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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 9, 190*.

Earl of Somerset, Joan Beaufort, Queen of James L, was her great-granddaughter. And was Eleanor Holland, who married Roger Mortimer, the son of Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, sister to the above Margaret 1 And is there any record of issue of the Fair Maid's daughters, Joan, Duchess of Brittany, and Maude, who married the Comte de St. Pol ?

Though I cannot find the reference, I have seen somewhere that the mother of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was Eleanor Holland. Would she be a granddaughter or great- granddaughter of Joan ? I may mention that a descendant of the Fair Maid of Kent, through Eleanor, sister of the last earl, is the wife of a yeoman in a Worcestershire parish, personally known to me. HELGA.

ARCHITECTURE IN OLD TIMES. In Long- fellow's poem of ' The Builders ' we find this stanza :

In the elder days of Art

Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part ; For the goda see everywhere. That this is something more than mere poetical hyperbole seems to be shown by a passage in Mozley's ' Reminiscences of Oriel College,' i. 32 :

"As an instance of the way in which religious sentiment was now beginning to be dissociated from practical bearings and necessities, Froude would frequently mention the exquisitely finished details at York Minster, and other churches, in situations where no eye but the eye of Heaven could possibly reach them." (The italics are mine.) It would be interesting to have other -illus- trations of this praiseworthy sentiment, so different from our modern utilitarianism. C. LAWRENCE FORD.

FABLE FROM ARIOSTO. In Mr. Christie Murray's novel 'Hearts,' chap. v. (1892) occurs the following :

"Ariosto's fable is true. God found one day a lump of gold, and he wrapt it in lead and cast it upon the earth, and that was the English people And you have been ashamed of the gold, and proud to show the wretched lead ever since."

I have spent some time in seeking for this fable in my folio Ariosto, of nearly 1 000 pages, in vain. Can any reader of ' N. & Q place the " dicte and saying "?

JAMES HOOPER.

Norwich.

FISH DAYS: THEIR NUMBER. I am anxiou; to learn if the 153 fish days formerly com pulsory in each year had any connexion witl the 153 fash in the miraculous draught o fashes alluded to in John xxi. 11. In hi' life of Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul'j

School, J. H. Lupton states that the number of scholars at St. Paul's School (London) was Dr. Colet calculated that the school half- lolidays, holidays, and Sundays, in which ihere was to be no teaching, also amounted to 153 at St. Paul's. Was the number of hese holidays introduced in memory of the sacred haul of fishes ?
 * o be 153, according to the number of fishes.

J. LAWRENCE-HAMILTON, M.R.C.S.

BARBERS. I have been preparing for some years a little work on barbers, which will shortly be issued under the title of 'At the Sign of the Barber's Pole.' I am anxious to include in it short notices of notable barbers, and of the famous sons of barbers. Refer- ences to these men will oblige.

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Hull Royal Institution.

[See 9 th S. ii. 191,413.]

HERALDIC REFERENCE IN SHAKESPEARE. Has the following description ever been identified with any badge or device borne by the Yorkist party 1 or is it only an imaginary one suggested by the "sun and cloud " known to have been used by Edward III. and his son the Black Prince ? The reference is contained in the speech of the sea-captain to the Duke of Suffolk, ' 2 Henry VI.,' IV. i. : And now the house of York thrust from the

crown

By shameful murder of a guiltless king, And lofty proud encroaching tyranny Burns with revenging fire ; whose hopeful colours Advance our half- faced sun, striving to shine, Under the which is writ " Invitis nubibus."

The commentaries of Malone and Dyce merely quote Camden's remark about Edward III.'s badge without making any suggestion as to its later use. The " sun and cloud " does not occur in the usual lists of Yorkist badges ; but Shakespeare may have intended to suggest the temporary eclipse of the Yorkist fortunes by indicating the Yorkist "sun in splendour " as enveloped in clouds and accompanied by a suitable Latin motto. R. H. E. H.

HIEROGLYPHICS AND DEITIES. After con- sulting several books on the stone hieroglyphic inscriptions which have been deciphered of late years, I am unable to satisfy myself whether the direct intervention of the deities of Assyria and Egypt in the events recorded is mentioned or implied, or whether all are related in a rnatter-of-fact way without re- ference to the supernatural. If the mira- culous occurs at all, one would like to know to what extent as often, say, as in early Roman history ? M.