Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/191

 io S.L FEB. 20.19M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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baron in 1645 (Vincent's ' Diet, of Biog.'). It seems to have been the custom in the early history of the army to engrave the motto of the commander of a regiment upon the swords, so that perhaps this general was a descendant of the ancient Astleys of Ever- leigh, Wilts, whose motto is "Fide, sed cui vide." See Burke's 'General Armory 1 and his 'Peerage.' J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

AYLMER ARMS (9 th S. xii. 448). The late REV. C. R. MANNING stated at 2 nd S. x. 394 :

" Bishop Aylmer was born at Aylmer or Elmer Hall, now a farmhouse at a short distance to the east of the church, in the parish of Tilney St. Lau- rence, Norfolk, between King's Lynn and Wis- beach."

In Blomefield's ' Norfolk ' (vol. i. p. 139) it is said :

"On a gravestone [in the church of Tivetshall St. Mary, the adjoining parish] were Aylmer's arms, viz., Ar., on a cross ingrailed sab. five bezants between four magpies proper ; it lies in the chancel, but the effigies, arms, and inscription are gone."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

FLAYING ALIVE (9 th S. xii. 429, 489 ; 10 th S. i. 15, 73). The following paragraph relates an incident very similar to that mentioned by MR PIERPOINT. It is taken from D. W. Goller's 'People's History of Essex' (MDCCCLXI.), p. 555, but the church referred to is that of Copford :

"The church, with its massive walls, which formerly supported an arch over the whole of the building, its circular east end, and its old entrance door, will tempt the traveller to turn towards the antique fabric. This door is ornamented with rude flourishes of rusty ironwork, which formerly fastened securely to the wood beneath a thick substance outwardly resembling parchment similar to that at the church at Hadstock. Tradition, which takes maternal charge of many a marvellous tale, connects the leather-like and shrivelled coating with the system of savage retribution found in the code of justice in the olden time, but happily blotted from its pages in the present century. Some Danes, saith this authority, robbed the church considered one of the most heinous of crimes in the mediaeval ages and were subjected to the fearful process of flaying alive, their skins, carefully preserved, being thus affixed to the door as a terrible memento of the wretches who had dared to raise their sacrilegious hands against the house of God. The peculiar character of the door appears to have first attracted notice on the restora- tion of the church in 1690 ; and 'an old man at

Colchester said that in his young time he heard his master say that he had read in an old history that the church of Copford was robbed by Danes, and their skins nailed to the doors.' This is the founda- tion of the tradition. Anxious to test it, we pro- cured a piece of the skin, of which time and curious visitors have now left scarcely a shred. This we submitted to a scientific friend, skilled in anatomy, who, after softening and subjecting it to rigid

examination, pronounced it to be ' part of the skin of a fair -haired human being' thus con- firming to a considerable extent the tale of torture which garrulous tradition has told to her wondering auditors."

On reference to the account of Hadstock Church in the same book (p. 543) I find the following sentence :

" The north door of the church is ornamented with ancient ironwork, beneath which was a skin of enormous thickness, which appeared to have been tanned ; and this tradition represents as the skin of a Dane who was flayed alive for sacrilege in this church."

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

My sons saw the Dane's skin on the church door of Copford a few years ago ; some of it is now preserved in the Colchester Museum. It is mentioned in ' The Family Topographer,' by S. Tymms, vol. i. p. 22.

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

There is a notable picture in the collection of the Bruges Academy (removed to another building near the Porte Ste. Catherine?), showing the flaying alive of an unjust judge. Mr. Weale's guide to the Academy of Bruges or his 'Bruges et ses Environs' would give detailed particulars. JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

ARMS WANTED (9 th S. xii. 329). The arms of Edward, second Earl of Derwentwater, were : Quarterly of twenty-four, 1, Argent, a bend engrailed sable (Radcliffe) ; 2, Argent, two bars gules, on a canton of the last a cinquefoil or (Derwentwater); 3, Gules, a fesse between three Catherine wheels or (Cartington) ; 4, Gules, a fesse between three hedgehogs argent (Claxton); 5, Argent, a fesse gules between three garbs or (Tyudale) ; 6, Ermine, on a fesse gules three annulets or (Barton); 7, Gules, three lions passant in bend argent between two bendlets gobony or and azure (Moryn, alias Morgan) ; 8, Per fesse gules and argent, six martlets counter- changed (Fenwick) ; 9, Or, a fesse vaire argent and azure between three falcons vert (Horden) ; 10, Gules, on a cross argent five

cross-crosslets of the field (Essenden) ; 11,

on a bend three roses (Carnhow) ; 12,

Argent, a fesse between three mullets sable (Barret) ; 13, Vert, a lion rampant or within a bordure engrailed (Heaton); 14, Argent, a bat, wings expanded, vert (Baxter) ; 15, Argent, a chevron between three martlets gules (Wallington) ; 16, Gules, on a bend argent three eagles displayed vert (Strother) ; 17, Azure, six annulets, 3, 2, and 1, or (Musgrave) ; 18, Barry of eight or and gules, a quarter ermine (Ryal) ; 19, Argent, a