Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/184

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. i. FEB. 20, 1904.

de Menga or cle Mengal. In Caballero's ' Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana ' Men- gala is given as the name of an Indian deity.

AYEAHR.

BOOK COLLECTORS. Can any reader supply me with briefest biographical details relat- ing to two book collectors, (1) E. Kroencke, (2) F. O. Beggi 1 C. S.

SUNDIAL MOTTO. Having had a copy made of an early fourteenth-century sundial, I am anxious to put a motto on it to suit the period. Will any one oblige me by letting me know if the following is correct in con- struction and spelling to suit the time of Barbour, the author of ' The Brus ' ?

A. COVTH. I. SPEK. THIS. WALD. I. SAY

BID. NOCHT. QVHILL. NIGHT. WERK. QVHILLES.

TO. DAY.

The Northern Anglo-Saxon of Barbour's \vork I understand is very perfect.

L. J. PLATT. The Birches, Stirling, N.B.

EARL OP EGREMONT. An article in the Morning Leader of 1 February on the Albany mentions incidentally that the Earl of Egre- mont (i.e., George O'Brien, third earl) never married. Can you or any of your readers refer me to the dates of three or four issues of the Daily Western Times of Exeter, of about twenty years ago, which stated that he was twice married, or to any other sources of a similar purport, or to the name of the lady by whom he is said to have been jilted, or to the titles of works bearing on his public or private history ? This earl was certainly followed in the titles by a fourth earl, whilst at the same time his three illegitimate sons unaccountably took the entailed estates. Though he was a prominent personality for the long period of his life of eighty-six years, and a munificent patron of the artists of his day, very scant records would appear to exist as to his life, to prove or disprove his relations with Lady Melbourne and the parentage of his children. Is it suggested that the Premier Lord Melbourne was his son ? ARCHAEOLOGIST.

FERDINANDO GORGES OF EYE. Can any one inform me of the relationship (if any) of Sir F. Gorges, "Lord Proprietor of Maine" (9 th S. xii. 347), to Ferdinando Gorges of Barbadoes, but afterwards of Eye, co. Here- ford, who died in 1701, and is said to have descended from Sir Edward Gorges and Lady Anne, his wife, daughter of first Duke of Norfolk 1 Robertson's ' Mansions of Here- fordshire ' states that Ferdinando Gorges was son of Henry Gorges, of Buttercombe, co.

Somerset. His daughter Barbara married Thomas, Earl of Coningsby. I should be glad of any information re the family of Ferdinando Gorges. H. L. L. D.

"AN AUSTRIAN ARMY." You refer, ante, p. 120, to "An Austrian army awfully ar- rayed " as being first printed in Bentley's Miscellany of March, 1838. I very well remem- ber its appearance there indeed, learned it there ; but among my memoranda I have :

"An Austrian army, &c. This originally appeared in the Trifler (1807 or 1817), a paper printed in College St., Westminster, and was written by the Westminster School boys.' The Week.' " t

I presume this could be verified without much difficulty, and it would be matter of interest to me, and probably to others.

G. C. W.

AUDYN OR AUDIN FAMILY. In Guillim's ' Displaye of Heraldry,' 1633, and subsequent editions, it is stated that the arms "Argent, on a cross gules five lioncels salient, are borne by the family of Audyn (or Audin) of Dor- chester, in the county of Dorset." I should be glad to learn where further information concerning this family can be obtained.

GEORGE A. AUDEN.

WILLIAM HOLLAND KIDD was admitted to Westminster School on 2 July, 1781. I should be much obliged for any information con cerning him. G. F. R. B.

MELANCHOLY. Mr. W. S. Lilly, in his article in the Fortnightly Review, June, 1903, p. 1002, quotes as an old saying : " Nullum magnum ingenium sine melancholia." Can any one tell me where it is known to occur for the first time ? ASTARTE.

RUE AND TUSCAN PAWNBROKERS, &c. The author of 'In a Tuscan Garden,' who kept a hardly won paradise in the neighbourhood of Florence, wrote :

" I have been quite unable to discover the reason of the pawnbrokers' shops in this part of Tuscany being garnished, so to say, with little pots of rue. All through Tuscany rue is considered very unlucky, and & scarlet thread is always tied round the plant in order to keep off the 'evil eye'; scarlet, more than any other colour, being supposed to be effica- cious for this purpose. Indeed, I have heard of lambs' tails being decorated with a red ribbon ! Imagine the face of an Eskdale shepherd if he saw the tails of his yearlings tied up with red ribbons ! But the connexion of rue, the ' Herb o' Grace,' with pawnbrokers' shops, remains as great a mystery as the eating of figs on San Pietro, now so close at hand. What the apostle had to do with green figs no one seems to know ; only that so to commemorate him is the bounden duty of all good Cristiani. The invariable answer to any questions on such points is, that it is of uso antichissimo" Pp. 416, 417.