260 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°*S. IX. April 7. '60. 



moonlight, saw the fairies. There might be a dozen of 

 them, the biggest about three feet high, and small ones 

 like dolls. Their dresses sparkled as if with spangles, like 

 the girls at shows at Stow fair; they were moving round 

 hand-in-hand in a ring, no noise from them. They 

 seemed light and shadowy, not like solid bodies. I passed 

 on, saying, ' The Lord have mercy on me, but them must 

 be the fairies ;' and being alone then on the path over the 

 field, could see them as plain as I do you. I looked after 

 them when I got over the style, and they were there, just 

 the same, moving round and round. I ran home and 

 called three women to come back with me and see them. 

 But when we got to the place they were all gone. I could 

 not make out any particular things about their faces. I 

 might be 40 yards from them, and I did not like to stop 

 and stare at them. I was quite sober at the time." 



These extracts are so pleasantly written, and 

 the details, particularly of the dress and stature 

 of the " good people," so quaint and curious, that 

 I believe you will not grudge the space which 

 they will occupy. In these days, when railway 

 engines are driving fairies far away from merry 

 England, it becomes a matter of no little interest 

 to arrest the fleeting traditions about them, which 

 seem likely to vanish very speedily. 



W. Sparrow Simpsox. 



A WANT 1ST HERALDIC LITERATURE. 



There is yet a book wanting in heraldic litera- 

 ture. Will somebody take the trouble to compile 

 it ? Such a book cannot be a duodecimo. It 

 cannot be less than a thick royal octavo in Bre- 

 vier, not leaded. In the pages of " N. & Q." we 

 frequently see questions on heraldry asked ; ques- 

 tions which no books on this subject yet published 

 are calculated to answer. One correspondent 

 has, perhaps, an old piece of plate in his posses- 

 sion, on which there is engraved an old coat of 

 arms. He believes that this piece of plate was 

 brought into the family by his great-great-grand- 

 father's wife, and that it bears the armorial achieve- 

 ment of her maiden surname. He does not know 

 what her maiden name was, but of course he is 

 anxious to know. We will suppose that the arms 

 on the plate are, argent, a bend wavy sable. He 

 looks at this hieroglyphic, and would fain know 

 whose name is pictured there ; but as there is no 

 published book that can tell him, he flies to " N". 

 & Q.," as we all of us do now and then when we 

 are in distress. He describes the coat by saying 

 it is argent,' a bend wavy sable, and begs some 

 kind unknown to tell him what family name it 

 stands for. To this, some courteous unseen re- 

 plies Wallop ; and for the first time in his life he 

 discovers he has Wallop blood in his veins. 

 Another has several hall chairs of antique pat- 

 tern, which he can remember ever since he can 

 recall the first glimmer of daylight, on the backs 

 of which are painted the following — azure, a 

 chevron ermine, between three escalopes argent. 



No person that he knows, and no book that he 

 has ever seen, can inform him whose name is there 

 concealed ; so he flies in his despair to " N. & 

 Q.," when somebody in reply suggests " Towns- 

 hend." This sheds a new light into his mind, 

 for he recollects that his grandfather was called 

 John Townshend Smith, and that leads to the 

 discovery that his great-grandfather married a 

 Townshend. So he now knows where the old 

 chairs came from. Another person buys a valu- 

 able folio volume at a second-hand book-stall. 

 On examining it at home, he observes a book- 

 plate inside the cover, bearing argent, on a cross, 

 gules, five escalopes or. He wishes to trace the 

 peregrinations of this book through the hands of 

 its several possessors, before it came to him, and 

 he is desirous of knowing what possessor bore 

 those arms. There is the cross, and there are 

 the escalopes, and there are the tinctures. With 

 these leading features as guides, how is it we 

 have no book that will tell ? He applies as be- 

 fore, and obtains the name of Villiers. Again : 

 suppose I am walking down Regent Street some 

 afternoon in the season, and 1 see a handsome 

 carriage which attracts my attention. On the 

 panel I read argent, a saltier gules, surmounted 

 by a coronet with five strawberry leaves. How is 

 it we have no book on heraldry that would inform 

 us that that carriage belongs to Fitz -Gerald, 

 Duke of Leinster ? We have plenty of books 

 that tell us what coats of arms belong to what 

 names, but none that tell us what names belong 

 to what coats of arms. There is no lack of books 

 wherein the family names are arranged alpha- 

 betically, to which are attached their several and 

 sundry armorial bearings. But I want, the ar- 

 morial bearings given, to find the names. This is 

 just the contrary. Do I make myself under- 

 stood? What we now have is — given, the name, 

 to find the arms : what we lack is — given the 

 arms, to find the name. To complete such a 

 book would demand a considerable amount of 

 planning, arrangement, and classification. I 

 would begin with the Honourable Ordinaries, or 

 principal charges. Every coat bearing a chief 

 should stand under one head or chapter. Then, 

 if we saw a shield whereon there appeared a chief, 

 and wished to know the name of the family to 

 which it pertained, we should only have to run 

 our eyes down the columns under this head, and 

 we should soon come to it. Every one bearing a 

 pale under another chapter : every one a bend — 

 a fess — a bar — a chevron — a cross, under another 

 and another, and so on. Under the head " Bend" 

 would be found the arms on the old piece of plate 

 belonging to Wallop : and also all coats bearing 

 other minor devices besides the bend, for every 

 coat would be classified according to its principal 

 device, and not according to its minor ones. Under 

 "Chevron" would come the hall chairs: under 



