Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/404

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 10 s. x. OCT. 24,

and Meath all bear out the view, held by me throughout the correspondence, that official action was necessary. The Foreign Office dispatch quoted at 10 S. ix. 515 would seem to have been the result of the controversy between the archdeacon and consul at some South American port referred to by me in the former correspondence. The marvel now seems to be that so simple a question should have been allowed to drag on so long without any authoritative decision, save that of the Foreign Office above alluded to, which does not appear to have been made generally known.

J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC. Schloss Rothberg, Switzerland.

I have only just read the REV. J. R. CRAWFORD'S interesting article, ante, p. 131 ; but I cannot agree \vith his contention that a cross is one-third, and a saltire one-fifth, of the shield's or flag's width. Both these ordinaries are about one-third when charged, and one-fifth when un- charged ; and Eve states in his ' Decorative Heraldry ' that " the saltire differs from the cross only in being drawn diagonally, and all else that applies to that ordinary also belongs to this." It is evident, therefore, that the cross of St. George ought to be the same breadth as the saltire of St. Andrew before the latter suffered dimidiation.

MR. CRAWFORD suggests also that the red saltire should be the same width as the white saltire, and that the former should be fim- briated at the expense of the blue field. Here again I must join issue with him. In surrendering the half of her saltire Scotland has done all that can reasonably be expected of her, and both symmetry and national honour demand that the red saltire shall be fimbriated within its own width.

To my mind, all that is required to make the Admiralty pattern correct is to reduce the fimbriation of the cross to the same dimensions as the fimbriation of the red saltire.

But this controversy about the National Flag emphasizes the fact that the United Kingdom has no United Court of Kings of Arms, and Britain is without an Imperial heraldic authority. There is, of course, the English Heralds' College ; but that is a purely local body, in some particulars more limited in its authority than is the Lyon Office in Scotland. There is much need for a United Court of the English, Scottish, and Irish Heralds to settle all matters of Imperial heraldry. JOHN A. STEWART.

SUSSEX ARMS (10 S. x. 230). Messrs. Fox-Davies and Crookes in their * Public Arms ' (1894) write at p. 51 as follows :

" Sussex as such has no armorial bearings. Prior to the passing of the Local Government Bill in 1889 many versions and perversions of the arms and of the seal of Chichester were quoted and did duty for the county insignia ; but the Justices of the Peace for the county made use of a coat showing six martlets, three, two, and one. Upon the forma- tion of the County Councils, the County Council of West Sussex obtained, through the munificence of his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, K.G. (who is a-

member of the Council), a grant of arms [viz.,

Azure, six martlets, three, two, and one, and a chief or, granted 18 May, 1889] ; but the County Council of East Sussex invented a coat which does duty upon the seal and notepaper, and is as follows : Quarterly, 1, six martlets, three, two, and one ; 2, chequy or and azure : 3, an eagle displayed ; 4, three demi-lions passant guardant, conjoined to the hulls, of as many ships."

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

Would not the Sussex arms be identical with those which appertained to the Duke- dom of Sussex ? a title borne by Prince Augustus Frederick, sixth son of George III., upon whom it was conferred in 1801. It is this benevolent prince who probably received signboard honours in the " Sussex Arms,'* two instances of which occur still in ' The London Directory,' or did a few years ago.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S. x. 108, 173). The anonymous distich on Alexander the Great is as follows : Sufficit huic tumulus, cui nori suffecerat orbis :

Res brevis huic ampla est, cui fuit ampla brevis.

It may be read in Burmann's anthology, ii. 15, and is No. 702 in Meyer's ' Anthologia Veterum Latinorum Epigrammatum et Poematum.' EDWARD BENSLY.

Haus Schellenberg, Marburg.

" FORISFACTURA " (10 S. x. 208). Need there be any difficulty ? In the passage quoted there are four et's all close together, so that it is quite possible that the one in question was added inadvertently by the scribe. But could it not be translated as it stands, making the et emphatic, and not copulative, " And the horse shall also be a forfeiture " ? Bladus undoubtedly means the corn in the sack, though apparently both senses were common. In the Glos- sarium appended to his edition of Matthew Paris, 1644, Watts says : " Vox saepissime occurrit pro farre omnis generis : scilicet quando est in herba ante messem, et post- quam granum in area trituratur." He quotes illustrative passages from the ' History ' : " blados et uineas uastare non cessauit."