2 nd S. IX. Mat 19. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



393 



member his telling us that Dr. Butler, the very 

 learned Head Master of the school (afterwards 

 Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry) told him and 

 other boys that the saying, " My eye and Betty 

 Martin," originated thus : — 



A party of gypsies were apprehended, and 

 taken before a magistrate; the constable gave 

 evidence against an extraordinary woman, named 

 Betty Martin ; she became violently excited, rushed 

 up to him, and gave him a tremendous blow in 

 the eye. After which the boys and rabble used to 

 follow the unfortunate officer with cries of My 

 eye and Betty Martin ! E. C. 



Reform Club. 



Sing " Si dedero" (2 nJ S. viii. 171.) — I met 

 with this expression the other day, in a MS. of the 

 fifteenth century in the British Museum (Har- 

 leian, No. 172.). It occurs in a poem attributed 

 to Peter Idle, Esq., containing advice to his son : 

 among other things, the following stanza as to his 

 dealings with the medical profession : — 

 " There ys noo surgeon ne othj-r leche, 



Phisicean, or potecarye, or other crafte, 



That any thynge lyghtly woll the teche. 



But yf thou yeve, thou shalt be lafte. 



Thou sbalt pceyve them ful slowe in the hafte 



Inlesse thou pay fretye or (before ) thou parte them froo. 



Thus must yow lerne to synge Si dedero." 



This seems to agree with the meaning of the 

 extract from Political Songs, published by the 

 Camden Society, communicated by your corre- 

 spondent Ozmond, and is apparently an old, a 

 •very old, and familiar phrase in England for ex- 

 pressing that matter-of-fact axiom — that there is 

 uo getting on in this world without money. 



John Williams. 



Arno's Court, near Bristol. 



Seal of John Lord Hastings of Aber- 

 gavenny (2 nd S. ix. 305.)— The " two seals" de- 

 scribed by Querist are the two sides of the seal 

 of John Lord Hastings of Abergavenny, which is 

 appended to the letter from the Barons of Eng- 

 land to Pope Boniface in the year 1301. This 

 letter is preserved in the Treasury of the Receipt 

 of the Exchequer (formerly in the Chapter House 

 at "Westminster, and now in the Public Record 

 Office). Its seals were engraved by the Society of 

 Antiquaries so long since as 1729, from trickings 

 by Augustine Vincent ; and a long paper of re- 

 marks upon them was communicated by Sir Harris 

 Nicolas to the Society in 1825, and published in 

 vol. xxi. of the Archceologia. Sir N. II. Nicolas 

 remarked upon the seal of John de Hastings that 

 it " is not a little curious, both from its exhibiting 

 arms totally different from those which are gene- 

 rally ascribed to him, and which were borne by 

 his descendants, and from the charges in the coat 

 itself." This coat, or coats, of a cross and fleurs- 

 de-lis, with on one face lions in addition (as 

 described by Querist in p. 305.), " appear (it is 



added) to be founded on the royal arms of Eng- 

 land and France ; " but w<?re not the lions rather 

 from the arms of Wales than of England ? See 

 the four lions rampant on the seals of Owen 

 Glyndowr as Prince of Wales in the Archaologia, 

 vol. xxv. Plate lxxi. ; and the three lions passant 

 regardant on the seals of Edward, son of Ed- 

 ward IV., and Arthur, son of Henry VII., as 

 Princes of Wales, in the Archceologia, voL xx. 

 Plate xxix. The extraordinary inscriptions on 

 the seal of John de Hastings were decyphered for 

 Sir N. H. Nicolas by John Caley, Esq., F.S.A. ; 

 and the result was very different from the read- 

 ings of Querist. On one side, 



" . . . . k : i'me : ich : mad mvndi mi : hegod : 

 namend: m . . . ." 



On the other : 



". . CHE: OF rode steti ich : hiereoodsenicys 

 aretr . . ." 



These words look partly like English, and partly 

 like Latin. Without seeing an impression, I will 

 not attempt any fresh readings of them. 



John Gough Nichols. 



The Cruikston Dollar (1 st S. viii. 445.) — The 

 palm-tree on the reverse of this now rather scarce 

 coin has long had the credit of representing the 

 yew-tree which once grew at Cruikston Castle, 

 and to the latter, tradition still fondly clings as 

 that under which Mary Queen of Scots spent 

 some of her happy hours with her" suitor Lord 

 Darnley. Dean (afterwards Bishop) Nicolsoiifin 

 The Scottish Historical Library, London, 1702, 

 8vo., in describing this coin, issued 1565, tells us 

 at p. 322.: — 



" Some call the Tree on the reverse an Yew-Tree, and 

 report that there grew a famous one of that kind in the 

 Park (or Garden) of the Earl of Lenox which gave occa- 

 sion to the Impress : Wherein the Tree being crown'd 

 denotes the Advancement of the Lenox Family by Henry 

 Lord Darnley's Marriage with the Queen, and the Lemma 

 of Dat Gloria Vires is observ'd to comport very well with 

 the Device." 



After the learned and intelligent Dean there 

 came another author, Mr. Pinkerton, who in his 

 Essay on Medals, London, 1789, 8vo. ii. p. 100., 

 treating of the coin, says, — 



" In 1565, by act of the Privy Council of Scotland, the 



silver crown then first struck They are vulgarly 



called Cruikston dollars from the palm-tree on them, 

 mistaken for a noted yew at Cruikston near Glasgow, the 

 residence of Henry Darnley : But the Act describes it a 

 palm-tree with a 'shell paddoc' or tortoise crawling up. 

 It alludes to Henry's high marriage, as does the motto 

 Dat Gloria Vires from Propertius, Magnum iter ascendo, 

 sed dat miki gloria vires, Is on juvat ex facili lata corona 

 jugo."— iv. 2. 



It is therefore clear that in respect to the coin 

 the yew-tree must succumb to the palm, and the 

 popular fallacy on this head be demolished. What- 

 ever degree of enjoyment the royal pair may have 

 had under the shadow of the venerable yew — di- 



