Aprit 13. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
381 
chief magistrate ought to have the distinctive 
“ Right” appended to his style. And this view 
of the subject derives some support from the fact 
of a difference being made with regard to the 
Aldermen of London (who are all of them ma- 
gistrates), those who have passed the chair being 
distinguished as the Right Worshipful, whilst 
those below the chair are styled the Worshipful 
only ; thus showing that the circumstance of being 
Mayor is considered worthy of an especial distinc- 
tion. Probably it may be said that custom is the 
proper guide in a case like this, but I believe that 
there is no particular custom in some towns, both 
prefixes being sometimes used, and more fre- 
quently none at all. It seems desirable, however, 
that some rule should be laid down, if possible, by 
common consent, that it may be understood in 
future what the appropriate prefix is. I shall be 
glad if some of your heraldic or antiquarian 
readers will give their opinions, and if they know 
of any authorities, to quote them. J. 
QUEVEDO—SPANISH BULL-FIGHTS. 
The clear and satisfactory reply that ‘“ Mrra- 
nion” received in No. 11. to his query on the con- 
tradictions in Don Quixote, tempts me to ask for 
some information respecting another standard work 
of Spanish literature, written by a cotemporary of 
the great Cervantes. 
How is it, that in the Visions of Don Quevedo, 
a work which passes in review every amusement 
and occupation of the Spanish people, the national 
sport of bull-fighting remains entirely unnoticed 2 
The amusement was, I presume, in vogue during 
the 16th and 17th centuries ; and the assignations 
made, and the intrigues carried on, within the 
walls of the amphitheatre would have supplied 
many an amusing, moralising penitent, male and 
female, to the shades below —the “ fabulz manes” 
with whom Quevedo held converse. As my copy 
of the Visions is an anonymous translation, and 
evidently far from being a first-rate one, I shall 
not be surprised if I receive as an answer, —‘ Mis- 
taken as to your fact, read a better translation :" 
but as, in spite of its manifold, glaring defects, I 
have no reason to suspect that the text is garbled, 
I think I may venture to send the query. 
In “ Vision 7.” I find Nero accusing Seneca of 
having had the insolence to use the words, “ I and 
py king.” I have often heard of Henry VIIL., 
olsey, and “ Ego et rex meus ;” but as I never 
heard Quevedo quoted as an illustration, I look 
upon this as one of the suspicious passages in my 
copy of his work. C. Forbes. 
Temple. 
MINOR QUERIES. 
Gilbert Browne.—*“G.C. B.” is desirous of in- 
formation respecting the family from which was 
descended Gilbert Browne of the Inner Temple, 
who died about a century ago, and was buried in 
North Mymms Church, Herts, where there is a 
monument to him (vide Clutterbuck’s History) ; 
also as to the arms, crest, and motto, as borne by 
him, and whether he was in any way related to 
Michael Browne of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, 
who married Elizabeth Philippa, daughter of Lord 
Coningsby, as stated in Collins’s Peerage. He 
also desires information as to any enrolment of 
arms previous to the Visitations, by which the 
bearings of families who had grants of land from 
the Conqueror may be ascertained; as, for instance, 
a family who began to decay about the end of the 
14th century, having previously been of great 
rank and position. 
The Badger.—Can any body point out to me 
any allusion, earlier than that in Sir T. Browne’s 
Vulgar Errors, to the popular idea that the legs 
of the badger were shorter on one side than on the 
other, whence Mr. Macaulay says, “I think that 
Titus Oates was as uneven asa badger?” W.R.F. 
Ecclesiastical Year.— Note in an old parish re~ 
gister, A.D. 1706. “Annus Domini Secundum 
Ecclesie Anglicane Supputationem incipit 25to 
Mensis Martij.” 
Query the authority for this? the reason seems 
easy to define. NarHan. 
Sir William Coventry.— Pepys mentions in his 
Diary, that Sir William Coventry kept a journal 
of public events. Is any thing known of this jour- 
nal? It is not known of at Longleat, where are 
several papers of Sir William Coventry’s. 
A MS. letter from Lord Weymouth to Sir 
Robert Southwell, giving an account of Sir W. 
Coventry’s death, was sold at the sale of Lord de 
Clifford’s papers in 1834. Cuan any of your readers 
inform me where this letter now is ? C. 
Shrew.—Is shrew, as applied to the shrew- 
mouse, and as applied to a scolding woman, the 
same word? If so, what is its derivation ? 
The following derivations of the word are cited 
by Mr. Bell. Saxon, “ Schreadan,” to cut; ‘ Schrif,” 
to censure; “Scheorfian,” to bite; “* Schyrvan,” 
to beguile. German, “Schreiven,” to clamour : 
none of which, it is obvious, come very near to 
“ Schreava,” the undoubted Saxon origin of the 
word shrew. 
Now it was a custom amongst our forefathers to 
endeavour to provide a remedy against the baneful 
influence of the shrew-mouse by plugging the 
wretched animal alive in a hole made in the body 
of an ash tree, any branch of which was thenceforth 
held to be possessed of a power to cure the disease 
caused by the mouse. It thereupon occurred to 
me that just as brock, a still existing name for the 
badger, is clearly from the Saxon broc, persecution, 
