 neighbourhood ? W. Robson. 



[Neither Faulkner nor Lysons notices any monu- 

 mental memorial to the Duchess of Mazarin, whose 

 finances after the death of Charles II. (who allowed 

 her a pension of 4,000/. per annum) were very slender, 

 so much so that, according to Lysons, it was usual for 

 the nobility and others, who dined at her house, to 

 leave money under the plates to pay for their enter- 

 tainment. She appears to have been in arrear for the 

 parish rates during the whole time of her residence at 

 Chelsea.] 



Halcyon Days. — What is the derivation of 

 " halcyon days ? " W. P. E. 



[The halcyon, or king's fisher, a bird said to breed 

 in the sea, and that there is always a calm during her 

 incubation ; hence the adjective figuratively signifies 

 placid, quiet, still, peaceful : as Dryden says, — 



" Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be, 

 As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea." 



* The halcyon," says Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, 

 p. 134., " at the time of breeding, which is about four- 

 teen days before the winter solstice, foreshews a quiet 

 and tranquil time, as it is observed about the coast of 

 Sicily, from whence the proverb is transported, the 

 halcyon days."] 



Klgltaf. 



DOGS IN MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 



(Vol. IX., p. 126.) 



I may refer Mr. B. H. Alford to the Oxford 

 Manual of Monumental Brasses, p. 56., for an an- 

 swer to his Query : 



" Knights have no peculiar devices besides their 

 arms, unless we are to consider the lions and dogs be- 

 neath their feet as emblematical of the virtues of 

 courage, generosity, and fidelity, indispensable to their 

 profession. One or two dogs are often at the feet of 

 the lady. They are probably intended for some fa- 

 vourite animal, as the name is occasionally inscribed," 

 &c. 



Neither dog nor lion occurs at the feet of the 

 following knights represented on brasses prior to 

 1460: 



"c. 1450. Sir John Peryent, Jun., Digswell, Herts. 



(engd. Boutell.) 



1455. John Daundelyon, Esq., Margate, (ditto.) 

 c. 1360. William de Aldehurgh, Aldborough, 



Yorkshire, (engd. Manual.) 



c. 1380. Sir Edward Cerue, Draycot Cerue, Wilt- 

 shire, (eng. Boutell.) 



1413. c. 1420. John Cressy, Esq., Dodford, 

 Northants. (ditto.) 



1445. Thomas de St. Quintin, Esq., Harpham, 

 Yorkshire, (ditto.)" 



Whilst a dog is seen in the following :' 



" 1462. Sir Thomas Grene, Green's Norton, North- 

 ants. (ditto.) 



1510. John Leventhorpe, Esq., St. Helen's, Bi- 

 shopsgate. (Manual.) 



1471. Wife of Thomas Colte, Esq., Roy don, 

 Essex. 



c. 1480. Brass at Grendon, Northants. 



c. 1485. Brass, Latton, Essex. 



1501. Robert Baynard, Esq., Laycock, Wilts." 



These examples are described or engraved in 

 the works of the Rev. C. Boutell, or in the Oxford 

 Manual, and I have little doubt that my own 

 collection of rubbings (if I had leisure to examine 

 it) would supply other examples under both of 

 these sections. W. Sparrow Simpson. 



It is usually asserted that the dog appears at 

 the feet of the lady in monumental brasses as a 

 symbol of fidelity ; while the lion accompanies her 

 lord as the emblem of strength and courage. 

 These distinctions, however, do not appear to have 

 been much attended to. The dog, in most cases 

 a greyhound, very frequently appears at the feet 

 of a knight or civilian, as on the brasses of the 

 Earl of Warwick, 1401, Sir John Falstolf at 

 Oulton, 1445, Sir John Leventhorpe at Saw- 

 bridge worth, 1433, Sir Reginald de Cobham at 

 Lingfield, 1403, Richard Purdaunce, Mayor of 

 Norwich, 1436, and Peter Halle, Esquire, at 

 Heme, Kent, 1420. Sir John Botiler, at St. 

 Bride's, Glamorganshire, 1285, has a dragon; and 

 on the brass of Alan Fleming, at Newark, 1361, 

 appears a lion with a human face seizing a smaller 

 lion. On a very late brass of Sir Edward Warner, 

 at Little Plumstead, Norfolk, 1565, appears a 

 greyhound ; a full century after the date assigned 

 by B. H. Alford for the cessation of these sym- 

 bolical figures. 



Sometimes the lady has two little dogs, as Lady 

 Bagot, at Baginton, Warwickshire, 1407; and in 

 one instance, that of Lady Peryent, at Digswell, 

 Herts, 1415, there is a hedgehog, the meaning of 

 which is sufficiently obvious. B. H. Afford, in 

 noticing the omission of the dog in the brass of 

 Lady Camoys, at Trotton, 1424, has not men- 

 tioned a singular substitute which is found for it, 

 namely, the figure of a boy or young man, stand- 

 ing by the lady's right foot : but what this means 

 I cannot attempt to determine ; perhaps her only 

 son. 



It may be interesting to add that some brasses 

 of ecclesiastics exhibit strange figures, not easy to 

 interpret, if meant as symbolical. The brass at 



