June 7. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



orchards. A specimen of it may also be occasion- 

 ally found on other trees the bark of which is 

 rough, such as the acacia and some species of 

 willow, when of large size. I have heard of an 

 instance of its srowiuar in a furze-bush. S. S. S. 



Spelling of " Britannicus" ('Vol. iii., p. 275.). 

 — If R. AV. C. will turn to Akerman's Coins of 

 the Romans 7-elating to Britain, he will find, at 

 p. 36., the description of a brass medallion of 

 Commodus having on the reverse a legend com- 

 mencing " BRITTANIA P. M. TK.," &C. 



The author observes : 



" The spelling of Britannia is worthy of observation. 

 Dr. Charles Grotefend thinks it is from the Greek, 

 BpeTTOvio." 



And in a Note to this adds : 



" That in Horace and Propertius, the first syllable of 

 Britannia is short ; but in Lucretius, on the contrary, it 

 is long." 



I would further observe, that the same mode of 

 spelling "Britannia," with two (s, obtains on the 

 coins of Severus, Caracalla, and Geta. 



J. Cove Jones. 



Temple, April 17. 1851. 



T. Gilbert on Clandestine Marriages (Vol. iii., 

 p. 167.). — Thomas Gilbert, the author of the MS. 

 treatise mentioned by your correspondent, was 

 the son of William Gilbert, of Priss, in Shrop- 

 shire. He was born in 1613, and at the age of 

 sixteen entered the University of O.xford. lie 

 took the degree of M.A. in 1638, and was after- 

 wards appointed minister of Upper Winchington, 

 in Buckinghamshire. He joined the Puritan 

 party at the beginning of the rebellion, and was 

 made vicar of St. Lawrence, Reading. AVood says 

 that he turned Independent, "was actually created 

 Bachelor of Divinity in the time of the Parlia- 

 mentarian visitation," and was preferred to the 

 rich rectory of Edgmond, in his native county of 

 Shropshire. Being very active against the Royal- 

 ists, he was commonly called the " Bishop of 

 Shropshire." After the Restoration he was, of 

 course, ejected, when he retired to Oxford, and 

 lived obscurely many years, with his wife, in the 

 parish of St. Ebbs. He lived latterly upon charity, 

 and died in the extreme of poverty, in the year 

 169-4. For more minute particulars of the life of 

 this person, and a catalogue of his writings, see 

 Wood's Athena Oxon., edit. Bliss, vol. iv. p. 406. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



Dogs Head in the Pot (Vol. iii., p. 264.). —I 

 have seen this carved and gilt as the sign of 

 R. O. Backweli, ironmonger, Devonport. A per- 

 son now sitting by me recollects its being ad()|)ted 

 there about forty years since. It is perhaps always 

 the sign of an ironmongei-, instead of a i)ublic- 

 bouse, as suggested by your correspondent. The 



pot (as at Blackfriars) is the three-legged cast- 

 iron vessel called in Devonshire a " crock." 



K. Th. 



Pope Joan (Vol. iii., p. 265.).- — If the man who 

 believes in this fable can be found in England, he 

 will meet with the demonstration of its falsehood 

 in the cotemporary chronicles of Galindo, Bishop 

 of Troyes, otherwise called by his assumed name 

 of religion, Prudentius Trecensis, or Trecassensis. 

 (See Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Hanover, 

 1826, vol. i. p. 449.) It there ajipears clearly 

 that no Pope John A-^III. succeeded Leo IV., or 

 preceded Benedict III. Prudentius survived them 

 both by three years. His words are: "Mense 

 Augusto Leo apostolicas sedis antistes defunctus 

 est, eique Benedictus successit. Eodem mense 

 diiaa stellae majoris et minoris quantitatis visse 

 sunt," &c. &c. 



It seems to me that a just blindness fell upon 

 men so evil-minded as to desire the falsification of 

 chronology and history for polemical ends, that 

 they should have utterly missed the moral prin- 

 ciple by which they Avould be thought animated. 

 No prelate ordaining a young person, unknown to 

 himself, save by academical reputation, could hnovj 

 that person's sex. The want of beard is no crite- 

 rion ; nor is the female lip in all instances very 

 smooth. But if it were true that a person emi- 

 nently distinguished by studies, and bringing from 

 Athens a high reputation for merit, could upon 

 those grounds alone obtain the suffrages of the 

 Roman chapter, more honour would be conferred 

 ujion it than that chapter, or other dispensers of 

 patronage, have usually merited. Instead of being 

 unknown, the candidates in the days of Bene- 

 dict III. were, if anything, too well knoiun ; for the 

 jobbery and faction, of which this fable would in- 

 dicate the entire, and almost unnatural, absence, 

 were suflSciently at work. A. N. 



''Nettle in dock out" (Vol. iii., p. 205.).— Bishop 

 Andrewes uses the phrase, " in docke out nettle, 

 in nettle out docke," to denote unsteadiness. The 

 passage occurs in Sermon I., " Of the Resurrec- 

 tion," folio, p. 391. : 



" Now then that we bee not, all our life long, thus 

 off and on, fast or loose, in doclie out nettle, anil in nettle 

 out docke J it will behove us once more yet to looke 

 back," &c. &c. &c. 



Reveet. 



VVittingham, Easter Eve. 



Mindyour P's and Qs (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 357.). — 

 This phrase was, I believe, originally " Mind your 

 toupees AuA your fjueues" — the toupee being tlie 

 artificial locks of hair on the head, and the e/ueue 

 the pigtail of olden time. 



There used to be an old riddle as follows: — 

 AVho is the best person to keep the alphabet in 

 order ? — Answer : A barber, because he tics vip 

 the queue, and puts toupees in irons. Nedlam. 



