Feb, 15. 185L] 



NOTES AXD QUERIES. 



121 



claimed, not as a conqueror (which he was much in- 

 clined to do), but as a successor descended by right 



line of the blood royal And in order to this 



he set up a show of two titles : the one upon the pre- 

 tence of being the first of the blood royal of the entire 

 male line; whereas the Duke of Clarence (Lionel, 

 elder brother of John of Gaunt) left only one 

 daughter, Philippa : the other, by reviving an exploded 

 rumour, first propagated by John of Gaunt, that Ed- 

 mond Earl of Lancaster (to whom Henry's mother was 

 heiress) was in reality the elder brother of King 

 Edward L, though his parents, on account of his per- 

 sonal deformity, had imposed him on the world for the 

 younger." — Blackstones Commentaries, book i. ch. iii. 

 p. 203. of edit. 17S7. 



This Eilmond, Earl of Lancaster, was succeeded 

 by his son Thomas, who in the fifteenth year of 

 the reign of Edward II. was attainted of higli 

 treason. In the first of Edward HI. his attainder 

 was reversed, and his son Henry inherited his 

 titles, and subsecjuently was created Duke of 

 Lancaster. Blanche, daughter of Henrj', first 

 Duke of Lancaster, subsequently became his heir, 

 and was second wife to John of Gaunt, and mother 

 to Henry IV. 



Edward IV.'s claim to the throne was by descent 

 from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Ed- 

 ward III., his mother being Cicely, youngest 

 daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of \Vestnioreland. 

 Lionel married Elizabeth de Burgh, an Irish 

 heiress, wIid died shortly after, leaving one daugh- 

 ter, Philippa. As William of Hatfield, second son 

 of Edward IH., died at an early age, without is- 

 sue, according to all our ideas of hereditary suc- 

 cession Philippa, only child of Edward III.'s third 

 son, ought to have inherited before the son of his 

 fourth son; and Sir Edward Coke expressly de- 

 clares, that the right of the crown was in the de- 

 scent from Philippa, daughter and heir of Lionel, 

 Duke of Clarence. Henry IV.'s right, however, 

 was incontestable, being based on overwhelming 

 might. Philippa married Edward Mortimer, Eail 

 of March. Kcger, their son, succeeded his father 

 in his titles, and left one daughter, Anne, who 

 married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, son of Ed- 

 mund Langley, Duke of York, which E<lmund, 

 Duke ol' York, was the fifth S(m of Edward III. ; 

 and thus tlie line of York, though a younger 

 branch of the royal family, took precedence, de 

 jwe, of the Lancaster line. Eroin this union 

 sprang Richard, Duke of York, who was killed 

 under the walls of Sandal Castle, and who left 

 his titles and pretensions to Edward, afterwards 

 the fourth king of that name. 



The above is taken from several authorities, 

 among which are Blackstone's C'oi/nn., bonk i. 

 ch. iii.; and Miss Strickland's Liue.s of th<; Qiicats 

 of Eni^land, vols. ii. iii. iv. Tke Bee. 



Fossil elk of Ireland. 

 (Vol. ii., p. 494. ; Vol. iii., p. 26.) 



W. R. C. states that he is anxious to col- 

 lect all possible information as to this once noble 

 animal. I would have offered the following notes 

 and references sooner, but that I was confident 

 that some abler contributor to the pages of " jSTotes 

 AffD Queries" would have brought out of his 

 stores much to interest your natural history 

 readers (whose Queries I regret are so few and 

 far between), and at the same time elucidate some 

 points touched upon by W. R. C, as to the period 

 of its becoming extinct. Perhaps he would favour 

 me with the particulars of " its being siiot in 1553," 

 and a particular reference to the plate alluded to 

 in the Nuremberg Chronicle^ as 1 have not been 

 able to recognise in any of its plates the Cervus 

 Megaceros, and I am disposed to question the 

 correctness of the statement, that the animal 

 existed so lately as the period referred to. 



There is in the splendid collection of the Royal 

 Dublin Society (which, unfortunately, is not ar- 

 ranged as it should be, from want of proptr .-]jace), 

 a fine skeleton of this animal, the frst perfect one 

 possessed by any public body in Europe : 



" It is perfect" [I quote the admirable memoir drawn 

 up for the Hoyal Dublin Society by that able com- 

 parative anatomist Dr. John Hart, which will amply 

 repay a perusal by W. 11. ('., or any other naturalist 

 who may feel an interest in the subject] " in every 

 single bone of the framework which contributes to 

 form a part of the general outline, the s])ine, the chest, 

 the pelvis, and the extremities are all complete in this 

 respect ; and when surmounted by the head and beau- 

 tifully expanded antlers, which extend out to a distance 

 of nearly six feet on either side, form a splendid display 

 of the reli<]ues of the former grindeur of the animal 

 kingdom, and carries back the imagination to the 

 period when whole herds of this noble animal wan- 

 dered at large over the face of the country." 



Until Baron Cuvier published his account of 

 these remains, they were generally supposed to be 

 the same as those of the Moose deer or elk of N. 

 America. (Vide Ann. du Museum d'Histoire Na- 

 turelle, tom. xii., and Ossemens FossUes, torn, iv.) 

 This error seems to have originated with Dr. 

 Molyneux in 1697. (Vide Phil. Trans., vol. xix.) 



The perforated rib referred to was presented to 

 the society by Archdeacon Maunsell, and 



" contains an oval opening towards its lower edge, 

 the long diamctir of which is ])arallel to the length of 

 the rib, its margin is depressed on the outer and raised 

 on the inner surface; round which there is an irregular 

 eH'usion of callus. . . . Jn fact, .such a wound as would 

 be i)roduced by the head of an arrow remaining in the 

 wound after the shaft had broken oflV — Hart's Me- 

 tiioir, p. '2'J. 



There are in the Museum of 'i'rinity College, 

 Dublin, a very complete and interesting series of 



