170 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°<» S. IX. Mar. 3. 'CO. 



in England we retain the name, but have substi- 

 tuted the French trifle), sicords, and money, though 

 bearing French names, are foreign to that nation, 

 at least as regards present usage. Anciently Tarots 

 were general, but they are now principally confined 

 to Germany, Switzerland, Alsace, and Franclie 

 Compte. They are no doubt of Eastern origin, 

 the cavalier or knight answering to the piece of 

 the same name in chess, between which and the 

 older Tarots there is considerable affinity. They 

 were probably introduced into Europe towards 

 the end of the thirteenth century as instruments 

 of divination. Our present contracted pack is a 

 French modification. The twenty-two symbolical 

 cards are called atouts (according to Duchesne 

 because they were of higher value than all others, 

 a tuiti), and vary considerably according to their 

 antiquity and locality. See Le Monde Primitif, 

 par Court de Gebelin, torn. viii. pp. 365 — 418. 

 4to. Paris, 1781, and Chatto's Origin and History 

 of Playing Cards, London, 1848. I should be 

 much obliged to C. F. if he would favour me 

 with a reference to any mention of the Livre de 

 Thoth, or the game of " Tara," or correspond with 

 me on the subject, as I have a small brochure in 

 the press on this curious subject. In a paper 

 appended to Court de Gebelin's essay, entitled 

 Recherches sur les Tarots et sur la Divination par 

 les Cartes des 1'arots, is the following passage : — 



" Ce livre (ce livre du destin, cejeu sacre") parait avoir 

 dtenomme a-rosii, de la lettre a, doctrine, science, et de 

 rosch, Mercure, qui, joint a l'article T, signifie tableaux 

 de la doctrine de Mercure; mais comme rosh veut aussi 

 dire commencement, ce mot ta-rosh fut particulierement 

 consacre a sa cosmogonie; de meme que YEtliotia (his- 

 toire du temps) fut le titre de son astronomie, et peut- 

 etre qu'Athotes, qu'on a pris pour un roi fils de Tliot, 

 n'est que l'enfant de son geiiie et l'histoire des rois 

 d'Egypte." 



The etymology of Tarot, however, has not been 

 satisfactorily explained, and the attempt to con- 

 nect them with the theology of ancient Egypt is 

 like many other essays of the French savans in 

 this direction, at the first dawn of Egyptian dis- 

 covery, fanciful and absurd. I shall be glad of 

 any assistance the correspondents of " X. & Q." 

 can render me, especially as to the early period 

 of the introduction of playing cards into England. 



E. S. Taylor. 



Ormesby S. Margaret. 



** Vestigia nulla retrorsum" (2" d S. ix. 23. 

 111.) — Your correspondents have overlooked 

 Bubb Dodington's capital rendering of this legend. 

 Walpole, writing to Chute, in June, 1756, says : — 

 " Dodington has translated well the motto on the 

 caps of the Hanoverians : ' Vestigia nulla retror- 

 sum' — They never mean to go back again." Be- 

 sides the humour of the above, it shows whence 

 the motto came ; which I believe, belonged to 



one of the branches of ducal Brunswick. The 

 words form the motto, as S. D. S. states, of the 

 Earls of Buckinghamshire. In Debrett for 1830, 

 the Earl's arms are engraved with that motto ; 

 but the genealogical account of the family ends 

 with these words : " Motto, Auctor pretiosa facit — 

 The founder makes it more valuable," — which is 

 Latin de cuisine, or indifferent English. In page 

 lxxii. Debrett translates " Vestigia nulla retror- 

 sum" — Our footsteps are all advancing, — which, 

 at all events, was not appropriate when Sir Henry 

 llobart, the father of the first earl, was killed in a 

 duel by Oliver Le Neve, in 1699. J. Doran. 



Will you allow me to remind your correspon- 

 dent, Mr. J. T. Buckton, that the words in 

 question — " Vestigia nulla retrorsum" — were the 

 motto of the celebrated Hampden, and were 

 borne on the colours of the regiment which he 

 raised for the service of the Parliament, and in 

 command of which he was killed. 



The uniform of the regiment was green, and 

 the colours bore on one side the Parliamentary 

 device — " God with us :" and on the reverse the 

 words — " Vestigia nulla retrorsum." The green- 

 colour facings of the 5th Dragoon Guards, and 

 the regimental motto, may possibly have been 

 assumed in compliment to the memory of so cele- 

 brated a statesman. E. IN". 



Dinner Etiquette (2 nd S. ix. 81.) — I have 

 for some time had a suspicion that I am growing 

 old. The concluding paragraph of an inquiry, 

 under the above head, converts that suspicion into 

 conviction : " There must be those alive who can 

 almost remember it for themselves, or at least de- 

 scribe it from good traditional authority." I have 

 a perfect recollection, when a very young boy, of 

 seeing the ladies go out of the drawing-room in 

 single file; the gentlemen following in like order. 



Cl-DEVANT JEUNE-HOMME. 



"Beauseant," Etymology of (2 nd S. viii. 451.) 

 — I find in that extraordinary roll of arms given 

 in Leland's Collectanea (vol. ii. p. 616.), and com- 

 monly called "Charles's Roll," the following 

 blazons : — 



" Le baucent del temple dargent al chef de^able a un 

 croyz de goules passant." 



" Le baucent del bospitale de goules a un croyz dar- 

 gent fourme." 



It would appear from this that the beauseant 

 was not the cri de guerre, as has generally been 

 supposed, but the coat of arms itself. I should 

 suppose also the croyz passant was the cross patee, 

 and not on the chief but on the field. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Colonel Frederick, son of Theodore, King 

 of Corsica (2 nd S. ix. 93.) — Your correspondent 

 William Bates will find an account of Colonel 

 Frederick in a collection of lives published many 



