a 
Dec. 22. 1849.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
H7 
the part of a royal residence having once stood in 
this obscure lane, now almost demolished in the 
sweeping city improvements, which threaten in 
time to leave us hardly a fragment of the London 
of the old chronicler. 
The Tower was also called the Queen’s Ward- 
robe, and it was there, Froissart tells us, that Joan 
of Kent, the mother of Richard IL., took refuge 
during Wat Tyler’s rebellion, when forced to fly 
from the Tower of London. The old historian 
writes, that after the defeat of the rebels ‘* pour le 
premier chemin que le Roy fit, il vint deuers sa 
Dame de mére, la Princesse, qui estoit en un 
chastel de la Riolle (que Yon dit la Garderobbe la 
Reyne) et 1a s’estoit tenue deux jours et deux 
nuits, moult ébahie; et avoit bienraison. Quand 
elle vit le Roy son fils, elle fut toute rejouye, et 
luy dit, ‘ Ha ha beau fils, comment j’ay eu aujour- 
d@huy grand peine et angoisse pour yous.’ 
respondit le Roy, et dit, ‘Certes, Madame, je le 
say bien. Or vous rejouissez et louez Dieu, car 
ilest heure de lelouer. J’ay aujourd’huy recouvré 
mon heritage et le royaume d’Angleterre, que 
javoye perdu.’ Ainsi se tint le Roy ce jour delez 
sa mere.” (Froissart, ii. 132. Par. 1573.) 
In Stow’s time this interesting locality had been 
degraded into stables for the king’s horses, and 
let out in divers tenements. HH. Y. 
[We are indebted to J. E., R. T. S., and other corre- 
spondents, for replies to Mr. Cunningham’s Query ; 
but as their answers contain only general references 
to works which it is reasonable to suppose that gentle- 
man must have consulted during the preparation of his 
Handbook for London, we have not thought it necessary 
to insert them. ] 
ANCIENT INSCRIBED DISH. 
Mr. Editor, — The subject of inscribed dishes 
of latten, of which so many varieties have recently 
been imported, appears to be regarded with in- 
terest by several of your readers. I am indebted 
to the Rev. William Drake, of Coventry, for a 
rubbing from one of these mysterious inscriptions, 
upon an ‘“ alms-plate” in his possession. In 
the centre is represented the Temptation. There 
are two inscribed circles; on the inner and 
broader one appear letters, which have been read, 
—RAHEWISHNBY. ‘They are several times 
repeated. On the exterior circle is the legend 
—ICH. SART. GELUK. ALZEIT. This like- 
wise is repeated, so as to fill the entire circle. I 
have never before met with these inscriptions in the 
large number of dishes of this kind which I have 
examined. They have been termed alms-dishes, 
and are used still in parochial collections in France, 
as doubtless they have been in England. They 
were also used in ancient times in the ceremony 
of baptism, and they are called baptismal basons, 
Dont | 
by some foreign writers. This use is well illustrated 
by the very curious early Flemish painting in the 
Antwerp Gallery, representing the seven sacra- 
ments. The acolyte, standing near the font, 
bears such a dish, and a napkin. The proper use 
of these latten dishes was, as I believe, to serve as 
a laver, carried round at the close of the banquet 
in old times, as now at civic festivities. They 
often bear devices of a sacred character; but it is 
probable that they were only occasionally used for 
any sacred purpose, and are more properly to be 
regarded as part of the domestic appliances of 
former times. Apert Way. 
BARNACLES. 
In Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 361, 
362., there is an account given of the barnacle, “a 
well-known kind of shell-fish, which is found stick- 
ing on the bottoms of ships,” and with regard to 
which the author observes, that “it seems hardly 
credible in this enlightened age, that so gross an 
error in natural history should so long have pre- 
yvailed,” as that this shell-fish should become changed 
into “ aspecies of goose.” The author then quotes 
Holinshed, Hall, Virgidemiarum, Marston, and 
Gerard ; but he does not make the slightest refer- 
ence to Giraldus Cambrensis, who in his Jopogra- 
phia Hibernia first gave the account of the barnacle, 
and of that account the writers referred to by 
Brand were manifestly but the copyists. 
The passage referring to “the barnacle” will be 
found in the Topog. Hiber. lib. i. c. xi. Tannexa 
translation of it, as it may be considered interest- 
ing, when compared with the passages quoted in 
Brand : — 
“ There are,” says Giraldus, “in this country (Ire- 
Jand) a great number of birds called barnacles (Ber- 
nacre), and which nature produces in a manner that is 
contrary to the laws of nature. These birds are not 
unlike to ducks, but they are somewhat smaller in size. 
They make their first appearance as drops of gum upon 
the branches of firs that are immersed in running waters; 
and then they are next seen hanging like sea-weed from 
the wood, becoming encased in shells, which at last 
assume in their growth the outward form of birds, and 
so hang on by their beaks until they are completely 
covered with feathers within their shells, and when they 
arrive at maturity, they either drop into the waters, or 
take their flight at once into the air. Thus from the 
juice of this tree, combined with the water, are they 
generated and receive their nutriment until they are 
formed and fledged. I have many times with my own 
eyes scen several thousands of minute little bodies of these 
birds attached to pieces of wood immersed in the sea, encased 
in their shells, and already formed. ‘These, then, are 
birds that never lay eggs, and are never hatched from 
eges; and the consequence is, that in some parts of 
Ireland, and at those seasons of fasting when meat is 
forbidden, bishops and other religious persons feed on 
these birds, because they are not fish, nor to be regarded 
