rs 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2°o S. VI. 134., July 24, '58. 



spread around. In close fights it was a very ap- 

 propriate weapon for cue against many ; and thus 

 we see the guards of old mail-coaches provided 

 with it, to make amends for inferiority in number. 

 Now, may not the name Mimderbuss have been 

 derived from its hits at random, — an explanation 

 that very well does for the human blunderbuss 

 too ? J. H. VAN Lennep. 



Zeyst. 



Tattooed Britons (2°'* S, v. 103.) — Your cor- 

 respondent L. adverts to the custom, which the 

 ancient Britons, partly at least, had in common 

 with the Sandwich Islanders, of tattooing their 

 bodies with blue. It is not uninteresting to find, 

 that this painful mode of ornamenting the human 

 form still exists, not only amongst sailors in Eng- 

 land, but also on the Continent ; and that it is no 

 uncommon thing there to see a labourer's breast 

 and arms pricked with various devices. Amongst 

 the military in Holland gunpowder is rubbed into 

 the needle-wounds, and a blue colour ensues. 

 The only difference is, that we do not see now 

 " pictos ore Britannos." 



J. H. VAN Lennep. 



Zeyst. 



Byron and Henry Kirke White (2"* S. vi. 35.) — 

 Among the variety of sources to which reference 

 has been made as suggesting to Byron the memor- 

 able simile of the " struck eagle, in his eulogy on 

 Henry Kirke White, I do not remember an allu- 

 sion to the noted Sir Roger L'Estrange's Fables of 

 JEsop and other Eminent Mythologists. And yet 

 the book had extraordinary popularity in its day, 

 notwithstanding the coarse vulgarity of its style ; 

 and was one eminently calculated, from the amus- 

 ing variety of its contents, to excite the attention 

 of the schoolboy, to whom the homely familiarity 

 of its language would be rather acceptable than 

 otherwise. Byron's famous satire was an early 

 work, written when all his school recollections 

 were fresh upon him ; and it is therefore not im- 

 probable that the image which he has expanded 

 so eloquently may have had its humble origin in 

 the 48th Fable of L'Estrange's collection, which 

 is as follows : — 



" The Eagle and Arrow. 



" An Eagle that was watching upon a Eock once for a 

 Hare, had the ill Hap to be struck with an Arrow. This 

 Arrow, it seems, was feather'd from her own Wing, which 

 very Consideration went nearer her Heart, she said, than 

 Death itself." 



L'Estrange's "Reflection" on the above, and 

 the fable of the " Thrush taken with Birdlime," 

 which immediately follows it, thus terminates ; 

 and I quote the passage, because it somewhat 

 strengthens the probability before suggested : — 



" There needs little more to be said," he remarks, " to 

 the Emblems of the Eagle and the Thrush, than to ob- 

 serve, that both by Chance, and by Nature, we are made 



accessary to our own Ruins : And that's enough to trouble 

 a Body, though not to condemn him." 



T. C. Smith. 

 P. S. I have been told that a similar image oc- 

 curs in the works of the famous Jeremy Taylor. 

 Can any of your correspondents refer me to the 

 passage ? 



Heraldry (Scottish) (2°* S. vi. 32.) — I suspect 

 that the work on heraldry which your correspon- 

 dent Abhba is in quest of is the one compiled by 

 " David Deuchar of Morningride, Seal Engraver 

 to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," and 

 published in one vol. 8vo. at Edinburgh in 1805, 

 and which was afterwards " enlarged " by his son 

 " Alexander," and published in 2 vols. Svo. in 

 1817 under the title of British Crests. The com- 

 piler may have got a pension from the crown, but 

 I rather suspect not. The " extensive Heraldic 

 Library, valuable MSS. and Manuscript collec- 

 tions relative to the Principal Families of Scot- 

 land," which had been formed by the Deuchars 

 during a period of upwards of eighty yeaes, 

 was sold by auction at Edinburgh in April, 1846. 



T. G. S. 



King Alfred^s Jewel (2°'' S. vi. 46.) — An accu- 

 rate description of this jewel, with five figures 

 drawn on stone by the author, may be found at 

 pp. 92 — 98. of Gorham's Hist, and Antiq. of 

 Eynesbnry and St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, — a 

 work not often found complete, and of which no 

 perfect copy has been retained in the British 

 Museum. Dr. Hickes concluded that the figure 

 on the obverse probably represented St. Cuth- 

 bert, who is said by William of Malmesbury to 

 have appeared to Alfred at Athelney. But Mr. 

 Gorham remarks that all the other chronicles 

 which refer to this incident agree that it was St. 

 Neot, not St. Cuthbert, who was seen by Alfred 

 in his sleep both at Athelney and on other occa- 

 sions. St. Neot was the relative and the spiritual 

 counsellor of the king, and was venerated by him 

 above all other saints ; and Mr. Gorham thinks it 

 can scarcely admit of a reasonable doubt that the 

 miniature was intended for that holy man. The 

 legend given at p. 47. is not quite correct : it 

 should be * tYELFRED MEE HEHT DEVVR- 

 IjtYN. The jewel was found in 1693 at Newton 

 Park, some distance north of the site of Athelney 

 Abbey ; in 1698 it was in the possession of Colonel 

 N. Palmer of Fairfield in Somersetshire ; and in 

 1718 was deposited in the Ashmolean Museum 

 by his son, Thomas Palmer, Esq. Joseph Rix. 



St. Neots. 



"■Pittance" (2"* S. v. 437. 526.)— The word 

 pittance is derived from the Low-Latin pictantia ; 

 which is explained by Du Cange to be " Portio 

 monachica in esculentis ad valorem unius Pictse, 

 lautior pulmentis quse ex oleribus erant, cum pic- 

 tantise essent de piscibus et hujus modi." A 



